Sight Savers International (Royal Commonwealth Society for the Blind UK)
November 2005- June 2007
Detection of blind children and referral of cataract blind for sight restoring surgeries (in Dhaka Division)
To Identify and examine 80% of approximately 8,000 blind children in selected 103 upazilas of Dhaka division
Approximately one third (2,400) of the examined children will be referred to the partner eye hospital for free cataract surgery
Train 4000 Key Informants (KI) in selected 103 upazilas of Dhaka division.
Organise 1030 health communication activities in selected 103 upazilas in Dhaka division.
Help to ensure that 80% of the children who fail to attend follow up will be motivated for follow up.
International Centre for Eye Health (ICEH), London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
Blindness and vision related disability in Bangladesh
Childhood blindness project is a research initiative of the International Centre for Eye Health (ICEH), London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine to implement extensive, large scale epidemiological, qualitative and clinical research on blindness and vision related disability in Bangladesh. The primary aim of the project was to collect, analyse and disseminate valid data to initiate and assist a rationale planning process to control childhood blindness in Bangladesh. Following major research studies were undertaken by CBPB:
The Bangladesh National Study on Childhood Blindness 2002. Prospective study of outcome of cataract surgery in children.
A qualitative study on children with blindness and vision related disability in Bangladesh.
A study to assess the impact of blindness and sight restoring surgery in children in terms of neurodevelopment using Raynell-Zinkin Scale for developmental assessment.
Development of a novel method to identify blind children from the communities and households: The Key Informant Method.
A study to assess the Functional Vision in Children before and after sight restoring surgery.
A situation analysis of paediatric eye care services in Bangladesh.
A situation analysis of educational facilities for children with blindness and vision related disability in Bangladesh.
A situation analysis of rehabilitation facilities for children with blindness and vision related disability in Bangladesh.
During the implementation of several research studies CBPB team visited and worked in all 64 districts of Bangladesh and developed an extensive network of organisations and individuals concerned with blind children. This network was further developed and supported by CBPB to create a new platform for interested individuals and organisations with a view to control childhood blindness-this organisation was formally initiated as ChildSight Foundation in December 2002.
CBPB provided services to blind children throughout the country.
Over 1,200 sight-restoring surgeries were performed with the support from CBPB.
Over 800 children received sight restoring cataract surgery.
Over 2,000 blind children were identified by CBPB and examined by the CBPB ophthalmologist during the National Study.
Over 600 children were advised and referred for sight restoring cataract surgery completely free of cost.
Over 700 children who had been operated for cataract were re-traced and re-examined after one year of surgery to assess the outcome.
“The old man said that he would die very soon, so he would like to see his grand daughter get married before he dies. But he is still alive. He has not died yet,” said Tania’s mother with much anger and frustration. Her daughter Tania got married when she was only 15 years old. Tania’s grandfather arranged the marriage against her mother’s wishes. Now Tania herself is the mother of a boy.
When Tania was very young, Chani (cataract) was identified in both her eyes. Initially only her mother noticed it. However later on, everyone came to know about it. CBPB team (who examine and refer children with Chani under the age of 16 years) met Tania when they went to examine children’s eyes in Mymensingh. She was 15 years old at that time. CBPB team examined Tania’s eyes and referred her to the Islamia Eye Hospital where CBPB bore the expenses of her operation.
1 year later CBPB team went to Mymensingh again to examine the eyes of those children who had operation. This time they met Tania again. However, she was not single anymore. She had a very beautiful son.
The doctor examined Tania’s son after examining Tania. He found that her son also had Chani in both eyes. Tania and her mother were very distressed and started to cry. CBPB team advised them to do the operation on the child’s eyes as early as possible. They said that the earlier that you do the operation the better would be the child’s vision.
Tania and her mother wanted to do the treatment of the child because Tania has only one dream now. She wanted her child to get cured. She couldn’t study but she wants her son to study.
