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ORBIS Takes to the Seas

Blog submitted by Karen Jaques

Karen is the Corporate Fundraising Manger for ORBIS UK.

I have just spent the weekend with my colleague, Eleanor Phelan promoting ORBIS in Nantes & St Nazaire in the Pays de La Loire, France as ORBIS takes part in La Solidaire du Chocolat. It was a triple whammy: a weekend of firsts. The first sailing event for ORBIS, the first trans Atlantic race for skipper Stephen Card and his co-skipper Shaun Murphy and the first race that combines the challenges of racing and raising funds for charity.

It was brilliant to be there – a mandatory attendance directed by the race organizers who have created a mono class race to celebrate the cocoa trade between the France and Mexico, a race which reenacts the voyage of the ships that transported chocolate across the Atlantic following the trade winds. But this is the first race of its kind for it is the first time that a charitable challenge unites competitors, sponsors, charities and patrons around a clear humanitarian approach. It will become a bi annual event promoting the regions strong maritime ties, the chocolate trade between Mexico and France bound collectively by the concept of its humanitarian values as sailors face the challenge of Trans Atlantic racing. Stephen Card and Shaun Murphy nominated ORBIS as their charity with a goal of raising Euros 25,000.

My sailing knowledge is limited, so please bear with me. The Cariberi is a racing yacht and was built in 2006 for its first race - the legendary Route de Rum. (French races always seem to involve eating and drinking – funny that) Built to ‘box rule’ it is 12m long, 4m wide and has a 3m draught. With twin rudders, it can sail on a steep angle and an open cockpit so that the waves wash off. With an e-glass hull, the boat is stripped out completely to keep it light. No heads, two suspended net bunks which ratchet up to compensate for the angle of the boat, a single gimble with the kettle to boil water for the freeze dried meals, one small sink and storage and 2 clearly marked buckets for ‘personal use’ make up the ‘home comforts’ of this racing yacht. This is no race for the faint hearted.

Sailing from St Nazaire to Progresso, Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, the boats left on October 18. The boys reckon on a fast race taking 25 days and a slow race 30 days. Both unanimously believe the most challenging part with be the first 500 miles as they leave St Nazaire and head out into the Bay of Biscay. Heading into westerly winds, the boat will slam into the waves as they tack out of the Bay but once through this wet, windy and lively section of the race, the boat will sail southwards past Portugal benefiting from the northerly winds and Portuguese currents. Stephen and Shaun will have to pick the best route given the conditions and will sail a shift system of three hours on, three hours off, for 24 hours a day. The course takes them south of the Azores where the racing conditions become favorable as the currents and warm easterly ‘trade winds’ take them across the Atlantic, navigating south of St Barts and Cuba on to Progresso in the Yucatan.  If any of this is erroneous – blame me, my exhaustion and the Atlantic Pilot Atlas which I used to figure this all out :).

 The ‘Nuit du Chocolat’ on the Ile de Nantes kicked off with Mexican music for the crowds gathered along the quayside and bridges. With the tallship, the Belem moored alongside the competing yachts, energy filled the evening air. Boats looked lively with their sponsor’s pendants and fluttering flags, an array of color on their river moorings. Saturday culminated with the skippers and co-skippers gathering on stage with their nominated charities for a group presentation.

As Stephen and Shaun need to raise Euros 25,000 and have not reached their target, the cheque diplomatically presented their sponsors as ‘the grand public anglais’. It would be fantastic if any readers became part of the ‘grand public global’ by digging into their ‘poches’ (pockets) to help us find the funds. It would be brilliant and you can donate online through Stephen's Justgiving site http://justgiving.co.uk/france2mexico/, through our website: www.orbis.org.uk or simply call me (Karen) on UK +44 2027 608 7266.

Despite overcast skies, the atmosphere on Sunday was filled with excitement, a constant buzz from the participating boats, crews, sponsors, family, friends, media and charities. Lead by the stately three masted Belem, the flotilla made its ways from Nantes to St Nazaire surrounded by press filled ribs speeding between the boats, a helicopter flying low over the masts and under the bridge with huge numbers of the public waving happily as the boats sailed off. It was fantastic to be part of this pre-race event. On board with us, was a twelve year old schoolgirl, Caroline Deltier who had been chosen to represent her class as the school locally follow the event. A first for her too – first time on a boat and the first time she had spent a day with English people.  Fortunately for her, Eleanor speaks fluent French.

