Raisa needed treatment quickly—before she lost her sight forever

Raisa’s parents were hoping for the safe arrival of their baby after losing their first child when Raisa’s mom was 7 months pregnant.

When Raisa arrived at just 34 weeks – six weeks early – she had to be separated from her parents to stay in a neonatal intensive care unit. There, she was diagnosed with a potentially blinding eye disease called retinopathy of prematurity (ROP).

But although little Raisa was born in a rural area, she was able to quickly receive the sight-saving treatment she needed: shortly after her diagnosis, she received injections in her eyes at Orbis’s partner hospital, the Dr. K. Zaman BNSB Eye Hospital.

Today, she’s a healthy, growing toddler with full sight. She’s growing up knowing what her parents and grandparents look like, and she’ll soon be able to go to school and get an education.

This couldn’t have happened without generous donors to Orbis, who helped provide the training and resources needed to help babies like Raisa who are born prematurely. Your generous donation will help save the sight of these vulnerable children and people worldwide.

Millions of babies around the world are born prematurely each year, which makes them at risk of becoming blind from retinopathy of prematurity (ROP).

Today, ROP is a leading cause of blindness in babies worldwide, and is particularly prevalent in Latin America and South East Asia. Wonderful advances in treatment mean that more premature babies are being saved, but fewer hospitals have the skills and resources to provide the screening and treatment these babies need to grow up with healthy vision.

And it’s urgent that premature babies get treatment quickly: each baby that is born too early must receive screening within weeks of birth, and babies who are identified to need treatment should start treatment within days if possible.

With proper awareness, knowledge and equipment, blindness from ROP is entirely preventable. And that’s where you come in.

As a supporter of Orbis, you will help us provide that awareness and knowledge to more local health care providers on the ground – so no matter where a baby is born, she can get the care she needs.

In fact, we’re about to offer a sight-saving training for pediatric nurses, like the nurses who cared for little Raisa, in Bangladesh. Through this program, nurses will learn how to better protect premature babies from developing ROP and how they can support screening and treatment of their young patients.

Will you help protect the world’s most vulnerable children from blindness and support sight-saving programs worldwide?

If so, please consider a special contribution today.