It is worth mentioning here that neither Tania’s grandfather, nor her father who settled her marriage came with her to the doctor. Only those who are neglected and whose opinion never received any importance came with her.
Nazim Uddin from Kishorganj district, was born with bilateral cataract. Although his parents recognized that he had sight problems from 6 months of age, they were not aware that this problem was cataract or that this was treatable. As is the case with many blind children in Bangladesh, his parents assumed that this white pupil would disappear with age. Unfortunately, this lack of awareness led to the continued deterioration in Nazim’s vision, particularly during schooling. Nazim’s father Azim approached the village school teacher, a CSF Key Informant (KI) and Nazim was reviewed by a physician at a CSF Eye Screening Camp and then referred to the Islamia Eye Hospital (a CSF partner hospital). In 2002, Nazim’s vision was restored at no cost to his family and he now attends school regularly. The surgery has made a huge difference to Nazim’s life.
Baby Khatun’s father, Idris Ali, is a farmer and has seven children. At the age of three, Baby Khatun’s parents found out that she was blind. Baby Khatun’s mother, elder brother and sister worked at different locations in order to be able to afford food and thus had to leave her to go to work for entire days. Being blind, Baby Khatun was unable to perform simple daily tasks by herself, including independent movement and communication with others. CSF identified Baby Khatun in her district of Sirajganj and now provides her with home based rehabilitation and is trying to motivate her family to spend some much needed time with her. CSF has seen many improvements in Baby Khatun who wants to attend primary school.
Nizam Uddin is a 10 years old boy, living in Jhagrar Char village in Bhairob Upazilla of Kishorganj district. He was born with bilateral cataract in his eyes. His parents came to know about the problem when he was around 1/2 years old. But they did not know about the cataract and its treatment. They thought it’s a simple white pupil and will disappear as he grows up. But their assumption proved wrong. As he was growing up, his eye sight became less and less. He could not see the black board in the school and could not read his book well. His father Azim Uddin became tense about his son. At that time he came to know from the village school teacher (one of the trained Key Informants, CSF uses to train the local community members to identify blind children) that Child Sight Foundation is going to organize an Eye Screening Camp in the Bhairob Upazilla Health Complex. He took his son there and the Doctor examined Nizam’s eyes. The doctor referred him to the Islamia Eye Hospital (a partner hospital of CSF). In 2002 Nizam’s sight restoring operation was undertaken in Islamia eye hospital free of cost. Since then 3 years has passed and he can see very well and goes to school regularly. His parents are very happy for the changes in their son’s life.
Awarding gold medal to DR. M A Muhit for his great contribution on the field of research of childhood eye diseases on behalf of the Ophthalmological Society of Bangladesh (OSB).
Ophthalmological Society of Bangladesh (OSB) is happy to announce that the society is going to award a gold medal to Dr. M A Muhit for his great contribution on the field of research of childhood eye diseases in its 36th annual national conference on Wednesday, the 18th March, 2009.The conference held in BCPS Complex auditorium, Mohakhali, Dhaka. Dr. M A Muhit, in his career, is in teaching in the University of London, U.K for long 10 years. He is involved in research regarding the childhood blindness of the children of different countries of the world. Prof. Tasmima Matin, mother of Dr. M A Muhit, gives her consent to receive the award on behalf of her son as Dr. Muhit is staying abroad.
Dr. M A Muhit has invented Key Informant Method (KIM) through his long time research and his observation through research is that there are 40,000 (forty thousand ) children who are the victim of childhood blindness in Bangladesh. Out of them, 12,000 (twelve thousand) children are blind due to avoidable cataract problem. In the light of VISION 2020 global campaign, he has established Child Sight Foundation (CSF) to restore the eye sight of cataract blind children of our country. Now this organization has been detecting blind children and referring cataract blind for operation at free of cost. Besides this, the organization has been working for inclusive education and rehabilitation of the blind children.
