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In Burundi, Africa, a girl named Cesaria was born blind due to a congenital condition. Typically, children with her condition do not live past the age of five. Abandoned by her parents, she was fortunate to be taken in by her grandmother. However, she couldn't afford the cost of surgery to restore her sight.
Many blind children in Burundi never reach their fifth birthday. For three-year-old Cesaria, time was running out.
Burundi is one of Africa’s smallest and poorest nations. After 12 years of civil war, Burundi’s people mostly live in disadvantaged, rural areas that have little access to medical and eye health services. With more than 87,000 people who are blind, and only three ophthalmologists who can perform cataract surgery, there’s a critical need to train, screen and perform surgeries there to help people out of the cycle of poverty.
Cesaria was one of these people we were able to help.
Blind from birth, Cesaria’s chances of surviving until her fifth birthday would have been slim. Unable to look after a blind child, Cesaria’s parents abandoned her soon after she was born. Thankfully, her grandmother Veronica stepped in to raise her instead. Veronica was the driving force in making sure Cesaria got the medical attention she needed.
Cesaria - Imagine seeing the world for the very first time...
Burundi’s only paediatric ophthalmologist, Dr. Levi, performed Cesaria’s much-needed operation. It was just in time – the older children are, the harder it is to save their sight. For Cesaria, restoring her sight at such a young age gives her the chance to develop and experience childhood just like any other little girl.
Donate Now!Ending avoidable blindness
"One of the great joys of my life is having been part of the training of Sanduk Ruit and his training others." - Fred Hollows
The Founder of The Fred Hollows Foundation, Prof. Fred Hollows believed in empowering people. That’s why we invest in training a range of people from community health workers to surgeons. Building local skills has always, and will always, be at the heart of our work.
Training
Fred believed that training and empowering local people was the key to sustainable change. The Foundation trains doctors, nurses and health care workers so they can recognise, diagnose, refer and treat eye problems in their communities.
Doorstep diagnosis
Community health workers are a vital link between patients and eye health services. Trained by The Foundation, they visit communities, diagnosing a range of medical conditions and referring people to medical clinics, hospitals and doctors. Performing initial consultations like these is essential, because potentially damaging eye health issues are identified before they become critical.
Fred’s passion for teaching
Fred was an advocate of hands on learning. He firmly believed there should always be three people in a room: a teacher, a student and a patient. Whether it was in an operating theatre in Sydney or Hanoi, Fred took great delight in seeing the moment of understanding in his students’ eyes.
The last lesson
Despite being very ill with cancer, Fred discharged himself from hospital in July 1992 to fly to Hanoi. There he wanted to fulfil his promise to train over 300 Vietnamese eye specialists in modern eye surgery techniques.
Together, we can do this
We know how to help, but there’s a lot of work still to be done across the world. Eliminating avoidable blindness can be achieved – with the help of our partners and, most importantly, you, our incredible supporters.
The Fred Hollows Foundation's work will help build the local capacity of eye health in remote areas. Doctors, nurses and community eye care staff can identify, diagnose, refer and treat various eye diseases on time in the community.
The Fred Hollows Foundation believes that a fly-in-fly-out model is not the best way to develop a place’s eye health care. Our aim is to build a sustainable eye health workforce in remote areas to help people have their sight restored.
Thank you very much for your donation! Monthly donation receipts will be mailed to your mailing address every April. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.
