The Gift of Light for Hope and Healing in Bangladesh

Hope & Healing in Southeastern Bangladesh

In rural Cox’s Bazar, located in the southeast region of Bangladesh, approximately 90% of women give birth at home without any help from trained birth attendants. This situation leaves pregnant women at high risk of developing serious complications, such as obstructed labor. Prolonged, obstructed labor is a precursor to obstetric fistula. This condition causes incontinence and social exclusion. In Bangladesh, approximately 20,000 women suffer from it.

Solar lights will be provided to patients experiencing childbirth injuries like fistula. Often, women afflicted with fistula suffer in obscurity, ostracized by their families and communities.

In the Rohingya Refugee Camps and other areas of southeastern Bangladesh, many women suffer from fistula due to poverty, malnutrition, early marriage customs, and limited access to healthcare. 

These women, along with others in the region, need our help. These lights will offer hope for recovery and a reassuring glow of encouragement while in the fistula ward.

About Our Distribution Partner 

Fistula Foundation, a leader in treating obstetric fistula, partners with HOPE Foundation in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, to provide around 100 surgeries annually at HOPE Hospital.

HOPE Hospital, which works to enhance maternal care in the Cox's Bazar region, opened a new facility in 2023, offering quality maternal healthcare services and catering to women with fistula. Additionally, HOPE extends its services to women residing in the Rohingya Refugee Camps through the Hope Field Hospital for Women.

Last year, Fistula Foundation facilitated the distribution of solar lights to families at the Hope Field Hospital for Women. Patients at the new HOPE Maternity and Fistula Center also received solar lights.

Empowering Villages in the Chuadanga, Kushtia, and Jhenaidah Districts

In the Chuadanga and Kushtia districts, residents are poor and lack their own agricultural lands. They live and work on the lands of others as daily laborers. For 3-4 months each year, they are unemployed, struggling to survive during this period.

In the Jhenaidah district, residents rely on seed funds that are crucial in helping them buy the necessary tools and materials to make a living from their basket weaving craft.

2500 solar lights are needed. These lights will be distributed to 25 villages in the Chuadanga, Kushtia, and Jhenaidah districts.

These villagers live in poverty. In some remote areas, electricity is unavailable. They go to bed very early and wake up at dawn to complete their necessary work. In areas where electricity is available, the poor go without it as they cannot afford the cost.

These solar lights will improve the health and well-being of families, enabling them to navigate their surroundings safely. They will also be able to complete their chores and tasks in the evenings.