About ORBIS

According to the World Health Organization, 37 million people worldwide are blind - 28 million of them unnecessarily. Their blindness could have been prevented, or their eyesight restored, if only they'd had access to proper eye care.


As a nonprofit humanitarian organization, ORBIS International strives to eliminate avoidable blindness and restore sight in the developing world. ORBIS works closely with local communities, governments and hospitals to design programs that increase local skills, improve health care facilities and foster awareness of eye health.

The challenge for ORBIS is to ensure that the skills and technology to prevent blindness or restore eyesight is available in countries most in need. Ninety percent of the world's blind live in developing countries, where barriers such as poverty and poor infrastructure hinder the development of adequate eye care facilities.

Since 1982, when ORBIS's Flying Eye Hospital took off on its first sight-saving mission, more than 124,000 doctors, nurses and other essential healthcare workers have enhanced their skills through ORBIS training programs. This translates into more than 135,000 eye surgeries and more than three million individuals treated thanks to ORBIS and ORBIS-supported programs.

Hospital Training and Fellowships

Hospital-based programs
ORBIS hospital-based programs are week-long training sessions provided in local hospitals around the world. ORBIS volunteer medical staff use these sessions to train ophthalmologists, nurses, anesthesiologists, biomedical technicians and other essential eye care personnel in their particular specialty.

Hospital-based programs:
* Support the particular training needs of ORBIS country programs
* Bridge the gap between visits of the Flying Eye Hospital in countries where ORBIS does not have a continuous presence
* Extend educational opportunities to countries that otherwise would not have access to such training

Training programs are based on ORBIS's strategic objectives:
* Make quality ophthalmic care and services available and accessible
* Strengthen the infrastructure of preventative and curative eye care services
* Promote individual behaviors and institutional practices that prevent blindness
* Introduce and/or reform national and global policies and standards

In fiscal year 2006, ORBIS carried out an unprecedented 59 hospital-based programs in 19 countries, including ORBIS's five priority countries - Bangladesh, China, Ethiopia, India and Vietnam - as well as other locations such as Afghanistan, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Nigeria, the Philippines, Serbia and Tanzania.