The Fred Hollows Foundation

The vision of The Fred Hollows Foundation is for a world where no one is needlessly blind, and where Indigenous Australians enjoy the same health and life expectancy as other Australians.

The Fred Hollows Foundation is inspired by the work of the late Professor Fred Hollows (1929-1993). Fred was an eye doctor, skilled surgeon of international renown and a social justice activist who championed the right of all people to high quality and affordable eye care and to good health.

The Fred Hollows Foundation was established in Sydney on 3 September 1992, just five months before Fred passed away, with the aim to continue his work. Fred was committed to improving the health of Indigenous Australians and to reducing the cost of eye health care and treatment in developing countries. He had already started project work in Eritrea, Vietnam and Indigenous Australia.

Since those early days, The Foundation has gone on to work with countries throughout Africa, Asia (South and South East) and Australia focusing on blindness prevention and Australian Indigenous health.

Through reducing the cost of cataract operations to as little as $25 in some developing countries, we have helped to restore the sight of more than 1,000,000 people worldwide.

The Foundation strives to achieve four key goals:

1. Ending avoidable blindness in the communities and countries where we work.
2. Improving the life chances and choices of Indigenous Australians through improving their health.
3. Working through strong partnerships and cross-sector collaborations - at local, national and global levels.
4. Building a strong and dynamic organisation, capable of facilitating effective eye and Indigenous health programs and having a positive impact on public opinion, policies and practices.

In 2008, with the help of our supporters, The Foundation is proud to say it performed 176, 472 eye operations and treatments. Over 1.3 million people were examined during the course of the year, providing essential eye care to some of the world's poorest regions.

For more information please visit www.hollows.org.au