A visionary story of creating access to eye care

One of the highlights of the year was the administration of Orbis’s 100 millionth dose of antibiotics to combat trachoma in Ethiopia. Six-year-old Hizkiel was the recipient of the milestone dose at a special ceremony in the Gacho Baba District, in southern Ethiopia, where Orbis UK has steadfastly supported antibiotic distribution to work towards the World Health Organization’s (WHO) target of eliminating trachoma by 2030. It was brilliant to celebrate this achievement alongside the confirmation that Gedeo, an area with a population of 1 million, has now successfully eliminated trachoma. There’s more on these momentous achievements on page 10.

We were also delighted to host Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Edinburgh at an historic Orbis organised trachoma elimination conference in Ethiopia. Her Royal Highness visited a number of Orbis projects and renewed the call to eliminate trachoma globally by 2030.

In Bangladesh, our women-led green vision centres continued to increase the number of women and girls, and patients overall, who are accessing eye care. Analysis of patient figures show that more women and girls are seeking treatment compared to typical services, and the green power and financial sustainability of these centres is seeing them go from strength to strength. Our partners and funders are continuing to help scale-up the centres: you can read more on page 12.

Elsewhere, in Mongolia we screened 41,628 babies for retinopathy of prematurity, exceeding our targets by 156%, as our partnership with the Mongolian Health Ministry continues to save the sight of premature babies. In India, our school eye screening program reached thousands of children, while projects in Ghana and Zambia helped provide screenings and train community eye health workers. Read more about these on pages 13-16.

Firstly, we were delighted to support the Flying Eye Hospital's return to the skies for its first patient facing missions since the pandemic. In Vietnam during May, and then in Zambia in November, large numbers of local eye care workers received training and guidance from world-leading eye care experts who gave up their time as volunteers. This included a number of British health workers from the NHS, who shared their skills to help embed outstanding eye care locally. In addition, over a hundred patients received sight saving treatment during the two visits. See more on page 17.

We are working hard to further build on our successes in 2023 by raising more funds, supporting more projects and delivering more access to eye-care for communities who would otherwise face needless vision loss. By working together, we can bring closer the ambition we share with our partners and supporters, of a world without avoidable vision loss.

Finally, we continued to keep pace with emerging technologies to reach more people and deliver better patient outcomes. In 2023, Orbis’s online telemedicine and training platform Cybersight celebrated its 20th anniversary by surpassing 90,000 global eye care users across the world. Artificial intelligence eye screening software has now been integrated with Cybersight, allowing eye care professionals in low- and middle-income countries to more quickly identify and treat eye conditions. In addition, our ongoing use of virtual reality for simulation training of eye surgery, with our partner Fundamental VR, was highlighted by Meta in an international advertising campaign. This brought our work to audiences across UK TV channels, transport networks and digital platforms and helped us raise further awareness of our vital work.

With best wishes,

Rebecca Cronin (chief executive)
Nick Fox (chair)