5 minute read
Chairmen’s Reports
In 2019 we exceeded our own expectations with the funds received and the outcomes we achieved. Our existing donors continued their generous support, and we were fortunate to receive support from many new donors. We are continually surprised by the dollar volume, and range of reasons that accompany the donations. The donations are mainly from Australia, but there are more and more receipts from Indonesian sources and from our British supporters. All are most welcome, and we spare no effort in acknowledging them with grateful thanks from us and in particular from the underprivileged people of Indonesia. In Australia raising funds remains our major objective for all facets of our work and, while we have been successful, we also are always conscious of the need for our activities to be cost effective.
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Our overall expenses cover a variety of items, including salaries for our hardworking Balinese staff, provision and maintenance of adequate levels of medical supplies and equipment, maintaining our fleet of vehicles in good condition, utility costs, insurances, cleaning products and general maintenance requirements. Upskilling our staff is a very important part of our activities, and we are fortunate to have the volunteer services of medical specialists, nurses and technicians to assist with this work. Our core activity is to provide eye care. This includes cataract removal and lens replacement for blind adults, a relatively simple 20-minute operation, and cataract removal and lens replacement for blind children, a more complicated procedure that requires a general anaesthetic. To find the patients we travel across the archipelago and in so doing find thousands of people with less serious eye problems that can be alleviated with eye drops and in many cases the provision of glasses. This is all provided free of charge. A life-changing ancillary function is the making and supply of prosthetic eyes for the unfortunate people who have only one eye due to a birth defect or have lost an eye as a result of an accident. The difference the provision of a prosthetic eye can make to a person’s self-confidence and future life prospects is significant. Another important activity is the provision of cleft lip and palate operations to young children born with a facial deformity. This free service is provided in a hospital in Denpasar by a skilled local surgeon who has been trained in this speciality by volunteer Australian medical specialists. To see the look in the eyes of parents when they see their ‘repaired’ child is truly something to behold. These same volunteer specialists also conduct surgical training sessions where patients who have been seriously burned and suffer quite horrific scarring and contractions that significantly limit their mobility are treated.
The Foundation’s medical work is carried out by skilled doctors supported by JFF’s experienced nurses and technicians. They are a dedicated and proud group of people. I wish that I could name them all, but you will see evidence of their work in the pages of this 2019 Annual Report. We are eternally grateful to our wonderful donors and supporters They are our lifeblood. The thousands of people that we have assisted would surely like to join me in that sentiment.
Our Founder, John Fawcett, continues to look over us and retains a strong influence over the way that we carry out the work that he commenced.
JOHN FAWCETT FOUNDATION (INDONESIA)
It is a great honour and privilege to present to all our friends, donors, partners and stakeholders the 2019 Annual Report. In our 2018 Report we noted that we had performed 4.5% more cataract operations than during the previous year, and yet in 2019 we increased by 30.8% the number of cataract operations compared to 2018. This increase was due largely to the effectiveness of our offshore programs and the support we have from the local governments in providing their medical staff to help to screen patients prior to our visits to the villages. In order that the local medical staff are able to identify operable cataracts we provide training at JFF Headquarters, and also run training sessions and seminars at the locations where our team is working. This is proving very effective and will ensure the
continuity of our ongoing program of giving the gift of sight to those poor people who are needlessly blind. The Prosthetic Eye Program increased its outcomes by 44% in 2019, making and fitting the eyes to people in need. A big moment for all of us in 2019 was the launch of the new fully-equipped Mobile Eye Clinic, donated by Reliable Education to The John Fawcett Foundation. This also involved an upgrade of the medical equipment to enable us to provide more sophisticated services to those in need. Our services would not be so effective without support from our medical consultants. This year our volunteer medical specialists continue to provide training to the local surgeons in the corrective surgery program to help people with severe burns from Eastern Indonesia, and our ophthalmic consultants from Australia and the United Kingdom gave their time to teach the local surgeons at Udayana University and JFF medical team, increasing their knowledge of eye diseases and how to treat them. Transfer of Technology has been one of the key programs of the Foundation for many years and will continue to grow and expand to ensure the sustainability of the Foundation’s services. In Indonesia, it is estimated that over four million people are blind with cataracts. The province with the highest rate of cataract blindness is East Java with a prevalence of about 4.1% of the population, equating to over 1.5 million people. While this is one of the focus areas for JFF, we are conscious that there are many other provinces that also have high rates of cataract blindness, in particular, the eastern part of Indonesia, where we continue to schedule programs and develop cooperative relationships with the local authorities.
For the Foundation to be able to increase its services to help more people in need, we continually seek assistance from donors, businesses, organisations and granting institutions. I would like to take this opportunity to express our gratitude to all the donors, supporters and partners for your wonderful gifts to the people of Indonesia. To the Boards in Indonesia, Australia and the United Kingdom, and our Donor Advisor in the USA, thank you for being so dedicated to the work we are doing to help the underprivileged people in Indonesia. Matur Suksma!
