The Foundation and our achievements

Our vision is for a world where no one is needlessly blind, and Indigenous Australians enjoy the same health and life expectancy as other Australians.

With the help of our supporters, The Foundation is assisting more people in more countries than ever before. Photo: Sandy Scheltema/The AgeThe Fred Hollows Foundation is inspired by the work of the late Professor Fred Hollows (1929–1993).
 Fred was an eye doctor, a skilled surgeon of international renown and a social justice activist.

Fred was committed to improving the health of Indigenous Australians and to reducing the cost of eye health care and treatment in developing countries.

The Foundation was established in Sydney in 1992, five months before Fred passed away, with the aim of continuing and expanding on the program work he had started in Eritrea, Vietnam and Indigenous Australia.

The Foundation now works throughout Africa, Asia (South and South East) and Australia, focusing on blindness prevention and Australian Indigenous health.

Through reducing the cost of cataract operations to as little as $25 in some developing countries, we have helped to restore the sight of more than 1,000,000 people worldwide.

Saving and restoring sight

In 2012, with the help of our supporters, The Foundation reached out to restore sight and hope to those living with blindness that's treatable or preventable.

Numbers are a good indication of activity, but more than that, they reflect the many lives that have been forever changed.

2012 Highlights

  • 98,088 cataract surgeries
  • 306,827 other sight restoring procedures and treatments
  • 7.6 million people treated for trachoma through a new initiative
  • 1,989,410 eye screenings
  • 174 surgeons trained
  • 40,545 eye health workers trained
  • 98 facilities upgraded or renovated
  • $5.8 million plus worth of equipment supplied worldwide

Thank you for helping Fred's work live on. We really couldn't do it without you.

Since The Foundation was established in 1992, we have also:

  • pioneered modern techniques of cataract surgery
  • set up independent and commercially successful intraocular lens (IOL) laboratories in Nepal and Eritrea that have produced over 4 million sight-saving lenses
  • reduced the price of IOLs from over $150 to just $8
  • implemented eye health programs in over 30 countries worldwide

Awarded for excellence

  • In 2008, we won the Givewell Charity Award for ‘Best Practice Not-for-Profit’ organisation.
  • In 2007, Foundation friend and partner, Dr Sanduk Ruit, was appointed an honorary Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) “For service to humanity by establishing eye care services in Nepal and surrounding countries, and for his work in teaching and training surgeons, and technical innovation.”
  • The Foundation, Woolworths and the Wugularr community in the Northern Territory won the 2004 Prime Minister’s National Award for Excellence in Community Business Partnerships (Large Business) for our successful Community Stores Program.

 

What we can do

Help keep Fred’s dream alive.

4 out of 5 people who are blind in the developing world don't need to be. Routine treatment costing as little as $25 can restore sight and hope.