Orbis International

Note: The organization did not respond to this question.

Note: The organization did not respond to this question.

We make individual investment into managers and leaders as performance and development needs arise. Systematic programs to invest in management and leadership development will be explored in 2023.

Orbis continues to use a wide range of external mobilization efforts to further the mission of the organization. In 2022 alone, the work of Orbis has been featured in nearly four dozen top-tier media outlets, including Newsweek, Ophthalmology Times, Optometry Times, Glaucoma Today, and Philanthropy News Digest. We continue to play a leadership role within the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) and other international NGO networks. As a training organization, we are involved in the delivery of on-the-ground training projects in 14 countries worldwide, and an additional 198 countries and regions through our online telemedicine platform, Cybersight. We continue to leverage PR, marketing and social media to promote our vital sight-saving work. Finally, many of the Orbis program team publish peer-reviewed research papers on a range of topics on eye health. This research helps to promote Orbis' work and thought leadership.

Orbis quickly adapted thanks to a longstanding commitment to remote learning. Flying Eye Hospital trainings went virtual, and through our telemedicine platform, Cybersight, we delivered training and mentorship. Cybersight now has over 68,000 registered eye care professionals across 212 countries/regions, four times the number of users we had at the start of 2020. We are now training more eye care teams in more places than ever before. Orbis also ensured COVID-safe access to care. For example, in Ethiopia, we distributed 12.3 million doses of trachoma-fighting antibiotics in December 2021 by going door-to-door, rather than delivering antibiotics at community gatherings. In Nepal, our programs providing vision screenings for children at school pivoted to a door-to-door model when schools closed due to the pandemic. Orbis supports vision centers that ensure rural communities in countries like Bangladesh and India can access care, especially critical when COVID made travel impossible or risky. The innovative solutions we have developed during the pandemic are not just short-term fixes – they enriched our programs going forward. Now the Flying Eye Hospital can resume its regular flying schedule, we are combining our new virtual model with our existing in-person projects so that participants can maximize their training. Our virtual training, which has long benefited eye care professionals in hard-to-reach communities, has become a lifeline in a world requiring social distancing. We have continued to expand and grow our training and consultation services through Cybersight, including with offerings that directly respond to user feedback and increased demand. Likewise, we have continued to work with our hospital partners to include door-to-door outreach as part of our programs moving forward. The new approach has reaches people who live with disabilities or who, for a variety of other reasons, may not have accessed eye care services previously.