Raising Awareness

Our programs are based in some of the most isolated regions of the world where local people have very little understanding or information about eye health care.

There is often a general mistrust and fear of cataract surgery. Many people do not know or believe that cataracts can be treated and will continue to live with blindness without ever seeking help. 

Each of our country programs has developed local strategies to inform people about our work to restore sight. One strategy is to train local village health workers in eye health care and health promotion. These health workers are able to spread the word throughout remote areas and encourage people to use our services. Often the results speak for themselves and people feel confident to try surgery after hearing of neighbours or relatives whose sight has been restored.

Our country programs also aim to raise the profile of eye health care on the national health agenda and we lobby governments to increase the amount of funding allocated to eye health care.  

Over the past few years we have also encouraged and contributed to the development of National Eye Care plans in numerous countries where we work such as Eritrea and Cambodia. Development of a national plan is a key activity of the VISION 2020: The Right to Sight global campaign and is an important step in improving the eye health situation in any country.

Fred Hollows was never shy about speaking out about injustice and the poor state of Indigenous health. Today, The Foundation continues his legacy by calling on the Australian and state and territory governments to provide more and better funding for Indigenous health and well being.

We work to identify and address the social determinants of Indigenous health and to bring these issues to the forefront of the Australian public agenda.

We also work with our local Indigenous partners to build their skills and knowledge so that they can negotiate and secure their own agreements with government.

The Foundation has an active and well-resourced community education program that aims to build community support for blindness prevention, Indigenous health and poverty alleviation. Our community education program includes:

• A comprehensive program to educate primary and secondary school students about the issues that we work on. This program includes a specially designed website for schools.
• An Ambassador program where well-known Australians visit community meetings, events and schools to talk on behalf of The Foundation and our work.
• Publishing our regular newsletter with information about our programs and current issues.
• Information sheets developed by The Foundation to educate the public about blindness prevention and Indigenous health.
• A media strategy where we seek out opportunities to talk about our important work on television, in the newspaper, online and on radio.
• Community Involvement program where people can make a donation, fundraise for us, attend an event or join our "See the World Challenge" and raise money to visit one of our country programs.

The Foundation is a vocal advocate for improved public policies and practices in eye health at the national and international level. The Foundation is a member or signatory to:

• VISION2020: The Right to Sight, a global campaign initiated by the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness and the World Health Organisation to eradicate all forms of avoidable blindness by the year 2020. 
• the board of the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness, an umbrella organization  that seeks to link the various international and national blindness prevention programs. 
• Make Poverty History, the Australian arm of a global campaign by non-government development agencies to pressure governments to do more to reach the United Nation's Millenium Development Goals.