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Alcon Foundation

Over the last three decades, Alcon has donated state-of-the-art ophthalmic equipment, pharmaceuticals and supplies for the Flying Eye Hospital and its partner hospitals around the world.

Teaching & Training

Our long-term teaching and training programs form the backbone of our work. By sharing skills with local eye teams we can improve the quality of eye care available for generations to come. Our comprehensive and sustainable programs include online courses, simulation training and hands on training from some of the best eye care workers in the world.

Dr Kakarla V. Chalam

Professor & Director of Retina, Loma Linda University School of Medicine, California.

Dr Nathan Schwartz

Red Lion Surgery Center, Philadelphia

Dr Alessia Adduci

Faculty Department of Anesthesia & Intensive Care, Catholic University of Rome

Dr Elizabeth Castro

Technical Support Specialist, Alcon Laboratories Inc. California.

Vietnam homepage

About

We are an international non-profit that brings people together to fight avoidable blindness. With our network of partners we mentor, train and inspire local teams to fight blindness in their communities. We believe that no one should live a life of unnecessary blindness, simply because of where they were born.

Work for Us

At Orbis we look to attract inspiring and motivated people to help fight blindness in communities around the world. Experience is vital to any application but over and above this we are looking for individuals who share our values.

Corporate partners

Contact us

Orbis Vietnam's strategies on Program, Communications, Human Resources and Finance stems from Hanoi office.

Fighting blindness

There are 400,000 adults and 23,000 children in Vietnam who are blind. While blindness in Vietnam has decreased over the last decade, the country continues to struggle with providing eye care, especially in rural areas. Quality of care, training and human resources still remain problematic, and overall awareness of how to prevent blindness is low.

Advocacy for Child Eye Health

Despite great efforts by Vietnam Government, gaps remain in the eye care system for children over the ages of six, who are not covered by the local Health Insurance Scheme. A call for policy change has been launched and upheld by Orbis.

Vision for our children

Almost 3 million children in Vietnam are have a visual impairment. Around 1.7 million of those have an uncorrected refractive error, meaning a simple pair of glasses would restore their vision. With the majority of these children living in rural areas we focused our efforts on the provinces of Binh Dinh, Thua Thien – Hue, Can Tho and Ca Mau.

Vietnam National Institute of Ophthalmology

Vietnam National Institute of Ophthalmology – Our leader partnership for child eye health.
Over the past decade, Orbis has been fortunate to collaborate with Vietnam National Institute of Ophthalmology. As the leading eye care institution in the country we have together made remarkable achievements, especially in child eye health.

Flying Eye Hospital

The Orbis Flying Eye Hospital is unlike any plane you’ve seen before. A state-of-the-art teaching facility complete with operating room, classroom and recovery room - this amazing aircraft has been an example of the marriage between medicine and aviation since 1982.

News and stories

Dr Michael Vrabec

Clinical Instructor of Ophthalmology, Medical College of Wisconsin

How to get involved

There are plenty of ways you can save sight and help fight blindness. Read more below and give someone the gift of sight today.

Vietnam: Young Tam saved from a life of blindness

August 13, 2019

Tam from Quy Nhon, Vietnam, struggled with his vision from an early age. But thanks to your support, and the work of our Vietnam country office and partners we were able to give Tam his sight back without any cost to his family. Tam was diagnosed with bilateral cataracts and had it not been spotted in time, he would have been blind permanently.

Vietnam: Phuong no longer teased at school

August 13, 2019

Phuong from Hoai Nhon, Vietnam, was three months old when her family first spotted her crossed-eyes. After years of wrongly being told that glasses would fix her poor vision, an Orbis-supported school screening program finally gave little Phuong & her anxious mother hope for the future.

ONS

ACV

Vietjet Air

Publication

Financial information

Orbis entered 2018 financially well-positioned to support the growth of our global operations and to best serve our vision of transforming lives through eliminating avoidable blindness.

WHAT WE DO

With your help, we can ensure everyone has access to quality eye care, no matter where they live.

