HOW YOUR SUPPORT IS CHANGING LIVES
PHOTO: MICHAEL AMENDOLIA
ISSUE 50 NOVEMBER 2017
A DOCTOR’S DETERMINATION RESTORING SIGHT WHEN OTHERS SAID THERE WAS NO HOPE
A MESSAGE FROM OUR CEO
IMPROVING WOMEN’S ACCESS TO EYE CARE IN BARISAL The Fred Hollows Foundation, in partnership with Standard Chartered Bank’s Seeing is Believing program, is ensuring women in the Barisal District of Bangladesh have access to affordable eye care. In 2016, the partnership surveyed 2,400 households to determine the barriers to eye care for women. Those barriers included physical distance from services, a lack of finances to travel for appointments, and a general lack of awareness about eye health issues and treatment.
We can’t tell the story often enough. Fred and Gabi and their friends sitting around the dining table talking about their dreams for a foundation that would bear Fred’s name. What would that foundation become? What would be its legacy? Would it succeed?
“It became clear that the solutions had to be locally based,” said Dr Zareen Khair, Country Manager for Bangladesh. “A good example is working with local pharmacists to educate and upskill them to provide eye checks and eye care information.”
Twenty-five years later and we can answer those questions. The Fred Hollows Foundation has become one of Australia’s most reputable organisations, working in more than 25 countries to ensure everyone has access to high quality and affordable eye health.
The Foundation and its partners also screened more than 80,000 people and performed 5,400 cataract surgeries throughout 2016 at remote eye camps.
The Foundation maintains the importance Fred placed in training. I am often reminded of Vietnam and how, in the early 1990s, there were less than 1,000 modern cataract surgeries being done a year. Fred vowed to train 300 surgeons, and today there are more than 1,000 surgeons performing upwards of 250,000 cataract surgeries a year. This year we were excited to announce that in 2016, for the first time ever, we supported more than 1 million eye operations and treatments. So, when we think of success, of legacy, and of The Foundation’s ongoing work, these actions speak loud and clear. Underpinning all that we do is a simple focus: we believe in a world in which no one is needlessly blind.
Thank you.
Brian Doolan CEO
Gabi Hollows with Wild Women on Top’s Di Westaway. Photo: Megan Reynolds
It has been a proud and humbling experience leading this organisation for the past 13 years and this will be my final note to you as CEO. Fred once said that when you do good work, you meet good people – and I know exactly what he meant. Thank you to everyone who has made this Foundation what it is today, for without you, Fred’s vision wouldn’t have gone beyond the dining room table.
THREE TIMES LUCKY WITH COASTREK
THE FRED HOLLOWS FOUNDATION FRED’S VISION NOVEMBER 2017
Wild Women On Top’s Coastrek is a Team Trekking Challenge that proudly supports The Fred Hollows Foundation. The initiative has raised almost $20 million over the past eight years including $4,957,627 from the combined 2017 events. Coastrek is held in Sydney and Melbourne and, for the first time in 2017, Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. Each Coastrek has both a 30km and a 60km event and all follow some of Australia’s most stunning coastline. Upcoming events: www.coastrek.com.au Sydney Coastrek – 16 March 2018 Melbourne Coastrek – 25 May 2018 Sunshine Coastrek – 27 July 2018
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By the age of six, Davin was blind in both eyes and unable to attend school. She was one of an estimated 35,000 Laotians who are blind from cataract. Davin lives with her grandmother and older sister in the remote Muang Khoa District in Laos’ north. Her mother and father live 80 kilometres away where they work. “I can only come back on the weekend to visit my children,” said Souli, Davin’s mother. “I am very sad because I cannot look after her. I am scared for her when I think of her future.” When Davin was two months old, her mother noticed a white spot on Davin’s left eye. She thought it was from the spirit of her grandfather and made offerings of chickens and pigs in the hope that the spirit would not steal Davin’s sight. But when Davin was two years old, another white spot appeared – this time in her right eye. Davin could not see anything. A local nurse advised them to send Davin to a blind school in Vientiane – something the family could not afford. Instead, they accepted that Davin would be blind for the rest of her life. Then Dr Tui, an eye doctor from Muang Khoa District Hospital trained by The Fred Hollows Foundation, heard about Davin and travelled to the village to examine her eyes. Dr Tui told the family that Davin’s sight could be restored by simple cataract surgery and referred them to the Eye Unit at Oudomxay Provincial Hospital — a partner of The Fred Hollows Foundation — for treatment. The surgery was a success and Davin was overwhelmed by the world that reappeared before her, needing a whole day just to comprehend what was happening around her.
