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

The tea pickers on Bangladesh’s 167 commercial tea estates lack 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 effort to provide community eye screening and deliver free glasses, medication, and surgeries to tea pickers and their families in Sylhet province.

The project provided more than 700 free cataract surgeries, transforming the lives of tea workers living with vision problems. Sixty-year-old Pobi of Malnicherra Tea Estate was one of the people who benefitted from this project.

A widow tea picker whose grown son, daughter-in-law, and grandchildren also pick tea, Pobi had been experiencing worsening vision problems. She found it difficult to perform her work, with her daily tea leaf collection declining from 30-35 kg to 8-10 kg per day.

An eye screening conducted by the Orbis-Nayan program found that she had cataracts in both eyes. The program provided her surgery free of cost, fully restoring her vision and enabling her to return to work at full strength. With Pobi back to bringing in sufficient income, her son was freed to pursue a new venture: starting a grocery store in the tea garden to improve his family’s fortunes.

Pobi is thrilled with the life-changing intervention she received: “Thanks to Orbis and Nayan for creating the opportunity for eye care services in our garden’s community and for my treatment,” she says.