4 May 2011, International development NGOs, BRAC and Sightsavers, are running a Channel S appeal on Friday May 6 and a major street collection at the Baishakhi Mela on Sunday May 8 to raise vital funds for cataract operations in Sylhet Division, Bangladesh.
On Friday May 6, from 8.30 pm to midnight Channel S is generously hosting a charity appeal to raise money for the NGO’s’ ‘Vision Bangladesh Appeal’ as a special telethon. The show will feature different studio guests throughout the night from the British-Bangladeshi and charity communities.
The same weekend, on Sunday May 8 from 11am, BRAC is proud to be the official charity for the Baishakhi Mela, the largest Bangladeshi festival outside of Bangladesh. BRAC UK will have a stall in Weavers Field and staff and volunteers will be collecting public donations on the day – please give generously!
One cataract operation costs just £20 – or BDT 2,400.
The weekend is part of a growing momentum to raise a total of £3 million with the Vision Bangladesh Appeal to eradicate avoidable blindness in Sylhet Division by 2014. The target is 100,000 cataract operations in three years. The project has already started and is scaling up across the whole of Sylhet Division.
Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, Founder and Chairperson, BRAC, who was knighted in 2010 by the Queen for his services to the world’s poor, explains why public support is needed:
“If we can raise the £3 million, we can achieve an incredible goal – eradicating avoidable blindess across the whole of our beautiful Sylhet Division. We all know villages where poor people are blind – a staggering 80% of those people are blind because of untreated cataracts. We can fix that so easily – we just need the funds. Dig deep into your pockets and we will make sure your money goes directly to those poor blind people who desperately need it.”
More details of the appeal, including a film can be found on the BRAC Vision Bangladesh website.
For further press information about Vision Bangladesh, case studies or photographs please contact:
Tanvir Ahmed
Phone: 44 7782415491
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Vision Bangladesh donation details:
By phone – call 020 7922 7723.
By bank transfer to BRAC UK – Vision Bangladesh, Account No.62036991, Sort Code 40 07 13 (HSBC).
Or online at the BRAC Vision Bangladesh website.
About BRAC:
BRAC UK is a UK registered Charity (Registered Charity Number: 1115482) focused on long term sustainable poverty reduction in Asia and Africa. BRAC was founded by Fazle Hasan Abed in February 1972, soon after the liberation of Bangladesh. We are the largest southern-based NGO and employs more than 100,000 people, the majority of which are women, and reaches more than 138 million people with development interventions in Asia and Africa. Learn more at www.bracuk.net.
About Sightsavers:
Sightsavers is a registered UK charity (Registered charity numbers 207544 and SC038110) that works in more than 30 developing countries to prevent blindness, restore sight and advocate for social inclusion and equal rights for people who are blind and visually impaired. Sightsavers has worked in Bangladesh since 1973 and last year treated over 796,746 people, including performing over 64,000 cataract operations and screening 194,502 people for refractive error. Learn more at www.sightsavers.org.