Davin looks through textbooks with her mother, Souli, a schoolteacher.
Three days later and Davin was completely transformed. The once frustrated and withdrawn little girl cannot stop smiling and is always playful. She can now see what she could only imagine for all those years.
Davin’s joy at being able to see is infectious.
3 NEWS |
WATCHING THE WORLD REAPPEAR
A DOCTOR’S DETERMINATION “No matter how many children like Eric I perform surgery on, it still gets to me. Because each story is so tragic and so personal. Eric, for example, his world has been just a world of sound – and now it’s going to be a visual world also.” - Dr Ciku Mathenge
Inset: Eric would feel his way around his house. Dr Ciku Methange examines Eric’s eyes in his village in Rwanda. Others said there was no use operating on Eric’s eyes.
THE FRED HOLLOWS FOUNDATION FRED’S VISION NOVEMBER 2017
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5 FEATURE |
Eric is surrounded by the children he grew up with. A short time ago he knew them only by voice.
In a remote village, high in the hills of Rwanda, Eric traces the walls of his tiny mud-brick home, investigating the world in which he lives. He is waiting for his little brother Immanuel to come home from school. He desperately wants to join him and the other kids, but his mum Clementine doesn’t let him stray too far from the small home for fear he will get hurt or fall down one of the steep hills.
PHOTOS: MICHAEL AMENDOLIA
Nine-year-old Eric was born with cataracts. He has some light perception in one eye, but nothing in the other. When Clementine first noticed that Eric couldn’t see, she took him to a local health clinic. They referred him to a bigger hospital. But Clementine, who works as a farm labourer, didn’t have enough money. Thankfully, a team of community health workers trained by The Fred Hollows Foundation visited Eric’s district. “A few days ago, the team from The Fred Hollows Foundation came and said to me that they’ve heard there’s a little boy who lives quite a long way away from here, and they think he’s blind from cataracts,” said Dr Ciku Mathenge, The Foundation’s Medical Advisor for East Africa. “When they described where the boy comes from, I realised it’s a long way off and it would be really hard for the mother to bring the child to us from that village. The best thing was to go and see for myself and assess whether there was any hope for the little boy.” Eric’s was one of the worst cases that Ciku had seen and she brought Eric and Clementine back to Kigali to examine Eric further. Many of her colleagues thought there was no point in operating. “The reason is that his eyes are extremely small, he has abnormal movements which usually mean that the communication between the eye and the brain may not be developed, and the fact that he has had cataracts since he was born. All those are factors [mean] that you could do a perfect surgery and there’s still no vision at the end of the day,” Ciku said. “But, I felt it’s worth giving him a shot. He has a lot going wrong with his eyes, he has to learn to see, but I think he’s going to do really well.” Eric’s small eyes make surgery difficult, but Dr Ciku is confident. She removed his patches the next morning. Eric immediately reached out for Ciku’s hand and smiled a shy smile at his mum.
Eric’s village is in a hilly and rocky part of Rwanda. To avoid injury, Eric spent much of his day on a mat inside his home.
“No matter how many children like Eric I perform surgery on, it still gets to me. Because each story is so tragic and so personal. Eric, for example, his world has been just a world of sound – and now it’s going to be a visual world also. I think it’s the most fulfilling surgery, because this boy’s life is going to change, and his mother’s life is going to change.”
PHOTOS: MATTHEW SMEAL
Kebede Shebiru and Temesgen Hailu form a team of trachoma outreach surgeons trained by The Foundation.
Belaynesh had trachoma for four years.
TAKING SURGERY TO THE VILLAGES
“If there is no water, no toilet in the house, no facilities, it can affect prevalence.” The remoteness of these villages creates a double-edged sword: it’s hard to establish effective health services and it’s equally hard – both physically and financially – for people to seek health care in towns like Fiche. The simple solution is for small health teams to go in – two or three surgeons who venture into secluded villages for days at a time, screening, operating, and saving sight for many.
