Dr Elenoa's story
Scroll down“I love what I’m doing, where you see the effects immediately. You know you are helping people, you know you are giving them a chance to see."
Dr Elenoa Matoto is a Tongan eye doctor who lives and works in Fiji at the Pacific Eye Institute (PEI). She is a mother of two and has dedicated her career to improving eye care in the Pacific. Dr Elenoa is Foundation-supported and employed at PEI, where she continues to make a significant impact on the lives of her patients.
Dr Elenoa's journey into eye care began at Lautoka Hospital, where she started working in ophthalmology. She later became the President of PacEYES, the Pacific Eye Care Society, serving from 2017 to 2023. Her deep commitment to eye health is rooted in the immediate, life-changing impact of restoring sight. "When I started doing the training, one of the reasons that we do what we do, is because we see the effect almost immediately” she says.
Dr Elenoa recalls a particularly moving experience
at an Outreach clinic when a man who had been bilaterally blind for ten years had his vision restored.
“I was at an Outreach, and there was a man that was brought to the clinic. He was bilaterally blind for 10 years and after we did his first operation, and he looked down at what he was wearing, and the joy on his face, to see that his son had grown, and he hadn’t seen him for 10 years. And he had grandchildren who he was seeing for the first time”
In 2024 a key part of Dr. Elenoa's work involved assisting in organising and leading Paediatric Surgical Week at PEI. This outreach focused on providing cataract surgery to children from across Fiji. In June of this year, Dr. Elenoa worked alongside Dr. Subash, the lead surgeon. As a team, they gathered children who need cataract surgery under general anaesthesia and performed surgery on 14 children, including Vasemaca - read her story here.
For Dr Elenoa, eye care is about more than just medical procedures—it's about transforming lives and giving people, especially children, the chance to live fully and independently. Through her leadership and dedication, she continues to make a profound impact on the lives of those she serves.
Thanks to our incredible community of supporters, Dr Elenoa is able to continue learning and growing as an eye doctor and provide sight-restoring surgeries to children like Vasemaca.
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