Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama says 2500 Fijians owe their ability to see to the Fiji Society for the Blind, the Taveuni Rotary and the Hawaii Eye Surgeons.
He made the comment at the Fiji Society for the Blind’s golden jubilee celebration on Friday.
“But beyond the work you do in helping people learn to live productively and happily without sight or with severe visual impairment, is the work you have done in partnership with Taveuni Rotary and Hawaii Eye Surgeons to treat cataracts and pterygium, that mysterious pink growth in the eye that has become known as ‘surfer’s eye’, the PM said.
“Both of those conditions can cause gradual blindness.
“People with these conditions once helplessly endured gradual dimming of their world and knowing that one day all sight would be lost.
“The partnership has carried out 2500 successful surgeries for the treatment of cataracts and pterygium in the last 10 years.
“There are 2500 Fijians who have owed their ability to see as they always have, to you and Taveuni Rotary and Hawaii Eye Surgeons and to your commitment to the radical notion that no Fijian should lose their sight when we have medical technology to save it in our very hands.”
