Well over half a million people in Bangladesh are blind from cataract, and they needn’t be. The Foundation is helping to tackle this enormous backlog by training eye health workers and supporting improvements to the public health system.

Overview

Bangladesh is one of the lowest lying countries in the world with a network of rivers that criss-cross the country and form part of a huge delta.

The delta floods regularly – 23 million people were left homeless after massive flooding in 1998 – and around one third of Bangladesh’s population of 146 million are malnourished and living below the poverty line.

Cataract accounts for up to 80% of blindness in Bangladesh and, because of extreme poverty and lack of awareness that cataract blindness is preventable and treatable, many people unnecessarily become and remain blind.

One big problem is that most eye care services in Bangladesh are based in major cities and more than three quarters of the country's population lives in rural areas without access to services.

The Foundation is working with the Government of Bangladesh on the National Eye Care Plan to eliminate avoidable blindness in the country by the year 2020.

About the program

The Foundation’s program in Bangladesh is growing fast. We are currently working in seven districts in partnership with government owned and run district hospitals, thus supporting Bangladesh’s National Eye Care Program. We are also assisting national non-government organisations (NGOs) working on eye care in other districts.

We focus on:

• providing training for ophthalmologists, eye care nurses and other healthcare personnel
• providing equipment for outpatient clinics and operating theatres
• developing referral and supply systems at district and sub-district level to strengthen eye health services all over the districts where we work

In 2008, as well as providing training, we funded refurbishing and equipping the eye care units at Brahmanbaria and Satkhira District Hospitals. In 2010, we provided funding to hospitals in the Jamalpur and Narail districts. Our support was extended to three new districts in 2011 and will extend to three more in 2012.

With our local partners, we organise Outreach Mobile Eye Clinics (OMECs), where teams from the eye units of district hospitals conduct intensive high volume cataract surgery clinics as part of the Bangladesh District Eye Care Program.

The Foundation’s partner – National Eye Care – funds the purchase of medicines, intraocular lenses (IOLs), operating-theatre dress for the OMEC surgical teams, as well as consumables such as eye patches and eye drops. Increasing community awareness about eye health, event arrangements, patient transport, accommodation and food are also arranged and sponsored by The Foundation.

Sources: Human Development Report 2006, UNDP, World Health Organization and UNDP Human Development Report 2010