About
Orbis International is a New York-based international nonprofit fighting avoidable blindness by building strong and sustainable eye care systems that put treatment and prevention within reach for all. Best known for its Flying Eye Hospital — a fully equipped teaching hospital on board an aircraft — Orbis delivers sight-saving programs in over 200 countries and regions, believing in a world where everyone can access the eye care they need to thrive.
Mission
Orbis was incorporated with a mission to deliver training to eye care professionals around the world. Training, technology, teamwork, and treatment and prevention are at the heart of everything it does, working closely with governments and health ministries where the need for eye care is greatest.
What they do
- The Flying Eye Hospital, a mobile teaching hospital aboard an aircraft that brings hands-on training to eye care teams around the world
- Cybersight, an award-winning telemedicine platform offering long-distance mentoring, online courses, symposiums, AI screening, and case consultations to eye teams in more than 200 countries and territories
- Long-term country programs, run by local staff, that build the capacity of local partners — with permanent offices in countries including Bangladesh, China, Ethiopia, India, and Vietnam
- Hospital-based training programs, fellowships, and a global Volunteer Faculty of expert medical professionals
- Community outreach targeting conditions such as childhood blindness, cataract, trachoma, and corneal disease, plus initiatives addressing gender inequality in blindness
History
The idea for Project Orbis came from ophthalmologist Dr. David Paton, and the organization was officially incorporated as a nonprofit in 1973. In 1982 the first-generation Flying Eye Hospital — a DC-8 jet donated by United Airlines, secured with the help of co-founder A.L. Ueltschi — was christened in Houston, Texas, after a two-year conversion into a mobile teaching hospital. Long-term country programs were created starting in 1999, and Cybersight officially launched in June 2003, growing out of Dr. Eugene Helveston's pioneering telemedicine work with doctors in Cuba.
Scale and impact
In 2023, Orbis and its partners delivered more than 2.7 million eye screenings and examinations, provided over 32,000 trainings for eye care professionals and community health workers, and prescribed more than 88,000 pairs of eyeglasses in communities around the world.
Financials
Project Orbis International Inc is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit (EIN 23-7297651) whose federal tax exemption was issued in May 1973. According to ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, for fiscal year 2024 it reported total revenue of 259,204,488 dollars, total expenses of 255,642,165 dollars, and net assets of 63,475,888 dollars.