Description
Orbis International is an international non-profit non-governmental organization (NGO) dedicated to saving sight worldwide. Its programs focus on the prevention of blindness and the treatment of blinding eye diseases in developing countries through hands-on training, public health education, advocacy and local partnerships. Since 1982, Orbis capacity-building programs have enhanced the skills of 325,000 eye care personnel and provided medical and optical treatment to more than 23.3 million people in 92 countries.
Orbis is a registered 501(c)(3) tax-deductible non-profit charity in the United States. It is rated 4 stars on Charity Navigator and is a Guidestar Gold Participant. It is headquartered in New York, with offices in Toronto, London, Dublin, Hong Kong, Macau, Shanghai, Singapore, Cape Town and Addis Ababa.
Orbis' programs emphasise skills, training and self-sufficiency. The organisation spends approximately a year planning and coordinating with partner hospitals and local organisations, making preliminary visits to observe the local medical teams. The Flying Eye Hospital not only provides training, but also equipment and surgical supplies to ensure that the local medical teams are equipped with skills and supplies long after the flying eye hospital has left the program site. It ensures that other patients who are in need of treatment are able to get the treatment even after the hospital has departed. Cybersight, Orbis' telemedicine program, continues the training and mentoring relationships even after the Flying Eye Hospital has left the program site. Orbis' intervention are tailored to local needs; Orbis trains local doctors in low-tech, low-cost yet effective methods to correct diseases of the eyes.
In addition to the Flying Eye Hospital, Orbis operates hospital-based programs in several countries and works with local medical research and health-care organizations on blindness prevention and eye disease treatment.
Orbis is a founding partner, along with the World Health Organization, of VISION 2020: The Right to Sight, "a worldwide concerted effort designed to eliminate avoidable blindness by the year 2020."
