1. INTRODUCTION
The Fred Hollows Foundation (The Foundation) is a secular non-profit public health organization based in Australia, which was founded in 1992 by eminent eye surgeon Professor Fred Hollows. The Foundation focuses on strengthening eye health systems and the treatment and prevention of avoidable blindness caused by Cataract, Trachoma, Diabetic Retinopathy, and Refractive Error. The Foundation operates in more than 20 countries across Australia, The Pacific, South and Southeast Asia, and Africa. The Foundation was named The Australian Charity of the Year 2013 in the inaugural Australian Charity Awards.

The Foundation started its operations in Bangladesh in 2008. It has been working successfully to eliminate avoidable blindness in Bangladesh through health systems strengthening and setting up sustainable eye care programs through Public Private Partnerships. Through this project Foundation’s aim to strengthen the government and private eye health capacity building including human resource development equipment and renovation, improve access to, and affordability of eye health services for the rural population, raise awareness of and support for eye health programs in Bangladesh. This project also focuses on vulnerable and marginalized population such as the indigenous communities and poor women.

2. PROJECT BACKGROUND
This is an integrated and comprehensive project that aims to strengthen eye health systems and address gaps in eye health service delivery at the Divisional level in Bangladesh.

Chittagong and Khulna are two key divisions in our country strategy. Chittagong is the South-Eastern Division with a large hill tracts area most of which is hard to reach. Chittagong division is also home to a diverse array of indigenous communities who are historically disadvantaged. On the other hand, Khulna is the South-Western division of Bangladesh which is home to the largest mangrove forest in the world. As a tropical area, Khulna has several livelihood challenges like salinity of water, lack of supply of drinking water, natural calamities etc. These factors impact peoples’ access to basic services including eye healthcare.

This project will focus on Khulna and Chittagong Divisions. Based on the current eye health situations and other project experience, Divisional Eye Health Plans will be developed and shared with the stakeholder for better understanding of eye health situation and setting out an outline for the next 5 years to implement the project as per annual work plan. Concurrently, this project will also strengthen services in Khulna and Chittagong Divisions to effectively manage cataract, provide eye health services for people living with diabetes and address the needs of the people with uncorrected refractive error. These services will be provided through public non-eye care NGO (Maternal Child Health Clinics) and private partner health facilities with a strong focus on gender and social equity. These activities are designed to be built upon once the Divisional Eye Health Plans are finalised.

Strategies to mitigate gender barriers identified from other FHF projects in Bangladesh will be applied in these two divisions. There is an additional focus on the Indigenous groups and hard-to-reach populations living in these two Divisions. This project will span over 5 years, with a vision to reduce cataract prevalence by at least 20% by the end of the project in these two Divisions.

This project will generate evidence for expansion of this model to other Divisions in the country, enabling The Foundation to build on the Divisional Eye Health model and advocate to government and other key stakeholders for this approach. Focusing on a Division-wide approach will allow The Foundation to have an impact at a more consolidated level.

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