Working together in Bangladesh
Abdul Salam is quite the entrepreneur. A tailor for almost 40 years, he has sold his clothes to a Bangladeshi community in the UK, and has aspirations of opening his own shop.
But when he started losing his sight three years ago, he had to sell his beloved sewing machine in order to support his family. And his life looked set to turn out very differently.
“It was useless to me as I couldn’t use it,” he said. “I sold it for 4,000 Taka (£33). Going blind and not being able to see my surroundings meant I had to sit idly at home. My neighbours and family gave me money. My wife even had to help me use the shower and toilet. It was an awful life.”
A health worker visited Abdul at home, and told him his sight could be saved. He was referred to hospital where he was diagnosed with cataract, a clouding in the eye’s lens that stopped light getting in. He was told that he would need an operation to replace the eye’s cloudy lens with a clear, plastic one.
“I was a little scared before surgery, but since I couldn’t see I felt there was nothing to lose!” he said. “When the bandages were removed the first thing I saw was my wife and family, at the time I was so happy I was crying.
Now I can see everything I can work again and look after my family. I’ve borrowed money to buy a new sewing machine, and now I’m back to being a tailor it’s the best thing that’s happened to me. I’ve made clothes for people in my surrounding villages, and when some Slyhettis visited from the UK they ordered some clothes for me to make for them! My hope for the future is to start my own business and open a shop.”
The health worker that visited Abdul was part of Vision Bangladesh, an ambitious project between Sightsavers and our partner BRAC which aims to eliminating avoidable blindness in the whole country by 2020. The first step is to work through the backlog of cataract in the region of Sylhet, where Abdul is from, by the end of 2013. By the end of last year, over 11, 000 patients were already examined.
It’s an exciting example of what can be achieved when we work together with other organisations! You can click here for more information about Vision Bangladesh.
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