Cybersight

Cybersight is our award-winning telemedicine platform. Through Cybersight, our expert volunteers teach and support eye care teams around the world using the latest advancements in internet and mobile technologies.

Our History

Go back to the very beginning of the Orbis Vietnam story...

Where we work

Vietnam currently has about 02 million blind people and poor eyesight. The leading cause to blindness is cataract, followed by diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma, and refractive errors. More than 80% of blindness cases in the country can be cured. Learn more about where we work and the communities we help around the country-all thanks to your support.

Volunteer Faculty

Our world renowned Volunteer Faculty are the heartbeat of our training programs, both on the Flying Eye Hospital and in partner hospitals around the world. For more than 30 years the keystone of our work has been to teach and train eye teams to fight blindness on their own - we couldn't do it without their hard work and dedication.

Vision Centers

Limited number of optometrists has challenged the country from providing comprehensive eye care services, especially for those living with uncorrected refractive error. This has been a decent reason for Orbis and our partners in Vietnam made their remarkable investment to fill in the gap.

Diabetic Retinopathy

Diabetic retinopathy is an eye problem that can cause blindness. It occurs when high blood sugar damages small blood vessels in the back of the eye, called the retina. All people with diabetes are at risk for this problem.

Dr Rudy Wagner

Clinical Professor of Ophthalmology, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School

Dr Elethia Dean

Nursing Certification, Consultant, ASC Compliant LLC.

FedEx

For more than 30 years, FedEx has played an indispensable role in helping Orbis achieve its vision of a world in which no one is needlessly blind.

AOA

The Airport Operators Association (AOA) has supported Orbis as the beneficiary of the Prize Draw at their Annual Dinner since 2006.

IOLLA

To celebrate their first anniversary of trading, the team at IOLLA decided it was time to bring their pledge of contributing to the prevention and treatment of sight loss around the world to life!

Euromoney

Euromoney chose to support Orbis in 2006 because, as an international publisher, it wanted to support an organisation that enabled people in to see, and therefore, to read.

Euretina

The European Society of Retina Specialists (Euretina) is Europe’s largest society of retina specialists. The society currently has approximately 1,500 members in over 90 countries.

ESCRS

The European Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons (ESCRS) has provided Orbis with a fantastic level of support for many years. The organisation has generously donated over £100,000 towards our work between 2011 – 2016, firstly for a project in Ethiopia, and then for our regional programme in East Africa - Human Resources for Eye Health.

COFRA

Established in 2011, the COFRA Foundation aims to improve the social, economic and environmental conditions across the cotton and apparel value chain in Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

Aviation Club UK

The Aviation Club UK has chosen Orbis and our Flying Eye Hospital as its charity partner for the next twelve months.

ACS International Schools

Since 2000, ACS International Schools have been working in partnership with Orbis to promote global citizenship amongst its students.

MyOptique Group

MyOptique Group and Glasses Direct supported Orbis, with both financial and glasses contributions from 2009 to 2016, donating over £13,000 during that time.

AAAASFI

AAAASFI’s accreditation programs standardize and improve the quality of medical and surgical care.

Standard Chartered Bank

Standard Chartered supports Orbis’s “Seeing Is Believing” global community fundraising project which aims to serve China's blind population.

Jebsen

Jebsen generously partners with Orbis to build up a training, screening and referring eye care network covering hospitals and clinics in the rural area of China.

Pfizer

The Pfizer-Orbis relationship dates back to 1979, three years before Orbis's first sight-saving flight, when Pfizer began supporting Orbis through cash grants and donations of medical supplies.

OMEGA

OMEGA announced its Global Corporate Partnership with Orbis in January 2011.

Fondation L’Occitane

With a long history of corporate social responsibility,Fondation L'OCCITANE is committed to fighting avoidable blindness around the world.

L'OCCITANE

With a long history of corporate social responsibility, L'OCCITANE is committed to fighting avoidable blindness around the world. The company has supported Orbis for 17 years, donating more than €1,880,000 (approx. £1.6m) in funding for Orbis to support eye health training programmes worldwide.

