The Pacific

The Pacific region has a relatively small population of nearly eight million people. From Papua New Guinea in the west through to the Cook Islands in the east, the population is scattered across remote islands where there is often very limited access to health services.

Over 80,000 Pacific people are blind and up to 250,000 suffer significant vision loss. Four out of five people could have their condition treated, if the services were available and accessible, and there were sufficient eye doctors and nurses to treat them.

In 2002, The Fred Hollows Foundation NZ commenced the Pacific Regional Blindness Prevention Program to tackle avoidable blindness in the Pacific. Most recently, The Foundation has opened the Pacific Eye Institute, a regional training centre for Pacific eye doctors, nurses and technicians. This important initiative, the first in the region, will also provide on-going support to graduating doctors and nurses when they return to their home countries to restore sight.

Together with the Pacific Regional Blindness Program, The Fred Hollows Foundation NZ coordinates multi-level programs in Papua New Guinea and Timor-Leste.

  • Arrow link Papua New Guinea
    Photo courtesy of Ben Bohane/South Irian Productions Papua New Guinea, with a population of nearly 6 million, is one of the world’s poorest countries, with half its people living on less than $1 per day. It is estimated that throughout Papua New Guinea there are 50,000 people who are affected by blindness, around 70% of whom are cataract blind.
  • Arrow link Timor-Leste
    Eight years after independence, Timor-Leste remains the poorest country in South East Asia and is ranked among the ten poorest countries in the world. One person in five over the age of 40 has some form of vision impairment, caused primarily by cataract and the need for spectacles.
  • Arrow link Pacific Region
    Photo courtesy of Sandy Scheltema. In 2002, The Fred Hollows Foundation NZ commenced the Pacific Regional Blindness Prevention Program to tackle avoidable blindness in the Pacific. The program, which primarily focuses on the development of human resources and infrastructure to effect long term change, covers all countries of the Pacific including Vanuatu, Fiji, the Cook Islands, Tuvalu, Samoa, the Solomon Islands and Niue. A new regional training centre, The Pacific Eye Institute, has recently been established in Suva Fiji.