The Qatar Fund for Development (QFFD) leads the State of Qatar's international development and foreign aid strategy.
In 2015, in her role as Ambassador for the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness, Her Royal Highness The Countess of Wessex travelled to Qatar to discuss the global issues around preventable blindness and the need for funding for eye health programmes.
The State of Qatar’s interest in this area resulted in the creation of the Qatar Creating Vison initiative, a sight saving programme funded by the Qatar Fund for Development and implemented by Orbis.
In 2016, thanks to their $8 million donation we launched Qatar Creating Vision. The four year programme focused on tackling avoidable childhood blindness in India and Bangladesh, which have some of the highest rates of childhood blindness in the world.
In 2018, in response to the influx of people entering the camps in South East Bangladesh, the initiative was expanded to help children and adults struggling with vision loss within the Rohingya and local host community.
Dr Robert Walters
Chairman, Orbis in the Middle East
Orbis is very proud of our partnership with the Qatar Fund for Development. It has shown its commitment not only to drawing attention to the issue of avoidable blindness, but to providing the financial resources needed to bring vital eye care to those struggling unnecessarily. Together, we have made great strides.
In four years, 6.7 million eye tests and treatments were provided through the Qatar Creating Vision initiative – 1.2 million more than the original target.
Through the establishment of a far-reaching school eye screening programme, Orbis and their partners have been able to find children struggling with their sight. The projects have also focused on developing skills within communities to help drive people to eye care services. As a result, over 82,000 teachers, students, religious leaders etc… have been trained on how to spot the first signs of vision loss since work began in 2016.
This has all been possible thanks to Qatar Fund for Development's support.
From April 2022, Qatar Creating Vision was launched in Ethiopia, to help tackle the world’s leading cause of infectious blindness, trachoma, whilst delivering over 300,000 services, including screenings, distributing antibiotics, providing spectacles, and conducting surgeries, to communities.
The work being undertaken will also strengthen eye care facilities to provide patients with other sight loss issues, with the necessary eye care they deserve.
HE Khalifa bin Jassim Al-Kuwari
Director General of Qatar Fund for Development
Many people are not aware of the threat of vision problems on communities particularly in politically and economically threatened or remote areas. QFFD has a long-standing commitment to drive forward a wide range of initiatives that will strengthen healthcare provision to disadvantaged communities around the world. We are proud to support Orbis in the initiative for Ethiopia to strengthen the health care facilities that offers ophthalmology care for the Ethiopian communities.
In October/November 2022, Qatar Fund For Development and Orbis, are hosting a week-long professional development programme, open to women in ophthalmology and nursing, from countries receiving humanitarian support from Qatar under their Women in Conflict Zones initiative. Women in Conflict Zones is a global initiative solely dedicated to the empowerment of women and girls in conflict environments. The initiative will focus on responding to women’s needs in crises, empowering women to effect positive change, and engaging women in peacemaking—toward the vision that women and their families not only can survive, but thrive, in the face of conflict – and ultimately contribute to the resolution of those conflicts over time.
Over the years, Orbis has been honoured to celebrated the achievements of the initiative funded by Qatar Fund for Development with HRH the Countess of Wessex, HH Sheikh Tani bin Hamad Al Thani the Emir of the State of Qatar, HE Sheikh Thani bin Hamad Al Thani the brother of the Emir, HE Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani the Qatar Minister of Foreign Affairs, etc.
Dr Faisal Naqdam Faisal, consultant ophthalmologist at Hamad Medical Corporation, has been a keen and vocal supporter of Qatar Creating Vision, since 2017. In 2018, he travelled to India on behalf of QFFD and the Qatar’s Ministry of Public Health, to witness our sight saving programmes first-hand. He was also part of the team that hosted a preferred practices medical workshop on-board our Flying Eye Hospital, in Qatar, during Doha Health care week in November of the same year.
In 2020, two representatives from QFFD took the time to travel to India to view a school screening programme that they provided funding for with two students from Qatar University. They were trained to provide eye screenings and became vision ambassadors for Orbis.
