Surgical team. Surgeons performing an eye operation in the operating theatre on board the 'flying hospital' plane Orbis, patient's point of view. Project Orbis is a US/UK charity that instructs Third World doctors and surgeons in ophthalmolgy (eye medicine). The team wears face masks to maintain a sterile environment, and the operating surgeon has magnifying glasses to help him see the patient's eye during delicate surgery. Although it is primarily a teaching facility, Orbis has treated blindness in more than 23,000 patients in Africa, Asia and the Americas, since its first mission in 1982. Photographed in Krygystan (Kyrgiz Republic) in Central Asia.