About Us
Foresight was one of Australia’s first not-for-profit organization founded to address the huge burden of preventable blindness in the developing world.
It was established by Professor Frank Billson AO and Major-General Cullen in 1978 in response to an appeal by the Bangladeshi ophthalmologist Rabiul Husain, a freedom fighter from the 1973 war with Pakistan, to help over a million people blind with cataract, in Bangladesh.
Foresight organized and led teams of surgeons from Australia to perform sight saving surgery. It helped fund and build the not-for-profit Chittagong Eye Hospital and its Institute of Community Ophthalmology. It developed the first recognized Diploma of Community Ophthalmology for the University of Chittagong and provided surgical skills transfer in the eye hospital. This has now extended to a sustainable program in 8 rural eye hospitals.
It identified a disturbing level and risk of corneal blindness in children, due to Vitamin A deficiency. It responded by creating Under 5s Clinics for mothers and children to ensure early intervention and prevention of a condition for which there is no ‘cure’.
It is a key member of the Australia Consortium for ‘Vision 2020 — Right to Sight’.
Break the cycle of poverty caused by preventable blindness.