Fight the injustice of avoidable blindness.
You can help transform lives by restoring sight to those in need. Join the fight against avoidable blindness and help make a lasting difference in the lives of people around the world who are blind.
ONE EYE SURGEON CAN PERFORM UP TO 1000 CATARACT SURGERIES A YEAR.
With your monthly donation of $250 for a year, we can train one ophthalmologist and provide truly sustainable long-term services.
"My son sow has a future"
At the hospital on the day of Mbaruku’s eye operation, his mother was deeply anxious. She knew this was the best opportunity for her son’s life to be changed – but would surgery be a success?
Mwajungu had to wait, and put her faith in your kindness.
It was a beautiful moment the next morning when the patches were removed from Mbaruku’s eyes. Mbaruku’s smile said all that needed to be said. His mother cried tears of relief and love.
This family now has a better life. Mbaruku is at school, learning alongside his peers. His mother no longer needs to stay at home caring for him, so she spends more time selling cashew nuts at the markets to boost her income.
Mbaruku and his broad smile are often seen in the thick of rowdy joyful soccer games. He is happier now and his future is so much brighter.
“Now my son has a future. I am confident that he can go to school and build a future for himself,” Mwajungu sai
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.
Become a Visionary today.
Ending avoidable blindness
Many people are blind because they don’t have access to quality and affordable eye health. Since The Foundation began, we’ve restored sight to more than 3 million people – often with a simple, 20 minute operation.
WHAT IMPACT CAN YOUR DONATION BRING?
Blindness and vision impairment is a health issue, and related to a person's well-being, quality of life and development opportunities. 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 vision is to build sustainable, good quality and affordable eye care in remote areas of the world.
Your donation will be used to:
- Train surgeons or eye health workers
- Provide medical equipment
- Organize eye screening camps in remote areas
- Raise awareness of eye health to the public
- Invest in innovation and research
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.
Will you help carry on Fred's vision?
Fred Hollows had a deep connection to Africa. In fact, Africa was one of the reasons he become an ophthalmologist.
Fred only saw potential when he visited Africa. After he returned from Eritrea – one of Kenya's east African neighbours – he said: "Although Africa is such a poor continent, its potential, of all continents, must be greater than any other place on earth."
It’s caring people like you who have kept Fred’s vision for Africa alive and allow us to carry on our sight-restoring work. But there is much more work to be done. Every year about 14,500 new cases of cataract are discovered in Kenya.
With your caring support today, we can improve the lives of thousands of people in Keyna, securing their future and giving them something wonderful to look forward to - the gift of sight.
With your kindness this year, The Foundation will:
- Screen 395,000 people
- Equip 17 eye care facilities
- Perform more than 21,000 cataract operations
- Train more than 2,800 people including surgeons, teachers and community health workers
With your help, we can achieve Fred’s dream of an end to avoidable blindness.
