Fig Tree Foundation

Itna Upazila is a remote, ultra-poor village of 151,157 people in northeastern Bangladesh. Located in a wetland region that is flooded during the six-month monsoon season, the rural village has minimal infrastructure and only 9% of people have electricity. There is one small government health clinic, but no eye care is available. To access eye care services, villagers must travel five hours to a district health complex. Vison loss is a major health concern, but up to 90% of all eye problems could be remedied with access to basic primary eye care.

In partnership with Kishoreganj Eye Hospital (KEH), the project will establish a permanent women-led ‘green’ (powered by solar energy) vision centre, an innovative, cost-effective, community-driven eye care solution. Led by a team of locally recruited and trained women, the vision centre will create community-level access to high-quality essential eye care services, including eye screening, refraction, minor procedures, dispensing of glasses and medications, eye health education, patient counselling, and advanced treatment referral.

Along with employing local women, the vision centre will serve as a ‘safe space’ and health information resource centre, while also helping to mitigate many of the traditional/cultural gender-related barriers that prevent women and girls from accessing eye care. The vision centre will also be linked to (and supported on an ongoing basis) KEH for teleconsultation support and referral for complex cases.

In addition, the project will provide primary eye care training and eye health orientation for 200 local community health workers, volunteers, and schoolteachers, as well as senior students as part of Orbis’s innovative ‘Little Doctors’ initiative.

During the 12-month project period alone, it is anticipated that 4,500 children and adults will receive eye care services at the vision centre or through community outreach and school-based eye screening programs.

This project is a true community development initiative that will empower the village with the capacity to provide an essential service for its own people. Based upon the Grameen Foundation’s pioneering microenterprise approach to enabling healthcare for all, the vision centre will operate as a locally run, self-sustaining social enterprise. Those who can afford to pay for care will be charged a nominal fee for services. Revenue will be reinvested to pay the local staff, offset operating costs, and support free/subsidized services for families who demonstrate financial hardship. The vision centre will also be equipped with a solar energy system to significantly reduce utility costs and ensure continued operation, despite unreliable electricity and frequent power outages that plague the region.

In addition, the vision centre will be linked with KEH for patient referrals and support with complex cases through real-time video consultation with skilled doctors. This collaborative, virtual approach ensures the best care for people in their own community while also building the skills and capacity of the vision centre team.

Fig Tree Foundation was formed by a group of concerned Calgarians who had a desire to contribute to international development initiatives, but soon discovered that in addition to a lack of funding for established groups, there existed a lack of co-ordination and collaboration amongst groups, leading to duplication of efforts and less than optimal utilization of existing resources.

In 2006, Fig Tree Foundation obtained its status as a charitable foundation and since then has have been focused on improving the quality of international development initiatives that come out of the Calgary community while supporting a network of organizations that deliver them. Fig Tree Foundation accomplishes this mission through four guiding principles: collaboration, effectiveness, sustainability, and transparency and by promoting the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.