Vanuatu National Eye Centre

In 2001, recognising the urgent need for eye care services in Vanuatu, we partnered with the Vanuatu Ministry of Health to launch the country’s first national eye care programme and open the National Eye Centre in Port Vila.

By 2018, the demand for eye care had grown significantly, and the existing facility could no longer keep up. To address this, in collaboration with the Vanuatu Ministry of Health, we undertook a $2.5 million upgrade and expansion of the National Eye Centre. Officially reopened in February 2019, the upgraded facility has transformed eye care delivery in Vanuatu.

The Centre now provides dedicated treatment rooms for diabetes eye disease, a fully equipped operating theatre, and additional resources to improve patient care. This upgrade, along with the return of Dr Johnson Kasso, Vanuatu’s first Foundation-trained eye doctor, has dramatically increased the country’s surgical capacity from 200 to 800 procedures annually, meeting the World Health Organization’s target surgical rate for eliminating avoidable blindness.