The Fred Hollows Foundation

The Fred Hollows Foundation carries on the work of the late Professor Fred Hollows (1929-1993).

Fred Hollows was an eye doctor, a skilled surgeon and a social justice activist who championed the right of all people to have high quality affordable eye care and good health.

The Fred Hollows Foundation has a vision of a world where no one is needlessly blind and where Indigenous Australians enjoy the same health and life expectancy as other Australians.

The Foundation strives to achieve four key goals:
1. Ending avoidable blindness in the communities and countries where we work.
2. Improving the life chances and choices of Indigenous Australians through improving their health.
3. Working through strong partnerships and cross-sector collaborations – at local, national and global levels.
4. Building a strong and dynamic organisation, capable of facilitating effective eye and Indigenous health programs and having a positive impact on public opinion, policies and practices.

Since it began in 1992, The Fred Hollows Foundation has helped restore sight to well over 1 million people. In many cases all it took was a simple operation costing as little as $25.

In 2006 alone, The Foundation achieved the following results:
• Carried out 73,838 operations and interventions that restored sight, up from 56,508 in 2005
• Provided essential eye care for over one million people in the developing world
• Trained 3,781 clinical support staff, including 58 surgeons
• upplied local doctors with over $1 million worth of medical equipment

The Foundation works in more than 20 countries worldwide including Kenya, Eritrea, Cambodia, China, Nepal, Rwanda, Pakistan and Vietnam.

Thanks to The Fred Hollows Foundation and its local partners, patients with restored sight are returning to work, doctors are passing on their new-found skills by training colleagues and Indigenous Australians are taking ownership of activities which impact their health and life expectancy.

For more information about the work of The Fred Hollows Foundation, visit www.hollows.org.au or call 1800 352 352 in Australia.

www.hollows.org

Project Summary:

Since it began in 1992, The Fred Hollows Foundation has helped restore sight to well over 1 million people.

In 2006 alone, The Fred Hollows Foundation carried out 73,838 operations and interventions that restored sight, up from 56,508 in 2005. The Foundation also provided essential eye care for over one million people in the developing world, trained 3,781 clinical support staff, including 58 surgeons, and supplied local doctors with over $1 million worth of medical equipment.

Through SCB’s Seeing is Believing programme, The Fred Hollows Foundation will be able to provide much needed support to initiatives in Vietnam and China, addressing two key eye health care issues: cataract and diabetic retinopathy. With a combined budget of USD 690,000, the Project expects to reach over 2.2 million people over three years.

Vietnam
In Vietnam the Seeing is Believing programme will allow The Fred Hollows Foundation to extend the reach of the Bring Back Vision project from Quang Nam Province’s coastal area to 700,000 people in the more remote and underserved communities in the mountain regions of eight Western Districts, in central Vietnam. The Project will be integrated into the public health system and will establish a community-based comprehensive eye care model that is sustainable and appropriate for replication elsewhere in Vietnam. Main partners of the project in Vietnam are the Quang Nam Provincial Department of Health, the Quang Nam General Hospital and eight District Hospitals, and the Vietnam National Institute of Ophthalmology.

China
In China the Seeing is Believing programme will allow The Fred Hollows Foundation to support efforts aimed at improving eye care for patients with diabetes, a rapidly growing problem in China, by introducing diabetic retinopathy community screening and evidence-based treatment into China, by raising public awareness of diabetic retinopathy and by conducting training in the four cities of Shanghai, Wuhan, Chengdu and Changsha. Despite its emergent status and potential as a serious eye health care issue in China, there appears to be a widespread lack of knowledge and skills in the early detection of diabetic retinopathy amongst primary health providers, even in big cities. The China Initiative for the Prevention of Blindness from Diabetes Mellitus Project aims at addressing this situation by improving diabetic patients’ eye care outcomes, through the establishment of consistent, regular provision of screening for sight-threatened diabetes patients in China, and through targeted health care education and public awareness campaigns. The main partner of the project in China is the China Aier Ophthalmology Hospital Group, with hospitals in Shanghai, Wuhan, Chengdu and Changsha).

“They used to think only miracle workers could make the blind see again. Now we know that with the right resources most forms of blindness can be prevented or cured. Standard Chartered’s Seeing Is Believing programme allows organisations like The Fred Hollows programme to create miracles every day – thousands of them.” – Brian Doolan, CEO, The Fred Hollows Foundation

 

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