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The Fred Hollows FoundationA charity restoring siteAs a ten year old boy receiving a prize from the terminally ill Fred Hollows in 1992, I remember a bushy-eyed man with a dry wit, frank manner and a genuine smile.
Returning to the school archives, I find that he didn't mention his work. Rather, he spoke of service to others. He mentioned Tenzing and Hillary, two men who "performed exceptional and prolonged physical feats", but continued, "burning their consciences now... they must get on with serving people less fortunate..." He spoke of Australia as a lucky country. However, in the eradication of preventable blindness, Australia has a long way to go, particularly in remote Aboriginal communities. Offshore the situation is much worse. At least twenty million people in developing nations are blind because of cataracts. Yet cataracts can often be cured in a twenty-minute operation, through the insertion of new, perspex lens.
Hollows trained doctors in Nepal, Vietnam and Eritrea to insert intraocular lenses, and since his death The Fred Hollows Foundation has built internationally accredited laboratories in Eritrea and Nepal to make lenses. Previously costing up to US$400, lenses are now produced for as little as US$6.50. These factories export to more than 40 countries around the world.
Furthermore, The Fred Hollows Foundation has worked in partnership with people, governments and agencies in 29 countries to build sustainable health programs to prevent unnecessary and avoidable blindness. The Foundation has trained over 750 local doctors in the modern cataract techniques championed by Fred Hollows. Those doctors have restored the sight of more than one million people worldwide since 1992! In Australia, The Foundation has worked to improve the health outcomes of Indigenous Australians.
The Foundation has also revolutionised attitudes - it is now widely accepted that modern cataract surgery can and should be taken to all people in need around the world. Continued... |
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