Our year
at a glance

When I look at what Team Fred has achieved in 2021, all I can say is how incredibly proud I am of everyone in the organisation. In a year that again presented global challenges, our team rose above and pushed closer to our goal of working to end avoidable blindness and vision impairment in the Pacific. Despite the COVID-19 disruptions, in 2021 Team Fred reached the remarkable milestone of performing over one million consultations throughout the Pacific since we began working in the region - an extraordinary feat which has far-reaching consequences for the overall eye health of the region. Yet there is still more to do.

I would like to take a moment to talk about the work our team has been doing in Papua New Guinea (PNG). With the highest rate of blindness and low-vision in the Pacific, it is a strong focus for The Foundation moving forward, and in 2021 some impressive progress was made. An important milestone was achieved when an agreement was signed to commence the development of a proposed Centre of Excellence for Eye Health - a facility that will train eye specialists and provide enhanced eye care services. The signing was attended by key partners including PNG and NZ government representatives and the PNG National Department of Health. Work then progressed to design the facility, with an agreed concept design completed by the end of the year.

Also during 2021, our team commenced working with the PNG Government, eye health partners and stakeholders throughout PNG to support the development of a long-term roadmap for eye care. This process will inform the further strengthening of the eye care sector in PNG over the next 10-20 years in order to address the country's significant levels of avoidable blindness and vision impairment.

Leading this work, and all The Foundation's work throughout the Pacific, was Dr Audrey Aumua in her first year as Chief Executive Officer of The Fred Hollows Foundation NZ. Dr Aumua has successfully cemented her position in many ways, including deepening and broadening relationships across the Pacific and working on a new strategy to effectively guide Team Fred in taking the next crucial steps in delivering eye care in the Pacific.

On behalf of all of Team Fred I would especially like to acknowledge and thank two of my fellow trustees who have recently left The Foundation's Board. Long-serving trustee, Debbie Sorensen, who had been on the Board since 2012, and Professor Charles McGhee who joined in 2019. Both trustees selflessly shared their skills and wealth of knowledge, providing an invaluable contribution to the direction of The Foundation. I am also delighted that we have welcomed onto our Board Meg Poutasi, Chief of Strategy at Auckland District Health Board, who also brings with her a vast array of valuable experience.

Finally, I would like to offer my heartfelt thanks to all those who support us at The Fred Hollows Foundation NZ to enable us to do our mahi. Your support is truly appreciated. It is also making a positive difference.

As I reflect on the events of 2021 and my first year of serving Team Fred, I cannot help but feel an immense sense of pride in the determination and resilience of the team and our community of supporters, partners, government representatives, universities, departments and ministries of health, and the health workforce.

While managing lockdowns, weather events and the omnipresent threat of COVID-19, with your support our Pacific teams continued to deliver outreaches to remote communities and found innovative ways of helping those with urgent eye care needs, despite necessary restrictions and surgical space being redeployed to help with the COVID-19 response. Our teams also focused on a growing area of work - eye care education - with ophthalmic staff joining telemedicine programmes and community education events to help slow the growth in preventable eye conditions.

Our Pacific neighbours though are reeling from the financial and economic impacts of over two years without tourism and labour movement, alongside the growing burden of the COVID-19 response and mitigating climate change impacts that continue to increase in magnitude. These factors have affected us too with COVID-19 lockdowns, shipping disruptions and a second year of closed borders meaning that planned outreaches, surgeries and programmes have been deferred. Thousands of individuals, families and communities are still awaiting sight-saving treatment.

Along with daily responsibilities, eye care teams across the Pacific region are working harder and smarter to get eye care to those who need it. It won’t be easy. That is why, with your help, we will be working harder too to help our Pacific neighbours rebuild and, in particular, increase our support to government health systems through our Future Fred strategic approach.

We have reallocated planned 2021 spend towards doubling down on outreaches and surgeries, training more eye doctors and nurses, and supporting the hardworking eye care workforce across the Pacific region with mentoring and equipment to help them meet the ever-increasing need. We will also work alongside Pacific governments to ensure that delivering eye care remains a key systems and policy consideration within the post COVID-19 rebuild.

It’s not until you’re under pressure that you understand the strength and resilience of a team. A team of which you are a valued member. The challenges have not ceased; however, I move forward with absolute assurance that we have the right team and capability to continue Fred’s legacy through the most difficult of times. If we can do that, we are well poised for supporting our partners during this difficult time.

Finally, I would like to take a moment to acknowledge the passing of a passionate member of Team Fred – Eileen Tugum, our much-loved PNG Country Manager. Eileen was instrumental in cementing The Foundation’s relationship with the PNG government, and a key proponent of initial planning for the proposed Centre of Excellence for Eye Health. But it was Eileen’s personal warmth and good nature, combined with her positive spirit that impacted everyone she encountered the most. Despite our great sorrow at losing Eileen, we are all so much the better for knowing her.

As a medical doctor my whole reason for being is to prevent illness and to get people well. Furthermore, as an eye surgeon, my focus is to do everything in my power to prevent avoidable blindness. That is what drives the nearly 300 eye doctors and nurses I work with in seven countries across the Pacific. As our countries put necessary measures in place to battle COVID-19, including diverting resources, we knew it was the right thing to do. But as eye doctors and nurses we have seen the lines of people needing sight-saving surgeries grow and grow over the past two years, and that is hard to stomach.

But we’re not the sort of people to sit on our hands. We worked with our departments and ministries of health to agree standard operating procedures so we could safely continue to deliver eye services whenever possible. We went on outreaches whenever we could, completing 88 in 2021. And we changed how we trained our student eye doctors and nurses so they could study from their home country.

We also worked closely with government departments to support the strengthening of health systems for eye health and, given that due to COVID-19 we couldn’t do as many outreaches as we would have liked, we took the opportunity to focus on clinical training, safety, and governance - improving clinical systems and enhancing regional collaboration.

I am immensely proud of the 15 eye doctors and nurses who graduated in 2021. Earning a post-graduate medical qualification is the culmination of a great deal of work and sacrifice. To achieve that during a global pandemic is nothing short of incredible. These graduates join the growing team of local eye doctors and nurses working in seven Pacific countries. In a typical outreach, as one person, I can safely conduct 25 eye surgeries per day for five days a week. But as a team we could help thousands of people regain their sight. With your help I continue to support our dedicated, determined eye care team with advice, equipment, protective clothing and procedures, as they work towards ending avoidable blindness and vision impairment in our part of the world. It’s not the easiest work in the world some days, but when we see a person’s face light up as they see their spouse for the first time in many years, or a child seeing their parents for the first time, we know it is the best.