Why Children

Why focus on Children? One of the key takeaways from our first stay in Bangladesh was that we should concentrate our efforts primarily on childhood blindness caused by cataract. Children became our focus, because by facilitating sight, their education can be promoted through providing opportunities to them as the future performing generation of Bangladesh. From our trips to Bangladesh we learnt that the children receive a robust education at school and that they are very diligent and keen on knowledge. In addition childhood blindness carries a stigma in the region and by removing this the opportunities for the children to thrive are significantly enhanced. Thus, 18,000 children affected by cataract are still waiting for a surgery. We have collected a lot of impressive experiences from our stays in Mymensingh and Moulvibazar. We were impressed by the high number of successful eye surgeries and deeply touched by the happiness of the parents after the surgeries of their blind children. Andrés and Angelika Söllhuber with Morjina in the morning after the operation of her right eye. Morjina is being blinded by the light We will never forget the experience, as the two years old Morjina was placed on the floor by her grandmother the day after her surgery and started to dance while the Muezzin was calling. Her mother died during her birth and her grandmother understood that in Mymensingh’s eye hospital cataract surgery for children in need would be carried out for free. Therefore she brought Morjina to the hospital and we attended the operation in the surgery theatre of the hospital. That experience alone was enough to make us want to improve our efforts and to be optimistic with respect to further support we can get. Morjina “dancing”