MOBILE EYE CLINIC
JFF’s Sight Restoration and Blindness Prevention Project focuses on providing free eye treatment and operations for the curable blind in the lower socio-economic group in Indonesia.
Setting up the Project in 1991, John Fawcett was faced with the challenge of blind, poor people in remote villages being unable to travel, and developed the idea of a mobile operating theatre, which could take the service to the poor in their villages.
The original mobile eye clinic was a secondhand school bus fitted out in Perth, Western Australia, and air-freighted to Bali by the Australian Air Force. The Foundation has come a long way since then, and the current mobile clinics are sophisticated operating units with plenty of space for patients and the operating team, with a separate section for patients being prepared for surgery.
The JFF team travels to villages around Bali, and also to other islands where there are no ophthalmic services and where people are too poor to seek specialist medical attention. The team screens village people for eye problems, distributes glasses where appropriate and treats minor eye infections.
The main purpose of the mass screenings is to identify people who are blind with cataracts and operate them to restore their sight in the mobile eye clinic – a fully-equipped, sterile operating theatre. The following day the patients return for a post-op check and have their eye pads removed, able to see again, sometimes for the first time in many years.
SPONSOR A BALI MOBILE EYE CLINIC PROGRAM
Sponsor a Bali Mobile Eye Clinic is a JFF initiative bringing the Foundation’s humanitarian assistance to impoverished adults and children in Bali with a village eye screening, glasses and eye medicines, free surgery for those identified as blind with cataracts, and school eye screening.
Donors and supporters are always welcome to join the team in these programs.
Project Cost: AUD $2,500
Two-day program includes:
- Screening 300- 500 village people with eye problems
- Providing glasses to around 325 people
- Treating around 250 people with eye infections
- Checking the eyes of students in one of the local primary schools and issuing glasses to those who need them
- Restoring sight for up to 10 people who are cataract blind
SPONSOR AN OFFSHORE EYE PROGRAM
Sponsor an Offshore Eye Program, a JFF initiative bringing the Foundation’s humanitarian assistance to impoverished adults and children on other Indonesian islands with a mass eye screening, glasses and eye medicines, free surgery for those identified as blind with cataracts, and school eye screening. Programs run over 4-5 days.
Donors and supporters are welcome to join the team in these programs with a group tour from Bali where the participants donate to cover the cost of the program – in full or in part. Tours can accommodate 20-25 people and can be for part of the program only – usually two days in the field plus travel days.
Program cost: approximately AUD $27,000*
*not including visitor transport, accommodation and food in the field.
Program cost covers:
- Screening 1,500-2,500 village people with eye problems
- Providing glasses to 1750-1,000 people who require vision correction
- Treating 500+ people with eye infections
- Restoring sight for 200-300 people who are needlessly blind
- Making and fitting 10+ artificial eyes
For further information, contact jff@johnfawcett.org