As a Healthcare Company, it is hard to look around the world, witness see the suffering of those less fortunate than ourselves and then choose to ignore it.
We just can't do that...so instead, we have rolled up our sleeves.
The charity closest to our hearts is Orbis, an international non-profit non-governmental organization dedicated to saving sight worldwide. Its programmes focus on the prevention of blindness and the treatment of blinding eye diseases in developing countries through hands-on training, public health education, advocacy and local partnerships.
Our CEO founded an Irish Office for Orbis in 2003 and in 2007 set a challenging goal: To eradicate trachoma, a horrific painful blinding disease, in a population of 2 million people in the Gama Gofa region of Ethiopia.
The Impact of Orbis Ireland’s work so far:
Between 2014 and 2016, an impact survey was carried out in the region. Orbis compared these results with the baseline survey conducted at the beginning of the project in 2007. In some areas, the prevalence of trachoma has reduced by up to 90%. This phenomenal result is a direct consequence of the generosity of the Irish people, both in terms of voluntary work and financial contributions.
Of the €172.6m raised in 2014, €152.9m was spent on programmes and services across the 92 countries in which Orbis works, €14.3m was spent on fundraising and only $4.3m was spent on management and administration of the Charity. This is because the vast majority of work done by Orbis is undertaken by volunteers including surgeons, nurses, doctors, engineers, IT professionals and pilots. Everyone involved in Orbis is acutely focused on ensuring that as much as possible of the money fundraised is spent on those suffering from avoidable blindness.
The following video will give you a better idea of the people Orbis helps and the work done…
Please come and join us on our journey with Orbis Ireland, to eradicate trachoma completely from the Gama Gofa region.
Whether you can have a cake sale and raise even €20 or maybe take part in the Great Ethiopian run with us which we do every November (and get healthier training with our teams-its only 10K and you can walk it too!), or perhaps get much more involved, every effort really does make a difference.
Please visit Orbis Ireland for more information.