Celebrating the charitable work of Vision Eye Institute doctors

With an emphasis on being mindful of your eye health, the theme of this year’s World Sight Day on 14 October is #LoveYourEyes. Unfortunately, many people across the globe face limited access to healthcare services for their eyes.

That’s why we’d like to take this opportunity to celebrate our surgeons and eye health professionals who donate their time and expertise to help restore vision and save sight both within Australia and overseas. While most of the eye doctors at Vision Eye Institute volunteer for communities who cannot readily access eye care, we highlight the efforts of just a few individuals below.

Supporting eye health in Myanmar and Cambodia

Professor Gerard Sutton is passionate about local and overseas charitable work. He is the medical director of the Lions NSW Eye Bank, a not-for-profit organisation that has several functions: it supports research into eye disease; recovers, prepares, stores and distributes corneas and sclera in NSW and the ACT; and educates others about corneal transplantations. Of note, the Eye Bank has been collaborating with the Mandalay Eye Hospital in Myanmar since 1997. In 2014, Prof Sutton established the Myanmar Corneal and Eye Bank Program.

‘The goal is to impact corneal blindness by training local surgeons in corneal surgical and transplantation techniques and improving access to corneal tissue through an efficient eye bank,’ says Prof Sutton. ‘We now have four fully trained corneal surgeons in Mandalay and have increased corneal tissue availability from the eye bank by 300 per cent.’

Prof Sutton has also spent time in Cambodia where he assisted in the Cambodia Cataract Programme. He considers his collaborations in both Cambodia and Myanmar as one of the most rewarding parts of his professional life.

Improving vision in underprivileged areas

Dr Tess Huynh, an ophthalmologist at Vision Eye Institute Hurstville, NSW, also actively volunteers in Cambodia through Cambodia Vision, Sight for All. Dr Huynh continues to offer her surgical expertise and fundraising skills for Australian Health Humanitarian Aid (AHHA, previously known as the Vietnam Vision Project), which provides eye surgery and eye care to communities in need within Asia. In 2019 alone, the AHHA saw over 900 cataract cases, which led to more than 500 sight-improving operations. According to Dr Huynh, these kinds of operations can give family members more freedom.

‘These operations can mean the difference between a child going to school or staying home to care for a visually impaired grandparent.’

In addition, Dr Huynh began a retinopathy-of-prematurity screening program at the National Paediatric Hospital in Hanoi, Vietnam. She is also involved with the Christian Blind Mission International.

Restoring sight in South-East Asia

Vision Eye Institute ophthalmologist, Dr Raj P Pathmaraj, also volunteers his time towards improving eye health services in South-East Asian countries. He was the establishing president of the Victorian Chapter of the Australian Medical Aid Foundation (AMF), which has played an important role in rebuilding health infrastructure in countries like Sri Lanka. According to Dr Pathmaraj, one of the most valuable contributions the volunteers made in South-East Asia was training the local health workers.

‘When we arrived in Myanmar a few years ago, the locals had lots of equipment, but they didn’t know how to use it. Our goal was to empower them to continue providing vision care services even after our team returned home,’ says Dr Pathmaraj.

Dr Pathmaraj also provides ophthalmic advice to general practitioners in Fiji. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, he would often visit Fiji and help deliver eye care to those in need.

Lending a helping hand

Through their not-for-profit work, Vision Eye Institute doctors have helped improve and restore the sight of some of the most underprivileged communities in the world. We are very proud of all our members who provide aid to those less fortunate.

We also look forward to launching our own not-for-profit initiative later this year. Stay tuned for more information!

You can find out more about World Sight Day by visiting: https://www.iapb.org/world-sight-day/