Today we celebrate the life and legacy of our founder and legendary Kiwi eye doctor, Professor Fred Hollows.
Fred made his name working on the frontline of eye health. He went where the need was greatest, created innovative ways to deliver surgery, and worked tirelessly to restore sight.
But being on the frontline wasn’t Fred’s only view for the future. He believed communities and governments should work together to tackle avoidable blindness.
He also firmly believed there should always be three people in a room: a teacher, a student and a patient. He believed in passing on his knowledge, his skills and his humanity.
That belief still guides our work today, and it’s reflected in people like Dr Mundi Qoqonokana.
Trained through a Foundation-supported programme, Dr Mundi graduated as an eye doctor with a Master of Ophthalmology in 2009. Since then, he’s restored sight to thousands of people across the Pacific, including patients like Zaydan, whose world was transformed with a simple cataract operation.
“People ask me why I work such long hours,” Dr Mundi says. “I tell them it’s because I find it so rewarding. I do the operation today, and tomorrow I know I will have the reward of seeing families hugging and smiling and crying with joy.”
Dr Mundi’s impact doesn’t stop with restoring sight. He now plays a key role in training the next generation of Pacific eye health workers, passing on the skills and knowledge that Fred valued so deeply.
“When I first started, there was only a handful of us that were able to provide cataract services to the people of the Pacific” Dr Mundi recalls. At the time, they relied heavily on visiting teams to help meet the demand for eye care services. But once those teams left, there was no one available to follow up with patients. Most complications happen in the week after surgery, yet the ongoing care that patients needed simply wasn’t possible.
“Now we have eye doctors in nearly each major Pacific Island country, the bigger ones. Solomons, Vanuatu, Samoa, Fiji, they have eye doctors now. The dependency on visiting teams is going down now because our local people are taking up that role in providing eye care services for the people of the Pacific.”
This is the ripple effect of Fred’s vision.
Not just restoring sight— but providing ongoing, sustainable access to quality eye care.
Not just helping one patient—but transforming entire eye care systems.
Not just looking back at Fred’s legacy—but carrying it forward.
