Doly Rani, 45, resident of Hajaribagh Colony, Dhaka, lost hope to see again. Her vision has been become cloudy in the past three years and it has been deteriorating further. She was afraid to go to hospital for treatment. She visited a nearby hospital twice, however, fear as well as lack of money prevented her from receiving treatment. Symptoms such as distorted vision became more prevalent since the end of 2018. Hearing about free eye camp facility in her area, she visited the camp and got empowered from doctor and community leaders to perform surgery at nearby Prime Bank Eye Hospital. She stopped sewing, her only means of bread and butter, due to poor vision. After getting surgery she re-invented herself, a story she shared with the then Rotary Club of Dhaka Luminous’ president. She can now see everything and is able to start her sewing again.
Doli Rani’s sight restoration is the encouragement of Dhaka Luminous. Disease prevention and treatment is one of the primary areas of focus for Rotary out of seven focus areas. Restoration of sight and prevention of blindness are both very important ingredients of disease prevention and treatment. Despite effort from Government, NGOs, and private sectors, prevention of blindness is still a far reach destination for Bangladesh.
Nationwide Blindness Survey-2020 reveled a blink picture of blindness in the country below:
- Cataract is the primary cause, which is responsible for 81% of the severe visual impairment.
- 19 in every 100 adults aged 30 years or older suffers from any degree of visual impairment.
- An estimated 1.43 million people are living with mild to severe visual impairment in Bangladesh.
- The burden of bilateral blindness in Bangladesh decreased, but still poses a significant socio- economic challenge.
- Four out of five of these blind cases are avoidable.
- Visual Impairment has increased significantly over the last two decades, while spectacle coverage is very low
- Bilateral cataract blindness has reduced although cataract surgery coverage is low for moderate visual impairment.
- The lack of community-based eye care services continues to be a barrier to optimal uptake of eye care services.
- Disadvantaged group suffer most.
The recommendations are brought and comprehensive. If we address cataract only it removes 81% of avoidable blindness; in other words, four out of five visual impairments can be cured by simple intervention of cataract surgery. Community based eye care services is another focus area which can remove the barrier of accessibility to the services. Therefore, we focused these two areas to serve. Needless to mention, it is not possible for one actor to do all of the above since it’s a national issue and need a coordinated effort under the leadership of Government agencies.
To address national issue of reduction of avoidable blindness, Rotary Club of Dhaka Luminous (RCD Luminous) started “Project Vision”, a signature project of the club, with the technical help of Prime Bank Eye Hospital, Dhanmondi, Dhaka. The fundamental focus of the project is to help disadvantage group. In this regard, RCD Luminous targeted most poverty-stricken areas, those not covered previously. Luminous project provided comprehensive services that started from eye screening at the doorstep of the poor communities. Local community informed the people through miking and leaflets on the day of eye camp. Thereafter, patients were screened by qualified doctor and prescribed either spectacles or surgery or other services at camp. Those who agreed to do cataract surgery at hospital they were transported to the hospital and then surgery done with post operative medicine. Cost related to all above initiative was borne by RCD Luminous. Below two tables are the detail performances of Luminous eye care project:
Table 1 – Old Rehabilitation Center Camp 2023
| SL. | Camp date | Venue | Patient examined | Patient identified for surgery | Surgery done | Spectacle prescribed | Spectacle dispensed | Volunteer |
| 1 | 3/11/2023 | Givensee Old Rehabilitation center, Gazipur | 170 | 50 | 48 | 88 | 88 | 5 |
Table 2 – Camp wise Performance 2018-2019
| SL. | Camp date | Venue | Patient examined | Patient identified for surgery | Surgery done | Spectacle prescribed | Spectacle dispensed | Volunteer |
| 1 | 11/12/2018 | Gonoktuly City Colony Hajaribagh, Dhaka | 210 | 35 | 9 | 38 | 49 | 4 |
| 2 | 02/17/2019 | Anirban Urban Community Learning Center, Pallabi, Mirpur, Dhaka | 227 | 38 | 12 | 59 | 62 | 4 |
| 3 | 04/01/2019 | Luminus Kindergarten School, Rayer Bazar, Dhaka | 146 | 24 | 6 | 42 | 46 | 2 |
| 4 | 04/07/2019 | Anirban Urban Community Learning Center, Pallabi, Mirpur, Dhaka | 180 | 16 | 5 | 93 | 70 | 4 |
RCD Luminous has long been dreaming to start a project that ensure community participation and benefits the disadvantageous group. Community based eye care service with special focus on cataract surgery are the fundamental motto of Luminous eye care project. The dream was brought to reality once Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed with the Prime Bank Eye Hospital to do quality surgery of poor patients. This may eventually lead to accomplishing the long-term vision of RCD Luminous to build a community eye hospital to serve the poor. RC Dhaka Luminous is currently in process of implementing several eye care projects in near future and continuous basis.
