The Flying Eye Hospital has a long history in Vietnam - it first visited Da Nang in 2006 with follow up projects in 2008, 2010, and 2012. It was in Ho Chi Minh in 2009, Hue and Hanoi in 2015 and Binh Dinh and Can Tho in 2017.
Since 2006, over 1500 patients have been examined with nearly 800 adults and children receiving sight saving surgery on board the plane. Of course, as the plane is primarily a teaching and training facility the real impact comes in those we train - around 1300 doctors, nurses and medical technicians have received training from some of the best in the business.
Gallery: In 2015 the Flying Eye Hospital visited Hanoi and Hue
Flying Eye Hospital Prepares For Vietnam
Our Flying Eye Hospital staff and crew are gearing up for the next project in Hue, Vietnam, marking its 10th trip to this beautiful country. The three-week project - due to begin later this month - will be focusing on diabetic retinopathy, retinopathy of prematurity and childhood blindness.
Orbis in Vietnam
We began working alongside eye teams in local hospitals in Vietnam as far back as 1996. By 2000 we’d help set up a number of long-term projects and by 2003 we’d established a permanent office in Hanoi.
Since then we’ve been helping transform the lives of thousands of people in 10 provinces up and down the country, by helping build comprehensive models of eye care, improving infrastructure and providing training.
Impact In 2018
1750 eye care professionals trained
200,000 children screened
40,000 pairs of glasses prescribed
9,000 eye surgeries performed
More recently we helped develop national blindness guidelines introduced a National Program on School Health Management. Alongside our partners we successfully introduced the child-friendly eye care model by establishing six pediatric eye care centers in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Hue, Da Nang, Binh Dinh and Can Tho.
Gallery: In 2017 The Flying Eye Hospital visited Bin Dinh and Can Tho
Thanks to your support we also helped set up Retinopathy of Prematurity networks in Vietnam’s north, south and central regions
Volunteer Faculty
Throughout the three-week project the team will be joined by 25 Orbis Volunteer Faculty who’ll be sharing their skills and sub-speciality knowledge with local teams.
Hailing from the US, Germany, Vietnam, Canada, UK, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Turkey this truly is a global effort to fight blindness.
And now thanks to the incredible power of technology, training sessions led by these sector-leading experts can be broadcast live to teams in remote regions through our award-winning online training platform - Cybersight.
Thank You
As our teams prepare for their next Vietnam adventure we’d like to thank our local partners for hosting our Flying Eye Hospital team and sharing our commitment to helping change the way the world sees.
And another big thank you to all our dedicated volunteers and kind supporters, without who, these projects just wouldn't be possible.
See you in Hue!