News and stories

Meet the man behind the Flying Eye Hospital

See how Bruce Johnson, a retired Air Force flight engineer turned FedEx flight instructor, oversees an ‘engineering masterpiece’ in the fight against preventable blindness — even during COVID-19.

Orbis doctors go from students to teachers

September 17, 2020

For many doctors, their journey with Orbis continues throughout their career. And Dr. Andrea Molinari and Dr. Ganesh are no different. After years of learning from their own Orbis mentors they are both passing on their skills to the younger generation.

Orbis volunteer Rob Walters interviewed on Viking.TV

August 28, 2020

Earlier this week, long-time volunteer and Orbis UK trustee Rob Walters was featured on Viking.TV’s “In Conversation with Alastair Miller”.

The fight against blinding trachoma in Ethiopia

August 14, 2020

Your support is helping to bring us closer to eliminating trachoma, the world's leading cause of infectious avoidable blindness, in Ethiopia.

Orbis volunteer trains Zambian doctors remotely on the first virtual Flying Eye Hospital programme

July 22, 2020

The in-person part of our mission to empower local communities to fight blindness may be temporarily grounded, but our online training has been taking off. Volunteer Faculty member Dr. Lee Alward took to Cybersight to train doctors virtually in our first ever Virtual Flying Eye Hospital program.

How the past few months have changed this ophthalmic clinical officer’s life

July 17, 2020

Charles Chikwanda, an ophthalmic clinical officer trained by Orbis, works in a mining town in Zambia which borders the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). His town is particularly susceptible to coronavirus cases as it is on busy route between the countries, and people often spend a few days in the town before they are cleared to get into DRC.

India: Vaishnavi can smile again now she can see

July 01, 2020

When Vaishnavi started to lose her sight to a cataract, her father feared she would struggle with her education. However, all thanks to a new paediatric eye care project set up at our partner hospital in India's poorest state, our expert volunteers were able to remove her cataract while giving local doctors the opportunity to learn new skills.

The IECW protecting his community through a pandemic

June 18, 2020

Temesgen is an Integrated Eye Care Worker (IECW) based at a health centre in Ethiopia. He was first trained by Orbis in 2012 and has been working as an IECW for eight years. IECWs are primary care nurses trained in eye care to identify and treat infections, TT and refractive error and to refer patients to district and regional units as appropriate.

Zambia Flying Eye Hospital goes virtual

June 17, 2020

The Flying Eye Hospital should be in Zambia right now, delivering hands-on training to our partners in Lusaka, Kitwe, Ndola, and Chipata. However, like millions of people all over the world it is stuck at home waiting for better times. But that has not stopped our team delivering first-class training to our dedicated partners online.