Eye care amid the tea leaves in Bangladesh - Minoti's story

The tea pickers on Bangladesh’s 167 commercial tea estates lack of access to quality health care, including eye health. To help prevent and treat vision loss in this hard-working population, Orbis teamed up with local eye care partner, Nayan, for a year-long project to provide community eye screening and deliver free glasses, medication, and surgeries to tea pickers and their families in Sylhet province.

Minoti has been picking tea leaves since she was very young. Her husband, Narayan, serves as a Sarder, or community leader, of the tea workers' community in their tea garden in Jonakipara. The family was making ends meet with both of their incomes until Minoti began experiencing vision problems around age 40, which worsened until her picking capacity declined from 120-150 kg of leaves per week to 80-90 kg.

“Because of eye issues, I was unable to collect tea leaves,” she remembers. “I was unable to face the sun. Pressure would increase. I had severe headache. I was about to be jobless then.”

In early April 2024, a team of eye care service workers began conducting door-to-door eye tests in the garden and referring anyone with problems for further evaluation. Minoti’s test found refractive errors, which could be fixed with glasses.

The eye care workers referred Minoti to an eye care camp in the garden, where a doctor prescribed spectacles and eye drops for her free of charge. Initially hesitant to wear the glasses, Minoti soon became comfortable with them and found that her restored eyesight enabled her to return to work to secure the family’s income.

"After getting the eye glasses, now I can go to work,” she says. “Now I feel well, and I have no headache. I can now gather tea leaves. By the grace of God, you have shown me the light.”