Smiling doctors and nurses in green scrubs at the Sajida Foundation in Bangladesh

Our Work in Bangladesh

With only 1000 ophthalmologists, Bangladesh faces daunting challenges in delivering quality eye care to its population of 160 million people. Across the country, 750,000 adults and 48,000 children are blind, and approximately 2.5 million people are at risk for developing diabetic retinopathy (DR), a leading cause of blindness.

750,000

Blind adults over the age of 30

48,000

children are blind

1000

ophthalmologists to serve 160 million people

Success in Bangladesh

Our Flying Eye Hospital first touched down in Bangladesh in 1985 and initiated the country’s first training programs for optometrists and opticians. To support long-term projects, we created a permanent office in Dhaka in 1999.

Over the years, we’ve made tremendous progress in combating avoidable blindness. Through our work with 14 partners in all eight divisions across the country, we’re reaching more than half a million people a year. Since that first visit, we’ve trained more than 23,000 medical professionals in ophthalmic specialties including pediatric ophthalmology, retina, vitreous humor, cataract, glaucoma and cornea.

In fact, in 2018 alone we delivered:

4000

Trainings for eye care professionals

920,000

Eye screenings & examinations

270,000

Glasses prescribed

24,000

Eye surgeries performed in hospitals

We’ve conducted screenings of around five million adults and children and have provided treatments to nearly 3.7 million people. We helped establish 10 paediatric eye care centres in Bangladesh, 22 vision centres in remote and under-served areas, 1,000 community-based outreach programs, and the country’s first modern eye bank. We also contributed significantly to developing the National Eye Care plan under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, which has been incorporated by the government.

Patient stories: treating Tania, Bangladesh for low vision

July 25, 2017

Tania is a 12-year-old girl from a village in the Koyra sub-district of Khulna in Bangladesh. When she was only 22 days old, her father tragically passed away. Her mother remarried, leaving Tania behind to live with her grandmother.

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What We're Doing Next

Your support has made it possible for us to cover a broad range of activities including: treating diabetic retinopathy (DR), expanding retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) services across the country, training eye health professionals, strengthening eye care facilities, creating new referral systems and quality assurance standards, building public awareness, and driving policy and advocacy work to integrate primary eye care into primary healthcare. Our work focuses on rural and under-served populations and strengthening our partners with the tools, training, and necessary technology to provide quality eye care services that are affordable, accessible and sustainable.

Patient stories: treating Simul, Bangladesh for cataract

April 05, 2017

Four-year-old Simul has had a very difficult childhood. His mother and father left him when he was only a small baby, and he was raised by his grandmother. At an early age, he began to have difficulty seeing. His grandmother heard about an eye health outreach programme happening in their town and took Simul to be examined.