Fred Hollows SMH Weekend Edition July 22-23

Fred Hollows was flamin' legend!! Like many skilled and thoughtful medico's he knew that his gifts had a use beyond making a comfortable living for himself. His dislike for the idea that some should live in extreme poverty while others are very comfortable was shaped in his work in outback Australia and extended to south east asia and beyond... What I love about the Fred Hollows story of transplanting intra occular lenses to cure unnecessary blindness is the marketing Fred used to get punters onboard!! A Fiver for Fred!! Now five fivers for Fred!!
At that earlier time someone's sight could be restored for $5 per eye... We who were encouraged to get onboard could see the scriptural call to feed the hungry, clothe the naked and bring sight to the blind.... could see it come true for $5-$10!! Amazing...
The irony of his athiesm would not have been lost on the gruff bloke who didn't tolerate fools, gibbering or beaurocracies!!
This irony is deepened with thoughts of the story below and the woman who suffered from years of bleeding who reached out and tugged at Jesus clothes...
Relax, I'm not going all metaphysical on you... just aware that both Jesus and Fred Hollows shared a goal of bringing wholeness to 'community'... of restoring peoples very humanity, dignity and soul by the removal of unnecessary barriers to a full life and the kindness, regard and inclusion of others!!
The thing Jesus spoke second most about was 'money'... and each of us [myself included] is well reminded that in our consumerist comfort we ought to always seek the best for others, consider our place in the scheme of things and as the very funny Ben Elton shared this week... get a grip!!

SMH by Tony Stephens
July 22, 2006
THE people of Vietnam are still saying thanks to Fred Hollows. Moved by his death 13 years ago, they are now moved by his life. And Tran Van Giap is moved more than most.
Giap was six when Professor Hollows visited Vietnam in 1992 to set up a program that would train surgeons to implant intraocular lenses into the eyes of about a million people blinded by cataracts or whose eyesight was severely impaired.
The focus was on old people, but Giap went to the professor. The boy had lost sight in his right eye, probably during rice harvesting, when plant stems and husks fly around. He tugged at the hem of the eye specialist's clothes.
"My eye was so painful," Giap, now 21, said. "So I tried to touch the professor and asked him to see my eye."
Professor Hollows relented and agreed to operate when he returned to Vietnam later that year. When he returned, he was just months from succumbing to cancer, in February 1993. Dr Sanduk Ruit, the Nepalese eye surgeon who has worked with the Hollows team, operated.
Giap kept his left eye open, watching. Later, Professor Hollows removed the bandage. Giap heard, and saw, the doctor whistle with pleasure. Giap realised he could see again through both eyes.
The pair were the subject of a famous photo. Now the Hollows Foundation has tracked down the young man.
Vietnamese doctors had said the Hollows plan for implanting intraocular lenses in the blind eyes of their country folk was impossible. It would be like converting a truck driver into a fighter pilot.
Professor Hollows gave them the evidence. About 150,000 Vietnamese were going blind with cataracts every year. If Australians could have the lenses, why not the Vietnamese?
By 2003, 100,000 cataract operations a year were performed in Vietnam. Last year doctors trained by the Hollows Foundation alone performed 3000 cataract operations.
The foundation now works in 23 countries across the developing world and has been responsible for well over a million operations.
Giap is in the second year of a mathematics degree at Hong Duc University. One of six children in a farming family, he is the only one to attend university. He wants to teach maths. Gabi Hollows, the professor's widow, will meet him soon. "I'll give him a big hug," she said yesterday.