OUR ACHIEVEMENTS
Over the last 27 years, The Fred Hollows Foundation has supported the Vietnamese Government in developing a Comprehensive Eye Health model to strengthen eye health services across 20 provinces.
The Foundation has trained eye health workers, provided critical equipment and infrastructure development, and supported the delivery of more than 102,000 cataract surgeries.
Through nearly three decades of supporting the eye health sector in Vietnam, The Fred Hollows Foundation has developed and nurtured close relationships with key partners, including the Ministry of Health, the Vietnam National Eye Hospital, the Ophthalmology Association, key ophthalmic service providers, and international eye health non-governmental organizations.
The Foundation's Vietnam Country Strategy has four clear goals:
Goal 1: Effective cataract treatment is accessible to all in Vietnam
Goal 2: Effective refractive error prevention and treatment is accessible in Vietnam
Goal 3: Diabetic retinopathy can be prevented and detected early in Vietnam
Goal 4: Trachoma is eliminated in Vietnam
Our history in Vietnam
A year before his death, Professor Fred Hollows made a promise that would end up restoring sight to hundreds of thousands of people in Vietnam.
When he visited in the early 1990s, he found a team of keen eye surgeons who lacked the skills or equipment to undertake modern cataract surgery. Just months before his death, Fred returned to Vietnam to make good his promise to conduct the first training course for over 300 surgeons.
Sadly, Fred died before he could fulfil his other promise of providing surgical equipment and supplies. However, The Foundation fulfilled this on his behalf, and we’ve been working in Vietnam ever since. We have now trained more than 1000 surgeons and contributed to significantly reducing the backlog of people waiting for cataract surgery.