Many health facilities in Rohingya camps have had to shut down as the foreign assistance for the forcibly displaced Myanmar citizens in Cox’s Bazar has dwindled.
Mohammed Mizanur Rahman, refugee relief and repatriation commissioner (RRRC), on Sunday said health facilities in Rohingya camps had decreased to 120 from 160 and services in the remaining facilities had to be cut significantly due to fund shortages.
Speaking at a discussion titled "Integrated Approach to Eye Care Services in Humanitarian Settings: Lessons and Best Practices" organized by Orbis International and The Financial Express newspaper in Dhaka, Mizanur highlighted the plight of Rohingya people and said Bangladesh was struggling to sustain its programs for them as “the crisis has dragged on and the attention of the international community shifted elsewhere.”
“But this is not the responsibility of Bangladesh alone,” he said.
“We have shouldered the responsibility of the international community, including the United Nations. We are working on behalf of them. Now they are forgetting us,” the commissioner said.
He said the international agencies working for the Rohingya community were also experiencing fund constraints.
Professor Dr AHM Enayet Hussain, president of the Ophthalmological Society of Bangladesh (OSB) and country chair of the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) Bangladesh chapter, while chairing the event said eye care was no longer a health issue, it was now a development issue.
He said with better eye care, one could perform better for society.
Enayet highlighted the lack of coordination among different agencies for prioritizing eye care in government health facilities.
Meanwhile, Additional Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner Md Shamsud Douza urged actions for health literacy, including eye care, so that people understood their health problems and sought treatment.
He stressed the need for cornea donation to restore the eyesight of many and said awareness could encourage people to donate corneas.
The Financial Express Editor Shamsul Huq Zahid said health-related government and non-government organizations should launch eye health awareness campaigns in cooperation with the media.
Focusing on the lack of awareness about eye care, he stressed the need for the inclusion of eye care lessons in textbooks.
Dr Munir Ahmed, country director of Orbis International, delivered a vote of thanks at the discussion moderated by Shiabur Rahman, head of online and digital content at The Financial Express.
Representatives from Orbis’s partners in the Rohingya response program, local and international non-government organizations working for the Rohingya community, and relevant government bodies participated in the event.
The participants discussed the challenges and opportunities in eye health, ways to overcome the challenges and tap into opportunities, making different suggestions that might help make Rohingya-related programs integrated and comprehensive.
