What Happens When You Can’t See in a Refugee Camp?
- ajoyce140
- Jan 30
- 3 min read
Amina’s Story
In the world’s largest refugee settlement, Kutupalong Refugee Camp, life is defined by scarcity. Families live in crowded bamboo shelters where each day brings new challenges just to survive. One experience that often goes unnoticed in these camps is losing your vision without any real possibility of care.
For Amina, a mother of four young children living in Cox’s Bazar, blindness came suddenly, without warning. One morning, she woke up expecting daylight and found only darkness.
She could hear her children awake, moving around the shelter, but she couldn’t see them. Fear set in. Panic.
Thoughts raced through her mind: What would she do without her sight? How would she care for and protect her children in an unpredictable camp full of danger?
Without access to care, Amina was forced to adjust to life in the dark. Every day tasks became overwhelming.
She struggled to move safely through the camp’s narrow pathways, to cook, and to recognize her children’s faces or even know if they were hurt. She felt an overwhelming guilt, believing she had become a burden to the very people she was meant to support and protect.
Often, she held onto her child’s sleeve or followed a neighbor’s voice, trusting them to guide her through paths where one wrong step could mean a fall or serious injury.
Gradually, she stopped leaving the shelter unless someone could go with her. Staying inside felt safer; it also meant isolation. Days passed without conversation beyond her children. She missed community gatherings, aid distributions, and even simple moments of connection.
The world shrank to the size of the tent and with it, Amina’s sense of belonging.
Requests for eye care were denied; these services simply did not exist in the camp.
Amina began to believe the darkness was permanent.
“I thought this would last forever,” she said. “I didn’t know help was possible until LIFE’s Eye Clinic opened near our camp.”
After successful cataract surgery, her sight returned, along with a sense of dignity she thought she had lost.
“Now I can do everything,” Amina said. “From household chores to playing with my kids, I can do it just like I did before my eyesight faded.”
Vision Loss: An Overlooked Refugee Crisis
Studies show that visual impairment and blindness among displaced populations, like the Rohingya, are far more common than in surrounding non-refugee communities. In one survey, Rohingya adults were several times more likely to suffer from eye conditions such as cataracts or uncorrected vision loss, often during their most productive years.
Humanitarian responses understandably prioritize urgent needs like food, water, shelter, and emergency care. However, when vision loss goes untreated, something fundamental is lost: the ability to navigate safely, learn, work, and be seen as capable human beings.
How LIFE’s Vision Center Is Protecting Eye Health and Restoring Sight
The LIFE Vision Center in Cox’s Bazar is changing lives.
This dedicated eye-care clinic has become known for its high-quality treatment for refugees, offering free vision screenings, diagnoses, treatment, and medication.
From May to October 2025:
3,427 patients received care for vision loss and eye disease
112 patients were identified with cataracts, a leading cause of reversible blindness
Approximately 60 people per day received treatment, highlighting the enormous unmet need for eye care
Behind these numbers are thousands of individual success stories: children who can read again, parents who can work safely, and elders who can walk without fear.
Good News: Program Extended, More Lives Changed
Thanks to the success of this clinic, its extension for another year means uninterrupted access to preventive screenings, cataract referrals, treatment programs, and life-changing outcomes.
In a world where so many struggles go unseen, restoring sight in Cox’s Bazar brings both hope and this critical need into the light.
Support sight-restoring care in Cox’s Bazar and help ensure no one is left in the dark.
