Photo courtesy of The Fred Hollows Foundation

How it Started

“I think that we will be creating a precedent in international ophthalmology. It goes to show that everyone has a right to sight...Fred was a person who didn’t believe in double standards. This is a fabulous place to show the world that we can do it. International prevention of blindness will never go backwards and I feel very proud that I’m part of that” - Gabi Hollows, at the opening of Tilganga Eye Centre in 1994

In 1980 a national Prevention of Blindness Program was established in Nepal after a survey found that more than 400,000 people were suffering from blindness throughout the country and that 80% of cases were treatable.

Dr Sanduk Ruit, now the Medical Director of the Tilganga Institute of Ophthalmology, was playing a significant role in treating avoidable blindness but there was a frustration at the lack of equipment and training available, as it was hindering the efforts being made to facilitate cataract operations.

Fred Hollows and Dr Ruit met in the mid-1980s and Ruit later came to Australia for a year to train and live with Fred. Ruit was both Fred’s protégé and friend. Both men were driven to overcome the obstacles of providing high quality eye care to people in Nepal.

In 1988, the Nepal Eye Program Australia (NEPA) was established by Ruit, Fred and Gabi Hollows, Tim Macartney-Snape and other friends and colleagues - with the aim of supporting Nepal’s Prevention of Blindness Program.

A major obstacle in Nepal was the high cost of supplies needed for cataract operations. As a solution, plans were made to build a laboratory in Kathmandu that would produce intraocular lenses for use in modern cataract surgery.

When The Fred Hollows Foundation was established in 1992, NEPA came under The Foundation’s umbrella and a program began to establish a Fred Hollows Intraocular Lens Laboratory in Kathmandu. A similar laboratory was constructed at the same time in Asmara, Eritrea.

NEPA, which had become an active support group for Nepal, also began raising funds for the establishment of a Surgicentre in Kathmandu. NEPA was eventually able to equip the Surgicentre with modern operating equipment and also provide both staff and surgical consumables for its first two years of operation. Additional funding for both the IOL laboratory and the Surgicentre came from other local and international sources.

Led by Dr Sanduk Ruit as the Medical Director, Tilganga Eye Centre was opened in 1994, just one year after Fred Hollows died.

At the Centre’s opening ceremony, which was officially attended by His Majesty, the late King Birendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev and 400 guests, Gabi Hollows was witness to her late husband’s dream finally being fulfilled.

The newly extended Tilganga Institute of Ophthalmology now comprises the Surgicentre, the Fred Hollows Intraocular Lens Laboratory and an Eye Bank for the storage of donated corneas. 

In addition to these on-site facilities, the team at Tilganga conduct outreach clinics and have
established permanent Community Eye Centres (CECs) in remote areas of Nepal.

As a leading Centre for excellence, Tilganga is today internationally renowned for its results in treating avoidable blindness throughout Nepal and in other developing countries.