Of the 13,500 people living with blindness in Timor-Leste, an estimated 70% are blind due to cataract. A further 40,000 people have poor vision that affects their daily life.

The country is one of the poorest in the world, with 40% of people living on less than US 55 cents a day. Decades of civil unrest have led to an acute shortage of health personnel, including appropriately trained eye health workers. There is just one eye surgeon to address the entire population's surgical needs.

The Fred Hollows Foundation NZ has joined with the Ministry of Health of Timor-Leste to develop the country's first ever National Eye Health Strategy and to oversee the implementation of a national eye health and blindness prevention program.

The Foundation is also working with a local NGO, Fo Naroman Timor-Leste (Give Sight Timor-Leste), to provide good quality, affordable spectacles, to improve eye services to rural populations and to help communities get better access to eye health services.

The aim of the program is to establish a sustainable national eye health program which provides high quality, appropriate services that address the major causes of avoidable blindness and low vision, including cataract and refractive error.

Find out more about this program