Orbis

EDM number 1802 in 2006-07, proposed by Timothy Farron on 28/06/2007.

That this House commends the work of ORBIS, which since 1982 has treated over 4.4 million people, conducted over 900 training programmes in 85 countries and transferred essential sight-saving skills to more than 100,000 doctors, nurses and other eye care professionals, which makes a significant contribution to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, which range from halving extreme poverty to providing universal primary education by 2015; notes that research demonstrates the links between visual impairment and economic factors such as the inability to secure employment, access to healthcare, school attendance, poverty, hunger, and mortality rates for children under five; notes with regret that up to 60 per cent. of children in developing countries die within two years of becoming blind despite the fact that 75 per cent. of blindness is avoidable; calls on the Government to support eyecare in developing countries and to push accessible quality eyecare up national health agendas in developing countries, where 90 per cent. of the world's blind people live; and further urges the Government to review the proposed reduction of annual gift aid claims, which would result in an annual loss of income to ORBIS of approximately £28,400, a sum that would save more than 15,500 Ethiopian villagers from blinding trachoma through the distribution of Zithromax, an antibiotic, which, if taken once a year for three years, guards against re-infection for life.

This motion has been signed by a total of 42 MPs.