NEWS ARCHIVE

August-September 2006: Cleft Operations

Four children with cleft lips and one with a cleft palate were operated by Dr Anom in the Rumah Sakit Puri Rahaja in our Children’s Corrective Surgery Project.

22 August – 6 September 2006: Lombok Eye Clinic

Opthahlmologists from Italian NGO Una Sola Vita traveled to Lombok and performed 55 sight restoring cataract operations in the Lombok Eye Clinic in Kuta in the south of Lombok. This area has a high incidence of blindness and poverty, and the Foundation is exploring the possibilities of establishing a mobile clinic to operate in southern and eastern Lombok, the poorest areas of the island, which would work in conjunction with the already established clinic in the south of the island.

August 2006: Salma – prosthesis eye

Salma, a young woman from Sumbawa, came to our office with a ‘white’ eye. She was very shy and lacking in confidence. The Foundation arranged an evisceration of her blind eye and later a custommade and fitted prosthesis eye. The result was stunning. Salma can now look forward to a normal life, free of the scourge of this facial defect.

August 2006: Iluh undergoes major surgery in Perth

Early in 2006, Iluh came to our Foundation’s office with her parents. She suffered from a congenital bladder extrophy, a very distressing condition, and her parents were far too poor to consider an operation for her.

The Foundation approached St John of God Hospital Subiaco in Perth, Western Australia, for assistance, and the hospital offered to cover all costs for her hospital stay. Dr Andrew Barker, paediatric urologist, agreed to do the operation free of charge, and his colleague, Dr Saeed Ahmed, flew from Sydney to assist.

Garuda Indonesia helped with discounted airfares, and many kind people donated funds for travel expenses for Iluh, her mother, and Artini from our Bali office, who assisted them in Perth. The Indonesian community in Perth also provided free accommodation and a great deal of support during their time in Perth.

Iluh returned to Bali a very happy child. She has since received support from a group of Perth women who have donated funds for her schooling through to high school.

1-4 August 2006: JFF Board Members in Bali

Foundation Board members traveled to Bali to attend a quarterly Board meeting on 2 August. Board members took the opportunity to see some of the Foundation’s activities at first hand and to hold valuable discussions about their particular areas of assistance.

George Georgis, assessed all the YKI drivers and took our two newest drivers in the Education Assistance program out for driving lessons. He also attended a field screening with the YKI Team, further assessing the refraction skills of the team. Win and Margaret Jones, together with George Georgis, who handle donated supplies and equipment in Perth, worked on ways to streamline the receipt of donated goods and their subsequent transport to Bali. Foundation Treasurer, Pat Emery, and Sue Coates traveled tothe village of their sponsored child in the Education Assistance Program with a box of donated school supplies to distribute in the local primary school.

1 August 2006: Community Award to Win & Margaret Jones

The Foundation heartily congratulates JFF Board member Win Jones and his wife, Margaret, who won a Community Connect Award from Lotterywest, the Lotteries Commission in Western Australia for service to the community. The award was $5,000 to go to a charity nominated by Win and Margaret. They nominated the JF Foundation to be the recipient.

Win and Margaret Jones are the Foundation’s ‘logistics’ people in Perth, who receive supplies of donated medical supplies and arrange transport of them to Bali. This is no small feat, and we are deeply appreciative of their continuing support and work.

End July 2006: ABMEC Progress

Construction of the new Eye Centre for Bali, the Australia Bali Memorial Eye Centre (ABMEC) has finally commenced. At the end of July, construction was up to the roof level and progressing quickly.

Left: John Fawcett discussing the plans with Dr Dharyata and the construction managers. Right: Progress to 26 July 2006.

The ABMEC is being given to the Balinese Department of Health by the Australian Government, as part of its Bali Recovery package to improve medical services in Bali in the aftermath of the 2002 Bali bombing. The two new mobile eye clinics were part of the same gift to continue the Foundation’s Sight Restoration and Blindness Prevention Project which provides free treatment to the poor.

25-28 July 2006: Field Screening and Cataract Operations, Sukasada, North Bali

A mass screening of 730 village people in Sukasada in the north of Bali identified 25 who were blind with cataracts and 481 needing remedial glasses. The YKI funded team worked in cooperation with the North Bali Mobile Eye Clinic team, who performed the sight restoring operations in the following days.

On the return trip to the south of the island, the YKI team delivered glasses to school children in Tejakula which had been ordered from the field screening in Tejakula in June.

21 July 2006: Volunteer Australian Ophthalmologists assist with Children’s Eye Operations

Visiting volunteer ophthalmologists, Dr Geoffrey Cohn and Dr Lisa Cottee from NSW Australia, assisted local ophthalmologist, Dr Dharyata to operate on five children with eye problems. Three of the children were blind with cataracts and two suffered from limbal dermoid cysts which were affecting their sight. Dr Geoff and Dr Lisa spent a week in Bali, working with the North Bali Mobile Eye Clinic team and with the ophthalmic clinic nurses and in the operating theatre in the Rumah Sakit Indera, training and advising the local medical personnel.

17-22 July 2006: Volunteer Optometrist trains in Refraction

Australian volunteer optometrist, Phillipa Sharwood from Sydney, spent a week in Bali training clinic nurses at the Rumah Sakit Indera and the YKI screening team in refraction techniques. This was invaluable training, particularly for the YKI team, which is conducting more and more of these very effective screening programs in remote areas of Bali, where hundreds of people with eye problems are screened for cataracts and eyesight problems, with many being issued with remedial spectacles to improve their visual acuity.

14-15 July 2006: Cleft Operations

In July two children were operated in the Foundation’s regular Children’s Facial Reconstruction Project – one with a cleft lips and one with a cleft palate. The children were operated by Dr Anom in the Rumah Sakit Puri Raharja, with anaesthetics by Dr Sukra. The operations were made possible with funding from two private donors – from Valerie Mitchell from Banora Point, NSW, and a donation from Perth in memory of Audrey Mathews.

July 2006: JFF(UK) Foundation established

Thanks to the tireless efforts of Jeremy Hope, our Foundation’s volunteer fundraiser in the United Kingdom, The John Fawcett Foundation (UK) has now been registered as a tax-deductible charity in the UK. Jeremy has already been very successful in his fundraising efforts, and the tax deductible status will help his efforts. The Foundation now enjoys tax deductible status in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.

June & July 2006: Wheelchair Assistance

Alison Simmons, from the Hollywood Private Hospital in Perth, Western Australia, who organizes the donation of good quality surplus medical equipment from Hollywood Hospital for Balinese hospitals via the Foundation, located this excellent wheelchair for Wayan Indri Yani, a young Balinese girl who suffered brain damage from a viral infection early in her life. Wayan Indri Is pictured here in the new wheelchair with her parents and two large teddy bears, donated by Alison Simmons. Wheelchairs were issued to three other patients who approached the Foundation, unable to walk during June and July.

June & July 2006: Assistance to Desperately Ill Children

In June two children were operated in the Foundation’s Assistance to Desperately Ill Children Program.
• Bayu Andika Putra, aged two years, had a hernia repair
• Ni Kadek Ariani, an 18-year-old girl had a large benign ovarian cyst removed.
In July Wayan Darma Putra, 17-year-old boy, was operated to remove traces of a benign tumour on his spine. All operations were performed by Dr Jaya Kesuma, surgeon, in the Prima Medika Hospital in Denpasar. Two of the operations were funded by Rotary District 9690, NSW Australia, and one paid from YKI general donations.

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