The Gift of Sight

A photographic exhibition celebrating the work of the Fred Hollows Foundation opened in Sydney on World Sight Day, October 11. Together with Nepalese surgeon Sanduk Ruit, NZ-born Hollows pioneered a cheap and effective form of eye surgery using intraocular lenses (IOL), returning sight to villagers in developing countries all over the world. He died in 1993, before the first IOL was manufactured. “He never saw a single intraocular lens,” said his widow Gabi, while in NZ to mark the 15th anniversary of the Foundation. “Imagine what he would do knowing that 2.5 million have now been made.”