I have written this blog not to tell you about the amazing work we do – I hope you are aware of it already – but to capture the excitement we felt in being associated for the first time with such a challenging event. The seriousness of the race hit me when I saw the stripped out boat, the navigation console and equipment, the EPIB and their survival suits. It is a huge challenge for Stephen and Shaun, even though they both have thousands of off shore racing miles between them. I hope my text can inspire and encourage others to fundraise for ORBIS in new and exciting ways, to takie part in the physical challenges of life whilst thinking of others less able to join in the adventure. We felt privileged to be there and we hope that Stephen and Shaun, against all the odds, will win this race making it another FIRST for us all!

You can track the progress of the ORBIS yacht on the official La Solidaire du Chocolat website.

Latest News: http://www.lasolidaireduchocolat.com/en/latest-briefs.html

Race Tracking: http://lasolidaireduchocolat.geovoile.com/

Stephen will be offering sailing days on the ORBIS yacht, possibly during the World’s biggest sailing regatta, Cowes Week in August 2010 for sponsors.

Land Ho!

Blog submitted by Stephan Card and Shaun Murphy

Steven and Shaun are fundraising for ORBIS by taking part in La Solidaire du Chocolat a trans Atlantic race celebrating the cocoa trade between France and Mexico.

We’re 14 miles from the gate now making about eight knots. Typically, there have been big squalls with absolutely no wind afterwards with a nasty north-easterly swell. It’s bloody horrendous with the boat wanting to move, but then the swell would just kill the boat. It was probably about two hours of torture yesterday. For the boats at the back it might not be a lot of fun when we get to the finish as all the parties will be over. Just a few tequilas and then people will start making their way home. Hopefully the Caribbean will be a bit easier as the last part of the Atlantic has been as full of headaches as the first part. We just take every day as it comes. We’re going to have a celebration tonight to mark finally seeing some land.

Squalls, Hail Storms and Lightning

Yesterday morning continue under the large kite, until the clouds started to darken, nearly a perfect drop until we realized I had left the clutch on the tack line open. Off went the tack of the kite, so once again recovering the kite from the water, this part of the drop we have off to a tee, stern retrieval. Solent and first reef was the order off the day with speeds between 10-14 knots with small squalls and an ETA to St Barts of 31 hours. Then the clouds darken still and you could see the squalls coming, second reef and Solent furled away as the squall hit us, the second reef departed from the main sail and a batten popped out of its pocket on the main sail. By now the squall was 28-30 knots as we were putting in the third reef. The waves breaking over the boat are refreshingly warm, unlike European waters. As the wind and rain increased to 45 knots, it was like being hit with hail stones, visibility was around 100 meters, this lasted around 20 minutes. The rest of the day was a mixture of light and fickle breeze and the ETA to St Barts went from 31 to 48 to unknown..... The hole we managed to find around 23.30 UTC was to last nearly three hours, the mainsail was dropped to stop the constant bang and rocking of the boat. Then we were off again with the most fantastic light show. Thunder and lightning everywhere, a few electronic items were unplugged as a precaution. As most children learn, we were also counting between the flashes and the bangs to find out the direction of the weather, but all too often it was impossible to know which flash belonged to which bang. Over a 100 photos were taken and only three managed to capture any lightning.... the moon put in an appearance around 0500 UTC which helped with the weather ahead. Around 6.15 was the closest we came to the thunder and lightning with only a couple of seconds between them, I guess some will work out the maths between speed and sound and tell us it was hundreds of miles away.... just before 6am this morning another hole was found, again this seems to be in our skill set. Fifty minutes later we are on our way again on a heading of 282 @ 8.2 knots and an ETA of 24 hours for St Barts...ummm...somehow I think not.

Sun Burn Fears

Blog submitted by Stephan Card and Shaun Murphy

Steven and Shaun are fundraising for ORBIS by taking part in La Solidaire du Chocolat a trans Atlantic race celebrating the cocoa trade between France and Mexico.

We’ve had a very pleasant night sailing and it’s a beautiful day this morning. We’ve got all the boots and clothes and oilies out in the cockpit trying to dry everything off. We’ve got about one meter or a meter-and-a-half gentle swell and 14 knots of breeze. The boat’s cruising along at eight knots. In fact, sun burn is the major concern at the moment. The problem at the moment is everyone is in the same breeze and doing about the same speed and this will probably continue until St. Barts. We’ve got a small list of jobs to do while the weather is quiet, nothing major at all. It’s a real shame about the Finnish team. If nothing else, our boat is very strong. We’re both fine although I fell across the cockpit and have a lovely bruise that I must take a picture of.

