South East Asia

Around one third of the world's blind live in South East Asia. As in many parts of the world cataract accounts for around half of all cases and women are at higher risk of being visually impaired than men.

Fred Hollows first visited Vietnam in 1992. At that time around one million Vietnamese people needed cataract surgery and of those people, 350,000 were bilaterally cataract blind.

The Fred Hollows Foundation continued working in Vietnam and then expanded into other countries within the South East Asia region.

Today, The Fred Hollows Foundation works throughout South East Asia to build comprehensive eye care systems at village, district, provincial and national levels. 

  • Arrow link Cambodia
    Photo courtesy of Anthony Maturin The Fred Hollows Foundation first started working in Cambodia in 1998. The current Cambodia-Australia Cataract Blindness Prevention Program aims to strengthen the capacity of eye health personnel to deliver high quality, affordable and sustainable blindness prevention and treatment services.
  • Arrow link China
    Photo courtesy of Hugh Rutherford. Approximately nine million people in China are living with blindness with cataract accounting for 2.5 million cases.The China-Australia Cataract Surgery Training Cooperation Program is now well established within 57 counties of the Jiangxi Province and works to develop a sustainable model of high volume cataract surgery.
  • Arrow link Lao PDR
    Photo courtesy of www.bigfoto.com To help contribute to the reduction of avoidable blindness in Lao PDR The Fred Hollows Foundation is planning to commence a sustainable and comprehensive eye care program in the northern provinces of Oudomxay, Luang Namtha, Bokeo and Phongsaly.
  • Arrow link North Korea
    Photo courtesy of Tilganga Eye Centre Tilganga Eye Centre in Nepal has been working in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea since 2004 with a focus on training doctors and conducting outreach clinics. The Fred Hollows Foundation in Australia will support more clinics in DPR Korea in the future.
  • Arrow link Tibet
    Photo courtesy of www.flickr.com/photos/liz_at_blackrose/ The Fred Hollows Foundation will support the work of Tilganga Eye Centre in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) of China PRC in 2007.
  • Arrow link Vietnam
    Photo courtesy of Sandy Scheltema/The Age Treatment of cataract blindness has come a long way in Vietnam since Fred Hollows first visited Vietnam in 1992. As part of The Fred Hollows Foundation's current Vietnam Blindness Prevention Program, blindness treatment and prevention activities are carried out in the provinces of Binh Dinh, Phu Yen, Quang Nam, Quang Tri and Vinh Long and in Da Nang City.