Orbis in the Middle East is a part of Orbis UK. Orbis UK depends on caring individuals, companies, governments and foundations to help treat and train eye care teams around the world. To find out more about the funds we raise and how we spend your money, please look at our annual reports below.
A story of saving sight
ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2022
Welcome to the Orbis UK Annual Report
Dear supporters,
2022 was a challenging but positive year across all of our Orbis UK funded projects. As the Covid restrictions began to lift in the countries we work in and supply chain problems eased, so too did many of the difficulties that we faced in 2021.
I’m delighted to report that our income remained strong and, by the end of the year, we had exceeded nearly all of our targets for treatments, screenings and surgeries. This success is down to the resilience and creativity of the Orbis staff team and our partners who, during the course of the pandemic, became experts in adapting and adjusting to new ways of working. It’s also thanks to the commitment and engagement of you, our supporters, who make our sight-saving work possible.
One of the highlights of the year was meeting the women attending a training programme on board the Orbis Flying Eye Hospital in Doha. This pioneering initiative saw a female-only volunteer faculty working with 12 women drawn from countries affected by conflict. It was hugely inspiring to talk to the participants and hear about the challenges they face in the countries where they work every single day and their commitment to provide sight-saving treatment for their patients.
The disruption to the global supply of antibiotics to treat trachoma eye infections in Ethiopia was a significant challenge to the team in 2022. They delivered 3.4 million doses which was short of our target and these activities will continue to be difficult to implement in 2023 despite hopes that these shortages will ease.
You can read how the Ethiopia team turned the challenge of the limited availability of antibiotics into an opportunity to redouble community outreach work which takes eye care services close to where people live.
In Nepal, our Aid Match project helped children like seven-year-old Aadya to see better at school through screening her vision and providing her with glasses. The three-year project finished in 2022 and delivered impressive results. Over 330,000 children were screened either in school or on their doorstep, making a significant contribution to the reduction in avoidable childhood blindness in the country. The project was funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office.
In Zambia we were delighted to see the number of patients attending primary and district eye care facilities increase in the three districts we supported. This comes as a direct result of community health workers having an increased awareness of eye conditions thanks to the training that Orbis provided. We did this through Viamo – an innovative low-tech mobile phone training platform.
Also last year, Mongolia’s Ministry of Health approved the inclusion of Red Reflex testing into the national paediatrics residency training curriculum. This means that more babies will be screened and treated for retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), a condition that can
cause blindness if left untreated.
We are already working hard to build on our successes in 2022 with ambitious plans to scale up our work, with the fundraising infrastructure in place to help us achieve this.
We’re aiming to raise more money, support more projects, and deliver more sight‑saving training and treatments to people who live where eye care resources are scarce. We are confident that together we can get even closer to our ambition of creating a world where no one lives with avoidable vision loss, simply because of where they were born.
With best wishes,
Rebecca Cronin (chief executive)
Nick Fox (chair)
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Our Year in Numbers
Orbis UK’s impact
We funded 12 projects in total: one in Ghana, one in India, one in Mongolia, one in Nepal, one in Zambia, two in Bangladesh and five in Ethiopia.
Despite continued pandemic-related disruption, we worked with partner organisations to achieve:
787,720
eye screenings, exceeding our target by 60%
13,513
training sessions for clinical staff and community representatives exceeding our target by 3%
34,574
treatments, exceeding our target by nearly 35%
3,400,000
antibiotic doses, to help eliminate trachoma in Ethiopia
Our Work
Comprehensive eye care
We work in partnership with people
at all levels of the health care system,
including primary, secondary and
tertiary care, to deliver comprehensive
eye care to people everywhere.
at all levels of the health care system,
including primary, secondary and
tertiary care, to deliver comprehensive
eye care to people everywhere.
Childhood Blindness
If a child’s eye condition is not identified
early enough, it can lead to irreversible
blindness that robs them of their
education and can cause a lifetime of
economic hardship.
early enough, it can lead to irreversible
blindness that robs them of their
education and can cause a lifetime of
economic hardship.
Specialist Training
To achieve our vision of eye care
everywhere, we work with partners such
as local hospitals, non-governmental
organisations (NGOs) and governments
to share skills, knowledge and expertise
with local eye care teams.
everywhere, we work with partners such
as local hospitals, non-governmental
organisations (NGOs) and governments
to share skills, knowledge and expertise
with local eye care teams.
2022 Financial Summary
Orbis UK’s income
Total income: £6,187k
As percentages of total income:
24%
Legacies
23%
Major donors, trusts and corporate partners
22%
Individual donors
31%
Statutory donors
Income in detail
22%
Individual Supporters
24%
Legacies
31%
Statutory
10%
Major Donors
2%
Corporate
11%
Trusts
Charitable activities 2022
69%
Comprehensive Eye Care
19%
Childhood Blindness
12%
Specialist Training
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