Now She Can See
Eleven-year-old Salima had to accompany her four-year-old sister on the six-hour bus ride to the Chittagong Eye Infirmary and Training Center (CEITC) for cataract surgery. Yet she never complained or abandoned hope her sister would see again.
While approximately 40,000 Bangladeshi children are blind and another 1.3 million have severe refractive errors, the country has just 16 pediatric ophthalmologists. Since very few of these specialists practice outside big cities, rural children have virtually no access to quality eye care. In supporting CEITC, ORBIS is creating a pediatric ophthalmology training center that will empower medical professionals nationwide. Children, including Salima’s sister, are now being treated in newly formed pediatric units your donations helped set up at seven hospitals in the country.
Because you have helped make eye care more easily accessible, Salima’s sister will finally be able to emerge from her shell and interact with the world around her.
