Helping people see again in Fiji – waikato-times | Stuff.co.nz

A Hamilton built mobile eye clinic is tipped to be a “game changer” for thousands of people in the Pacific with treatable eye conditions.
The Fred Hollows Foundation NZ’s new surgical unit was built and designed by Hamilton manufacturer Action Motor Bodies and the unit was revealed to the public for the first time recently, at the company’s Te Rapa base.

Four out of five people in the Pacific Islands, Papua New Guinea and Timor-Leste who were blind had conditions that were preventable or treatable.

The foundation worked in 30 developing countries across Asia, Africa and the Pacific and has the Pacific Eye Institute in the Fijian capital, Suva.

Many people with blindness were elderly, poor and lived in remote parts of the island nation and access to treatment was an issue but Bell said the mobile unit would change that.

“If your family can’t get you there, if your family is too poor to get you to the bus, you are not going to get help so we bring it to them.”

“This mobile technology has never been put into the Pacific, this is a very sophisticated piece of equipment and a fantastic piece of Kiwi ingenuity.”

Curated from Helping people see again in Fiji – waikato-times | Stuff.co.nz