$100 can restore sight
Near about 6 lac (more than half a million) people in Bangladesh are blind from cataract and the country has one of the highest reported rates of untreated cataract in the world. Due to extreme poverty and a lack of awareness that cataract blindness is preventable and treatable, many people unnecessarily become and remain blind. Many more women than men are suffering from avoidable blindness due to issues of gender inequality. When cataract blindness is treatable with straightforward and inexpensive surgery, it’s an injustice that modern eye care is yet to reach so many people in Bangladesh.
Eyesight Restoration program of OHDIR works to support those who need help the most: people in remote communities, those living in significant poverty, women, ethnic minority groups and the elderly. The Foundation is helping to tackle avoidable blindness.
When we started our work at Akubpur Village of Tarail Upazila (Sub-District) of Kishoreganj, we thought to provide only primary eye-care services. We chose the place as there were no facility in the locality even in surrounding 20 kilometers distance. But we had to go forward with a new package program named ‘Eyesight Restoration’ as there was public demand for the service.
A total amount of $100 will cover the costing of eye operations and treatments including all the respective diagnosis needed as pre-operative preparation. Comparing to some other donor funded NGOs, the proposed package cost is a bit higher. But we became bound to fix that amount as we work in the remote and hard to reach area and we have no surgery facilities of our own. Not only that, we have not a single penny foreign fund for this program. We need minimum 2 hours’ time to reach the nearest eye care center with surgery facility. From your donation 10% will be directly used as the necessary administrative cost and travel cost of the patients will be born by themselves which will be considered as their participation in the program.
Very recent, we performed 10 cataract surgery with the help of ‘Lions Club of Dhaka Oasis’ (details available at http://www.ohdirfoundation.org.bd/2018/11/16/10-patients-got-back-their-eye-sight/). Honourable Vice-Chairman of OHDIR Lion Dr. Mahfuzur Rahman Bhuiyan helped us to communicate with ‘Lions Club of Dhaka Oasis’. Lion Sk. Anisur Rahman, PDG (Dist:315), Lions Club International as well as Founder of Lions Club of Dhaka Oasis selflessly helped us to get the donation.
Our performance in the last one-year duration:
- Examined the eyes of 6,718 people.
- Performed 10 sight restoring cataract surgeries (for other hospitals).
- Till date, 92 poor, under-privileged people are listed and waiting for cataract surgery.