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🚨 Urgent: A global donor has pledged US$10 million to help end avoidable blindness, but only if we can match it before December 31 2025.
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Together for sight: Help unlock the biggest matched donation in our history

A global donor has pledged US$10 million to help end avoidable blindness, but only if we can match it before 31 December 2025.

This isn’t a typical matched giving offer—it’s a global challenge to ignite people power and accelerate the fight against avoidable blindness.

We urgently need your support to help release this transformative funding so, together, we can bring sight and hope to people who are needlessly blind.

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This Christmas, you have the power to help unlock one of the most extraordinary opportunities in The Fred Hollows Foundation’s history. 

The Foundation is working in partnership with Cure Blindness Project to respond to an incredible offer from a generous anonymous donor, inviting others to join them in accelerating global progress toward ending avoidable blindness.  

The donor has set a target. If together we can raise US$10 million in donations by 31 December 2025, the donor will match every dollar raised.

Their vision is to ignite a movement: inspiring people everywhere to come together and help bring sight, dignity, and opportunity to people around the world who are needlessly blind. By joining this global effort, your gift becomes part of something much bigger—a powerful collective push to end avoidable blindness once and for all.

Here in Hong Kong, our goal is to raise HK$300,000 as part of this global effort. Every dollar donated by 31 December will help unlock this extraordinary match, doubling the impact of your gift and allowing us to reach twice as many people with sight-restoring care.

But time is running out. If we fall short of our goal, we risk losing this once-in-a-generation opportunity to secure the full US$10 million, and thousands could be left waiting for help.

With your support, we can meet this challenge, unlock this transformational funding, and move closer to ending avoidable blindness for good. 

Your donation in action

Your donation will help restore sight to people living with avoidable blindness across the 25+ countries where The Fred Hollows Foundation works. Funds support life-changing surgeries and treatments, training for surgeons and local eye health workers, outreach programs to reach communities in need, and essential equipment for clinics and hospitals. 

By supporting these programs, your gift helps build stronger local health systems, train the next generation of eye care professionals, and give thousands of people the chance to see — creating lasting change for communities around the world. 

All she wanted was to see her children’s faces—but for three years, she lived in darkness

Lien is a 38-year-old mother of two from northern Laos. For three long years, cataract blindness left her unable to work, care for her children, or even recognise the faces she loved most. “I feel frustrated. I want to do things for my children but I cannot do it. I am depressed, angry. I want the best for myself and my family but I cannot do the best for them,” she said.

Thanks to generous supporters, Lien received cataract surgery through an outreach eye camp. When the bandages were removed, she could see her son clearly for the first time—even noticing a tiny mosquito bite on his forehead. “I said, ‘Mum has completed her surgery,’ and she said, ‘Oh, my mum will be able to see me,’” her daughter shared.

Donate now and change a life forever.

 

FAQs

The Fred Hollows Foundation is working in partnership with Cure Blindness Project (which was co-founded by Dr Sanduk Ruit) to help respond to an offer from a generous anonymous donor, inviting other donors to join them in accelerating our progress towards eliminating avoidable blindness.

If together we can raise a total of US$10 million in donations by 31 December 2025, the generous donor has pledged to match funds.

As part of this wonderful opportunity, The Foundation is asking kind supporters like you to help meet this challenge by donating this Christmas. In Hong Kong, our specific fundraising goal is HK$300,000, which will contribute to the global target and help unlock the match.

Because of the size of the gift, this campaign is running for longer than normal, giving everyone an opportunity to have their gift matched and their impact doubled.    

The Foundation has never seen a matching gift of this size, and this donor has challenged The Foundation and Cure Blindness Project to reach this ambitious goal and fund more eye health services for those who need access. 

This generous donor has requested privacy and asked to remain anonymous. They have supported The Fred Hollows Foundation’s work in the past and share our belief that everyone, everywhere, deserves access to quality eye care.   

Through this campaign, the donor is inviting others to join them by matching their gift to help ignite a global movement for sight — amplifying their impact and restoring vision for even more people in need.  

If we collectively reach the US$10 million fundraising target, every donation made by 31 December will be matched — doubling your impact.

As part of this global challenge, The Fred Hollows Foundation Hong Kong has been invited to contribute HK$300,000 toward the overall fundraising goal. This forms part of The Foundation’s commitment to help unlock the full match. However if we can surpass this target then that will go towards the global total.

No. All funds raised will help us restore sight for people in need — a worthwhile outcome even if the match is not reached. We hope you consider The Foundation’s work worthy of your support.

Cure Blindness Project is a not-for-profit based in the United States, co-founded by Dr Sanduk Ruit, previously known as the Himalayan Cataract Project. The Foundation has worked with Cure Blindness Project in the past with great results.  

Dr Ruit was trained by Fred Hollows himself, and he is the Founder and Executive Director of the Tilganga Institute of Ophthalmology in Kathmandu, Nepal. He is a long-time ally and friend of The Fred Hollows Foundation.

Dr Ruit has personally performed more than 120,000 cataract operations as at 2018.

An investment of this size could help eliminate the cataract backlog and end avoidable blindness in Laos within five years. It could also provide up to half the total funding needed to halve the cataract burden in Ethiopia by the end of 2026, while supporting efforts to eliminate trachoma and strengthen eye health systems affected by USAID funding cuts and global conflict.  

Together, this level of support could change the future for hundreds of thousands of people by ensuring they receive the eye care they need. 

We are hopeful the campaign target will be achieved to unlock this transformative funding, but there is a chance that if we don’t reach the target, the donations will not be matched. The generous donor wants to maximise their impact which in turn maximises your impact.  

Be assured, whether we reach the target or not, every donation will help ensure people who are needlessly blind have their sight restored, so there is no downside. We’ll keep supporters updated as the campaign progresses.  

Yes, you will receive a receipt within 2 weeks after donating. If you make a monthly gift, you will receive an annual donation receipt in April. 

Yes, donations of HK$100 and over are tax deductible in Hong Kong.

If you would like to update your donation details, please contact us at [email protected], call or WhatsApp us at +852 3614 6240.  

We accept Visa, Mastercard, American Express, or UnionPay. You may also donate via bank transfer, cheque, FPS, PayMe or the AlipayHK mobile app. 

You can change how we contact you at any time. Get in touch, email [email protected]call or WhatsApp us at +852 3614 6240. 

Please view our privacy notification statement here. 

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