Tula Ram

"I can see," Tula Ram exclaims excitedly. "I feel like a young boy again!"

Tula Ram can't quite believe his eyes. He's just had his second cataract removed and can see clearly for the first time in over two years. I watch as he empties out the contents of his bag and looks at each item in wonder.

Before his first operation last year Tula was almost completely blind and relied on his wife to do everything for him. He tells me that when he first began developing cataracts it was like the batteries were going down in his eyes.

But today Tula is nothing short of ecstatic. He knows he's not supposed to expose his eye to bright light but when the nurse isn't looking he lifts up the curtain and sneaks a look outside. He is so grateful to have his sight back that he turns to me and asks if I will come to his house for a celebratory lunch.

Tula is one of many patients in Labasa, Fiji, whose lives were transformed by cataract surgery last month.

Tula's distant dream of visiting his children in New Zealand may now become a reality. The restoration of Tula's sight is truly a miracle, yet there is still a huge backlog of patients needing eye care and we urgently need your help.

The Fred Hollows Foundation New Zealand set up the Pacific Eye Institute, a world class training facility in Suva, Fiji, to address the acute shortage of local eye care professionals across the Pacific region. The Foundation is carrying on the work of renowned Kiwi eye surgeon Fred Hollows, training doctors and nurses from around the Pacific to provide high quality eye care in their own communities.

The impact of cataract surgery is nothing short of a miracle but we can't do it without your support.

Labasa's eye clinic has been severely short staffed for years and when I arrived it was overflowing with patients waiting to see a doctor. During the four day outreach the team from the Institute performed 118 sight restoring surgeries - but there is still a huge backlog of patients who desperately need to be seen.

For as little as $25 you can give a life changing gift that makes a real and lasting difference to someone's life. But our work is far from done. It takes so much more than this to train a new generation of doctors and nurses, and we need your help.

Please consider making a gift today.

I look forward to keeping you updated on our progress.

Kind regards,

Liz Phillips
Communications Manager

Photo by Jenna Todd