Every minute, someone in Indonesia goes blind from avoidable causes
Cataracts and poor access to eye care mean too many people lose their sight unnecessarily. Your gift can help restore sight for someone in need and change their life.
Not enough eye specialists
Indonesia has around 2,372 ophthalmologists for a population of more than 287.5 million people, and most are concentrated in Java and Bali. Supporting the training of local eye health workers is essential to reaching communities that would otherwise miss out on care.
Poverty limits access to care
Many people cannot afford travel, treatment, or time away from work. In poorer provinces, limited services mean blindness often forces people to rely on family members for even the most basic daily tasks.
There is a large cataract backlog
Cataract remains the leading cause of avoidable blindness in Indonesia. In provinces such as West Nusa Tenggara, tens of thousands of people are still on waiting lists, hoping to receive treatment. Although the number of cataract surgeries increases each year, the backlog remains high, and thousands continue to miss out on the care they need.
The moment Suharni saw her family again
Thanks to a cataract surgery week at her local hospital, supported by The Foundation, Suharni had surgery that took less than half an hour.
When her eye patches were removed, her joy was overwhelming.
“He is the most beautiful man. I have not seen him for three years,” she said of her husband.
She looked at her grandchildren, some for the first time, and couldn’t stop smiling. Every face she saw was a reminder of the life she had nearly missed.
This life-changing moment was made possible because people chose to give generously. Your act of charity can bring light into someone’s life.
Fred’s vision lives on
Fred Hollows believed in training people to create lasting change. “Teach the teachers first. Then the teachers can teach others,” he famously said.
9 out of 10 people who are blind or vision impaired don’t need to be. Many people stay needlessly blind because they live in poverty. In low-income countries, blindness denies people education, independence, and the ability to work—opportunities that can break the poverty cycle. But all this can be changed with as little as $25 in some countries.
The Fred Hollows Foundation, works in more than 25 countries and has restored sight to over three million people worldwide. This couldn’t have been achieved without the overwhelming support of the Australian public. We’re as determined now as ever to end avoidable blindness.
By supporting The Fred Hollows Foundation, you can help train the next generation of eye health workers, extending care to more people in need.
More than 30 years after The Foundation began, Fred’s vision lives on in Indonesia through doctors like Dr Sriana Wulansari. In Central Lombok, Dr Wulansari and her team restored the sight of over 300 patients during a single cataract outreach, including Suharni. Over six weeks, more than 1,500 people in the region had their sight restored, many after years on waiting lists.
Today, she leads a program training nurses and community doctors, helping ensure eye care reaches people in need long into the future.
Give back by helping those in need. Give the gift of sight today.
Give NowFrequently asked questions
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.
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.
Yes, donations of $2 and over are tax deductible in Australia.
You can update your details on our Donor Update Form. Or, you can get in touch and someone on our Sydney-based Supporter Care Team will be able to help you.
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.
In recent years, The Foundation reevaluated our program costs for small incision cataract surgery to ensure the $25 cost remained accurate. This evaluation showed that it remains possible to restore sight for as little as $25 in many of our program countries, including Pakistan, Bangladesh and Cambodia.
Our assessment showed IOL costs start from as little as $4 in Pakistan, about $6 in Cambodia, and about $14 in Bangladesh.
The other key costs are the surgeon’s time (which is less than $1.50 per patient in those three countries) and consumable equipment (as little as $5.46).
So with the cost of the IOL, the surgeon and the consumables it is possible that The Foundation can restore sight for as little as $25 in some countries.
We acknowledge that not all surgeries in all countries are as little as $25. The cost of surgery depends on factors including the country of treatment, the age and circumstances of the patient, how and where the treatment is delivered, the type of procedure, the IOL used, the hospital type (government or private), the facilities of the hospital, inpatient or day procedure delivery mechanisms, and the economic status of people in the country or region.
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.
