HOW YOUR SUPPORT IS CHANGING LIVES
ISSUE 49 MAY 2017
A MOTHER’S LOVE
PHOTO: MICHAEL AMENDOLIA
A KENYAN MUM’S FIGHT TO HELP HER DAUGHTER SEE
A MESSAGE FROM OUR CEO
TRAINING NEXT GENERATION Training one doctor can change thousands of lives and Dr Tun Tun Aung from Yangon in Myanmar is one of those doctors. He’s taking on a training fellowship we fund at Tilganga Institute of Ophthalmology in Nepal.
It was a mark of the man that despite being diagnosed with cancer, Fred Hollows was determined to ensure his vision of ending avoidable blindness would continue in the countries he felt passionate about. With only a few months to live, struggling to breathe without an oxygen mask, Fred discharged himself from hospital and flew to Vietnam. There he started a program to teach more than 300 Vietnamese eye doctors in modern cataract surgery. It revolutionised eye care in the country, setting Vietnam on a course to become a world leader in the fight to tackle blindness. Back at home in Sydney shortly after his return, he and Gabi set up The Fred Hollows Foundation with a group of friends at their dining room table. It’s hard to believe that was 25 years ago. Fred stood up for what he believed in and never wavered from his work to bring affordable eye care to the world. I’m proud to say that 25 years after The Foundation was established, our commitment to carrying on this vision is stronger than ever. In this edition of Fred’s Vision we look back on the history of The Fred Hollows Foundation and at where we’ve come from as well as looking at the people we continue to help today. I know Fred would be very proud that 25 years on The Foundation is going strong. But he’d also be telling us not to stop to celebrate, there’s more work to do. Just like Fred, we have no plans of slowing down.
Brian Doolan Chief Executive Officer
THE FRED HOLLOWS FOUNDATION FRED’S VISION APRIL 2017
Inspired by a friend’s father who was a great ophthalmologist, Dr Tun Tun is passionate about eyecare and, with only eight specialists able to treat the major eye issues for Myanmar’s 51 million people, doctors like him are desperately needed. In his first six months of training, Dr Tun Tun treated more than 600 outpatients, and completed over 200 laser eye surgeries and 280 retina surgeries. “I feel very grateful to The Fred Hollows Foundation so I can now use my skills to help my people,” Dr Tun Tun said.
KEY PARTNERSHIP Assegedech lives in Oromia, Ethiopia. The 16-year-old had suffered from the agony of trachoma for the past three years and was struggling to keep up at school. Fortunately The Fred Hollows Foundation supported trichiasis surgery for Assegedech. “Thank you very much, you have taken my pain away now. I thought I would go blind. I had almost lost my hope that I could complete my schooling. But now my hope is back, and I will read my books without pain in my eyes.” There are still more than 140,000 people in Oromia alone waiting for trichiasis surgery. The Fred Hollows Foundation, in partnership with USAID, Helen Keller International, RTI International and Oromia Regional Health Bureau, has been implementing trachoma elimination projects in Ethiopia since 2013.
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NEWS | PHOTO: JONATHAN CHESTER/EXTREME IMAGES
FRED’S VISION LIVES ON 25 YEARS LATER
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When Fred and Gabi Hollows met with friends around their kitchen table in 1992 to start The Fred Hollows Foundation, it’s hard to imagine that 25 years on The Foundation would have achieved so much. Fred and Gabi’s journey began with The National Trachoma and Eye Health Program where they and a huge team visited 465 indigenous communities from 1976–1979. That early work sparked Fred’s determination to bring equitable and affordable eye health to the developing world. When Fred visited Vietnam in 1992 there were only two surgeons who knew the modern cataract surgery technique. Fred’s visit, and his promise to train more than 300 surgeons caused a ripple effect that continues to this day. Today, more than 1,000 Vietnamese surgeons conduct 250,000 cataract surgeries annually. In Eritrea, Fred knew success would come in the form of an intraocular lens factory, which continues to produce 200,000 IOLs a year. Then there’s Nepal. Fred Hollows met Dr Sanduk Ruit in the mid-1980s as the two travelled throughout Nepal and then in Australia where Dr Ruit learned from Fred, at Prince of Wales Hospital, the intraocular lens implant technique – a technique that he perfected and then improved. He went on to found Tilganga Institute of Ophthalmology, The Fred Hollows Foundation’s partner in Nepal. Australia, Vietnam, Eritrea and Nepal are seminal countries in the Foundation’s history. The work carried out in these four nations paved the way for the Foundation to expand further. Today, The Fred Hollows Foundation is active in more than 25 countries.
