Vision centres: Eye care in hard-to-reach communities

These facilities are based in rural communities, far from major cities, reaching people who would otherwise have little or no access to eye care.

Each vision centre is staffed by trained ophthalmic personnel who can diagnose eye diseases, conduct refractions, provide glasses, and refer patients for more advanced treatment when needed.

Through telemedicine consultations, patients can also connect with doctors at regional hospitals—receiving expert care without having to travel hundreds of miles.

Images: Vision centres in Bangladesh and Peru

But these centres go beyond clinical services. They raise awareness about eye health, run outreach camps, and screen children in schools—ensuring that even the youngest members of the community can access the eye care they need.

Each centre serves a catchment population of roughly 100,000 people.  In 2025 alone, we launched 27 new vision centres and continued supporting 50 existing ones, 35 of which were led by women.

For World Sight Day 2025, we profiled the people involved in two of these vision centres: the Joldhaka and Sundarganj vision centres in Rangpur, Bangladesh. Click below to hear more from the people running the centres and those benefiting from them.

Looking ahead to 2030, Orbis aims to establish 250 vision centres in rural communities—at least 50 of which will be led by women—helping to close the eye care gap for millions of people.