http://www.orbis.org/According to the World Health Organization, 39 million people worldwide are blind — yet 80 percent suffer needlessly. Their blindness could have been prevented or treated. ORBIS is a nonprofit organization fighting blindness in developing countries, where 90 percent of the blind reside. Together, we can eliminate blindness and transform lives.
The program showed them working in Mongolia, doing eye surgery on children and adult nomads who had traveled for days on foot to meet them. Children who had been blind from birth due to congenital cataracts had their sight restored. =D> They did this in the middle of a remote desert. Their plane, a DC-10 with an ophthalmic surgical and training center located within is used at remote locations where there are no suitable medical facilities nearby.
They also train local medical personnel in eye health care and surgical techniques. For example they show on the website a volunteer surgeon correcting a three year old girl's strabismus (cross-eyes) in Viet Nam. They also demonstrated the procedure to the staff of the Da Nang Eye Hospital, who apparently had little hands on training on this procedure.
Today's feel good story.
