Vision Bangladesh

BRAC and Sightsavers are committed to eliminating avoidable blindness across Bangladesh by the year 2020. Providing enough sight restoring operations to eliminate cataract blindness across the whole country is an ambitious task. We plan to begin by wiping out cataract blindness from the division of Sylhet by 2014.



This is our objective for Vision Bangladesh but we can only achieve this with generous public support.

Bangladesh has one of the worst rates of ocular morbidity in the world. 80% of blindness in the country is from easily treatable cataracts – occurring in both young adults and children, not just the elderly. Every year, 150,000 more cases are added to the backlog of nearly one million poor people who are denied the simple procedure that could save their sights – and their future.

Treatment rates are extremely low. If you are poor or extremely poor then your chances of having the simple cataract surgery are non-existent. Cataract surgery is one of the most cost effective health interventions. The real tragedy of blindness in Bangladesh is that the majority of the cases are unnecessary – having cataracts should not inevitably lead to blindness.

Blindness causes and deepens poverty – restoring sights improves the economic status of individuals and families. Read more about the barriers and the ways Vision Bangladesh aims to tackle blindness in Bangladesh:

• The Problem
• Our Solution
• Long Term Impact
• Key Messages
• Support Vision Bangladesh