DESCRIPTION

Diamond miners in Sierra Leone spend hours each day wading in freshwater ponds to sift through mud in hopes of finding a stone.

Miners risk wasting a lot of their time, as the earth here was quite stripped about a decade ago to fund the country's bloody civil war. But they also risk their health. In Kono District, the parasite Schistosomiasis breeds rampantly in the water; the more time a human spends in water, the higher the chance this parasite will bury into their skin and infect their blood stream.

Sahr Gando has been a miner - and Schisto patient - for more than a decade. Watch his story and see how a nationwide health program, with the help of international aid, is helping miners like Gando overcome disease.