Hello again!
Thank you to everyone who has donated so far. We are now back in the UK having successfully completed the 608km/ 377miles from Sylhet to Cox's Bazaar (27 more miles than we originally anticipated so hope that leads to a bit more sponsorship from all you kind people out there!). The roads were chaotic and challenging but we were greeted and cheered along the way, and your messages of support carried us through from the tea gardens of Sylhet to the sunny coast of Cox's Bazaar. Most of all, every penny of your generous sponsorship will go towards the Vision Bangladesh programme (see below for more details). This is a hugely ambitious venture between BRAC and Sightsavers International, which would value your continued support, particularly in this initial phase.
Many thanks
Jebi and Naomi xxx
November 2010
Hello,
Thank you for taking the time to visit our Justgiving page.
As many of you know, I work for BRAC UK, a unique and exciting international development organisation in London. Among our UK and international programmes, we are currently supporting an ambitious initiative called ‘Vision Bangladesh’, a partnership between BRAC and Sightsavers International. Vision Bangladesh seeks to eradicate avoidable blindness in Bangladesh by 2020, initially covering the north-eastern region of Sylhet .
By 2014, the programme aims to provide preliminary eye screening to over 1,000,000 people, treat 800,000 people with minor eye conditions, perform 100,000 cataract operations, train 10,000 BRAC and government community based health workers in eye health to raise awareness about the programme and educate people about the services available to them, and train 100 ophthalmologists and other key personnel in the Sylhet division, before scaling the programme up to other parts of the country.
Both BRAC and Sightsavers are extremely well placed to lead this ambitious programme. BRAC is one of the largest non-governmental organisations in the developing world with nearly 40 years of experience in poverty alleviation and empowering the poor. Sightsavers works with partners in 31 developing countries and has over 60 years of experience in serving those suffering from or at risk of blindness. However, to achieve the targets, we need to raise £3 million to complete the first phase of the programme in Sylhet alone.
We have already started the work. Since January 2010, we have been operating in four sub-districts of Sylhet, trained 300 BRAC health volunteers, held 22 screening camps, organised more than 1,000 sight restoring surgeries, and dispensed 1,000 prescription glasses. And here in the UK, we have been busy with fundraising events with the help of our volunteers and supporters, including inter alia awareness raising dinners, dragon boat racing, and football tournaments. However, there is more work to be done and this is where my next challenge comes in...
The challenge: At the end of October, a group of lovely friends, family and I from across the UK will be travelling to Bangladesh and will cycle from the beautiful tea garden region of Sylhet, past ancient Buddhist ruins in Comilla, to the world’s longest stretch of uninterrupted beach in Cox’s Bazaar far down in the south-east. We will cycle a total of 350 miles over 7 days, averaging approximately 50 miles per day.
We would really appreciate all the support you can give to help us reach or exceed our target of £3,500 (about £10 per mile and could for example pay for almost 50 childhood cataract operations – see the list below for more examples). We will be paying for all our costs, and my parents will be kindly sponsoring the whole team on that all important first leg of the journey from Sylhet to Moulvibazar by hosting us at the family home, so all the proceeds really will go towards Vision Bangladesh.
I am especially pleased to be joined on this challenge by one of my ‘primaries’ from Glasgow University, Naomi Dixon. Naomi and I have been talking about her visiting Bangladesh since we met in halls all those years ago so it is great that it is finally happening now that she is an Environmental Protection Officer by profession and we seriously need to address climate change issues in Bangladesh, which is another objective of this ‘eco-friendly’ trip. Naomi is a keen and impressive athlete and will try her hand at any sport. She recently cycled from Glasgow to Edinburgh (51 miles) and completed the Loch Ness marathon in 4 hours and 5 minutes, a personal best, having previously run the Edinburgh and Oslo marathons in very good times too. Thanks for being the only other female cyclist Naomi (!) and for all your fundraising efforts so far. A special thank you to all your friends who are helping you with your ‘Safari Supper’ too!
Thank you again for visiting our site and thank you in advance for all your help!
Jebi
Examples of where your money will go:
One day’s training in eye health for a community health worker costs just £2.
It costs just £20 to fund an adult cataract operation.
It costs just £30 to pay for 20 pairs of glasses.
The average cost of a childhood cataract operation is just £75.
It costs just £433 to train an ophthalmologist in small incision cataract surgery.
A one year poster and leaflet campaign to raise awareness of the free health services across the whole Sylhet region costs just £900.
And if you are feeling a bit more generous or would like to initiate a fundraiser of your own!!!:
£3,200 could pay for the training of 1570 community health volunteers to identify eye conditions and refer patients on for treatment.
These health volunteers each visit 114 poor rural households every month.£10,000 could pay for the equipment for ten eye care centres in one sub-district, where we will identify general eye conditions, treat where possible and refer others for surgery or further investigation.
£20,000 could fund 1000 sight restoring adult cataract operations under the Vision Bangladesh programme.
£25,000 could help buy a 12-seater minibus which will be used to transport patients to and from hospital to receive their treatment. It will also be used by the divisional coordinator to monitor overall programme activities.
£48,000 could fully kit out a medical centre where the team will conduct eye surgery. The equipment list includes an operating theatre and surgical items.
For more information, please visit the Vision Bangladesh website: http://www.brac.net/content/about-vision-bangladesh
