Nepal & Bangladesh

NEPAL + BANGLADESH

Our Work in Nepal & Bangladesh 

We expanded our Hospital-Based Community Eye Health Program into Nepal in 2016. We first worked in Nepal in 1973, when we established the Nepal Eye Hospital in Kathmandu, the country’s first full-fledged eye hospital. Before leaving the country, we played an instrumental role in establishing and/or strengthening five other eye hospitals in Nepal. After leaving to focus our blindness prevention programs in more urgently needed areas, our support was requested again. Today, we partner with Nepal Eye Hospital and Fateh-Bal Eye Hospital in Nepalgunj. We began partnering with communities in Bangladesh in 2018.

2023 highlights – Nepal & Bangladesh

After navigating a third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in South Asia in 2022, we intensified our community outreach activities in Bangladesh and Nepal in 2023.

We successfully relaunched four community eye health initiatives with Fateh Bal Eye Hospital in Nepal, while scaling up our community outreach and education efforts in partnership with the Dr. K Zaman BNSB Eye Hospital and Symbiosis in Bangladesh. As a result, we saw a 166 per cent increase in the number of people screened through door-to-door surveys and a 15 per cent increase in eye surgeries across the two countries.

We also launched a research study alongside the Nepal Eye Hospital, to understand community barriers to eye health-seeking behaviors. We look forward to sharing our findings with our partners and supporters.

2023 Impact

582,597

Eye exams

37,486

Eye surgeries performed

58,564

Pairs of eyeglasses dispensed

59,057

People screened through door-to-door surveys

31,973

Students screened through school eye health programs

Learn more about our work in Nepal and Bangladesh in 2022.

Success stories from Nepal

Success Stories from Bangladesh

Our current priorities in Nepal + Bangladesh

  • Strengthening existing partner hospitals through equipment and training  
  • Intensifying eye health education activities to empower people to seek eye health care 
  • Exploring new partnerships 
  • Declaring communities as avoidable blindness-free 

How can you help

Contact us today to learn more about philanthropy opportunities in Nepal and Nepal.