Feature – More than 100,000 sight restoring surgeries have been delivered across the Pacific by The Fred Hollows Foundation NZ and partners in their efforts to end avoidable blindness and vision impairment in the region.
This work, according to the Foundation’s, “changes lives” and the charity’s CEO Dr Audrey Aumua said being able to restore the gift of sight is powerful work.
She said watching community elders open their eyes and see clearly for the first time in years is deeply moving.
“I’ve watched bandages come off folks’ eyes, and hear this incredible gasp, where they often will turn and say, ‘I’m looking at my wife for the first time in 10 years, I haven’t been able to see her face, or this is the first time I’ve ever seen my grandchild, I know his or her voice, I know, you know, what they feel like, but I’ve actually never seen them’.
“To be able to restore that kind of sight and to have that moment is very, very powerful,” Dr Aumua said.
After years of living with cataracts, both Mahen and Utra received sight-restoring surgery through the Pacific Eye Institute outreach teams in Fiji.
Supplied / The Fred Hollows Foundation NZ
The Foundation’s work reaches far across the Pacific, where its outreach efforts help communities in need – from Fiji and Samoa, to Nauru, Papua New Guinea and beyond.
In 2025 alone, 114 outreach clinics delivered more than 64,000 consultations and close to 5000 surgeries in areas where access to specialist eye care is often limited.
Dr Aumua said these figures reflect the impact of the generosity of the New Zealand public who she noted funds most of their work.
“It’s a pretty significant milestone for the organisation, which has been around probably just over 20 years … But what really delights us as an organisation is that the significant milestone of course demonstrates the relationships and the partnerships that we have, and really shows the power of sustained impact.”
Rather than just delivering treatment, the Foundation facilitates local workforce development, supporting regional universities and specialist training programmes.
This year, 21 people graduated as qualified eye-nurses, while four trainee eye doctors completed their studies in Fiji and Papua New Guinea. Eleven more doctors are currently training to become fully qualified ophthalmologists.
Audrey said building local capacity and investing in Pacific-led systems is crucial.
“When you train your own workforce … you’re building the ability for them to lead locally. They’re not trained purposely outside of the region and so they know their system, they know how to work with their communities, and I think that’s a very, very powerful part of the work that we do.”
A cohort of Advanced Diploma in Eye Care (ADEC) graduates from Divine Word University in Madang, Papua New Guinea.
Supplied / The Fred Hollows Foundation NZ
One of the Foundation’s major projects is the Papua New Guinea Centre for Eye Health, currently under construction in Port Moresby.
Once completed, it will be PNG’s first purpose-built facility dedicated to specialist eye-care and training.
Dr Aumua said this will be key to addressing the countries high rates of avoidable blindness.
“Papua New Guinea unfortunately has probably globally the biggest burden of avoidable blindness in the world. It’s estimated there are 11-12 million people with very, very limited access to any kinds of services, let alone eye care services.”
“The most important investment moving forward really is to grow the ability for that country to deliver eye care services, and so training doctors and nurses, and in this case optometrists.”
The Papua New Guinea Centre for Eye Health is set to become the countries first purpose-built facility dedicated to specialist eye-care and training.
Supplied / The Fred Hollows Foundation NZ
While celebrating the successes over the years, she says the work is far from done.
The region is challenged by resource limitations, which Dr Aumua said can be stretched thin while island nations deal with other health concerns such as non communicable diseases, HIV, dengue fever and more.
“They’re not always going to pay attention to conditions such as avoidable blindness, and so part of our efforts are really to keep raising that advocacy flag, keep raising the visibility of eye care.
“That will always be a challenge, because many governments will not be able to afford the resources and to prioritize eye care, given the many other challenges they’re dealing with.”
The Fred Hollows Foundation dreams of a world in which no person is needlessly blind or vision impaired.
Dr Aumua said they are committed to the work ahead to one day see this dream become a reality.
Popo from PNG relied on his wife Wendy to get through each day till he received surgery restoring his eyesight.
Supplied / The Fred Hollows Foundation NZ
