ORBIS International – Saving Sight Worldwide

ORBIS International is a nonprofit global development organization dedicated to saving sight worldwide. Since 1982, ORBIS volunteers and staff have restored the vision and transformed the lives of more than 4.4 million people in 85 countries. At the same time, ORBIS has been building local capacity to provide eye care in those countries by training more than 154,000 eye care professionals aboard the ORBIS Flying Eye Hospital and in local hospitals in developing countries.

An integrated approach to eliminate avoidable blindness
For 25 years, ORBIS has worked in partnership with health professionals and institutions in developing countries to improve the quality and accessibility of eye care. ORBIS provides the tools, training and technology necessary for local doctors and other health care personnel to assess their needs and develop workable and lasting solutions to the tragedy of unnecessary blindness. By building up the long-term capabilities of eye care institutions, ORBIS helps its partners take action – to reach a state where they can provide, on their own, quality eye care services that are affordable, accessible and sustainable.
ORBIS directs its efforts, focusing on building local capacity, public awareness and advocacy, in some of the poorest parts of the world, where 90 percent of the blind reside.

Capacity Building
• Training eye care professionals and health workers
• Introducing ophthalmic technology and related management systems
• Improving the quality and accessibility of eye care

Public Awareness
• Increasing public awareness about eye health and prevention of visual disabilities

Advocacy
• Advocating for supportive national eye care services and policies

With these strategies as a foundation, ORBIS’s integrated approach is carried out by way of:

• Country Programmes
In five priority countries – Bangladesh, China, Ethiopia, India and Vietnam – ORBIS develops and implements comprehensive eye care and blindness prevention efforts. Long-term regional projects are also underway in parts of Latin America and the Caribbean.

• ORBIS Flying Eye Hospital
The world’s only airborne ophthalmic training facility serves as a focal point for educational programs and advocacy efforts. On board, eye care professionals from developing nations work side-by-side with the international ORBIS medical team to perform surgery, learn new skills and restore sight.

• Hospital-based Training Programmes and Fellowships
Year round, ORBIS conducts intensive specialised training at local hospitals and supports fellowships for talented partner eye care professionals to undertake advanced study with mentors at some of the world’s leading eye care institutions.

• ORBIS Cyber-Sight®
This cutting edge telemedicine initiative uses the Internet to connect doctors throughout the world with ORBIS volunteer ophthalmologists for professional mentoring, patient care consultation and online continuing medical education.

Project Summary:

The project is implemented in the rural areas of Yunnan Province, Guizhou Province, and Guangxi Autonomous Region in south western China (see map below), beginning in January 2008 and ending in December 2010. It is expected that the project will increase the volume of eye care services and reduce patient fees for eye care in four prefecture level hospitals, with a primary focus on cataract.

By the end of the year 2010, the following key outputs are projected in China:
• 56,000 direct beneficiaries medically treated for eye diseases;
• 16,000 direct beneficiaries surgically treated for cataract and other eye diseases;
• 648,000 family members indirectly benefited from the project;
• 600,000 people received eye health education; and
• About 5.8 million people were exposed to eye health media information.

The specific locations of the project are Zhaotong and Lingchang prefectures of Yunnan province, Liupanshui prefecture of Guizhou province, and Bose prefecture of Guangxi autonomous region. These are all underdeveloped rural prefectures in southwestern China, where accessible, affordable, and quality eye care services are generally unavailable. Each prefecture has its specific socio-economic and geopolitical challenges: Zhaotong’s high population density, scarcity of non-mountainous land and high erosion; Lingchang’s various poor ethnic minority groups; Liupanshui’s high population density, coal mining, and the high ethnic minority population; and Bose’s high population and ethnic minority density. The total catchment’s area is about 80,000 square kilometres, with an estimated population of 12 million. Currently available eye care in this region is only limited to provide preliminary services for common eye diseases with limited ophthalmic equipment. Skillful ophthalmologists are in shortage, particularly at county level hospitals.

The project will:
• Provide affordable, sustainable and quality eye care services;
• Strengthen capacity of selected local eye care providers;
• Increase the volume of services and make patient fees for eye care affordable in four prefecture level hospitals;
• Operate within the existing national health care system, with each prefecture hospital linked to about eight county level hospitals, each of which will be upgraded to vision centers;
• Enable vision centers to provide primary eye care and refraction services, and to serve as outreach points for prefecture hospitals; and
• Conduct eye health education on blindness prevention to reach both rural and urban residents.

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