Dr Michael Hammerton of Sight for All presenting ophthalmologic equipment to Professor Dr Do Nhu Hon, VNIO Director.
The Vietnamese and Australian Governments recognised the partnership between Santos and Sight for All at a recent ceremony in Hanoi.
Sight for All is a not-for-profit organisation that provides ophthalmic training and health care to communities in Asia and Australia. Its mission is to reduce the magnitude and impact of avoidable blindness through research, education, health promotion and the support of infrastructure.
Santos is supporting Sight for All’s in-country paediatric ophthalmology fellowship program at the Vietnam National Institute of Ophthalmology (VNIO). The trained ophthalmologists will subsequently be able to train their own colleagues at VNIO so that all ophthalmologists that pass through this institute will learn to treat children appropriately.
Santos has also helped fund Sight for All to equip VNIO with the appropriate surgical instruments and diagnostic equipment so that the training will be of the highest level. The provision of this equipment will allow the SFA-trained Vietnamese paediatric ophthalmologists to subsequently continue to treat the children who visit VNIO with the best possible ‘tools’ and visual outcomes.
The ceremony, attended by Vietnam's Vice Minister of Health, Ms Nguyen Thi Xuyen, and Australian Ambassador to Hanoi, Mr Allaster Cox, marked the handover of the medical equipment to VNIO.
Speaking at the event, Santos Vietnam representative, Mr Cao Duy, commented that the source of energy Santos is producing in Vietnam will become more meaningful with more children being able to see the light thanks to the blindness prevention brought about by this health project.
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Community relations, Community wellbeing, Health, Vietnam