Eye Care: Bangladesh keen to work with Orbis

Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus has expressed Bangladesh’s willingness to collaborate with global non-profit Orbis International to expand eye care services across the country.
During a meeting with Orbis President and CEO Derek Hodkey at his office on Wednesday, Prof Yunus acknowledged Orbis’s significant contributions to Bangladesh’s eye health sector. Derek is visiting the country as part of the Orbis Flying Eye Hospital’s training programme, currently underway in Chattogram.
Highlighting Orbis’s global impact, Derek shared that the organisation has been delivering sight-saving programmes in over 200 countries and territories since 1982. In Bangladesh, Orbis has worked with the health ministry for 39 years, screening 7.8 million individuals, providing over 4.5 million treatments, performing 258,000 surgeries, and training more than 40,000 professionals.
Orbis has also established 42 vision centres and supported improvements to 17 secondary hospitals and four tertiary hospitals nationwide. It has equipped 400 community clinics with vision screening tools and developed the country’s first national guidelines for managing retinopathy of prematurity, a leading cause of childhood blindness.
Prof Yunus praised Orbis’s innovative Flying Eye Hospital and expressed appreciation for its role in strengthening Bangladesh’s eye care infrastructure.
“Orbis is a key player in our eye health sector. I love Orbis and the Flying Eye Hospital,” he said.
Derek reiterated Orbis’s commitment to building sustainable eye care systems, emphasising its focus on paediatric care, diabetic retinopathy, and advanced surgical training.