Heroes of Orbis: Dr. Javed Farooqui

Dr. Farooqui is an Adjunct Consultant at Dr. Shroff’s Charity Eye Hospital – our longest standing partner in India – where he specializes in cornea and refractive services. He also runs the Eye Care Training academy which trains residents and fellows in the latest surgical techniques.

Since the pandemic began the team at Dr. Shroff’s have delivered more than 200 online lectures - ensuring eye teams up and down the country keep up-to-date with the latest techniques even during lockdown.

Most recently, he has taken a leading role in delivering an eight-week remote learning program as part of our virtual Flying Eye Hospital project. Combining remote learning on Cybersight, with virtual wet lab training on artificial eyes and remote mentoring from Orbis Volunteer Faculty, this innovative program supports local ophthalmologists to develop the skills they need to carry out sight-saving surgery, despite the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

During his time as a staff ophthalmologist on board the Flying Eye Hospital, Dr. Farooqui travelled to more than 12 countries, sharing his skills, knowledge and expertise with eye health professionals across the globe.

“Out of all the trips, I feel the most memorable ones were my first and last programs”, Dr. Farooqui tells us. “My first program was in China in 2014, when I was overwhelmed by the magnitude of the Flying Eye Hospital program and by the commitment and passion that everyone worked with. I was fresh out of my residency and enjoyed working alongside some of the big names in ophthalmology from all over the world.”

Coincidently, his last program mission also took him to China, bringing his journey with the Flying Eye Hospital full circle.

These images were all taking pre Covid-19 and show Dr. Farooqui delivering treatment on board our Flying Eye Hospital.

Orbis has been working in India for more than two decades, partnering with almost every major eye care center in India to advance eye health across the country, including Dr. Shroff’s—with the ‘Sandwich’ Pediatric Fellowship training programs, bringing ophthalmologists from Vietnam and Indonesia to Dr. Shroff’s for training with Dr. Farooqui and his colleagues.

Looking to the future, Dr. Farooqui hopes that more face-to-face training will be able to resume, but tells us that a true silver lining of the pandemic has been the ability to take training online and share knowledge with a larger audience.

Thank you Dr. Farooqui for being such a valued member of the Orbis family and taking the time to share your expert skills and knowledge with the next generation of eye surgeons—we look forward to many more years of working together!

Thanks to people like you, and our wonderful supporters and donors, we can continue to work in partnership to deliver sight-saving treatment and training in communities around the world.