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Every year on March 8th, we come together to celebrate International Women’s Day, a day dedicated to honouring women’s accomplishments, highlighting the fight against gender discrimination, and championing women’s rights. It provides an opportunity to reflect on the varied experiences of women and girls worldwide and to discuss how we can create an environment where […]

In an exciting new collaboration, The Fred Hollows Foundation NZ (The Foundation) has partnered with the University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG) to offer scholarships for eye doctor training in Papua New Guinea (PNG), a first in the Foundation’s history. This partnership is a vital component of The Foundation’s broader commitment in PNG, most notably […]

A dedicated eye team has officially completed the first-ever Rapid Assessment of Avoidable Blindness (RAAB)7 survey in Vanuatu. The inaugural survey, for adults over 50 years, began on 8 August 2023 and was recently completed in the northern-most Torba Province. The survey was ably led by Ni-Vanuatu ophthalmologist, Dr Johnson Kasso, the Ministry of Health […]

A new Education Pack is here, just in time for the new school year! We are proud to announce the new Education Pack specifically designed for schools, guided by the refreshed progression-focused NZ Curriculum. The Education Pack is tailored for years 5 and 6, 7 and 8 and 9/10. Each pack contains lessons that enable […]

Harry Newman from Motu School in the Gisborne region was recognised for his passion and environmental action at a ceremony this week where he was crowned the Fred Hollows NZ Humanity Award Junior Ambassador. Harry lives in a very rural and isolated spot near the Whinray Reserve – an ecological reserve for Kiwi that reach […]

Last night, the Hon Aupito William Sio, Minister for Pacific Peoples and Minister for Courts, hosted an event at Parliament Buildings to celebrate 30 Years of Restoring Sight. The event acknowledged Pacific eye care and the successes of The Fred Hollows Foundation over the last 30 years, which this year reached a milestone of performing over one million eye […]

In September, the Pacific Outreach Team, based at the Pacific Eye Institute in Fiji, travelled to Savai’i, Samoa to support the Samoan ophthalmologist, Dr Lucilla Ah Ching-Sefo and the Samoan eye care team, in running a surgical outreach. Though Savai’i is the largest island in Samoa, it is home to only a quarter of the […]

The team at the Madang Provincial Hospital Eye Clinic were excited to receive a visit from New Zealand’s High Commissioner to Papua New Guinea, Peter Zwart, last week. This visit demonstrates the strong partnership between New Zealand and Papua New Guinea and the shared commitment to improving access to essential eye care services. High Commissioner […]

On Thursday 12th October our teams across the Pacific celebrated World Sight Day. With a theme to #LoveYourEyes, World Sight Day is about helping people prioritise their eye health and ensuring that eye care is accessible, inclusive and affordable to everyone, everywhere. While our teams do this every day, on World Sight Day in particular, […]

The Samoa Ministry of Health (The Ministry) and The Fred Hollows Foundation NZ (The Foundation) have signed a new five-year partnership agreement, from 2023 – 2028, with the overall goal of reducing avoidable blindness and vision impairment in Samoa. Both organisations have a long-standing successful relationship spanning nearly two decades and have made significant progress […]

The Vanuatu National Eye Centre in Port Vila is celebrating reaching a zero-patient backlog for the first time in several years. This is a massive achievement for the Eye Centre, which back in 2018 had over 400 patients on its backlog waiting to receive eye surgery. The minimisation of the backlog was achieved by a Foundation-supported […]

Last month, eight eye nurses in Madang, Papua New Guinea (PNG), attended the first Advance Refraction and Low Vision (ARLV) course held in the country. Over three weeks, they gained the essential skills needed to prescribe custom-made spectacles and manage complex refractive cases. Refractive errors, which include short-sightedness (myopia), far-sightedness (hyperopia), astigmatism, and presbyopia, are […]