SUPPORT FOR THE ROHINGYA COMMUNITY IN BANGLADESH
Thanks to support from the Qatar Fund for Development and Baitush Sharaf Eye Hospital we have been providing vision screenings, glasses, and cataract surgery for children and adults in the Rohingya population and surrounding host communities in southeast Bangladesh since February 2018.
Kutupalong, the world’s largest refugee settlement, is in Cox's Bazar, where hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar now live. Orbis, together with our local partner, runs one vision center in the refugee settlement and another outside the settlement for members of the host community. Thanks to these partnerships, Orbis was able to deliver more than 127,000 eye screenings and nearly 52,000 treatments to the Rohingya population and host communities in the first two years alone. The work is continuing at pace with more impact data coming soon.
A study undertaken by Orbis and Baitush Sharaf Eye Hospital took place between February 2018 and March 2019. In this time over 48,000 Rohingya and more than 20,000 local residents underwent vision screening at vision centers in the camp and surrounding districts.
The results of the screenings showed that blindness was three-to-six times more prevalent in the Rohingya population compared to the local residents. Rohingyan patients ages 18-39, peak working age in the community, suffered blindness at a rate more than three times the local residents–highlighting the economic stress and heavy burden of eye disease among the Rohingya population.