Ethiopia’s Flying Eye Hospital Program

When we started working in Ethiopia in 1998 the population was around 65 million. Two decades later it has nearly doubled to 105 million. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), over 1.6 million or 1.6% of the Ethiopian population is blind and 3.8 million or 3.7% live with low vision. This falls significantly above the world average of 1.2% and 3.4% respectively.

In 1998 the country had just 54 ophthalmologist, 42 of whom practiced in Addis Ababa (the capital city). There are now 140 ophthalmologists.

We have played a leading role in developing 266 primary eye care units, 10 secondary eye care units, 3 pediatric eye care centers and 6 optical workshops.

We’ve delivered more than 2.25 million eye screenings and examinations and nearly 25 million medical treatments including around 170,000 surgeries for adults and 6,000 for children.