Their sight will be your legacy. Leave a gift in your Will to The Fred Hollows Foundation and you’ll help generations to see again. A message from Gabi Hollows The Foundation is like a giant tapestry and every person who has contributed is one of the threads. Before Fred lost his battle with cancer we had a conversation about how we could continue his work restoring sight in the developing world. From those early talks The Foundation was born. Since then, we’ve restored sight to over one million people. It’s a great achievement and one I know Fred would be proud of. The simple truth is this work would not have been possible without the help of New Zealanders like you, who time after time support us generously to give the gift of sight to those who need it most. A gift in your Will is a really special way to continue your support. It’s a gift that means The Foundation can keep training doctors and eye health workers, building eye clinics and restoring people’s sight for generations to come. On behalf of Fred and myself, thank you. Gabi Hollows AO Founding Director The Fred Hollows Foundation Photo Credit: Jeremy Park Right now, thousands of people in the Pacific are living without sight. Their independence and dignity has been taken away from them. For many of these people, the future holds little or no hope. They feel they have become a burden to family and friends, relying on them to help perform the most basic functions in life, like eating, bathing and using the toilet. Many can’t even leave their homes. Things that we take for granted, like being able to see a child or mother’s smile, is lost to them. In some Pacific countries, the number of men, women and children afflicted by needless blindness grows every year. The awful tragedy is that the vast majority doesn’t need to be blind. In fact, almost eighty percent of them could see again. All they need is access to the right treatment. 3 With that sight has come hope, dignity and We need to get more skilled people on the ground. independence. It’s the chance for a better life, To train local doctors and nurses who can go back Your gift will not only for the patients themselves, but for their to their communities and put their new skills to use families too. Children who have taken care of their in providing life changing eye care surgery give them blind grandparents and parents, for example, – right across the Pacific. can once again attend school and study for a future of opportunity. Diabetic eye disease is a challenge of the future hope for the – one that threatens to swamp the Pacific’s already All of this has been made possible through the fledgling eye health services. Seven out of ten of future generosity of people like you. the world’s worst incidence rates of diabetes is in the Pacific. The Fred Hollows Foundation has We can help thousands of patients to retain their helped restore sight to thousands There is still much vision through early screening and treatment. of people across the Pacific with Leaving a gift in your Will to The Fred Hollows accessible cataract surgery. work to be done Foundation will help us to continue with this work and provide much needed eye care for There are so many remote villages where men, generations to come. In most cases, a twenty-minute women and children are blinded by conditions operation is all it takes. that are treated as a simple matter of routine here in New Zealand. Yet the fact is, that treatment isn’t available to them. Share Fred’s vision “We are giving people the chance Kiwi eye surgeon Fred Hollows had a vision of to help themselves. We are giving a world where no one is needlessly blind. A world where everyone had a future that was filled with them independence.” hope and opportunity – not despair. – Professor Fred Hollows A bequest to Fred’s Foundation will help keep that dream alive when you’re no longer here. Imagine. Part of your legacy will be in helping future generations of men, women and children to receive the sight-restoring surgery that normally Photo Credit: Michael Amendolia would not have been available to them. 5 as a matter of routine. But Shaveera lived with her The Foundation is working to make that happen. family in an isolated community in Fiji. The proper With trained doctors and nurses and clinics that Every gift help simply wasn’t there. Without that proper can bring eye care to even the most remote areas will make a treatment, Shaveera could have gone blind. of the Pacific. Fortunately, Shaveera’s mother and father heard The fact is, our aim is to eliminate avoidable about one of our outreach clinics being held blindness in the Pacific. Your bequest can play difference. at Labasa Hospital. For three days they waited such an important part in making that vision outside the clinic with scores of others. The heat a reality. Gifts of all sizes make a huge soared to 32° Celsius, but as Shaveera’s father said, “we don’t mind waiting and our child not impact. Even one percent of your eating. We just want her to be seen.” estate can make such a positive Talk to your loved difference to so many lives. She was seen. ones Lives like little Shaveera for example. When Shaveera woke up, the first person she saw was her mother. Her face glowed. And yes, there We appreciate that organising your Will is one of were more tears, but this time they had nothing to When our team first met Shaveera, she was just the most important decisions of your life. You’ll do with eye infections or blocked tear ducts. three years old. She lived with constant pain. Tears want to provide for your loved ones first. We were continually running down her cheeks. Today, Shaveera is a happy, active child with a certainly encourage you to talk to them about It wasn’t that she was unhappy. It was because her future that holds hope, not blindness. leaving a gift in your Will to The Foundation before blocked tear ducts caused infection after infection. making your decision. There are so many children like Shaveera. Children If Shaveera had lived in New Zealand, her whose eye conditions could be treated with the condition would have been identified and treated proper care that we take for granted. Working towards a world where no one is needlessly blind. Giving people sight-restoring eye care Every year, The Fred Hollows Foundation restores sight to thousands of people suffering from cataract blindness. However, sometimes restoring vision doesn’t even require surgery. The solution can be as simple as appropriately prescribed spectacles. Yet for many poor people in the Pacific, the price of glasses puts them far beyond their reach. Every year we provide pairs of low cost spectacles to thousands of people. For many, particularly children going to school, these glasses will make all the difference between a future of poverty or hope. Your gift will ensure this life-changing work continues. 7 The Pacific Islands stretch over thousands of “I was just finding it harder to go out in Giving people skills kilometres. There are simply not enough eye health workers to reach everyone in need. the sunlight – it was getting too glary to restore sight for me.” Some countries in the Pacific don’t have a single eye doctor or eye nurse at all. – Melissa Gong, Nurse To provide high quality eye health care, we need Luckily Melissa managed to see an eye specialist. to put more trained people into communities. He performed the required operation and gave The Fred Hollows Foundation set up the ground- Melissa her sight back. breaking Pacific Eye Institute to do exactly that. That operation inspired Melissa to train as a The institute is in Suva, Fiji. Every year The Fred specialist eye nurse herself. Hollows Foundation trains doctors and nurses to become the eye health specialists that the Pacific Today Melissa is part of a team that performs so desperately needs. sight-restoring operations to people throughout Papua New Guinea. Nurses like Melissa Gong, for example. Melissa’s story is a particularly special one. You see Melissa But as the World Health Organisation has was suffering from a condition that, left untreated, highlighted, the Pacific needs many more would have eventually left her totally blind. specialists like Melissa. Melissa worked as a general nurse in Papua New A gift in your Will to The Foundation will help make Guinea, but wasn’t aware that she was in danger of that happen. going blind. Fred Hollows was driven by the belief that everyone eye care services. Doctors and nurses receive Investing in much should have access to proper eye care. “Every eye specialist training there too, and take those skills is an eye,” he said. “When you’re doing the surgery back to their communities. needed infrastructure it is just as important as if you were doing eye surgery on the prime minister or the king.” Your generosity will be felt in even the most remote communities, through mobile eye clinics that The World Health Organisation advises that there operate as part of our Outreach Program. should be one ophthalmologist for every 100,000 people. So Papua New Guinea, for example would As Fred said, everyone should receive the eye need at least seventy.