Hollows NZ expansion follows glowing review

Blind and vision impaired people in the Pacific, Papua New Guinea and Timor-Leste will benefit from increased government funding to The Fred Hollows Foundation NZ.

6 May 2009

In a joint New Zealand-Australia aid initiative, New Zealand’s aid and development agency, NZAID, and its Australian counterpart, AusAID announced today that they are boosting Hollows NZ’s eye training programmes in three different locations.

The joint funding initiative follows an extremely positive independent evaluation of the organisation’s work last year, commissioned by NZAID.

Describing the Pacific program as being of ‘inestimable value’, the review recommended increased support by the New Zealand Government to continue to promote Hollows NZ’s innovative approach which focuses on the sustainable development of services and the people who deliver those services.

A comprehensive expansion of Hollows NZ’s three regional programmes will be funded, including: training additional eye doctors and nurses; building and staffing a surgical and training facility in Suva for the Pacific region; initiating a new diabetes eye programme; and establishing locally-managed vision testing and spectacle supply services.

The cost of the projects to be funded is $16.8 million over three years. “This funding clearly endorses our work in the Pacific region over the past seven years,” said Executive Director Carmel Williams. “We are delighted to have the opportunity to strengthen our training capacity and support services for eye doctors and nurses across the region, and to invest in initiatives that will improve access to eye health services for the long-term.

“We are grateful for this recognition and support of our work by both the New Zealand and Australian governments. However, the grant funds are tied to specific activities and the expansion of our programmes will require fundraising on a much larger scale over the next few years as many core programme activities are not covered by this grant.

“We will continue to rely on the generosity of the New Zealand public to fund the delivery of outreach surgical services and supplies used during outreach, the employment of nurses and surgeons in our training programmes, the purchase of equipment and upgrading of eye care facilities, for example,” noted Williams.

NZAID has supported Hollows NZ’s work in the region since 2002. Williams welcomes the opportunity now to work with AusAID as well, providing an opportunity to demonstrate the added impact when governments and NGOs work collaboratively in the Pacific.

Contact:

Nicki Paull
Communications Manager
Tel: 09 304 0772
Mob: 021 398881