The Sumba Eye Program has been active since 2008, following a meeting between ophthalmologist, Dr Mark Ellis and Dr Claus Bogh on a plane flight to Sumba in 2007. At the time, Dr Ellis was conducting the first ever eye camp in Waingapu, the capital of Sumba, under the auspices of the international affairs department of the Royal Australian College of Surgeons. Prior to this meeting, since 2004, Mark had travelled annually to East Timor.
Claus suggested that Mark should also travel to West Sumba and work with the Sumba Foundation there. This is when the Rotary Club of Glenferrie and, later with Peter Stewart joining the team, Kew Rotary, began their Rotary Partnership with the Sumba Foundation, with the first trip to Sumba in 2008. As the program progressed, the Rotary Club of Glenferrie was successful in applying for a Foundation Global Grant for $30,000 enabling the purchase of microscopes, surgical equipment, portable slit lamps, and scanners for cataract surgery.
From the provision of service in the form of cataract surgery and prescribing spectacles, the program has expanded to train local nurses in eye care and operating room procedures for eye surgery. Now, with grants from the Australian and NZ Eye Foundation (ANZEF), the Perth Eye Foundation and the Rotary Club of Balwyn, our team has been able to set up the first permanent eye clinic in Sumba. As an example of the success of this program, Dr Ellis was invited to present to District 9780's Foundation breakfast at the recent multi-district summit in Horsham.
The team arrived back in mid-April from one of its six-monthly visits in Sumba as part of the Foresight Sumba Eye Program. This was an important participatory week, when Dr Jelly, the eye registrar from the Udayana University, was already using the eye clinic. It gave the team a chance to check out how the clinic was functioning. Also to see the progress of the four optometrists who had been involved in one-on-one training with our eye care nurses, some of whom are employed by the Sumba Foundation. The new theatres at the Waikabubak Hospital were impressive and we were allowed to use one of the four theatres for a week of surgery where the Dr Jelly, Dr Saphira (from Caritas) and Dr Cho (consultant from Udayana University) operated on mainly cataracts.
The future of the project looks good and we envisage a time when the Australian volunteers will withdraw and the Indonesian people will fully take over the eye clinic and its services.
