The Fred Hollows Foundation is proud to partner with businesses that share our commitment to Reconciliation and equity for Australia’s First Peoples.
This National Reconciliation Week, we celebrate three of our partners who make our work possible to close the gap in eye health for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.
Specsavers has partnered with The Fred Hollows Foundation since 2011 and shares the vision that everyone deserves access to high quality and affordable eye care and eyewear. Being an optical retailer, as well as the nation’s leading eye health provider, this partnership is the perfect example of a business taking responsibility within its own sector.
The Specsavers Community Program raises significant funds for The Foundation, with their stores across Australia donating a portion of their glasses sales to help improve the eye health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.
Specsavers not only supports our work financially, but also through eye health equipment donations to support Aboriginal Health Services and a skilled volunteering program that gives their optometrists the opportunity to give back to remote and under-serviced communities in Australia by providing eye care services.
Blackwoods is Australia’s leading provider of industrial safety products and services with branches located across Australia.
Since 2008, they have been a major partner of The Fred Hollows Foundation, supporting our work in Australia. This partnership reinforces Blackwoods’, and their parent company Wesfarmers’, strong commitment to reconciliation and increasing opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander team members, suppliers, contractors and the broader community.
By donating a percentage of sales from their Prosafe Eye & Face Protection products, Blackwoods has donated almost $3 million to restoring sight and transforming lives.
Their customers are delighted to learn that not only are they receiving comfortable, high-quality Prosafe safety products, but that a percentage of their purchase is going directly to help close the gap in eye health experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.
HSBC Bank Australia and The Fred Hollows Foundation have partnered since 2015 with a shared commitment to eliminate a painful and blinding eye disease, trachoma. Australia is the only developed country to still have this condition, which is a disease of poverty and disadvantage, occurring in pockets where living conditions are crowded, water is scarce, and sanitation is inadequate.
Over the past six years, HSBC donated more than $1.38 million to The Foundation’s work to end trachoma in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
This game-changing investment funded 8,000 screenings and the distribution of more than 3,200 doses of antibiotics for trachoma. HSBC also supported 1,892 eye treatments and interventions including surgery for advanced trachoma. 47 Aboriginal Community-based Health Workers were also trained. They are instrumental in providing localised, culturally responsive primary eye care to their communities.
Together, we have reduced the overall rates of trachoma in at-risk communities in Central Australia, from 21% in 2008 to 4.5% in 2020.
COVER PHOTO CREDIT: Daniel Jesus Vignolli