Through this partnership, SightLife was able to increase the quality and capacity of the Eye Bank through human resources support, project development and quality accreditations on standards of donor eligibility, tissue recovery, processing storage, tissue evaluation and distribution. In 2011, an agreement was signed between Orbis, SightLife and Himalayan Cataract Project (HCP) to expand on the foundation and work built by Orbis. So Orbis, the first INGO in Ethiopia to focus on sight restoration, helped blaze the trail for the Eye Bank to be the first cornea transplant facility of any kind in Ethiopia. Initially when the Eye Bank formed, there were no corneal transplant surgeons trained in the country. During this historic event, former President Girma not only inaugurated the Eye Bank, but pledged his corneas upon death to raise awareness and encourage donations.Īccording to a national blindness study released in 2006, it was estimated that 300,000 Ethiopians were blind due to corneal scarring. Founded through an agreement between the Ethiopian Federal Ministry of Health, Addis Ababa City Administration Health Bureau and Orbis International Ethiopia, the Eye Bank was inaugurated by former President Girma Woldegiorgis in a celebratory event on June 28, 2003. For the past 15 years the Eye Bank of Ethiopia has worked tirelessly to reverse corneal blindness in the country through the collection and processing of donor corneas.
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