Flying Eye Hospital lands in Mongolia

The plane touched down in stormy conditions with Captain Cyndhi Berwyn calling it “one of the toughest approaches” in her long career. Ulananbaatar is notorious for its high altitude and strong winds, but the team also faced storms and turbulence as they made their descent. Captain Berwyn was fed up-to-the-minute information by the Orbis flight team and was able to guide the plane without issue.

While the weather might seem ominous, a former Orbis patient from Mongolia and current Orbis Canada Board Member, Bulgan Orgilsaikhan, who was on board the aircraft as it landed, says there’s an expression in Mongolian that goes, “The destined person comes with the thunderstorm.” A sign of good things to come!

This three-week training project will mark the Flying Eye Hospital’s ninth visit to Mongolia, with the first taking place in 1989 and most recent in 2018.

During the next three weeks, Orbis staff and Volunteer Faculty will guide participants in simulation training, hands-on surgical training, and ophthalmic workshops. The project focuses on the subspecialities of pediatric cataract, strabismus, and oculoplastics, and adult glaucoma, oculoplastics, and surgical retina, so more patients can receive expert eye care year-round. The training will cater to the needs of surgeons, anesthesiologists, nurses, and biomedical engineers.

All project training activities will take place on the Flying Eye Hospital, currently located at Buyant-Ukhaa International Airport, and at two partner hospitals, the National Center for Maternal and Child Health and Third Central Hospital.

We'd like to say huge thank you to our corporate sponsors the Alcon Foundation, FedEx, and OMEGA — and our project partner, the Mongolian Ministry of Health.

We have been working with Mongolia’s Ministry of Health for 35 years to integrate a sustainable eye care system into the national health system. By creating strong partnerships with local hospitals throughout Mongolia, we have significantly improved the accessibility and quality of pediatric eye health, including making pediatric eye health a priority for Mongolia’s policymakers.

“We are grateful for our partnerships with the Ministry of Health, the National Center for Maternal and Child Health, and Third Central Hospital,” said Dr. Chimgee Chuluunkhuu, Country Director of Orbis Mongolia. “Together, we have been able to increase access to quality eye care throughout the country. The Alcon Foundation, FedEx, and OMEGA are very important partners for Orbis, and we are grateful for their indispensable support of this project and support of Orbis’s mission around the world."

The Alcon Foundation has been a generous supporter of Orbis for over forty years, providing monetary donations for the Flying Eye Hospital. Alcon has provided additional support to the Flying Eye Hospital and Orbis Mongolia through donations of state-of-the-art ophthalmic equipment, surgical products, and supplies through Alcon Cares. Alcon's expert biomedical engineers and trainers — who share their skills to help program participants operate critical medical technology — will lead a biomedical engineering workshop during our current project in Ulaanbaatar. Most recently, Alcon also supported the Flying Eye Hospital project held in Zambia in 2023.

“Alcon sees a world where treatable, preventable conditions that affect individuals’ eye health receive the attention they need, when they need it, regardless of geography, gender, age or socioeconomic status,” said Charles Herget, President, Alcon Cares. “We know that the only way to make quality eye care more available and accessible is by cultivating self-sustaining eye health ecosystems and developing well-trained eye care teams. That’s why we’re proud to support Orbis and its programs that tackle avoidable vision loss by building strong and sustainable eye care systems worldwide.”

FedEx has supported our mission for over three decades and through more than US$22 million in donations and in-kind shipping. In 2021, FedEx announced its renewed commitment to our sight-saving mission with a US$3.5 million donation to help provide support to the Flying Eye Hospital over the next five years. As well as providing aircraft parts, maintenance, and pilot training, the Flying Eye Hospital is flown by FedEx pilots who volunteer their time to bring our beloved plane around the world.

OMEGA has been a proud supporter of Orbis and our Flying Eye Hospital projects since 2011. This includes a first-of-its-kind training project held in Doha, Qatar, in 2022 for women in eye care from conflict-affected areas and last year’s project in Zambia. OMEGA also works with its celebrity brand ambassadors to increase awareness of our mission.

Raynald Aeschlimann, President of OMEGA said, "since 2011, we’ve been able to witness the positive impact of their eye care and especially the lasting difference that their training can make. We commend everyone at Orbis for this latest project on board the Flying Eye Hospital."

We want to give an enormous thank you to all of our partners and supporters who made this training project possible. Without their continued support, we would not be able to bring hands-on eye care training to doctors around the globe.

Stay tuned for more updates from this project coming soon.