The Flying Eye Hospital first landed in Mongolia in 1989. In 2014, Orbis launched a four-year project with the National Center for Maternal and Child Health (NCMCH), the main provider of children’s eye care in the country, and five county-level hospitals in rural Mongolia. The project aims to establish a model for comprehensive vision care that provides services from basic vision screening to the management of more complex pediatric eye disorders.
Fighting Blindness in Mongolia
In Mongolia, access to high quality, affordable eye care services is limited in both urban and rural areas. Lack of equipment, training and infrastructure are major barriers to adequate care and there is no comprehensive framework to treat children’s eye disease.
Success in Mongolia
We've been working in Mongolia since 1989
Your support has helped us to screen more than 97,000 children in schools, communities and hospitals to date, including more than 1,000 babies who have been screened for retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) at the NCMCH.
In 2020 alone, we delivered:
MORE THAN 13,000
School children screened
3000
Infants screened for Retinopathy of Prematurity
350
Trainings for eye health professionals
As a result of our ongoing advocacy work, we’ve helped make pediatric eye health a priority for Mongolia’s policymakers and the Ministry of Health. The second annual Child Sight Day was celebrated this past September.
Cataracts are the most common cause of blindness followed by glaucoma. Mongolia is also facing an epidemic of diabetic retinopathy (DR), a potentially blinding condition associated with diabetes.
What We Are Doing Next
We are continuing to work with the National Center for Maternal and Child Health and county-level hospitals to train critically needed eye health professionals – from nurses to conduct school-based vision screenings to ophthalmologists to perform, strabismus and other surgical procedures. We’re also continuing to provide essential eye care equipment and instruments to the NCMCH.
Read more about the recent Virtual flying eye hospital program in Mongolia
We're excited to announce the launch of a new VIRTUAL Flying Eye Hospital project in Mongolia. With generous support from OMEGA, the project will train ophthalmic nurses in cataract treatment - the leading cause of blindness in the country.
Orbis will also continue to advocate for better eye care services and eye health awareness and work with policymakers to address still unmet needs, like access to refraction screening and to corrective lenses, particularly for children in Mongolia.
Our Partners
- National Center for Maternal and Child Health (NCMCH)
- Mongolia Ministry of Health
Watch: 2012 Video With Daniel Craig.
Flashback! Through Their Eyes is a film made in partnership with OMEGA featuring Daniel Craig's visit to Mongolia with us in 2012.
Donate today to save sight in Mongolia
