Training is at the very heart of everything we do. 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.
What we do
With your help, we can ensure everyone has access to quality eye care, no matter where they live.
Passing on Skills and Knowledge
Our specialist training is delivered in partnership with local hospitals, public health agencies and governments. It takes place on board our incredible Flying Eye Hospital, through our online mentoring platform, Cybersight, and through our long-term country programmes. It is made possible thanks to the generosity of our remarkable volunteer ophthalmologists, anaesthetists, nurses and biomedical engineers who give up their free time every year to train eye teams in communities around the world.
Our Comprehensive Approach
We bring people together in the fight against avoidable blindness. We know we can't do it all on our own so we work with partners to evaluate the specific needs of each region, develop a tailored plan to restore sight and put in place a long-term eye health strategy.
We educate communities about eye health. With the help of key partners, we distribute vital antibiotics to treat and prevent serious eye conditions. We provide crucial eye health information via radio broadcasts, film screenings and educational materials.
In India and Bangladesh, for example, through funding from the Qatar Fund for Development, we established an eye health initiative called Qatar Creating Vision. Since 2016, we have been conducting comprehensive school eye screening programmes, educating the community on eye health and improving eye care services, and as a result, hundreds of thousands of children can see clearly again.
In Ethiopia, we help implement the World Health Organisation's SAFE strategy alongside partners such as the UK Department for International Development, international eye care NGOs and the Ministry of Health to help eliminate trachoma, a painful, contagious and blinding disease.
We establish long-term country programmes and build the capacity of health systems to improve access to quality eye care. We train all types of workers across all levels of the health system – not just ophthalmologists and nurses, but primary health workers and community volunteers. We also work with hospitals to improve leadership and governance in order to help improve the long-term quality of patient care.
Despite the additional barriers presented by a global pandemic, more than 29,000 trainings were completed by doctors, nurses and other eye care workers throughout 2020 alone.
The restoration of sight is one of the most effective and cost-efficient ways to reverse the cycle of poverty for individuals and their families, according to the World Bank and World Health Organisation. Orbis is doing this through ensuring the provision of quality eye care.