Soroptimist International and Sight Savers – working for Children in Bangladesh 1991 - 1995

In Bangladesh, women and children are extremely vulnerable to poverty, malnutrition, and illiteracy. The under 5s especially. Some 30,000 under-fives were losing their sight every year. Soroptimist International supported seven clinics in rural areas in widespread locations. The basic aim was to reduce the incidence of blindness in under-5 children.

Since blindness is the result of a multiplicity of causes, including nutrition, hygiene, and disease, the objectives of the clinics are to provide:

All of the staff received specialised training in eye care and nutrition. Individuals in the community also donated land and buildings for the clinics. Soroptimist support for the project exceeded original targets, and it was possible to extend the work of the clinics into cooking demonstrations (the food is used for the poorest clients), follow-up work in the community, trying to ensure continuity of treatment, visits by trained staff to the very poor (sometimes slums) areas near the clinics to inform mothers and help with the problems, for example, provision of tube wells giving clean water.

The clinics were a huge success; other organisations working in the area used the model to set up additional clinics. There was a noticeable difference in the mothers and children attending the clinic. In one clinic, the mothers even requested help in learning to read!