Xiao Tang had spent virtually his entire life in a blur due to the cataracts that had clouded his eyes since birth.

But that all changed the day the flying hospital came to town.

The 9-year-old boy from Central China's Hunan Province was one of a dozen lucky patients to receive an operation aboard ORBIS International's flying eye hospital, the world's only such hospital, during its recent visit to China.

The patients were all too poor to afford surgery at the local hospital.

ORBIS International, founded in New York in 1982, is an independent non-profit, non-governmental charity dedicated to preventing and treating blindness.

I'm so happy, just so happy," Xiao said after his surgery. I have never seen my parents or surroundings so clearly. I'll be able to go to school like other children my age."

Sponsored by the shipping company Federal Express, ORBIS International's flying eye hospital, a converted DC-10 aircraft, paid a goodwill visit to Guangzhou last week. Its week-long visit ended yesterday.

The visiting oculists and nurses, all of them volunteers, stressed the importance of caring for one's vision. They also advised people on how to protect their eyes and exchanged ideas with local oculists on how to treat eye diseases.
Their efforts clearly made an impression.

"I'm so excited that I had a chance to visit the world's only flying eye hospital. I learned a lot from the foreign oculists, experts and nurses on how to protect my eyes," said Li Yannan, a second-grade student from Guangzhou Tianfulu Elementary School who visited the hospital.

The visiting eye doctors also offered their opinions on the state of eye care in China.

"Poverty, a lack of training among the rural doctors and a lack of equipment for ophthalmologic treatments are among the main reasons for the numerous cases of blindness in China," said Paul Forrest, regional director for development at ORBIS Asia.

"ORBIS will redouble its efforts to help train oculists in China, to make people more aware of the importance of eye health and to offer high-quality eye health services to the rural population in China."

Forrest highlighted the need to train doctors, saying that just one highly trained doctor could operate on many blind people as well as help train other doctors.

He also said that ORBIS would work harder to help people in China's underdeveloped western and border regions to address the shortage of health services in those areas.

Sources say that over 6.70 million people suffer from blindness in China, and the figure grows by 6 percent each year. Cataracts are the main cause of blindness here, responsible for 40 to 70 percent of all cases.

Trachoma and diabetes are also leading causes of blindness in China.

ORBIS has conducted 32 training projects in 20 cities in China since it first began working with health care professionals here in 2002. More than 18,700 oculists, nurses and other health service workers in China have taken part in the organization's training programmes.

ORBIS has also helped over 6,700 eye patients recover their eyesight through its hospital-based programmes in China.

(China Daily November 28, 2006)