Large grey rocks blanket the road and surrounding area outside of Fiche, a small town north of Addis Ababa in Oromia province, Ethiopia. But despite the inhospitable landscape, smoke rises from cooking fires revealing encampments and small villages perched perilously on the steep sides of an ancient valley.
Temesgen Hailu bandages a patient’s eyes.
The people here live a rural and subsistence life. Poverty is widespread and so is the eye disease trachoma – a disease that turns the eyelids inwards where the eyelashes scratch the eye’s lens, causing blindness.
“There is not a lot of water [for face washing and personal hygiene]. To reach water people have to travel a long way,” said Temesgen Hailu, an eye health nurse trained by The Fred Hollows Foundation to perform Trachomatous Trichiasis (TT) surgery. THE FRED HOLLOWS FOUNDATION FRED’S VISION NOVEMBER 2017
“In my country, there is less infrastructure, there are places where vehicles cannot access so sometimes we have to walk – without food, without water – but that doesn’t affect our job because we are serving our community and we are happy about that,” said Kebede Shebiru who, along with Temesgen, form the basis of one team. Kebede and Temesgen have performed nearly 6,000 TT surgeries between them over the past three years. That’s 6,000 people who would otherwise be blind, because of one remote team. Such success has some awkward rewards. “Sometimes people approach me in different places like markets and they hug me,” Kebede said. “I ask myself, ‘Did I do this?’ It makes me very happy.” Temesgen has had similar experiences. “People at the market got down to my leg and kissed my hand. I become teary because the people are very happy when they see you,” he said. “I am very, very grateful for the work I am doing for The Fred Hollows Foundation. It is satisfying because we know we are relieving someone from going deeper into poverty.”
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When Evelyn Pultara lost her sight, she also lost her livelihood and ability to pass on her culture to future generations. She is the senior custodian of the Dreaming of the Bush Yam, her plant totem, and an abundant food source for her people, the Anmatyerre. Evelyn must pay homage to it and pass on her knowledge through her art. But a few years ago, Evelyn developed cataracts. “I was doing paintings all over Australia when my eyes started to go blurry. I thought I could see smoke. I was very worried,” she said. Evelyn’s daughter Rachael took her to the clinic at Wilora, Central Australia, where Evelyn was diagnosed with cataract. The next step was for surgery at Alice Springs where Evelyn was one of 30 patients to receive sight-restoring cataract surgery during a Fred Hollows Foundation supported ‘Intensive Eye Surgery Week’ held at Alice Springs Hospital and led by Dr Tim Henderson.
After just 20 minutes, Dr Henderson had removed her cataract. Twenty-four hours later he had the pleasure of watching her face light up as she saw her daughter clearly for the first time in years. “It’s incredibly uplifting and fulfilling to see the difference you can make,” he said. “It’s impossible to really quantify quite how much of an impact it can have, particularly in this environment. It sure makes me feel privileged to be able to do this for people.” Evelyn has a lot to look forward to. “I’m looking forward to seeing my six grandchildren clearly…I’m looking forward to painting again and passing it on to my granddaughter…I’m looking forward to cooking and cleaning and also making damper and going hunting for goanna and bush tucker. I’ll be able to track the goanna again!”
PHOTO: MARY TRAN
Evelyn visits a gallery in Alice Springs to see her artwork clearly following cataract surgery.
7 REPORT |
DREAMING OF THE FUTURE
Dr Henderson is the only ophthalmologist in the Central Australia region, servicing a population of more than 50,000 people dispersed over an area larger than Spain. Over the past 10 years he has restored sight to 717 people during Intensive Eye Surgery Weeks.
YES, I WILL MAKE A DONATION TO RESTORE SIGHT AND PREVENT BLINDNESS. STEP 1: MY REGULAR MONTHLY DONATION Many of our supporters find it easier to make monthly donations to The Foundation. YES, I would like to make a monthly donation of:
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This Christmas you can send a gift that will help restore sight to someone living with avoidable blindness. Starting from just $25 our Gift of Sight cards feature beautiful images and inspirational stories. It’s easy to order. Select a card and personalise it with your own message. Cards can be delivered to you or direct to your loved one, via post or email.
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The Fred Hollows Foundation
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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.