Blindness was taking Blaise's future. Now he can see it clearly.
Seven-year-old Blaise was slowly losing his sight in Rwanda. Blind in one eye and with cataract clouding the other, everyday life was a struggle. Schoolwork was difficult and even simple play became a challenge. His mother, Redempta, worried constantly about his future.
Thanks to the support of people like you, Blaise was brought to Kabgayi Eye Unit, where paediatric ophthalmologist Dr Tuyisabe Theophile performed surgery that restored his sight.
When the patches were lifted, Blaise saw his mother clearly for the first time in months. Redempta could barely contain her tears: “I left with a child who was blind and came back with a child who can see. That child is the future of Rwanda.”
Nine out of ten people who are blind or vision impaired don’t need to be. Your support helps The Fred Hollows Foundation train surgeons, equip hospitals, and expand access to eye care across Rwanda. Together, we can ensure that no one loses their sight unnecessarily.
Restore sight with a tax-deductible gift today.
You can help restore sight to more people like Blaise. Will you make a donation today?
Rwanda’s time has come
Together, we can clear the cataract backlog by 2035 and lay the foundations to end avoidable blindness by 2040.
- Train a larger local eye health workforce
- Bring services closer to communities in rural and regional areas
- Equip and staff eye care units in additional district hospitals
“The Fred Hollows Foundation has supported six ophthalmologists who are now working in provinces with the highest need. There is a lot of work to do, but this is just one example where supporters have improved access to eye health in Rwanda.” — Tiva Kananura, Country Manager, Rwanda
The barriers are real
Many people in Rwanda can’t get the eye care they need, putting them at risk of avoidable blindness.
Restore sight every month
For just $25 a month you can help provide sight saving surgery to a person every month. That’s up to 12 lives changed by you, every year.
Children and adults have limited access to eye care
In 2022, five of the seven hospitals offering regular cataract surgery were in or near Kigali, leaving most rural areas underserved.
Your monthly donation can train an eye surgeon
Rwanda has just 1.7 cataract surgeons per million people, well below the WHO recommendation of 4 per million — highlighting the urgent need to train more specialists.
Since 2006, your support has helped:
Screen 2.6 million people
Expand services from 8 to 22 hospitals
Perform 57,000 cataract surgeries
Train 6 new ophthalmologists
Fred believed good eye health was a right, not a privilege
Fred Hollows believed everyone deserves access to quality eye care. In 1987, he inspired the creation of intraocular lens factories in Eritrea, designed to make sight-restoring surgery affordable across Africa. “We hope that Eritrea will be able to make IOL factories and export them to other African countries at a price they can afford,” he said. He succeeded—these factories continue to produce lenses used in more than 50 countries, giving millions the chance to see again.
“I discovered that one of the most useful things a doctor could do [in Africa] was to take out a cataract.” – Fred Hollows
Today, The Fred Hollows Foundation continues Fred’s vision, training surgeons, strengthening eye health systems, and restoring sight in countries like Rwanda, Ethiopia, and Kenya. Your support helps continue Fred’s legacy and ensures more people can regain independence, pursue education, and reach their potential.
Help train an eye surgeon and keep Fred's promise
Donate NowFrequently asked questions
A monthly donation is the most effective way to support the work of The Foundation. The benefit of giving monthly means that you will save time by donating regularly and your gift will help us plan ahead to be more effective at restoring sight. Monthly donations are powerful and have a multiplier effect, not only restoring one person’s sight, but many more, as it allows us to train doctors, build additional capacity and helps us reach those who no one else can.
Restoring sight changes lives and it can only happen thanks to the generosity of supporters like you.
When you become a monthly donor we will send you:
- A welcome pack in the mail within a few weeks. The welcome pack will contain all the necessary information about your monthly gift.
- Your nominated account or credit card will be debited each month on the 15th or 28th (whichever is closest to your sign up date).
- You will receive regular email updates, sharing stories from the field about patients whose sight you’ve helped restore; medical professionals and programs you have supported; events and activities The Foundation has taken part in; petitions and research relating to eye health.
- At the end of each financial year, we will send a tax receipt with all your donations (donations over $2 are tax-deductible), for you to use for your income tax claim.
We count on your monthly donation to be able to plan ahead and continue to provide support to people living with avoidable blindness in more than 25 countries around the world. When you pledge to donate monthly, you are helping to:
- Train a range of people from community health workers to surgeons who will then go on and train others. It is the ultimate multiplier effect.
- Upgrade and build more medical facilities.
- Conduct eye camps in some of the poorest and most remote communities.
- Invest in innovation and technology that will continue to make eye care services more affordable and available to people living in the most remote parts of developing countries around the world.
- Bring screening programs to schools so that children can get the treatment they need as quickly as possible.
- Keep processing costs to a minimum, keeping administration costs down.
Fred believed that the only way to get on with eliminating avoidable blindness was to break down every barrier in his way and to empower people.
By becoming a monthly donor you are keeping Fred’s work alive and bringing affordable eye care to those who need it most.
Yes, you will receive an email receipt immediately after donating and if you make a monthly gift you will receive a yearly tax receipt in the post every year.
Your donation will be used to restore sight to those who are needlessly blind, and help end avoidable blindness in the countries where we work, which includes eye operations and treatments, training surgeons and eye health workers, and other sustainable eye health.
For every $1 donated, 74.1% goes directly towards eye health programs, 5.2% is necessary for admin costs, and 20.7% goes towards investment in fundraising efforts, which allows us to help even more people in future years.
For one-off donations, we accept Visa, Mastercard, American Express, or PayPal. For monthly donations, you can use Visa, Mastercard, American Express, or direct debit.
You can change how we contact you at any time. Get in touch, email [email protected], call 1800 352 352 or write to us at Supporter Care Team, The Fred Hollows Foundation, Locked Bag 5021, Alexandria NSW 2015.
Please view our Regular Giving Service Agreement here.
