Orbis warmly invite passionate and adventurous Orbis donors and supporters to put their best feet forward and join us on a life-transforming journey to Ethiopia! Held on November 20, 2016, the Great Ethiopian Run will mark the third successive year Orbis have organized a team of enthusiastic runners to compete Africa’s annual biggest road race. Taking place between November 16 to 22, the seven-day adventure will offer our team members a wonderful opportunity to raise funds for the visually impaired in Ethiopia. While in Ethiopia, everyone will also have a once-in-a-lifetime chance to witness our frontline sight-saving work first hand and also get a unique taste of Ethiopian culture.
Established in 2001 by global long-distance running legend, Haile Gebrselassie, the Great Ethiopian Run attracts over 30,000 international athletes to come to Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, and run a 10km race around 10,000 feet above sea level. Despite hailing from all corners of the globe, all runners at the event share a common goal – to make our world a better place! So join the Orbis Hong Kong team and raise funds that will bring the country’s visually impaired people closer to the dream of clear vision with every step you take!
Ethiopia has a blind population of 1.2 million. Trachoma, the leading cause of blindness in Ethiopia, afflicts approximately 21 million victims there. Trachoma is a highly infectious eye disease that easily spreads between infected and healthy eyes through flies, fingers or clothing. However, there are only 130 opthalmologists in Ethiopia. The lack of basic medical facilities, clean water and a hygienic environment only augments the severity of the issue. Participants will head south to Arba Minch to visit remote villages and hospitals to learn more about Orbis’s sight-saving work in Ethiopia.
With the success of the Orbis Hong Kong team in the past two years in which over HK$600,000 was raised, Orbis is now on the look-out to recruit passionate, kind-hearted runners to join the charity run. Participants are invited to support Orbis’s commitment to eliminating blinding trachoma and other diseases of the eye in Ethiopia, by raising a minimum donation of HK$10,000, in addition to travel costs, estimated at HK$22,000.
