Read our Latest Appeal

The Foundation regularly corresponds with donors and supporters in New Zealand to keep them up-to-date with our program work in the Pacific and around the world.

Have a look at our latest appeal letters below or make a donation to support our work now.

When the Hollows NZ team visted Alotau recently, they saw Joan Parascos and her son Warrington. Joan is a grandmother who used to make money by selling clothes she had sewn. Warrington worked as a sea captain to support his five children. When they came to the outreach in Alotau, Joan could no longer sew and Joan could no longer captain his steamship. They desperately needed our help.

Read our July 2010 Appeal letter

Papua New Guinea health worker Aloisia Kaipane gave the greatest gift to her grandmother in November – the gift of sight.  Aloisia was part of a Fred Hollows Foundation NZ outreach team who travelled to the remote community in Papua New Guinea where her grandmother lived.  She was devastated to find that her Bubu (grandmother) had been blind for three years, but fortunately the eye team was able to restore her grandmother’s sight.

"The next day I could hardly breathe as I waited to take off my Grandma’s bandages."

 February 2010 Appeal   (362 kb)

Nicki Paull witnessed her first cataract operation during a surgical visit by a Hollows NZ team to a remote and moutaineous Fijian island that had not seen an eye team for six years.

"I have read many stories about the people we have helped in the Pacific but nothing prepared me for what I saw and experienced during my first visit to our outreach program."

Read Nicki's story in our November appeal to supporters:

November 2009 Appeal  (337kb)

61-year-old grandmother Selestina Ximenes is one of the 10,000 people in Timor-Leste blind from cataract. 

This year, thanks to the establishment of the country's first permanent eye surgery team by Hollows NZ in Timor-Leste, Selestina may see again. 

Jacqui Ramke, Timor-Leste Country Director, talks about how Hollows NZ hopes to help restore sight to many others like Selestina with the building of a dedicated eye surgical facility in the country's capital, Dili.

Read our August letter to supporters:

August 2009 appeal

Thanks to the quick thinking of a Foundation supporter working with the Regional Assistance Mission in the Solomon Islands (RAMSI), and the generosity of the winning bidder, the on-line auction of the Prime Minister's arm cast raised sufficient funds to support two outreach surgical trips to the Solomon Islands.  Dr John Szetu, director of the Pacific Eye recounts his experience of the first outreach when over a two week period, over 500 patients were treated and 114 sight restoring operations performed.

Read our May 2009 appeal to supporters:

 May 2009 Appeal

In March 2008 Willie, a widower with seven children from a remote village in PNG, walked for two days and took two long boat trips to reach a Foundation funded outreach clinic.  Lindsay Dewhurst, an ophthalmic nurse working with the Foundation, recounts her experience of seeing Willie again.  "It is really humbling to hear what people suffer as a result of visual impairment, and how so many manage against the odds.  Willie's experience shows that a relatively low cost surgery really can transform lives."

Read our February letter to supporters:

February 2009 Appeal

General Manager, Debbie Thomson, talks about her trip to Vanuatu with Foundation ambassador Michael Jones and shares her experience of meeting Agnes, whose life had drastically changed since her sight restoring surgery one year ago.

Read our November appeal letter to supporters:

November 2008 Appeal

Grandmother Aven walked three days barefoot and blind thorugh the jungle of the Solomon Islands to reach a Fred Hollows Foundation NZ eye clnic.

Aven had been completely blind for two years.  When she heard that The Fred Hollows Foundation NZ was setting up a temporary eye clinic on the opposite side of her remote island home, she was determined to reach us, even if it meant walking sightless for three days along a precarious dirt track, navigating treacherous river crossings and sleeping two nights in the jungle.

Read more from our latest letter to supporters:

August 2008 appeal  (811kb)

Michael Jones shares his thoughts on Pacific blindness and talks about his desire to help our neighbours in the Pacific- "Did you know that the Pacific region has one of the highest rates of cataract blindness in the world? That over 70% of the 80,000 blind cannot see as a result of cataracts, compared to 50% globally? Not only this, but a further 240,000 are severely visually impaired, most for the want of a pair a correctly prescribed low cost glasses.

I have to admit that it came as a big shock to me, particularly as I have such strong ties to the region. I always thought that this was a problem in far off places like Africa or Asia, not here on my doorstep..."

Find out more in our May appeal letter.

May 2008 Appeal

Andrea Walker joins The Fred Hollows Foundation NZ team of eye doctors and nurses on their sight restoring surgical outreach to the remote Fijian island of Levuka.  The island has never had a surgical visit before and many people have been waiting decades to be seen.  During the week over 400 people are screened and treated, and many receive sight restoring surgery. In particular, Andrea meets Deonisia who has been cataract blind for nine years. Andrea talks about her trip and Deonisia's life changing surgery.

Read more in our February 2008 appeal letter.

February 2008 Appeal

PNG program Manager Janie Elliot, visits The Foundation's trainee nurses in PNG and joins them as they help to restore sight and prevent blindness in the remote provinces- "Last month I made my first trip to Papua New Guinea to visit our program there...To provide eye care in this challenging environment, our strategy is practical and simple. Train eye nurses and doctors, establish and equip eye clinics to provide long term, sustainable eye care, and at the same time address the lack of immediate access to eye care by organising mobile surgery and supporting clinics with urgently needed equipment and medical supplies."

Find out more in our November 2007 appeal letter.

November 2007 Appeal

Dr John Szetu-The Medical Director of The Fred Hollows Foundation NZ’s regional training centre, the Pacific Eye Institute, writes about his sight restoring trip to the Solomon Islands- "I traveled to Gizo, the main village in the Western Province, where the earthquake and tsunami caused such devastation in April this year…The devastation is still plain to see everywhere you go.  Thousands of families are living in make-shift camps.  There is very little healthcare, and certainly no eye care…"

Read more in our August 2007 appeal letter.

August 2007 Appeal

PNG Eye Nurse Coordinator, Lindsay Dewhurst talks about the problems that she has encountered while working in PNG including lack of eye health facilities and a shortage of skilled doctors and nurses. With the help of The Foundation, Lindsay was able to start by implementing vision testing and selling low cost spectacles, but now has big plans for nurse training and surgical visits from our nearest urban centre in Rabaul.

Read more from our latest appeal letter to supporters:

May 2007 Appeal (449kb)

Kelly Hawkins talks about her trip -"Malekula Island is just one of over 83 rugged islands that make up Vanuatu. In December I was lucky enough to travel to this remote and untouched island with local eye doctors and nurses to witness the work of The Fred Hollows Foundation in action. And what I found was life-altering work continuing in Fred's name - often in tiny villages where normally there would be no hope of eye care"...

Read our February appeal letter to supporters:

February 2007 Appeal (449kb)