A world in which no person is needlessly blind or vision impaired.
We work to end avoidable blindness and vision impairment in the Pacific.
We advocate for the right of all people to high-quality and affordable eye care.
We strive for eye care to be locally-led and accessible to all. In doing this we continue Fred’s legacy.
Anshika Prasad is a recent graduate of the Pacific Eye Institute and recipient of the Fred Hollows Award for her achievements as a student. In 2022, she joined the eye care workforce as a nurse.
“It has been an amazing journey working with Team Fred. Coming from being a general nurse and doing my postgraduate in eye care has made me realise how important eye care is for any individual,” she said. “A lot of eye care services were put on hold during the pandemic. I saw my employment as an opportunity to serve the people of Fiji and the Pacific in such a difficult time. I have always believed the words of Professor Fred Hollows, that nobody should be needlessly blind. They have been the driving force for me to continue this good work.”
Future Fred has been developed to chart The Foundation’s voyage with Pacific island countries over the next 10 years as we support ongoing efforts to strengthen and integrate eye health within overall health systems. Our collective goal is Pacific people are benefitting from their own sustainable and resilient quality eye health systems. Although Future Fred is a 10-year Strategy, The Foundation is on a multi-generational journey to ultimately end avoidable blindness and vision impairment, particularly given growing rates of vision loss in the Pacific.
The Foundation’s work with its donors, governments and other partners over the past 20 years has enabled the development of quality eye health services in numerous countries across the Pacific. This has been possible through the establishment of specialised eye health qualifications delivered by Pacific universities, which has led to the training of 353 eye doctors, ophthalmic nurses, and clinicians, of which 65% are female. Currently, just under 80% of this total trained workforce delivers eye care across 13 countries. In total, they have delivered more than 88,000 eye surgeries and 1.1 million eye consultations with our support.
These achievements, together with our learnings, set the platform for our 10-year Future Fred Strategy. In developing our new strategy, we facilitated over 100 consultations with over 50 partners and stakeholders in the Pacific that included our own staff, ministries of health, academic institutions, NGOs, disability groups, development partners, and regional organisations. This enabled us to develop a strategy that ultimately has our partners’ aspirations at the heart of it, reflected in our strategic Ambitions:
To advance these Ambitions, we will focus our work on five Strategic Pathways: capability strengthening, partnership & collaboration, equity and inclusion, innovation, and research & advocacy.
Our work to support the delivery of sustainable quality eye health services that are embedded in Pacific countries’ eye health systems remains the cornerstone of our work. With the generous support of our donors, we will continue to work in partnership with Pacific Island countries and training institutions to ensure the ongoing development of a representative eye health workforce that meets the needs of Pacific people today and into the future.
If you want to know more about Future Fred or receive a copy of the full document, please email futurefred@hollows.nz.