2007 - News

Profile: Dr Sayyed Khabir Ahmad
Dr Sayyed Khabir Ahmad is the inaugral recipient of The Fred Hollows Foundation Postgraduate Research Scholarship. Read more

Help arrives in Alice Springs to target cataract
The latest phase of an ambitious eye surgery blitz begins in Alice Springs tomorrow, aiming to treat Indigenous people from remote communities who would otherwise go without proper care. Read more

Dollar commitment can end avoidable blindness
The Fred Hollows Foundation welcomed today’s announcement by the Federal Opposition of a $45 million commitment to an ambitious plan to end avoidable blindness in South-East Asia and the Pacific. Read more

Blindness given election aid focus
The Fred Hollows Foundation welcomed today’s announcement by the Federal Government of $60 million over 10 years to fund aid programs to prevent blindness and assist people with a disability in South-East Asia and the Pacific. Read more

Farewell Isaias Fessahaie
The people of The Fred Hollows Foundation and its partners and supporters in the developing world record with great sadness the passing of Isaias Fessahaie in Asmara, Eritrea on the 14 September, 2007. Isaias, General Manager of the Fred Hollows IOL Laboratory Asmara, made a major contribution to the work of realizing Fred Hollows' vision of effectively addressing avoidable blindness in the developing world through the development and production of affordable, high quality intra-ocular lenses (IOL's) at the Fred Hollows IOL Laboratory in Asmara. Isaias also helped develop the capacity and effectiveness of our organization as a whole. He will be deeply missed. Read more

Drop-in doctors will fail without support from existing services
The Fred Hollows Foundation welcomes The Federal Government's commitment of a further $100 million to address health problems, including cataract blindness, in remote Indigenous communities but says the proposed Remote Area Health Corps will fail unless it is integrated with, and backed up by, existing local services. Read More

Fight against cataract stepped up in Central Australia 
The second phase of an ambitious eye surgery blitz, part of the Central Australian Eye Health Program, is underway in Alice Springs this week, aiming to address hospital waiting lists of 350 people from remote Indigenous communities and the towns of Alice Springs and Tennant Creek. Read More

Australian Council for International Development Code of Conduct Review - Invitation for Public Comment
The Fred Hollows Foundation is a signatory of the Australian Council for International Development (ACFID) Code of Conduct. Currently the Code of Conduct is currently under review. The Code of Conduct Review Steering Committee invites members of the public and interested organisations to comment on the performance and future direction ACFID. Read More

Delivering results in remote Australia 
Earlier this year The Foundation kicked off the first stage of a project aiming to restores sight to hundreds of people living in remote Indigenous communities in Central Australia. Read more

Sun poses risk to children's eyesight
The Fred Hollows Foundation's Dr Andreas Mueller and the Director of the Centre for Eye Research Australia, Professor Hugh Taylor, recently published a study examining the impact of sun exposure on children's eyesight, stressing the importance of effective protection. Read more

Eye Institute for the Pacific
The Fred Hollows Foundation NZ has opened a new Pacific regional eye care training facility, based centrally in Fiji. The Pacific Eye Institute is the Pacific's first regional training institute for eye nurses and doctors. Read more

Outreach optometry gives sight to the Top End
Until recently, residents of many remote Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory's Top End were rarely seen by an optometrist. But in April 2006, The Fred Hollows Foundation established the Outreach Optometry Trial. Read more

Dr Ruit awarded Order of Australia
Nepalese surgeon, Dr Sanduk Ruit, long-term friend and colleague of Fred Hollows, has been appointed an honorary Officer of the Order of Australia (AO). Read more

Statistics from the field show record results
The Fred Hollows Foundation helped over one million people in the developing world in 2006, delivering essential eye care and carrying out 73,838 operations or interventions that directly overcame blindness. Read more