The Power of our Partnerships: Our Response to COVID-19
A lot has changed in the world since the outbreak of COVID-19 and unprecedented measures to stop its spread are being taken by governments, organizations and people all across the world.
As business across the globe slows and people in large cities, entire states, and countries are advised to stay indoors, everyone, everywhere has had to adapt - HCP has been no different. While everyone is working through the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, all of us at HCP remain confident in our mission, our people, and the health systems we have strengthened over 25 years of operation to help us navigate new and uncertain times.
Health care systems across the world are refocusing their efforts to treat a single disease. HCP lauds the efforts of frontline health workers around the world and stands fully committed to support our partners in any way possible.
COVID-19 has created new challenges for delivering life-changing eye care in the places where our local surgical teams work, but seeing the world united when faced with such a steep task provides a silver lining of hope that together there is no challenge too big to face.
When our founders, Drs. Geoff Tabin and Sanduk Ruit, created HCP they hoped to eliminate cataract blindness in Nepal over their lifetime. Fifteen years later, the country had reversed its rate of blindness, and HCP set its sights on eliminating needless blindness worldwide and strengthening eye care systems.
In the first quarter of 2020 we completed over 6,000 sight-restoring surgeries — 2,000 in Ghana, 3,000 in Ethiopia and over a 1,000 in Nepal. Moving forward, our programs will operate within the bounds determined by their governments and local COVID-19 restrictions, with variability across countries and regions. We will continue to invest in our partners around the world, strengthening connections, exchanging critical information, and ensuring they have the resources to provide care for their local populations.work closely with all partners and continually re-evaluate our programming as the situation evolves.
In this critical time, we will continually re-evaluate our programming and maintaining lines of communication with our donors, volunteers, clinicians and the institutions that make our work possible. Thank you for your commitment to overcoming needless blindness and strengthening health systems across the globe. Stay safe, and know that we appreciate all of your efforts.