While it is important to reflect on our achievements and history, we are all too aware that there are still 32.4 million people in the world who are blind. And four out of five of them don’t need to be. Fred Hollows said, “Don’t ever do half a job. Don’t ever compromise. Slog away until you get the job done.” For 25 years The Fred Hollows Foundation has done just that. And we will continue as long as there are people with avoidable blindness.
MUM FIGHTS FOR LITTLE GIRL’S SIGHT By the time Nabiritha was four months old, her mother Emily Neseka knew something was wrong with her little girl’s sight. “I realised that she would not notice me when I passed by but immediately started crying when she heard my voice,” Emily said. “She also couldn’t pick toys that I placed beside her to play with.” This began years of trying every avenue to seek help for Nabiritha. Despite having little money and three other children to care for, Emily took Nabiritha to the local health clinic where she was referred to a provincial hospital and then to a different hospital. “I was confused because I could barely afford the transport to get there, let alone the Ksh.10,000 (AUD$125) required for surgery,” she said. “I just went back home to try and seek help from well-wishers.” Emily was determined not to give up and eventually went to a local health centre desperately seeking help. There her persistence was rewarded when she was told that The Fred Hollows Foundation would provide the surgery. Nabiritha was taken for surgery at The Foundation’s partner hospital Sabatia, about 200 kilometers from her home. Emily was anxious as Nabiritha was taken in for surgery. “I just hope everything turns alright,” she said. Early the next day, Dr Sitati carefully removed the patches. After crying a little, Nabiritha opened her eyes and looked straight into her mother’s face for the first time. “I am happy that my child is able to see me clearly,” Emily said through her own tears. “I never thought this day would come. Imagine, for all those years my child has never known what I look like.” Nabiritha was excited to leave the hospital, restlessly counting the number of beds in her ward one by one. Her wish is to go home and go to school. “I want to go to school so that I can learn how to read and write and see my friends,” she says. After a long journey back to her village, Nabiritha met her father, brothers and sisters whom, up until then, she had known only by voice. It was an emotional time but when Nabiritha walked independently down the hilly terrain that led to their house, the magnitude of what simple eye surgery had accomplished was all too apparent. It is estimated that there are about 400,000 blind people in Kenya, with another 750,000 visually impaired. Cataract is the largest cause of avoidable blindness in the country, making up 43 per cent of all cases of blindness.
THE FRED HOLLOWS FOUNDATION FRED’S VISION APRIL 2017
It’s estimated that there are about 400,000 blind people in Kenya, with another 750,000 visually impaired. Cataract is the largest cause of avoidable blindness in the country, making up 43% of all cases of blindness. | HOLLOWS.ORG
FEATURE |
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PHOTOS: MICHAEL AMENDOLIA
High in the mountains of north eastern India, at an eye camp which attracts residents from hours in every direction, Chandra Maya Rai seems like just another face in the crowd. Most of the patients in the crowded waiting room at the Jamgon Kongtrul Eye Centre in Kalimpong have at least one cataract; a few have two clouded eyes. But Chandra is different. She sits with her head lolling back against the concrete wall, her husband stroking her hand. When the doctor comes to look at her eyes, she doesn’t react. As well as the bilateral cataracts which have left her totally blind, able only to discern light and darkness, Chandra is deaf and mute. Since going blind more than a year ago, the 54-year old has been unable to communicate with her husband of 35 years, Suresh. He, in turn, has had to stop farming so he could care for Chandra and their four grandchildren.
