Press Release - June 30, 2009
Sports Day (Mamun)
CSF Inclusive Sports Competition Tuesday 30th June 2009.
By Natalie Johnson
When ten year old Mamun took to the stage to sing for the opening of the ‘Inclusive Sports Competition’ at Abdula Mahamoud Memorial High School, Sirajganj, it was a proud moment for his parents to see their blind son take a leading role in his school and community. It is through such awareness raising events that The Child Sight Foundation (CSF) hopes to reduce the stigma surrounding blindness in children across Bangladesh.
On Tuesday 30th June 2009, delighted parents saw their visually impaired and blind children participate and win prizes in games, singing and dancing, and artistic displays along side their sighted peers. Blind children like Mamun performed to captive audiences with traditional songs, and later the stage was shared by a singing group of CSF visually impaired and blind children that improve on their musical skills and abilities in weekly sessions.
Mamun’s parents became aware of their son’s blindness when he was 8 months old. Mamun was given treatment and education materials following CSF’s unique case finding process, the Key Informant Method.
This process revealed that Mamun’s mother Mala believed that her son’s blindness was “a repent for her own sins”, a common misperception among communities without access to health information. CSF has assisted Mamun and his family via home based rehabilitation, and he is now an eager student at the Rahmatganj Hafezia Madrasa where he hopes to devote himself to religious work in the future.
Sports Day 2009
As an Australian volunteer at CSF, I have seen first hand what this positive affirming atmosphere can achieve. Barriers based on misunderstanding are broken down while children and parents of sighted and non-sighted children play, compete and perform on an equal stage. Inclusive events such as that organised at Abdula Mahamoud Memorial High School, Sirajganj lead to dramatically improved lives and future prospects for newly confident visually impaired and blind children in Bangladesh.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that there are 1.4 million blind children worldwide; according to CSF research, 40 000 of these children live in Bangladesh. The causes, treatments and strategies that address childhood blindness and visual impairment differ from that of adults and coupled with the issue of urgency in seeking treatment, childhood blindness is a significant global public health issue. The knowledge that many causes of childhood blindness are avoidable or treatable increases the need to bring this issue to public attention.
CSF developed the Key Informant Method as a means of identifying blind and visually impaired children in 2001 and has been applying this now internationally recognized and acclaimed method of case finding in Bangladesh for 8 years. Using this method, CSF has identified 15,000 blind children throughout the country resulting in approximately 5,000 blind children receiving free sight restoring cataract surgery.
Sports Day 2009
CSF is a non-Government and non-profit organization working to eliminate avoidable blindness and advocates a rights-based enabling environment for visually impaired and blind children in Bangladesh. CSF services include the detection and referral of visually impaired and blind children for cataract surgery and treatment, primary eye care services, rehabilitation, inclusive education, and vocational training. CSF receives technical support from the International Centre for Eye Health, UK and its donors, and AusAID in the form of volunteers in the Australian Youth Ambassadors for Development (AYAD) program.
