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Countess of Wessex to visit India and Qatar in support of eye charity ORBIS

The Countess of Wessex is to make an official visit to India and Qatar later this month.

Sophie will be making the trip from 17 to the 24 of September in support of charity ORBIS, which is a non-profit organisation that works to save sight in developing countries.

Sophie Wessex

Sophie, Countess of Wessex, will make a week-long visit to India and Qatar.

The wife of Prince Edward will visit the ORBIS Flying Eye Hospital in Kolkata, India, where she will witness the work the charity does and see patients undergoing surgery.

The Flying Eye Hospital is a specially designed DC-10 aircraft which offers ophthalmic training and includes facilities such as a 48-seat classroom which is located at the front of the plane.

During her visit, the mum-of-two will meed with medical volunteers from around the world who work endlessly to improve eye care in the local communities.

The Countess will then travel to a second hospital, where she will meet with pre and post operative patients and speak with local trainees. Sophie, will later make a speech at the hospital after attending a medical training symposium.

After her time in India, the Countess will travel on to Qatar to continue her visit in support of the eye care charity.

Sophie will meet members of the local philanthropic community in the country who support ORBIS’s childhood blindness initiatives in countries such as India and Bangladesh.

ORBIS was founded in 1982 and has been dedicated to saving sight and offering training in eye-care ever since.

Since being founded, the charity has offered training to over 300,000 eye care personnels and provided medical and optical treatment to more than 23million people across 90 countries.

photo credit: The Royal Commonwealth Society via photopin cc