A Brief Rest

Blog submitted by Stephan Card and Shaun Murphy

Steven and Shaun are fundraising for ORBIS by taking part in La Solidaire du Chocolat a trans Atlantic race celebrating the cocoa trade between France and Mexico.

A pleasant night in calm breezes helped us prepare for yet another battering that is heading our way today. Hopefully heading into the depression on port tack until we get the big header and then tack onto starboard and head southwest will be the last time. Hmmm, I doubt it. Anyway, first turn of a winch when I came on watch and the main outhaul snapped. Easy fix in daylight. In the meantime, we're heading due west in 25 kts of breeze.

No sign of the front's backside

Blog submitted by Stephan Card and Shaun Murphy

Steven and Shaun are fundraising for ORBIS by taking part in La Solidaire du Chocolat a trans Atlantic race celebrating the cocoa trade between France and Mexico.

We’ve got a bit of a squall on at the moment. We’ve got a lot of breeze here, 37 knots at the moment. We’ve been in this for about eight hours. We can’t see the end of the front at the moment, which is quite unusual. Everything is fine, but it’s uncomfortable as hell. We’re hoping for a shift, then we can tack and head south-west.

Determination Sets In

Blog submitted by Stephan Card and Shaun Murphy

Steven and Shaun are fundraising for ORBIS by taking part in La Solidaire du Chocolat a trans Atlantic race celebrating the cocoa trade between France and Mexico.

We’re pretty much becalmed at the moment. We got most of the jobs done in about ten hours yesterday repairing the main and reefing lines and when we’re all set to go, the wind disappears. Currently we have 6 knots TWS. At least the living conditions are getting better and we actually have some dry oilies and we’re wearing shorts finally. I think we’re probably a bit south for the weather coming up and we’ve done a complete swap: where we were the most northerly boat before getting all the gales, we’re now south. If the breeze comes, we’re even better prepared than we were at the beginning of the race. What was going to break has already broken and been repaired. We’re going to get to Mexico don’t worry, even if we have to paddle.

Tea Time

Blog submitted by Stephan Card and Shaun Murphy

Steven and Shaun are fundraising for ORBIS by taking part in La Solidaire du Chocolat a trans Atlantic race celebrating the cocoa trade between France and Mexico.

All is well onboard, we have had 24 hours of very nice sailing where we can at last think a little about boat speed. Today we are taking the opportunity of getting a bit back south nearer the thumb line. On the first windy night, the Windex was blown clean off the top of the mast, so now the B&G system only works on course and we blew the power supply for the onboard computer so that we now have to wire in a laptop. Apart from that, our biggest concern is that we may run out of Earl Grey tea.

World Sight Day – 2009 – Today, Tomorrow and into 2010

Blog submitted by Perry Athanason

Perry Athanason is the Communications Manager on the ORBIS Flying Eye Hospital and has been a member of the crew since November 2007.

World Sight Day is an international day of recognizing preventable blindness issues worldwide. However, ORBIS has taken this opportunity to promote this event not just for one day, but throughout a 4 week skills exchange campaign through two countries, India and Bangladesh, and going forward in all its program locations in 2010.

 In India, we worked with our long-time global sponsor, Alcon, to deliver our Flying Eye Hospital program and to launch the ORBIS EyeReports (www.orbis-eyereport.org). We continued this relationship into Bangladesh as we promoted and raised awareness for World Sight Day. If you have not already, I encourage you to take a look at this new and exciting social networking project. I also encourage you to view the original site, which includes more than one hour of ORBIS EyeReport footage dating back from July 2009 (www.qik.com/orbis-eyereport) and includes EyeReports for all markets.

On the Flying Eye Hospital, our WSD campaign consisted of several components and activities targeting the global, national and community level: ORBIS EyeReports with Alcon from India and Bangladesh, special visit to the Flying Eye Hospital from the Women’s Asia University in Chittagong, a rural screening in Bangladesh targeting women and young girls for a comprehensive screening, distributed reading and sunglasses to three urban project partners in Bangladesh and a participated in a summit meeting of policymakers and organizations dedicated to maturing the current system of eye health care in the country.

In Asia, the Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan staff launched similar campaigns utilizing the ORBIS EyeReports made specifically for their markets. Take a look at Taiwan’s “Action Blue” (http://www.actionblue.org.tw and Hong Kong’s “What’s New f or World Sight Day” campaigns (http://www.orbis.org.hk/Default.aspx?cid=8499&lang=1).

ORBIS Canada is also utilizing the EyeReport campaign for its “Canada Week” special, which takes place during week 2 of the Bangladesh Flying Eye Hospital program. You can view these specially promoted Canadian EyeReports on the qik.com site address above.

