Vietnam Tara Project

In 2006 Mei and Chiu Chi Wen visited Vietnam and agreed to support a community eye care project named TARA.  The project covered two provinces – Hue and Quang Ngai.

Hue Hospital is a large 100-bed hospital providing comprehensive eye care services including cataract and pediatrics eye surgery as well as other specialties such as glaucoma, retina and corneal.

Quang Ngai Eye Center now plays an important role in eye service provision and blindness prevention for almost 1.2 million people.  They provide cataract surgery (major cause of blindness in Vietnam – 74% – RAAB 2015), eye screening for school students and can carry out refraction and dispending of spectacles to improve vision for children.  The eye center can also conduct outreach camps for eye screening and eye health education to the target groups.

The rate of cataract surgeries carried out from 2006 to 2015 at Hue Hospital and Quang Ngai Eye Center has doubled proving the success of both projects. (Ref. Dr Phuc, Huynh Tan, Assoc Director – East Asia, FHF)