Oliver Foot

Orbis International

The Next Generation of Global Health Workers
44 minutes, 20.5mb, recorded 2006-08-31
Oliver Foot, President and CEO, Orbis

According the World Health Organization, 37 million people worldwide are blind. A staggering 90% of them live in developing countries and, for most of these individuals, blindness could have been prevented or their eyesight could have been restored if only they had had access to proper eye care. In this audio interview, Houston-based ophthalmologist Oliver Foot speaks with Globeshakers host Tim Zak about his solution: Orbis International. Foot discusses how he founded the ORBIS Flying Eye Hospital, literally a hospital in a DC-10 jet aircraft, which serves as a unique mobile teaching facility bringing together dedicated eye care professionals and aviators to transport the gift of sight around the world. He outlines some of Orbis's remarkable successes.

 


Oliver Foot joined ORBIS as executive director in 1982 and was appointed president in 1987. In addition to serving as chairman of the ORBIS UK Board of Trustees, he also sits on the boards of ORBIS International, ORBIS Canada, and ORBIS Taiwan. Born in Kingston, Jamaica, he was educated in the United States at New York University and Goddard College.

This free podcast is from our Globeshakers series.

For The Conversations Network:

  • Post-production audio engineer: Paul Figgiani
  • Website editor: Peter Durand
  • Series producer: Peter Durand