We are delighted that interest in the joint program of The Fred Hollows Foundation and Rotary Down Under is growing. Both organisations share concerns about avoidable blindness and Literacy for Life amongst Indigenous communities in Australia.

Recently I visited The Fred Hollows Foundation’s Indigenous Program in the Northern Territory and saw the huge discrepancy between non-Indigenous and Indigenous populations in their health profiles and lifestyles.

Our multi-faceted Indigenous Health Program is aimed at improving nutrition and health. Poor nutrition leads to low birth weights and a failure to thrive as children, which contributes to chronic illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease later in life. The program has several components including focuses on nutrition and literacy.

A key element of the nutrition program is the Community Stores program. It is usually the only place where essential food items can be bought, so it is critical that local people have access to quality goods at affordable prices.

Woolworths is a partner in the Community Stores program, seconding a store manager who acts as both mentor and adviser. The manager has facilitated store committees to regain management control of the stores, turned debt round and ensured that stores now sell a wide variety of fresh and healthy foods at lower prices. When Woolworths Chief Executive Officer Roger Corbett visited the program in July, 2003, he said: “It’s one of the most thrilling things I have seen in my working life. It’s a great achievement.’’

The Fred Hollows Foundation/Rotary Down Under partnership also supports the Literacy for Life program. How are literacy and health linked? Research shows that people who do not complete secondary school have higher levels of unemployment, poverty and chronic health problems.

Literacy for Life is a pilot program run by The Fred Hollows Foundation and the Jawoyn Association, based in and around Katherine, Northern Territory. It aims to improve the very poor health of Jawoyn people through improved literacy.

The program is likely to become a model for other literacy programs in Northern Territory communities and will have long-term and profound effects for the health and economic development of Aboriginal people and communities in the Northern Territory.

At present only four per cent of Year 5 students in remote area schools in the Northern Territory meet national reading benchmarks. One reason is the inadequacy of pre-school education as we know it . . . no books, no libraries, playgrounds or equipment to help prepare children for school or for learning English, a foreign language. For this reason, the first stage of this project will focus on young mothers and pre-school children.
We need funds to develop this program and would greatly appreciate Australian/New Zealand Rotary clubs donating $A1,000 toward our joint concerns of avoidable blindness and Literacy for Life.

Very simple procedures are now in place to encourage Rotary club support of this partnership initiative. There is just one small coupon for details, not endless forms and pages of questions.
For more information on the above program or on avoidable blindness, please visit www.hollows.org or contact Ros Bradley if you would like a speaker on these issues.

• The Foundation now has representatives in Victoria and Queensland. Email rbradley@hollows.org or for copies of the brochure on the joint partnership contact Rotary Down Under, P.O. Box 779, Parramatta, N.S.W. 2124 or email enquiries@downunder.co.a