Who We Are

The Fred Hollows Foundation

The Fred Hollows Foundation is an independent, not-for-profit, politically unaligned, and secular international development organization. We work in more than 25 countries to help train and empower local eye doctors, nurses and health workers to create a sustainable system of care in the communities that need it most. We also provide equipment, fund research, and support advocacy to improve eye health.  

We are inspired by the life and work of our founder, the late Professor Fred Hollows, who was an internationally acclaimed eye surgeon, humanitarian, and an activist for social justice. Fred championed the right of all people to high-quality and affordable eye care and good health.
 

Fred firmly believed in teaching, supporting and empowering people to help themselves. He worked tirelessly to end avoidable blindness for Indigenous Australians and for people around the world – and The Foundation carries on his legacy.

We have already restored sight to more than 2.5 million people worldwide. We’re building a movement of a million supporters who all believe in Fred’s vision of a world where no one is needlessly blind. With help from our supporters and donors, we are working to raise the funds needed to end avoidable blindness. Just like Fred did, our donors are helping us improve people’s lives with their generosity – in places like Kenya, Bangladesh, Cambodia and Ethiopia. 
 

But there remains so much more to do. We need partners, supporters and donors from all around the world and from all areas of society: governments, businesses, and private citizens. Ending avoidable blindness is something we can and should do now.

OUR VISION

 

The vision of The Fred Hollows Foundation is for a world where no one is needlessly blind or vision impaired. To deliver maximum impact The Foundation’s work is driven by four impact goals: 

 

1. Effective cataract treatment is accessible to all

2. Trachoma is eliminated

3. Effective refractive error prevention and treatment is accessible to all

4. Diabetic retinopathy and other eye conditions can be affordably managed

 

We want to maximize our impact by identifying bold and inspiring challenges to amplify the effect of our work. The challenges that inspire us are:

 

• Clearing the cataract backlog – cataract which remains the leading cause of blindness around the world

• Finally eliminating trachoma, the leading infectious cause of blindness

• Addressing gender inequity in eye health to remove the barriers to women accessing treatment 

• Closing the gap in avoidable blindness and vision impairment between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and other Australians

These are all big challenges but they are inspiring challenges. They are exactly the type of ambitions that Fred would have wanted The Foundation to deliver against.
 

 

Just as Fred Hollows said: “I’m an optimist, always, that the world can be a better place.”

OUR IMPACT (WHAT WE’VE ACHIEVED)

 

Since 1992, The Fred Hollows Foundation has played a critical role in addressing blindness and vision loss. The interventions of NGOs like The Foundation and the global eye health sector have seen about 90 million people have their sight restored since 1990. 

 

Our global results speak for themselves. Below are some key results from 2019:
 

• 646,835 eye operations and treatments

• 20+ million people treated with antibiotics for trachoma

• 68,293 people trained including surgeons, health workers and teachers

• 4677 medical facilities built, renovated or equipped

• 2.3 million school children and community members educated in eye health

While the statistics listed above highlight the significant impact of our sight restoring work, what is more important is that every number represents a person whose life has been changed, whose sight has been restored or saved, because of The Foundation’s efforts.
 

 

There’s still a lot of work to be done – our challenge is huge and growing. There are 36 million people around the world who are blind. At least 2.2 billion people around the world have a vision impairment and at least 1 billion have a vision impairment that could have been prevented or is yet to be addressed. 

 

We are rising to the challenge and we are making progress. By joining forces with the global eye health community, our partners, and governments around the world, we are scaling up our efforts to ensure blindness doesn’t triple by 2050. The movement to end avoidable blindness is growing, with a million-strong global supporter-base targeted by 2023.