"A career as a Community Health Worker allows me to offer assistance to those who are less fortunate"

Thanks to Qatar Charity, we're able to work with local partners and health professionals to bring eye care services to those in need of assistance. Raju is a Community Health Worker in Cox's Bazar. She goes door-to-door screening people within their homes.

Here, Raju shares her experience with Orbis supporters:

“Because of the people’s lack of access to eye care and poor awareness, eye diseases are more common than they should be in Cox's Bazar. Patients' lives are greatly impacted by the diseases.

"I help to identify individuals with vision difficulties in my areas within the camps. I measure the vision of potential patients at their homes and shortlist the suspected patients to be examined by our technical supervisor at our Vision Centre in the camp. I accompany the Technical Supervisor during the visit to the Centre when she sorts the patients based on their conditions. We again measure the vision of those who require spectacles. We send those requiring surgery to Baitush Sharaf Hospital through Orbis.

We as a team screen 80-100 people weekly, with 30-40% requiring further screening and treatment. I visit 20-25 households a day on average.

Working as a Community Health Worker is equally challenging and rewarding. I have to communicate with new people every day and convince them to undergo vision tests. But at the end of the day, I feel satisfied when I tally how many people I reached and brought under eye care coverage."

"I received training from Orbis twice, covering the fundamentals of eye care. These sessions were held in Cox's Bazar district headquarters, with the first training lasting for two days and the second one for one day.

We found an elderly eye patient in the camp area – the Imam of a mosque – who could not go to the prayer place without someone’s help. We arranged cataract removal surgery which has given him a new lease of life. Now, he can travel to the mosque alone and recite the Holy Quran.

Before this job, I had no experience or knowledge regarding eye care. After receiving the training and learning the basics of eye care, I am now able to provide proper eye care services."

Thanks to Qatar Charity, since they began funding the project, our partners and amazing people like Raju, have helped thousands of people, both within the Rohingya community and South East Bangladesh, to access the treatment they deserve.

We would like to thank Qatar Charity for their ongoing support, which is enabling Orbis and our partners to provide eye care services to those who might otherwise be without it.