Treatment of cataract blindness has come a long way in Vietnam since Professor Fred Hollows visited in 1992 to introduce modern surgical training and techniques.

At the time, around one million Vietnamese people needed cataract surgery and 350,000 were totally blind. Only 1,000 cataract operations using Intraocular Lenses (IOL) were performed each year.

That figure is now around 160,000 per year.

Fred died just 10 months after that initial visit. But with the formation of The Fred Hollows Foundation, his work and passion for helping improve eye care in Vietnam has continued with The Foundation's Vietnamese program, beginning in 1993.

Since that time, The Foundation has helped train and equip hundreds of doctors to perform modern sight-restoring cataract surgery, expanding the program to all parts of the country.

The Australian Government is currently providing support to our Vietnam program through the AusAID-funded Avoidable Blindness Initiative.

Find out more about the Vietnam program.

Through our program work in Vietnam, The Foundation:

• Screened 810,148 people
  
  
• Performed 27,331 sight restoring or improving interventions - including 11,383 cataract surgeries
  
  
• Trained 2,193 eye care professionals - including 17 ophthalmologists and 1,600 community health workers
  
  
• Commenced construction of a Provincial Eye Care facility in Quang Ngai Province
  
  
• Renovated 4 district eye care facilities 
  
  
• Provided $664,772 in vital medical equipment
  
  
• Conducted school eye health programs - training 412 school teachers in eye health and screening 237,693 school children
  
  
• Placed a major focus on strengthening primary eye care at a village level through training of community health workers, local doctors and other support staff
  
  
• Strengthened our relationship with Vietnam National Institute of Ophthalmology.