But Chandra’s life changed forever when she was operated on by Dr Sanduk Ruit, the renowned Nepalese surgeon trained by Fred Hollows, who has gone on to restore sight to more than 120,000 people. Like Fred, Dr Ruit has devoted his life to ensuring everyone in the world, no matter how poor they are, or where they live, has access to affordable, high quality eye care. As Chandra is prepared for surgery, she has no idea what’s happening. The nurses struggle to get her to lie still while they dilate her eyes and administer the anaesthetic. They calm her down by touch, caressing her cheek and her hands. It works. She lies still and lets the doctor do his work. Early the next morning, as her patches are removed, her face lights up into a broad smile as she sees the doctor and then her beloved Suresh. She mouths the word “husband” and everyone around her, including Dr Ruit, finds it hard to hide their joy. “It’s the change in the personality, the change in the attitude, the change in the face that takes place within hours in somebody who is blinded. It makes you energised, emotional, sentimental,” Dr Ruit says. “It’s an extremely emotional moment.”
PHOTO: MICHAEL AMENDOLIA
OPENING UP CHANDRA’S WORLD
“After she lost her sight in both eyes she changed, her nature changed completely. It was unbearable. Very painful for the whole family,” Suresh says.
As Chandra is prepared for surgery, she has no idea what’s happening. The nurses struggle to get her to lie still while they dilate her eyes and administer the anaesthetic. They calm her down by touch, caressing her cheek and her hands. It works. She lies still and lets the doctor do his work.
THE FRED HOLLOWS FOUNDATION FRED’S VISION APRIL 2017
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Tracey Howard was just a young woman when she turned up at the Broome Hall in Western Australia in the late 1970s with her 11 brothers and sisters to have her eyes examined by Fred Hollows. The visit was just one of 465 that Fred and his team made to Australian Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander communities during a two-year crusade to examine and treat trachoma in Australia. Tracey, now 73, a grandmother of 20, and great-grandmother of six, says that although she had absolutely no idea at the time of who the doctor was who looked at her eyes, she vividly remembers him as “very strict and professional.”
REPORT |
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That encounter with Fred Hollows was the start of a long connection. Fast forward 40 years, and Tracey has had a cataract removed, thanks to The Fred Hollows Foundation’s partnership with Lions Eye Institute’s Outback Vision Program in Western Australia. Fred left an indelible memory in the small Western Australian town. It prompted her father, Phillip Cox, with Fred’s help, to set up the first Aboriginal Medical Service in Broome. Tracey’s family weren’t the only ones whose lives were changed by that groundbreaking trip between 1976 and 1979. The results of The National Trachoma and Eye Health Program shocked the nation. They uncovered entire communities suffering from advanced trachoma, a disease that had been stamped out in most of the western world about 100 years ago. The program blazed the trail for improving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander eye health.
The results of The National Trachoma and Eye Health Program shocked the nation. They uncovered entire communities suffering from advanced trachoma, a disease that had been stamped out in most of the western world about 100 years ago .
PHOTO: DANIEL JESUS VIGNOLLI
HISTORY REPEATS
A few years later, she was surprised to see him on television. “I didn’t know much about him,” she says. “Then I heard he was the one who travelled the world and he became very well-known. I couldn’t believe he was the doctor man who checked our eyes.”
YES, I WILL MAKE A DONATION TO RESTORE SIGHT AND PREVENT BLINDNESS. STEP 1: MY REGULAR MONTHLY DONATION Many of our suppor ters find it easier to make monthly donations to The Foundation. YES, I would like to make a monthly donation of:
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“EVERY EYE IS AN EYE” – FRED HOLLOWS
Fred believed everyone’s sight was worth saving. Thanks to The Foundation’s regular supporters we hope to support and fund more eye operations and treatments globally than ever.
Four out of 5 people who are blind don’t need to be, but together we can end avoidable blindness. By joining our monthly giving program you will restore sight and change the lives of people living with avoidable blindness in Indigenous Australia and across the developing world. In some countries it can cost as little as $25 to restore someone’s sight.
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Donations to The Fred Hollows Foundation are used to support our programs in Australia and overseas. The information contained in this publication is accurate at the time of printing. For more information contact fhf@hollows.org Fred’s Vision Magazine © 2017 is a publication of The Fred Hollows Foundation ABN 46 070 556 642. The Fred Hollows Foundation works for a world where no one is needlessly blind and Indigenous Australians enjoy the same health and life expectancy as other Australians. This publication may contain images of persons who have passed away. The Fred Hollows Foundation would like to acknowledge these persons and pay our respects to them and their families.