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Alcon grants $1 million for blindness prevention
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Alcon Inc. has awarded Orbis International a $1 million grant for programs to prevent and cure blindness, Orbis announced.
The grant, which spans a 2-year period, is the single largest financial commitment made in the 26-year alliance between Alcon and Orbis International, according to a press release. Since 1979, Alcon has contributed more than $5 million to the New York-based charity.
“At Alcon, we recognize the urgency in addressing avoidable blindness, which is why we increased our support of Orbis,” said Jacqualyn Fouse, Alcon’s senior vice president of finance and chief financial officer, in the release.
This month, Alcon will launch the first of many activities funded through the grant. The company will be the official sponsor of the visit of the Orbis Flying Eye Hospital to China’s rural southwestern Kizilsu Kirgiz Autonomous Prefecture near the Kyrgyzstan. The DC-10 aircraft, specially equipped with an operating room and teaching facility, will fly to that area for a 2-week training program for nearly 100 local doctors and other eye care personnel, the press release stated.