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.