Australia tackling blindness in Asia

Gabi Hollows recently attended the opening of the Kampong Chhnang Eye Unit, built with funds made available through the AusAID Avoidable Blindness Fund.

“I am proud that the Government of Australia, through the Australian Blindness Initiative, has become the first government in the western world to place blindness prevention as a key priority of its international development program,” Gabi Hollows said at the inauguration ceremony.

“To witness sight being restored is a miracle. I’m speaking of the joy of seeing a mother see her child for the first time, or a father able to resume work to support his family, or even a child being able to return to school. These are the miracles that will occur in this unit from today, and well into the future,” Gabi said.

Australian Ambassador Margaret Adamson attended the inauguration and spoke of The Australian Government’s strong commitment to helping people of the region to overcome avoidable blindness.

“Australia is proud to be able to support The Fred Hollows Foundation in Cambodia to scale up their activities to provincial areas.

"I am certain this eye unit will make a significant contribution to the prevention and correction of vision impairment in Cambodia, particularly as it will serve a predominantly rural and poor population and provide much needed cataract and other eye restoring surgery,” said Ambassador Adamson.

The new eye unit will support the delivery of secondary eye care services for a population of over 470,000 people in Kampong Chhnang Province and includes examination rooms, an operating theatre, an optical workshop for provision of glasses and a 15 bed ward in which patients can rest following sight restoring surgery.