Bangladesh's eye-care project to benefit 7 million people

The Bangladeshi government in collaboration with BRAC,the World's largest NGO, has launched the second phase of an eye-care project which in the slums of 10 city corporations of Bangladesh will cover an estimated 7.25 million people.

The launching ceremony of the Vision Bangladesh project was held Sunday at BRAC Center auditorium in Dhaka.

In two and a half years of Vision Bangladesh Phase-I, about 95 percent of the target of 100,000 cataract surgeries and 200,000 refractive error corrections have been achieved, said the NGO in a statement.

Moreover, it said, with the aid of frontline community health workers, BRAC has been able to deliver eye care at the doorstep of one million people across Sylhet division.

Based on the enormous success of that partnership and lessons learned in operating in rural areas, the second phase of the project will run from July 2013 to December 2015. It is aligned with Bangladeshi government's national goal of eliminating avoidable blindness from Bangladesh by 2020.

It will be implemented through a partnership approach and will foster collaboration between BRAC, NEC-DGHS, and other organizations including NGOs and hospitals.

This project will develop capacity of the eye care providers and institutions; deliver eye care services and establish and sustain referral networks between the slum community and functional government hospital, private and NGO facilities for eye care.