Beneficiaries

In 2003, 79 year old Lasela Polevia, made the long journey from her village in Savaii, Samoa to receive sight restoring treatment from Dr Mau Imo, who is the country's only eye doctor.

The hospital in Apia provides eye care for Samoa's 200,000 people and leaves Dr Imo little time to deliver services in the rural areas where they are most desperately needed.

To get to Apia Lasela had to take three bus trips and a ferry ride, which she did eleven times for pre and post-operative check ups. The result for Lasela was restored sight.

Currently many countries in the Pacific region have inadequate eye care services, with very few trained eye care nurses, limited equipment and populations which cannot readily access the limited number of eye clinics.

The lack of available services in the Pacific is directly impacting upon the increased prevalence of blindness, which is in turn having a severe economic impact on regional communities.