Page 17 - IB April 2022

“It was the most
painful thing for me
to not see clearly,
but now it is the
best feeling to
see my world.”

PENI

Celebrating

Millions of people around the world are blind or vision-impaired
simply because they can’t access eye care. In the Pacific, 9 out of 10
people who are blind or vision-impaired, don’t need to be.

The Fred Hollows Foundation NZ These nurses and doctors are Importantly, we have also helped
works to end avoidable blindness from across the Pacific and to train and place at least one
in the Pacific by making eye care when they graduate, they return eye doctor in all of the seven
accessible to all. home to work for their Ministries key countries where we work in
of Health, providing thousands the Pacific, improving access to
We work in partnership with local
Ministries of Health to screen for of people with access to high- eye care for countless people
signs of eye disease and provide quality eye care services. throughout the region.
sight-saving surgeries and This year we celebrate our But our work is not done.
treatment. 30 Year Anniversary as a sight- We know that if more is not
restoring organisation. Since we done to scale up eye care
We also support the training of began working in the Pacific, services and train more eye care
desperately needed eye doctors we have supported: specialists, then in the Pacific the
and eye nurses in Fiji at the number of people with blindness
Pacific Eye Institute and in Papua • Over 1 million people and vision problems will grow.
New Guinea in partnership with receiving eye consultations
Divine Word University and • Over 81,000 people receiving
Madang Provincial Hospital. Find out more about us at
sight-saving surgeries www.hollows.org.nz
• 327 people training and
graduating as eye care
specialists

Islands Business, April 2022 17