There are approximately 1.3 billion people in the world
living with some form of visual impairment and of those, 36 million people are blind. 80% of these cases are either avoidable or curable. Looking at Bangladesh in particular, approximately 800,000 people are blind. This equates to almost 1 in 10 people suffering with this health burden. One of the major causes of avoidable blindness in Bangladesh are cataracts. A cataract is slow thickening of the lens of the eye that eventually obscures all vision. It can be caused by multiple factors including diabetes, excess sun exposure and high blood pressure – all of which are extremely common in the Bangladeshi population. Managing these risk factors and the subsequent cataracts is a challenge due to poor education and huge barriers in accessing healthcare as most of the population live in rural villages. Blindness isn’t only a health problem in Bangladesh but also a social issue. With blindness comes the burdens of unemployment, social and marital exclusion and further poverty.

As Project Director, I am leading this initiative, to develop
a cataract screening programme aiming to target rural Bangladesh and reach patients otherwise isolated from healthcare services. Selfless is an NGO that has had over ten years of experience in working with local Bangladeshi healthcare partners and public health is at the heart of their goals. I have previously travelled with Selfless to Bangladesh to participate in the Elective Aid Programme and the Global Health Leadership Programme, so we have extensive experience working to provide care to the Bangladeshi population.

The screening programme’s aim is to send a medically trained
eye specialist on a motorbike with all the necessary equipment to rural
villages and create a database of potential patients. Following data
collection, patients would be grouped together and transported via minibus to their nearest eye hospital for cataract surgery. Further care plans will be considered for those who require more complex treatment.

I am aiming to raise £3,000 to initiate this programme and
hopefully deliver this part of the project by the end of the summer.

Thank you for supporting this project.