OneLove Foundation

The OneLove Foundation is the philanthropic arm of PHB Ethical Beauty, a company dedicated to developing ethical, conscious & effective beauty products. A portion of its profits go directly to the Foundation, which supports projects that work to help people, especially children, and animals in the UK and around the world.

Dr William Dean

Clinical Research Fellow, International Center for Eye Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

中國光大控股有限公司

中國光大控股有限公司十分支持奧比斯的救盲使命，冠名贊助盲俠行活動，為有需要人士帶來光明的前景與未來。

Rishi Ray Borah: Director of Program, Orbis India

Rishi was named as one of the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness
(IAPB)’s Eye Health Heroes in 2017, but he has long been a hero of the Orbis team.

Hortance Manjo, Orbis Country Representative, Cameroon

Hortance is the dynamic face and heart of Orbis in Cameroon. She thrives on breaking barriers and overcoming challenges that impact the lives of people who would otherwise be unable to access quality care. Her role is diverse and yet she handles the pressure and manages all her interactions with a grace and integrity that embodies the Orbis Values.

Peter Maddox: Development Associate, Orbis Canada

Peter was recognized because he is an excellent collaborator with colleagues around the world. He is immensely proud to work at Orbis and shows his determination to make a contribution in the fight to end blindness.

Sun Hung Kai Properties

Sun Hung Kai Properties has generously donated a pleasant and conveniently-located office where our Hong Kong team can focus on building awareness and raising funds for Obis initiatives the whole world over.

Melco

Melco Group has been supporting our building of a comprehensive pediatric eye care network in Linyi, Shandong, China since 2012

奇華餅家

奇華餅家特別於中秋佳節捐出迷你月餅及以優惠價錢提供月餅禮盒和中國茶禮盒予奧比斯作慈善義賣，將光明幸福帶給失明人士。

國泰航空有限公司

國泰航空有限公司每年贊助機票予奧比斯，支持義務眼科醫療團隊到發展中國家執行救盲任務。

Richfields

Richfields, a London-based accountancy firm, has been supporting Orbis since 2007. Through the firm’s Partners and long standing Orbis ambassadors, Vinoo Patel and Nilesh Haria, Richfields has been instrumental in raising awareness, building relationships and providing vital funding for our work.

Qatar Airways

Qatar Airways have been the official airline of Orbis UK since 2015.

Aerospares 2000

Aerospares 2000 has committed to a partnership with Orbis UK and the Flying Eye Hospital from 2017 – 2020. Making a donation to Orbis for every sale, Aerospares 2000 is proud to be supporting Operation Sight, Orbis UK’s most ambitious campaign to date.

Zoobug

Zoobug is a British brand of beautiful handmade sunglasses and optical frames for babies and children up to 12 years. Founded by surgeon Dr Julie Diem Le in 2006, Zoobug’s mission is to help children see well and look great.

TD Tom Davies

Bespoke eyewear brand, TD Tom Davies first supported Orbis in 2005 by placing collection tins in his store. The designer’s personal support of Orbis has been unwavering since that time, and in 2015 Tom Davies chose Orbis as the beneficiary charity of his DADA eyewear design competition in order to support our Vision for Zambia appeal.

Southampton Airport

After hearing about Orbis at the Airport Operator Association’s (AOA) Annual Dinner, Southampton Airport kindly offered to support our work by hosting a foreign coin collection within their departure lounge.

Routes

Since 2006, Orbis has been Routes charity of choice. Founded in 1995 as part of the Manchester based ASM Ltd., a consultancy specialising in the field of route development for airports, Routes organises world-renowned airline and airport networking events through its regional and global Route Development Forums.

Flying Eye Hospital Prepares for Vietnam

August 15, 2019

Our Flying Eye Hospital staff and crew are gearing up for the next project in Hue, Vietnam, marking its 10th trip this beautiful country. The three-week project will be focusing on diabetic retinopathy, retinopathy of prematurity and childhood blindness.