ORBIS was at the heart of each of these campaigns and continues to inspire the dedication of our partners and our beneficiaries. I hope each of you is as proud as I am to be involved in ORBIS’ worldwide impact – together we are ONE ORBIS!

Helping Those To See Better With the Help of One Young Girl

Megan Day is a 17 year-old girl from Tucson, Arizona who wanted to make a change in the lives of thousands by helping them see much better than before. To tackle the statistics that made Megan hang her head in despair, she created the ICU2 project, which aims to distribute much needed eye wear in emerging nations globally. Megan reached out to the Lions Club in her district with the idea of collecting glasses and shipping them around the world. The ICU2 project has provided glasses to refugees in the Republic of Georgia and the citizens of Egypt and Afghanistan. When hearing about ORBIS and our work, Megan found a new adversary in the fight against avoidable blindness and low vision. She contacted ORBIS and agreed to provide us with 500 reading and sunglasses for distribution to women and young girls in her support of World Sight Day’s theme: Gender and Eye care. Those glasses, along with donations from the ORBIS UK office, were equally distributed among three urban project areas managed by the ORBIS Bangladesh team.

A Promise of Advocacy and Community Care for 2010

Once again, the Flying Eye Hospital staff reached out beyond the plane and the local hospital to raise the awareness of avoidable blindness and offer eye care screening to help those who are not able to travel…this time, in support of World Sight Day’s theme: Gender and Eye care.

“Please include us in every outreach program you plan from here on out.” These words from staff nurse, Jin Sook, as we left this outreach program made my heart grow greater than the Grinch’s when hearing the Who’s sing in Who-ville after he stole their Christmas. It was the first time the staff nurses from ORBIS joined me in the field for a community outreach program and I could not have imagined the success of the program without them. Together with our two associate ophthalmologists, Drs Vivian Yin and Sylvia Chen, Gavin with his trusty cameras and the ORBIS nurses (Jin Sook, Jackie, Beverly and Rajan – sounds like a family of Whos), we traveled nearly 3 hours to a remote village named, not Who-ville, but Katachara. This small village, approximately 75 kilometers from Chittagong, surrounded by rice-fields, palm trees and swamps is home to hundreds of Bengali people who barely have access to healthcare, much less eye health care. During the screening, we met nearly 150 people all ages and genders that had never received a comprehensive eye examination. As the constant rain pinged the tin roof building, we examined the patients for low vision, eye pressure, cataracts and diabetic retinopathy. Additionally, we distributed sunglasses for protection against the severe elements they face (mostly farmers and field workers who are heavily exposed to the sun and run a greater risk of traumatic injury to their eyes) and gave teddy bears to the children – two things that were definitely not the norm in this tiny village. In partnership with our host hospital, Chittagong Eye Infirmary and Training Complex, I am pleased to say that those patients in dire need of eye care services (the many with cataracts) will receive the needed follow-up treatment gratis.

We have been conducting these outreach programs since the beginning of the year and we have made it a standard segment of the Flying Eye Hospital program – a segment that has my personal promise and dedication to continue throughout the 2010 program year and another way that ORBIS plans to promote World Sight Day, not only for one day out of the year, but carried through and sustained for all programs going forward. Each outreach has the ability to highlight one, or several, common eye diseases, make way for collaboration with other eye care organizations and groups working on the front lines, and garner more attention with the media and local governments as we continue to educate the public and advocate for stronger policies in eye health for the people.

Sustainability is at the heart of what we do and it is no different with promoting Gender and Eye care as the theme for all our community outreach programs in 2010. I hope you will continue to monitor the ORBIS EyeReport website to see clips of all our outreach programs in the coming year and from varying locations.

 

Photos by Perry Athanason

A Lesson in Indian Hospitality

Blog submitted by Sasha Vohlidkova

Sasha is a student from ACS Egham International School, through ORBIS' partnership with ACS Sasha was selected to participate in an internship that allows students to take part in an ORBIS program overseas.

Before I went to India, everyone, especially those who have never been near it, had endless advice for me: don’t drink the water, don’t leave your belongings unattended, only carry a photocopy of your passport with you, only go out in groups, do not talk to people in the streets... Along with the overload of reductionist clichés often used to describe the Indian reality, “the third world”, “developing country”, the picture I got of India was one of an incredibly interesting country, but not so much a pleasant one for a visitor.

As soon as we landed in Jaipur at 2.30am, Friday 18^th September, and basically wherever the team came to visit after, a team from ORBIS India or ORBIS’ partners in India was awaiting us with bindis, flower garlands, and the warmest welcomes I’ve received in a long time.

