Page 39 - 2016 Annual Report

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CASE STUDY: EAST ASIA

Over the past three years, the East THANK YOU |
Asia Vision Program, supported by the
Australian Government’s Department of
Foreign Affairs and Trade, has screened
more than 81,000 people and delivered
more than 29,000 eye operations and
treatments to people who are needlessly
blind in Cambodia, Timor-Leste and
Vietnam.
The program, implemented by the
Vision 2020 Australia Global Consortium,
has built local capacity by upskilling
more than 5,000 local doctors, nurses
and health workers. The program also
equipped eye health training facilities
and developed new academic training
programs to ensure continued impact.
Soung Sarom is one of the thousands of
patients who received sight restoring
surgery as part of the Program. After
being blind for three years she was
overjoyed to go back to work in her
village near Phnom Penh. “My sight was
completely restored… just in time for the
rice and cane harvesting season. I can
also catch fish, which is my favourite job,
and I can now teach these skills to my
daughter,” said Sarom.

CASE STUDY: ETHIOPIA

More than 25 million people in the
Oromia region of Ethiopia are living in
trachoma endemic areas. Since 2013,
The Fred Hollows Foundation has
undergone a massive scale-up to help
tackle this enormous problem. This
work is a great example of what can be
achieved with the support of partners.
From 2014–2016 The Foundation
distributed more than 31 million doses
of antibiotics, performed more than
61,000 trichiasis surgeries, trained 271
surgeons and almost 50,000 community
health workers.
None of this would have been possible
without generous funding from USAID
working with RTI International and
Helen Keller International, the United
Kingdom Department for International
Development, Sightsavers and the
Australian Government through the
Australian NGO Cooperation Program.
We have also had support from the
Government of Ethiopia and Oromia
Regional Health Bureau.