Eye hospital for poor

For the last five years Kohinoor Akter, 48, originally from Madaripur but who lives in Dhaka's Savar, has not eaten a single grain of rice. She took a vow that until she is able to staff her Kohinoor Eye Hospital with three qualified ophthalmologists, rice would stay off the menu. The blind woman, whose dream is to establish a quality hospital, yet waits.

“Only one who can't see knows the true value of sight,” she says. “I decided to establish an eye hospital because many people in Savar suffer from the lack of an eye hospital. I want to provide good treatment at low cost for the poor and to employ visually-impaired people as well. If such a hospital had existed when I was young, perhaps I wouldn't be blind.”

Kohinoor lost her eyesight at the age of seven, the result of a smallpox infection. It was only a few years thereafter that she sought hospital treatment. There was nothing to be done.

Nonetheless Kohinoor pursued education, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts from Mirpur Government Bangla College in 1994. That same year she married a Bangladeshi expatriate working in Saudi Arabia, but after only three days of marriage he left to return to the Middle East and never contacted her again.

“I am trying my best to set up a good quality hospital,” she says. “Due to financial crises and other problems it isn't easy.”

In 2003, the Kohinoor Eye Hospital first opened its doors at a rented house in Savar's Hemayetpur on the outskirts of the capital. In 2011 because of financial difficulties Kohinoor had to move the facility to a parcel of roads and highways department land at Jorpul beside the Dhaka-Aricha highway.

 “We used to have an eye physician visiting the hospital regularly,” says Kohinoor, “They no longer visit due to our lack of proper equipment and electricity. Nowadays we only give primary assistance to patients.”

“The hospital does not have suitable instruments,” says sub-assistant community medical officer Ariful Islam, “but at Kohinoor's request I visit the hospital every Friday to offer primary treatment to poor people. They pay Tk 30 per consultation, with the money used for developing the hospital.”

Kohinoor's younger sister Hanufa Akter Salina who lives locally, says she always tries to assist. “None of us are rich but my sister is a leader in the community, someone who is trying to help others despite being economically poor and fully blind.”

“Kohinoor is different to other blind and visually impaired people,” says Savar upazila's woman affairs officer Khaleda Akter Jahan. “She tries to help poor people and we try to support her. If she had proper economic support for her dream it must find success.”

In the hope of better days Kohinoor waits. “I will not eat rice until I have three good doctors in my hospital,” she says.