Sight Saviors
Hundreds of eyecare professionals,
diplomats and business leaders
gathered at the United Nations
in New York to help ORBIS celebrate
its 25th anniversary. Best
known for operating the world’s
only Flying Eye Hospital, ORBIS
is a nonprofit organization
dedicated to saving sight
worldwide through national
blindness prevention programs
in Bangladesh, China, Ethiopia,
India and Vietnam.
“For a quarter of a century, we
have built a global network of
committed people who share
the goal of alleviating human
suffering,” said Oliver Foot,
ORBIS International president and
executive director (middle photo).
“Poverty is the biggest enemy of
blindness.” Foot pointed to changes
in climate, such as drought and
floods, which create unsafe living
conditions and increase the incidence
of blindness.
Girma Wolde-Giorgis, President
of the Federal Democratic Republic
of Ethiopia, was the evening’s keynote speaker. Addressing
the UN gathering about the growing crisis of blindness, he
said, “In my country alone, no less than 10 million people
are afflicted by active Trachoma, a highly contagious disease
that is spreading fast.” Pfizer Inc. has donated more than
$17 million worth of the antibiotic Zithromax to ORBIS,
which through a partnership with the International Trachoma
Initiative is being distributed to help fight the disease.
The highlight of the evening came at 8:20 p.m. when the
tower lights of the Empire State Building were turned off for
28 minutes, in recognition of the 28 million people around the
world who are needlessly blind. ORBIS Global Ambassador
of Sight, Sir Richard Branson (bottom photo), founder and
chairman of the Virgin Group, led the official countdown to
turn off the lights and delivered his remarks to the UN gathering
blindfolded. “We all take for granted that we have the
opportunity to see our loved ones, to move freely, to read a
book, but imagine if that was taken away from us—how different
our world would be.”
There were also many doctors in attendance who freely
give their time to go on ORBIS missions and train doctors
from overseas. Among them were Pat Carroll, OD, of Retina
Physicians and Surgeries of Dayton, Ohio (pictured above
with his wife Pam). Dr. Carroll recently returned from an
ORBIS-sponsored volunteer mission in China.
— Mary Kane
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