Gabi Hollows was elated to learn her late husband was as a role model to Maitland students more than 20 years after his death.
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The founding director of the Fred Hollows Foundation, Mrs Hollows, dropped into Hunter Valley Grammar School yesterday to inspire year 6 students who have been studying the eye surgeon.
“He was such a passionate person that his message has been delivered many many times over,” Mrs Hollows said.
“I know it was pretty crazy when my kids were going to school that they’d open a book on optics and there’s Fred in the science lesson or something like that.
“To me it’s a really great honour to think they’re still studying about Fred and learning about Fred as a role model in their curriculum, I think it’s fantastic.”
Students learnt about the iconic Australian in a new teaching program exploring how the actions and contributions of admirable people impact our lives.
Since Mr Hollow’s death, The Fred Hollows Foundation has restored sight to more than one million people in Australia and in developing countries around the world and by forcing down the price of equipment and introducing modern surgical techniques, has reduced the cost of cataract surgery to as little as $25 in some developing countries.
“Fred was so excited he could personally say he was so lucky, he could give someone back their sight,” Mrs Hollows told the eager students.
One of those people was Tran Van Giap.
The then seven-year-old was photographed with Mr Hollows in 1992 a year before his death.
With the same gusto her husband was famous for, Mrs Hollows, gave a rare insight into the iconic photograph by Michael Amendolia.
Tran’s father, a Vietnamese war veteran who worked as a farmer in one of the country’s poorest rural areas, asked Mr Hollows to look at his son after doctors told him nothing could be done for the boy’s perforated eye injury.
Dr Sanduk Ruit - a member of Mr Hollow’s team - operated on Tran who is now a school teacher in Vietnam studying his masters in mathematics.
