Orbis funds 1 million USD for eye care in Can Tho, Ca Mau

Orbis, a US-based non-governmental organisation, will launch a project in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho and southernmost province of Ca Mau to offer care for visually-impaired children from 2016-2018.

The project costs 1 million USD, 700,000 USD of which will be spent on building paediatric eye care facilities in Can Tho Children’s Hospital and Can Tho Eye Hospital as well as improving refraction services and the professional skills of medical staff, Orbis representatives told Can Tho authorities during a working session on September 29.

Orbis estimates that nearly 300,000 children in the Mekong Delta are suffering from eye problems and about 1 million have refractive eye disorders.

The ratio of ophthalmologists per one million individuals in the region is 7.6 percent, the second lowest nationwide.

Le Van Tam, Vice Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee, pledged all possible support for the project.

Founded in 1982, Orbis is devoted to blindness prevention and treatment in developing countries. It implemented its first hospital-based programme in Vietnam in 1997 and previously gave assistance to the National Institute of Ophthalmology from 2003 to 2010.-VNA