PRObono Australia: ‘Closing The Eye Health Gap’

Professor Hugh Taylor AC is the founder of Indigenous Eye Health at Melbourne University, and is fighting to close the gap of preventable blindness among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders by 2020. He is this week’s Changemaker.

The feeling of restoring someone’s sight is what Taylor describes as “almost biblical”.

The surgery for restoring sight is often quite simple, but the impact of the surgery, and the emotional response that comes with it, often leaves Taylor at a loss for words.  

While 94 per cent of vision loss is avoidable, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults are six times more likely to suffer from blindness than non Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults.

After working in remote Indigenous communities with the Fred Hollows Foundation, as well as overseas, and seeing little change in the statistics over a number of years, Taylor decided it was time to take serious action on closing the vision gap.  

Taylor is on a mission to close the gap by 2020, through sustainable health systems that will change the landscape of Indigenous eye health, forever.  

In this week’s Changemaker, Taylor discusses why he was inspired take charge of Indigenous eye health, creating sustainable solutions, and the feeling of restoring a human’s eyesight.

Read the full interview with Professor Hugh Taylor and PRObono Australia here.