12 October 2011, This Wednesday evening, BRAC UK will be running a LIVE telethon appeal on Channel S to raise much needed funds for Vision Bangladesh.
From 7 pm onwards, studio guests representing Vision Bangladesh and the Bangladeshi catering community across the UK will be appearing to discuss their involvement in Vision Bangladesh's new £1 on the Bill campaign. It would be fantastic if BRAC esteemed colleagues could encourage their friends and families to ring in on the night and make a personal donation.
Vision Bangladesh is a partnership between BRAC and Sightsavers and the aim is to eliminate avoidable blindness across Bangladesh by the year 2020 starting with the Sylhet region by 2013.
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 sight – and their future.
Cataract surgery is one of the most cost effective health interventions (£20 for an operation). The real tragedy of blindness in Bangladesh is that the majority of the cases are unnecessary – having cataracts should not inevitably lead to blindness.
Vision Bangladesh is the biggest campaign of its type and has already implemented over 21,000 successful cataract operations since January 2011. The campaign needs your help to reach the whole of the Sylhet region by 2013.
So please watch Channel S (Sky channel 814) and ring in to donate and support Vision Bangladesh.
For viewers outside of UK, the details of the new transponder are as follows:
Satellite: Eurobird 1
Orbital Location: 28.5º East
Transponder: F1 Upper
Uplink Frequency / Polarity: 14 059.67 Vertical (Y)
Downlink Frequency / Polarity: 12 559.67 Horizontal (X)
Symbol Rate: 27.5 Msys/s
FEC: 2/3
STUDIO HOTLINE: 44 208 523 411
DONATION HOTLINE: 44 208 523 1666
“It is the poorest people who are most at risk of blindness and low vision as they are more likely to go blind for a lack of simple treatment and stay blind for a lack of simple surgery.” - Founder and Chairperson of BRAC, Sir Fazle Hasan Abed