During the ORBIS outreach program in Amber, near Jaipur, I approached a local elderly woman who had come to get her eyes checked at the yearly eye camp. After a couple of minutes of conversation that neither of us knew what was about as she spoke Hindi and I, English, one of the doctors translated for me: “She says you’re very nice and wants you to come to her home.”

Walking along the streets surrounding our hotel around midnight, a man invited us, unknown foreigners, to join a small wedding, the happiest day of his brother’s life. When we replied that we would rather just watch, he briefly asked us how we liked India and directed us to the side of the street where we would have the best view of the celebration.

The evening before our last day, I left my phone in a tuk-tuk and only realized it after the driver had left. Almost immediately, twenty members of the airport staff were trying to help me, offering to get me a taxi, asking where I wanted to go. I said I didn’t know how this country worked and wanted them to tell me what to do. In the following fifteen long minutes, another tuk-tuk driver managed to contact the first one, locate my phone, and get us a taxi back where we came from to pick it up. As we were getting into the car, he smiled and said, “You wanted to know, so this is how this country works.”

And all you can do is look only fifteen minutes back, and all those other times before, when you were anxiously watching your backpack when locals were spending their time, money, in efforts to help a lost stranger. And again, your western superiority hits you over the head with a surprising force, and you shift a tiny bit further away from it. Because you realize this really is how this country works. Except no one tells you that.

Roadies and Rock Stars in Jaipur

Blog submitted by Karen Jaques.

Karen is the Corporate Fundraising Manager at ORBIS UK.

“We are the roadies and they are the rock stars” I quote Dr Hunter Cherwek, Medical Director, ORBIS International, playful analogy to describe the ORBIS DC-10 Flying Eye Hospital team.

When rock stars take to the road, the roadies manage their equipment, logistics and lives to support their rock concert performances. Roadies have one goal – they ensure that the rock stars perform at their best when asked to sing. What, you may well ask, does this analogy of concerts and roadies have to do with ORBIS, a global non-governmental organization committed to saving sight and fighting unnecessary blindness worldwide.

Dedicated solely to teaching and training of eye doctors, nurses and biomedical engineers to save sight, ORBIS maintains a team of twenty-two on the ORBIS Flying Eye Hospital; twenty-two highly trained roadies - medical staff, aircraft operations logistics and communications - who take this unique aircraft to developing countries around the world.

Eye diseases come in many forms, in men and women, in the young and the old. Doctors need to be able to diagnose and treat a huge range of conditions. Just as rock stars are asked to perform different songs, doctors tend to specialize and perform in one of two areas becoming experts in their chosen fields.

ORBIS has been invited to come and teach in Jaipur, Rajasthan in northern India. Partnering with two well-established local eye hospitals, ORBIS works alongside their ophthalmologic teams to build a highly structured teaching program that will benefit their staff through the transfer of knowledge and skills, from doctor to doctor. Parked at Jaipur Airport, the Flying Eye Hospital is set up in ‘hospital mode’ as the show goes on the road and the rock stars fly in to join the party.

And who exactly are the rock stars? They are the visiting ORBIS volunteer surgeons. Global experts in their special fields, they take time from their practices and hospitals to spend a week operating and teaching overseas using the Flying Eye Hospital as their stage, as a forum to teach and train. Rock concerts often have huge audiovisual screens to enable all those at the concert to see their performance firsthand. Just like a concert, ORBIS uses AV technology on board the Flying Eye Hospital to enhance teaching utilizing a live feed from the operating room into the 48-seat classroom at the front of the plane. The surgeons provide the ‘hands on training’ in the operating theater, clearly explaining what they are dong at each point during the surgery. The roadies make everything run seamlessly from live surgery to lectures between patient cases. Lectures are interactive with time for questions and answers between the visiting doctors and the attendees.

With 8 - 10 programs per year, the ORBIS DC-10 Flying Eye Hospital moves around the world. Chittagong, Bangladesh is next. The roadies on the plane are supported by equally keen fundraising and program departments in New York, London and Hong Kong - a global team that comes together to provide teaching. The concert is a medical program; the rock stars are eminent surgeons; their instruments are surgical tools and the roadies are a motivated team that holds it all together. The net result is a program that ROCKS with stellar teaching and interaction between those who want to teach and those who want to learn. The final performances are seriously surgical; the encore is the prevention of unnecessary blindness worldwide.

Dr Bala Ambati examines a patient in Jaipur, India