Sight Restoring Charity Launches Lunchtime Series FRED Talks

Sight Restoring Charity Launches Lunchtime Series: FRED Talks

19 February 2014

The Fred Hollows Foundation NZ today announces a new series of lunchtime conversations entitled ‘FRED Talks’. Designed to share stories from the staff and volunteers who carry on the work of the late Professor Fred Hollows, the free series will feature leading experts discussing issues relating to the Pacific, healthcare and international development.

Dr Neil Murray, The Foundation’s Medical Director, will be presenting the first FRED Talk onFriday 7 March at 12.30pm. His colloquial presentation will cover his experiences performing surgery and teaching doctors and nurses in the developing world.

The Foundation’s Executive Director Andrew Bell emphasised that the talks are open for anyone to attend, whether they’re in the sector or are simply interested in learning more about the challenges and opportunities associated with working in developing countries.

“We want to encourage everyone to come along to our Newmarket office, bring their lunch, and hear some incredible stories,” said Bell. “Dr Murray is certain to inspire with tales from a career that’s taken him across the Pacific and put him in contact with a range of patients and cases. This is a rare chance to hear first-hand what it’s like to be teaching and performing surgeries on the front line of international aid.”

In addition to his role as Medical Director for The Foundation, Dr Murray works as an ophthalmologist in Rotorua. He says that he’s eager to share stories about his work with the New Zealand public.

“The Foundation’s work takes place mostly out in the Pacific in an area that stretches from Kiribati to Timor-Leste,” he said. “I’m always looking for ways to bring some of the inspiration I get from this work into New Zealand. The FRED Talks give us a way to talk about Fred Hollows and his living legacy that we’re actively building on.”

Following each talk will be a Q&A session, with the afternoon wrapping up by 2pm. The FRED Talks will also be filmed and available online.

Anyone interested in attending the inaugural FRED Talk should register online.

About The Fred Hollows Foundation NZ
The Fred Hollows Foundation carries on the work of a legendary New Zealander, the late Professor Fred Hollows. Fred was an internationally acclaimed eye surgeon and social justice activist who championed the right of all people to high quality and affordable eye care. The Fred Hollows Foundation shares Fred’s vision of a world where no one is needlessly blind, and works to end avoidable blindness in 30 developing countries across Asia, Africa and the Pacific. In the last five years alone, The Foundation has performed nearly one million sight-restoring operations and treatments, and trained more than 38,000 local eye health specialists.

The Fred Hollows Foundation NZ works in the Pacific Islands, Papua New Guinea and Timor-Leste where 4 out of 5 people who are blind don’t need to be; their condition is preventable or treatable. We restore sight to the needlessly blind and train local eye health specialists to provide eye care services in their own communities. hollows.org.nz

ENDS

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