How it Started

The Fred Hollows Foundation first began planning work in Bangladesh in 1999 when representatives from The Foundation and Grameen Kalyan Health - the health arm of Grameen Bank - met to discuss the possibility of initiating a blindness prevention program. 

In 2001 The Foundation funded two ophthalmologists and two ophthalmic assistants from Bangladesh to attend a training course at Tilganga Eye Centre in Nepal. Managing Director of Grameen Kalyan, Shaikh Abdub Daiyan, also attended Tilganga to receive training on the models of eye care service provision, cost recovery and logistics. 

A team from Tilganga then attended a mega eye clinic in Bangladesh to demonstrate and train both the ophthalmic community and medical administrators. Equipment for the camp was supplied by The Foundation, in partnership with Grameen Kalyan. Participants were shown the advantages that outreach programs and modern cataract surgical techniques can bring to complement existing ophthalmic services.

Since 2001 the partnership between the Foundation and Grameen Kalyan has continued and further progress has been made in training local eye health personnel, primarily through annual mega eye clinics.

During this time, the Bangladesh eye health sector has increased the emphasis on long-term planning for blindness prevention, including development of a National Eye Care Plan, in line with the Vision 2020 goals. The National Eye Care plan gives a framework for the current and future activities of The Foundation in Bangladesh.

International non-government organisations working in eye care in Bangladesh were heavily involved in the development of the National Eye Care plan. The international non-government eye care organisations formed a Forum (INGO Forum), of which The Foundation is a member, to not only aid in the development of the National Eye Care plan, but also to work in collaboration to ensure that PBL plans are implemented successfully in Bangladesh.