An Orbis donor story: My trip to Mongolia

As a career-long nurse, I’ve seen patient recoveries more times than I can count. But watching these miracles occur in communities where people never dreamed they’d have a chance at quality eye care was pure magic. The transformation in their lives was palpable—and it has proved unforgettable.

Over the years, I’ve been to places like Peru and Vietnam with Orbis. Most recently, I went to Mongolia with Orbis’s Flying Eye Hospital, a cargo plane transformed into a top-of-class teaching hospital. It was August 2018 when we arrived in the capital city, Ulaanbaatar, where Orbis’s volunteer medical team set to work treating patients with serious eye conditions.

While I’ve seen plenty of surgeries in my career, there’s something special about seeing it come together on this aircraft. All the doctors and staff are so dedicated and passionate, excited to explain their work, and the nurses are like angels conversing with patients despite language barriers. Teddy bears are given to every child before surgery so they can wake up with a friend. The entire operation is highly organized and orderly, and most patients can see better immediately after their appointments. It warmed my heart to see them so happy and amazed by their new or renewed sight.

Beyond the plane, we were able to travel outside the city to areas like Khövsgöl, Mörön, and Hatgal. Some of the places were quite remote, and it was an honor to tour local clinics that are partnering with Orbis to bring eye care to rural areas. These clinics will remain long after the plane, and are critical for people living in communities where cars are rare and long-distance travel for eye care is infeasible.

Many doctors even make house calls. One doctor, an Orbis-trained ophthalmologist named Dr. Ganghuyag, joked with me that he can see as many patients as a tank of gas will allow. We met him at the home of a young girl from Mörön who received glasses. You could see from her body language how much she trusted him and appreciated the difference he’d made. I thought, “These are lifelong relationships in this community.”

When we weren’t watching lives change before us, there was time to stop by the famous statue of Genghis Khan, meet the Tsaatan—a tribe of nomadic reindeer herders, tour Gorkhi-Terelj National Park, and, of course, buy cashmere. I even spent a couple nights sleeping in an “eco-tourism yurt,” which was an experience I’ll never forget!

It’s hard to explain just how much change you can see happen in a community during the span of one trip. In fact, it’d be hard to leave without feeling a bit changed yourself. You might say I was always primed to be an Orbis supporter because I’m both a nurse and a licensed, passionate pilot. When I first learned of Orbis’s mission, I couldn’t think of a better fit for me. Then my experience with the cause came even closer to home.

A few years after I began supporting Orbis, my mother moved to Arizona to be closer to me. She was in the final years of her life and had recently begun experiencing 90% vision loss. She often said her happiest moments were spent outside in the sunshine where the brightness helped her see better. It was very frustrating for her, and heartbreaking to watch.

I thought about the babies born with Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP) that Orbis treats, and about my mother, who had worked as a young woman and raised a family, growing to be 101. If she had experienced untreated blindness from birth (like those babies would have without Orbis’s support), I probably wouldn’t be here—and neither would my daughters, granddaughters, or great grandchildren.

So many people living in low- and middle-income countries are blind their entire lives and must find a way to learn and work with limited support. The overwhelming majority of them are challenged by forms of vision loss that can be treated or prevented, if they just had access to the type of eye care many of us take for granted. This is why the world needs Orbis, and why Orbis needs the support of generous people who care.

I don’t usually like to talk about being a donor. It’s not about me—it’s about the people Orbis helps. As a nurse, helping comes second nature. It’s just what you do, it’s a normal thing. But I wanted to share my story because I’ve had life changing experiences during travel with Orbis, and I’d love to help others understand the power of what I’ve seen. Because the kind of programming I’ve witnessed firsthand is anything but ordinary.