E C H O

By Aniya Chowdhury
Aniya is a senior at Notre Dame High School in San Jose, Ca

It all started when we went to Bangladesh for a family vacation in 2007. A few weeks after our arrival, we visited Rangpur, a small town 200 miles north of Dhaka, where my father spent his childhood years. There we met a 78 year old man who was dear to my father’s family while my dad was growing up. He was a rickshaw driver that took my dad and his siblings to school everyday and was also the same man who rushed to get the doctor on the day of my father’s birth. Although he looked thin and frail, his mind was sharp and he fondly talked about my father as he was growing up. It was apparent that years of poverty and malnutrition took a toll on his health and especially his vision. My father took him to an eye specialist who determined the man had eye cataracts. This required an operation in order for him to regain his eye sight. Within the next couple of days, his surgery was scheduled and successfully completed. All it required was a little bit of time and only sixty dollars from us. In return, we had the satisfaction of seeing the gratitude on the face of this 78 year old man.

Living in the United States, it is often difficult for us to imagine all the pain and suffering that goes on around the world. We are fortunate to receive all the benefits and opportunities that life has to offer, and thus, it is important to give something back to those who are less fortunate and are suffering everyday. I started talking with my family about how unfair life can be sometimes, where half the world has so much, yet the other half has virtually nothing. This inspired us to develop a project which would provide free cataract surgeries for the poor people of Rangpur.
At the beginning of this project, we set a goal to raise money for the people in Bangladesh who suffer from cataract eye disease but are financially unable to pay for the operation. We then contacted the Rangpur Health and Blind Care Foundation, a registered non-profit organization in Bangladesh. The foundation works with Apollo Eye Hospital in Rangpur to perform the eye surgeries. With the help of community leaders, we have set-up an eye camp in a village near Rangpur where doctors from the eye hospital would select the patients requiring cataract surgeries. Slowly, we were bringing the gift of vision back one patient at a time.

On September 7, 2008, ECHO had a fundraising dinner that allowed me to advocate on behalf of the project. It turned out to be a much more thrilling experience than I could have ever imagined, as it was a rare opportunity in which I had the chance to advocate and fundraise for my cause. Amidst a crowd of about 400 people, I presented the purpose, objective, and goals of the project.

As I walked off the stage, I could see my father beaming, and my grandfather’s eyes begin to tear up. Though I initially felt that my family was being just a little overdramatic, I recognized that my grandfather’s emotions were justified as he was the one who started the eye camp in Rangpur, Bangladesh, to which all the donations raised would go. I felt a sense of accomplishment when I learned that through the fundraising dinner, we raised enough money to provide about one hundred more free operations.

By becoming involved in this project, I hope to inspire more young people to participate in this project thereby appealing to a larger audience as well as garnering more donations. Thought it is unfortunate that there are many people in the world today who do not have even a fraction of the things that we are blessed with, we can, at the very least, take steps in the direction that promotes human equality. I believe that all good deeds, whether big or small, have an impact on the community. My philosophy in life, is that if you can do something to help reduce disparities, no matter how small that may be, you should do it. Even if it’s just advocating for a cause, every little bit helps.