FedEx is the leading aviation sponsor of the Orbis Flying Eye Hospital. Without its donations of critically needed aircraft maintenance and overnight delivery services, the Flying Eye Hospital could not fly and vital supplies could not be delivered.
FedEx is Orbis's first global sponsor and the sole sponsor of Delivering Sight Worldwide, a global program that provides direct support for Orbis programs and draws attention to the extent of avoidable blindness in developing nations.
At no cost to Orbis, FedEx has agreed to:
- Sponsor two Flying Eye Hospital medical programs per year for the next five years. The medical programs will be provided entirely free of charge to both host countries and patients
- Provide employee volunteer support during Orbis medical programs and help increase public awareness about avoidable blindness
- Continue the unique fellowship program — the FedEx Fellows — in which Orbis will award 10 medical training fellowships to ophthalmologists around the world over the next five years
- Deliver medical supplies to Orbis programs all over the world
- Manage the cost and completion of routine and critical maintenance procedures, including the annual safety checks for the Orbis Flying Eye Hospital to ensure its airworthiness, and provide spare aircraft components as needed
- Provide volunteer FedEx pilots to move the Flying Eye Hospital to its program destinations, and train all Orbis volunteer pilots
- In addition to the above support, FedEx donated the MD-10 airframe that was converted to serve as the next-generation Flying Eye Hospital
