The Foundation’s vision is for a world where no person is needlessly blind or vision impaired.
This year, 2022, The Foundation marks 30 years continuing the vital work of Professor Fred Hollows, a renowned ophthalmologist and humanitarian, who passed away in 1993.
It started around Fred and Gabi’s dinner table
Four years after he was diagnosed with cancer, and knowing he didn’t have much longer to live, Fred and Gabi Hollows decided they needed to find a way to continue his work. They started The Foundation with a group of friends and supporters to keep Fred’s dream alive: that everyone, no matter whether they were rich or poor, would have the right to high quality and affordable eye care. They promised to continue to fight for the change Fred so badly wanted.
Today we continue Fred’s vision: we see a world in which no person is needlessly blind.
Fred died less than one year later. It was a terribly sad time, but brightened by the knowledge that through The Fred Hollows Foundation his work would carry on.
– Gabi Hollows
The Fred Hollows Foundation today
Since its humble beginnings in Fred and Gabi’s kitchen, The Foundation now works in more than 25 countries and has restored sight to over 3 million people.
Since that time, The Foundation’s global work has been driven from its head office in Sydney but in 2015 has expanded its operations in Asia with the establishment of a new office in Hong Kong. The Foundation’s Hong Kong office will act as a regional hub to support its ever-growing Asian program work, which accounts for the world's 30%'s blind. China accounts for 20% of the world’s blind live.
We are driven by Fred’s vision to eliminate avoidable blindness. We believe that collaboration, getting things done with integrity and that empowering local communities is the best way to make a difference.
Today, there are 43 million people in the world who are blind – but many don’t need to be. We focus on preventable and treatable diseases such as cataract, trachoma and diabetic retinopathy. Our in-country work involves local training and providing affordable technology, so doctors, nurses and health care workers can recognise, diagnose, refer and treat eye problems in their communities. We use research to improve our understanding of avoidable blindness, then use our findings to implement strategies and advocate for change.
Fred’s influence
Fred was the type of man who knew exactly what he wanted, then went about getting it. Through his years in Australia with the Aboriginal Medical Service, National Trachoma and Eye Health Program and his work in developing countries, he was driven by the inequality he saw.
Being the man he was, he spent his final years planning to establish factories in Eritrea and Nepal and develop low cost lenses in two countries he cared deeply about. Months before his death, he also flew to Vietnam to keep a promise to train ophthalmologists in modern eye surgery techniques so that local people would be empowered to help their own communities.
We’re working just as tirelessly as Fred did to end avoidable blindness – by fighting inequality, building local capacity, empowering the countries where we work, and staying true to our values. He had a big dream and it’s a dream that lives on in the work of The Foundation.
We will only be done when every person, regardless of who they are, where they live or whether they are rich or poor, is living in a world free of avoidable blindness.
– Ian Wishart, CEO
Together, we can do this
We know exactly how to help mothers who are pulling out their eyelashes in agony from trachoma. We know how to treat children who are needlessly blind from cataract and to get them back to school. We know how to prevent people with diabetes going irreversibly blind because they can’t access quality eye care.
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.
Our Achievement
The Foundation is proud of its record of training future generations of eye doctors, building local eye health capacity, driving innovation and advocating for the integration of eye health in national health systems.
Over the past 15 years, The Foundation has supported:
- screening 41,772,221 people
- 1,556,899 cataract operations
- 309,647 surgeries to treat trachoma
- treating 132,196,451 people with antibiotics for trachoma
- delivering 5,587,258 sight-saving or improving interventions
- distribution of 904,019 glasses
- training 2,131 surgeons
- training 439,404 community health workers
- equipping 11,863 facilities
Over the past 5 years, The Foundation has supported:
- screening over 19 million people
- 573,461 cataract operations
- 173,018 surgeries to treat trachoma
- treating 86,546,637 people with antibiotics for trachoma
- delivering 2,385,432 sight-saving or improving interventions
- distribution of 476,751 glasses
- training 628 surgeons
- training 231,766 community health workers
- equipping 8,337 facilities