World Sight Day 2025: Loving Eyes, Changing Lives in Sundarganj

The Sundarganj Vision Center opened in February 2025 and is projected to provide care to around 100,000 people in its first year. The vision center is part of the Deep Eye Care Foundation, one of our partner hospitals located around two days’ drive away. It conducts eye screenings and exams, provides glasses, and refers people for treatment in more complex cases.  

Wahida’s work is about more than just treating eye conditions—it’s about restoring dignity and independence. “In many families, women get the least amount of food and nutrition. The men usually get priority,” Wahida says. “This lack of proper nutrition often leads to eye problems, which the women themselves are unaware of.”

But with community-based outreach, eye camps, and a modest fee of just 100 taka (around $1 USD), the vision center has become a lifeline for women who would otherwise go untreated. “If these centers weren’t available,” Wahida says, “eye care would be out of reach. Many of them might have even gone blind.”

Most of the center’s patients are women, and many say they feel more comfortable opening up to Wahida and her team. “They appreciate our work, pray for our careers, and treat us like one of their own because we live close to them,” Wahida says. “Even after their treatment, they greet us warmly in the community—giving us salaam, talking to us, showing love.” 

Wahida provides primary eye care, conducts initial screenings, dispenses glasses, and refers complex cases to our partner hospital, the Deep Eye Care Foundation in Rangpur. She even helps set up telemedicine consultations first, so users only get referred if they can’t be diagnosed and treated in the community.  

Every day, Wahida listens to the people who walk through the vision center’s doors. “When patients come to us, they take their time and share their problems,” she says. “We listen carefully and try our best to help them.” Wahida has grown as a person since starting her new role: “Working here has helped me improve myself, and I’ve become more confident,” she shares.

For Wahida, World Sight Day is a reminder of why she chose this path: to love and care for the eyes of her community with empathy and skill. It’s also a moment to reflect on the power of locally led, women-run health services—and the role they play in building healthier, more equitable communities.

This World Sight Day, we’d like to thank our supporters and partners for helping set up vision centers like this one in Sundarganj. In Bangladesh alone, we have launched 44 vision centers; a number that is set to rise to 60 by the end of the year, with plans to make it 100 by 2030. Each vision center serves around 100,000 people in the communities that need it most, allowing ophthalmic personnel like Wahida to do what they do best – love the eyes of their community.  

October 9 is World Sight Day, and we’re joining the global eye care community’s Love Your Eyes campaign to raise awareness of treatable and preventable vision loss. By taking action today, you can give a child the chance to love their eyes.