A TRAILBLAZING Papua New Guinean ophthalmologist is the inaugural recipient of the Gabi Hollows Award for Women Advancing Global Health and Development.
The Fred Hollows Foundation recognised Dr Jambi Garap for her central role in building and coordinating eye health in PNG and the Pacific.
The award recognises exceptional women progressing health equity and leadership and comes as the foundation shone a light on the impact of avoidable blindness among women and girls in the Pacific, at the Women Deliver conference in Melbourne from April 27-30.
Named in honour of Gabi Hollows AO – orthoptist, humanitarian, and co-founder of The Fred Hollows Foundation – the award reflects Gabi’s lifelong commitment to equity, locally led solutions, and women’s
leadership in health.
Since qualifying as an ophthalmologist in the late 1990s, Garap led the development of the National Prevention of Blindness Committee of PNG (PBL), now recognised across the Western Pacific as one of the region’s most effective eye health advocacy and coordination bodies.
The PBL, under Garap’s leadership, successfully advocated for a Rapid Assessment of Avoidable Blindness in 2017, the first survey of its kind in the region, and completed the Global Trachoma Mapping Project in 2015.
Using trachoma data-transformed decision-making enabled targeted interventions based on population needs.
As a result of the survey and Garap’s leadership, the World Health Organisation officially validated Papua New Guinea as having eliminated trachoma as a public health problem last May.
“It’s an honour to be the inaugural recipient of the Gabi Hollows Award, and I know this will inspire women in health leadership across the Pacific,” Garap said.
“We need more women in health leadership positions so we can overcome the barriers women and girls face in accessing health services.”
Garap also driven long-term system change, including
advocating for the upgrade of the Port Moresby General Hospital Eye Clinic, supporting the development of the PNG Centre for Eye Health, and helped establish a national teaching centre for ophthalmology at the University of Papua New Guinea.
