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 Duchess of Edinburgh 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 Vision 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 first phase of programmes has been focusing 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.
His Excellency, Mr Khalifa Al Kuwari
Director General at the Qatar Fund for Development
Our partnership with Orbis is providing a brighter future for children through eye screening programmes in schools, ensuring pupils can get the glasses and treatment they may need quickly. We’re thrilled that targets have been surpassed and that we have been able to expand the programme to South East Bangladesh. Together with Orbis, we have been able to reach many more people than originally planned. It was an honour to announce these results in the presence of Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Edinburgh.
In June 2020, Orbis announced that over 6.6 million eye tests and treatments have been provided to children through the Qatar Creating Vision initiative – 1.1 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.
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.
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.
