Eye Health Hero: Md. Sajidul Huq Tanjil

Dr. Md. Sajidul Huq Tanjil has been working as Senior Coordinator, Education & Training Department at Deep Eye Care Foundation (DECF), Rangpur, Bangladesh. He is a Public Health Specialist, completed MBBS in 2012 and MPH (Master of Public Health) in 2016. After joining DECF in 2017 as Project Coordinator, he took a project on Diabetic Retinopathy (DR) and conducted around 100 DR screening camps and created social awareness on DR arranging several seminars and training programs. He also conducted a survey on the prevalence of DR among diabetic patients of the northern part of Bangladesh.

After successful completion of DR project, DECF decided to send him for training at Aravind Eye Hospital, Madurai, India. He joined Eyexcel- Excellence in Eye Care Training, which is a “train the trainer” workshop, designed to facilitate the creation of competent Allied Ophthalmic Personnel (AOP). After coming back from Eyexcel, Dr. Tanjil started to develop a variety of teaching methods and address curriculum development, competency-based skill development, program evaluation, and principles of sustainability for the AOP training programs. He took charge as the coordinator of Deep Institute of Community Ophthalmology (DICO), Education & Training Institute of DECF and succeeded to develop it in a structured way to get accreditation from the Government of Bangladesh. The training institute is now recognized by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Bangladesh & affiliated with the State Medical Faculty of Bangladesh.

He also became the guest faculty of Eyexcel Bangladesh, selected by Aravind Eye Hospital, India which was held in 2019. DICO started AOP training programs under his leadership to develop skilled eye care workforce for own hospital, as well as for external organizations. In the last four years, DICO successfully trained more than 130 AOPs who have been working now at DECF as well as in different organizations like BRAC (25), Partner hospitals of Orbis & Sightsavers (15), BNSB (5) etc. More than 80% of these AOPs are female at DECF as we prefer to select them for AOP training programs to make them self-reliant and get empowered. Nowadays, the trained AOPs are the backbone of our eye hospital to serve more than 800 OPD patients per day and perform more than 15000 surgeries per year. The contribution of competent and skilled human resource has increased the productivity of the ophthalmologists in order to render complete eye health care both curative and preventive. We appreciate his effort in human resource development for cultivating an engaged and motivated workforce which improves organizational effectiveness and performance as well as for the eye care sector of the country.

In addition to these, Dr. Tanjil is involved with primary eye care training for teachers, GO&NGO workers, medical students and different group of peoples in the community which help to motivate people to undertake preventive measures, support to increase strong referral system and plays an important role in the prevention of blindness. He has been also conducting ‘Little Doctor Training Program’ to create awareness among the school children aged 8 -14 years thereby promoting peer group reflection and household level education on eye health. Some research works by Dr. Tanjil are waiting to be published in the coming days.

“My experience in the eye health care field is exciting and full of discoveries. It expanded my knowledge base in understanding the importance of training for the eye care workforce, which is vital for a sustainable and stable eye health delivery system and ensuring universal eye health. For the last five years, I gave particular attention to developing cadres of skilled mid-level ophthalmic personnel, who play a crucial role in supporting ophthalmologists and creating a more efficient workforce, and to primary eye care workers, who can bring eye care to communities.

I am thankful to the management team of my hospital for giving me the opportunity to contribute to this field and promoting individual growth. I am very fortunate to work under the leadership of Dr. Khairul Islam, who is the first Eye Health Hero of Bangladesh. He has been instrumental in bringing the best from me by giving me the freedom for new ideas. I am very grateful to all individuals, institutions, donors and colleagues for their support for I could not have achieved anything without them.”

– Md. Sajidul Huq Tanjil