What We're Doing To Tackle Global Blindness

Orbis is the only eye care nonprofit delivering sight-saving programs in over 200 countries and territories. This work is delivered by integrating cutting-edge digital training tools, dedicated in-country programmes and the world’s first and only Flying Eye Hospital, and utilizes Orbis eye care experts and more than 400 world-renowned medical volunteers known as Volunteer Faculty.

Training is at the very heart of everything we do. Orbis provides advanced training and mentorship to eye care teams in nearly every country globally, empowering them to deliver sight-saving care where the need is greatest.

Orbis runs long-term country programs across Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean that provide access to training opportunities for local eye care teams, including courses offered in their home institutions under the mentorship of Orbis’s renowned medical volunteers.​

Our specialist training is provided in collaboration with local hospitals, public health agencies, and governments. It is conducted on our incredible Flying Eye Hospital, through our online mentoring platform, Cybersight, and via our long-term country programmes.

It is made possible thanks to the generosity of our remarkable volunteer ophthalmologists, anesthesiologists, nurses and biomedical engineers who give up their free time every year to train eye teams in communities around the world.

With your support and the help of our world-leading expert volunteers, we provide training to all types of healthcare workers - from doctors and nurses in regional hospitals to district leaders and teachers in remote areas.

Orbis develops and scales access to Technology and Innovation In Eye Care that is revolutionising training for eye care professionals and treatment for patients. For too long, the most cutting-edge tools have only been accessible in high-income settings, though their greatest impact can be made in the most underserved places.

Through our award-winning telemedicine platform Cybersight, artificial intelligence diagnostic technology, virtual reality training, and the world’s first and only Flying Eye Hospital, we're revolutionising ophthalmic training around the world. Cybersight offers free virtual access to world-class ophthalmic training resources developed by international medical experts.​

Our long-term country programmes provide equitable access to quality eye care that transforms lives and communities. Orbis puts eye care within reach through programs that serve communities where they are. To reach the most underserved populations, quality care must be available and easily accessible.​

Our long-term country programs increase access to eye care across Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean. Our programs include vision centres that ensure rural communities can access eye care; administration of antibiotics to fight trachoma, the leading infectious cause of blindness; and facilities to address children's unique eye care needs.

Over the past ten years, Orbis has led over 28 million sight-saving eye screenings and exams, over 505,000 eye surgeries and laser treatments, and more than 300 life-changing landings by Orbis’s Flying Eye Hospital since its maiden flight.​

In the last five years alone, more than 11 million patients visited Orbis-supported health facilities, more than 45 million doses of antibiotics for trachoma elimination were distributed, and more than 868,000 eyeglasses were prescribed.

Through support from donors, corporate sponsors, employees, governments, and a team of more than 400 world-renowned medical volunteers, we work in collaboration with local partners to improve the quality and availability of eye care, ensuring our impact endures long term and becomes self-sustaining. ​
With your support, we cultivate long-standing relationships with local hospitals, ministries of health, and others to build not just individual centres of excellence, but also strong eye care systems and to influence national policies to prioritize eye care.​

Our original research is regularly published in top-tier peer-reviewed journals. What we learn is used to inform our evidence-based approach to programming and innovation. Our findings also have implications that can strengthen outcomes for others in the eye care sector—and beyond.

Despite the additional barriers presented by a global pandemic, more than 30,000 trainings were completed by doctors, nurses, and other eye care workers throughout 2022 alone.