Chien's story

A special report from Brian Doolan, CEO

Born with cataract in his left eye, this sad little five-year-old boy could not bear to be exposed to light - it caused such intense pain.

He was condemned to living in the shadows, never being able to run and play like other children in his small, isolated Vietnamese village.

But thanks to our supporters, Chien was one of the lucky people who had access to treatment.

When Fred introduced modern surgical training in Vietnam, just before he died in 1993, only 1,000 cataract operations using Intraocular Lenses (IOL) were performed each year.

Now it is around 120,000, an incredible achievement, made possible thanks to the support of people like you.

A gift of as little as $25 can help restore the sight of someone like Chien.

He is one of the 40 million blind people living in the developing world. Through blindness, they miss out on education, on supporting themselves. They are totally dependent on others.

The greatest tragedy is that for 3 out of 4 people, blindness can be treated or prevented.

Life for Chien and his mother, Ho Chiet, was hard.

They were abandoned by Chien's father when he was just a baby. His mother is the sole provider for the family, working when she can in the fields harvesting sugar and cassava. The work is difficult and irregular. 

Ho Chiet feared for her beloved son. She was worried that he would not be able to go to school. She knew that without an education, he was condemned to a life of poverty.

"I would do anything for my son," she told us in a voice broken by emotion as we talked about operating on his eye.

It is not common for children to be born with cataract. But when it occurs it is vital to treat it early, preferably before they turn seven. After that, the brain may not respond to signals from the eyes.

We needed to act quickly.

Chien and his mother made the two-hour trip to Phu Yen Eye Hospital with us, to see Dr Tran Minh Phuong, the only paediatric ophthalmologist in the whole province.

Dr Phuong was trained by The Fred Hollows Foundation to perform the simple, miraculous surgery she was about to carry out on Chien. She delicately removed his own lens and carefully inserted one of the tiny plastic intraocular lenses (IOL) that Fred Hollows helped bring to the developing world.

Thanks to the support of Australians like you, 50% of Vietnamese ophthalmologists have received some form of training through the work of The Foundation.

But every year there are 85,000 new cases of blindness in Vietnam alone, so we desperately need your help to continue this life-changing work.

I saw Chien the day after his surgery. The sad but brave little boy I had left behind was playing joyfully in the sunlight. The look of contentment spread across his face was so unlike the painful frown I had seen before.

The operation was a great success. 

Last year, The Foundation worked in 18 countries, screened more than 1.3 million people, and carried out 176,472 eye operations and treatments, up from 143,759 in 2007.

This huge achievement was only made possible thanks to the gifts of our generous supporters.

But there is still so much to do. Over the next five years I want to double the number of people we screen and treat. This is an ambitious goal but Fred was never one to shy away from a challenge, nor are we at The Foundation.

A gift of as little as $25 can help restore sight to someone blinded by cataract. A gift of $80 can help buy 10 intraocular lenses. $250 can fund cataract surgery for up to 10 people.

Chien is six now. And I am delighted to report that when we recently checked on him he was at school! Neatly dressed in his school uniform, he was found talking with his friends, reading the assigned text and eagerly raising his hand to answer questions.

Thanks to our supporters, Chien has been given the opportunity of an education and the chance of a better future.

Please give the most generous tax-deductible gift you can and help keep Fred's work alive and growing.

"It is our job to do something about the disparity between nations. We discover our own humanity by helping others." - Professor Fred Hollows

View the slideshow to see in pictures how sight restoring surgery has changed Chien's future.