Current Projects

The Fred Hollows Foundation NZ has been working in Timor-Leste since 2005.  At that time we worked with the Ministry of Health to develop the country’s first National Eye Health Strategy and to build the capacity of the Ministry to implement the national eye health and blindness prevention program.

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, namely cataract and refractive error.

Our achievements over this time include:

Training Eye Care Workers

  • In partnership with the Ministry of Health, The Fred Hollows Foundation NZ has established the first accredited in-country eye health training program - a one-year Diploma of Eye Care at the National Institute of Health Sciences. The course covers the diagnosis and treatment of common eye problems.
  • Six nurses graduated in August 2008; a further 12 will commence training in October 2009.  At the completion of this course in June 2010, each district in Timor-Leste will have a qualified eye care nurse and equipped eye clinic.
  • The Diploma of Eye Care has been specifically developed to meet the eye health needs and health system environment in Timor-Leste. It is a very practical course, that is also designed to build the capacity of Timorese trainers of the future.

Establishing eye clinics

  • In March 2008 The Foundation established four eye clinics at Ministry of Health rural health centres - one in each of Baucau, Ermera, Maubisse and Same. 
  • Additional clinics will be established when more nurses are trained next year, with a target of at least one clinic in each of the 13 districts.

Delivering eye surgical services

  • With at least 2,000 new cataract cases and only a few hundred surgeries performed last year, Hollows NZ has recruited and trained Timor-Leste’s first permanent surgical services team this year. This team will be offering eye surgical services at Baucau Hospital and from a temporary OT facility in Dili from September 2009. 
  • Hollows NZ hopes to begin work on a National Eye Centre [link to article] that will include a dedicated eye surgery and outpatient clinics before year-end; bringing the goal of 40 cataract surgeries a week closer to reality
  • The team will be supported by a Community Services team, that will work in rural districts to identify and transport rural patients for surgery.

Support to Ministry of Health for implementation of the National Eye Health Strategy 

FHFNZ has been working with the Ministry of Health since July 2007 to:

  1. Establish and build the capacity of a dedicated Eye Health Unit within the Ministry of Health to oversee the implementation of the National Eye Health Strategy;
  2. Develop an appropriate policy framework aimed at improving regulation, coordination, monitoring and equity of eye care;
  3. Work with all eye health workers providing services in Timor-Leste to ensure the uptake of policies so that the quality of eye care improves.

Supporting local NGO Fo Naroman Timor-Leste

The Foundation has been working with local eye health NGO Fo Naroman Timor-Leste (FNTL) since 2006 to help build its capacity to implement community based eye care activities including:

  • Delivering outreach vision screening and refraction services throughout Timor-Leste;
  • Making spectacles to service the National Spectacle Program, which has dispensed approximately 20,000 spectacles since it commenced in 2003
  • Undertake further capacity building in technical and managerial skills
  • Developing Information Education and Communication materials and community-based eye health promotion programs;
  • Advocating for eye care in Timor-Leste.

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