On Friday, March 18^th 2011 a high profile delegation from The Atlantic Philanthropies visited the Fred Hollows Foundations South Africa’s flagship project, at Frontier Hospital in Queenstown, Eastern Cape.  The Atlantic Philanthropies is one of the Foundation’s main funders.

The delegation of six officers from AP was led by USA based AP President, Mr. Gara La Marche and Mr. Jack Rosenthal, Senior Fellow; and comprised of a South Africa based team made up of Ms. Nobayeni Dladla, Country Director, Mr. Zola Madikizela, Programme Executive, Mr. Gerald Kraak, Reconciliation & Human Rights Programme Executive, and Ms. Oluseyi Oyedele, Strategic learning programme Executive.

The meeting was attended by staff of The Fred Hollows Foundation South Africa who presented a brief on programme updates and developments to the AP delegation. Also in attendance were key FHFSA partners in the Eastern Cape Blindness Prevention Partnership Programme initiative (which is funded by AP).  The partners were represented by officials from the Eastern Cape Province - Department of Health, Bhisho, managements from Chris Hani District and nearby sub-districts, and CEO of Frontier Hospital.

In his response, Mr Gara La Marche enquired about the link between blindness and poverty.

The CEO of Frontier Hospital, Ms. Tywabi took the delegation on a brief tour of the Sabona Eye Centre, where some members of the AP delegation had opportunity to view, first hand, cataract operations performed in this modern, state of the art operating theatre.

The Atlantic Philanthropies is an international grant-making organization which makes grants in a wide range of fields.  The substantial grant made to The FHFSA , in the amount of USD$4,855,782 over a  five year period,  has served to equip Sabona Eye Centre as a service and training facility, which in due course is being earmarked to become a centre of excellence in eye care service delivery for the SADC sub-region.  To date the centre has offered eye care services to over 20 000 rural people of the Eastern Cape Province.