Rayner-Supported Charity Hits TV Spotlight
Posted on 10/09/2013
‘Good news, good news, good news! IMPACT’s Jibon Tari Floating Hospital has moored here in Kaliganj!’
A young man rides a bike around a village making this announcement from his megaphone. This marks the beginning of a powerful news story.
IMPACT Bangladesh – a charitable foundation which aims to prevent and treat avoidable disability – features in Al Jazeera’s world health programme ‘The Cure’ as part of a report on one of their biggest projects – The Jibon Tari or ‘Floating Hospital’.
The Jibon Tari provides clinical and surgical treatment for free – or a token fee – to some of the world’s poorest people who live by the great rivers of Bangladesh. Thousands of kilometres of waterways make access to healthcare extremely difficult, so a mobile hospital which can navigate its way around the 700 rivers throughout the country is an ingenious solution to allow access to medical aid in rural areas.
In the last 14 years more than 25,000 cataract operations have taken place on the boat.
In Bangladesh cataract is not just a disease that mainly affects the elderly – its onset is much earlier, mainly in the 40 to 45 year age group.
In ‘The Cure’, we see one middle age mother about to go in for cataract surgery express the desperation of her situation, ‘If I go blind, no one will take care of me.’
More than half a million people in Bangladesh are cataract blind.
The Boat stays in one place until patient numbers start to dwindle. It has been docked in Kaliganj Bangladesh for 6 months now – which gives a very clear picture of the demand for this life-changing service.
Rayner donates 100 of their premium quality monofocal lenses to IMPACT every month and have supported IMPACT for many years – improving patients’ quality of life, preventing disability and promoting independent, sustainable living.
Rayner is very proud to be associated with IMPACT Foundation Bangladesh, and some of the world’s poorest people have had their sight restored with first class treatment and first class products because of this partnership.