Princess Sophie, the Countess of Wessex, yesterday visited the headquarters of Qatar Charity (QC) to mark the launch of “These Hands” - a campaign to raise $1mn (QR4,077,138) to reduce childhood blindness in Bangladesh.
“These Hands” has been developed in partnership with blindness prevention charity Orbis UK.
The donations collected through the campaign will enable Orbis to train 25 cataract surgeons, 28 ophthalmologists, 70 ophthalmic personnel and 400 frontline health workers, and set up six community-based vision centres and 100 outreach camps.
In total, the project aims to examine more than 2mn patients and help thousands get their sight back through performing 50,000 eye surgeries, the statement adds.
The launch follows the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Orbis and QC in March. According to the memorandum, Qatar Charity will administer all donations, abiding by Qatar’s laws in this regard. This includes texting: people can donate by texting ‘El Ein’ (the eye) to 92133 to donate QR25, 92632 to donate QR50 or 92642 to donate QR100.
Orbis has operated blindness prevention services in Bangladesh for over 15 years, where blindness is a major public health issue, and will implement the project. QC will promote the campaign and administer all donations.
There are 7.4mn people in Bangladesh who are blind or visually impaired, of whom 1.4mn are children. Cataract is the most common cause of blindness there and around 5,000 children are diagnosed each year.
While cataract is easily treated with surgery, rural areas of Bangladesh are hard to reach and communities can find it extremely hard to access the right treatment. In addition, there aren’t enough experienced surgeons to perform the surgery, which makes the situation worse, it is noted in a statement.
Youssef bin Ahmed al-Kuwari, CEO of QC, said: “QC is honoured to implement this campaign with Orbis UK, which has a long experience in fighting blindness. QC is interested in this project because it cares about children and their health, and because it has a field office in Dhaka. We hope this is only the beginning of a bigger future co-operation between us and Orbis.”
Florence Branchu, head of partnerships Middle East, Orbis UK, said: “We are delighted to be partnering with Qatar Charity on this urgent fundraising campaign, which will literally transform the lives of thousands of children in Bangladesh. We are looking forward to the people of Qatar getting behind the campaign.”
Princess Sophie’s visit to QC is part of a four-day trip to Qatar with Orbis UK to celebrate World Sight Day on Thursday. She is a patron of the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness and had previously visited Qatar with Orbis in 2012, on-board its Flying Eye Hospital.