NAIDOC Week - Blackwoods
In 2017, Blackwoods set an ambitious goal – to raise $500,000 in one year for The Fred Hollows Foundation’s Indigenous Australia Program by donating 10% of all sales of Prosafe branded eye and face protection products and related accessories.
To Blackwoods, a partnership with The Fred Hollows Foundation made sense. As a leading supplier of safety and industry consumables, eye health and safety is a core part of the business.
Increasing engagement with Indigenous Australians is also a key priority for Blackwoods. The business constantly strives to build strong ties and business engagement with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community by working with suppliers, contractors, service providers and customers to ensure that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples feel welcome in its business as team members, customers, suppliers and citizens.
In 2019, this partnership has grown from strength to strength and in July at their annual NAIDOC week celebrations, Blackwoods presented a cheque for $685,000 to The Fred Hollows Foundation.
To acknowledge this incredible support, Shaun Tatipata, Manager of the Indigenous Australia Program for The Fred Hollows Foundation, gifted Blackwoods a piece of artwork by a celebrated indigenous artist - Long John Dewar. Long John is the resident artist at Nitmiluk (Katherine) Gorge. Having already lost the use of his right eye, Long John was faced with a daunting reality: the loss of vision in his left. Long John was advised to attend an ‘intensive’ surgery day in Darwin facilitated and funded by The Fred Hollows Foundation. The day after his surgery, Long John returned to Katherine, excited to see his paintings more clearly than he had in years.
Shaun Tatipata said 94% of vision loss in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians was preventable or treatable but, 35% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians have never had an eye test. Thanks to partners such as Blackwoods, The Foundation is keeping up Fred’s fight against this inequity - and The Foundation is making real progress in addressing the eye health gap experienced by Indigenous Australians.
The Foundation thanks Blackwoods for its ongoing commitment to this important work and looks forward to growing the partnership for years to come.