West Perth Rotary Club (WPRC) used a Rotary Foundation Grant in 1990 to set up the Bali Eye Clinic. A mobile eye clinic operating theatre was fitted out in Perth and delivered by Hercules aeroplane to Bali courtesy of the Royal Australian Air Force. In the next four years, cataract operations were performed to restore sight to over 4000 people.
The program was so successful that it incorporated in 2002 in the name of “The John Fawcett Foundation Inc” thus having the ability to raise funds and offer tax deductibility in its own right.The program acquired several more mobile clinics from Australia and expanded to other Indonesian islands with the assistance of the Indonesian Air Force Hercules arm which transported vehicles. Volunteer specialists from Australia have trained a large number of local medical personnel. Up until April 2015, a total of 868349 patients had been screened, eye drops had been issued to 533212, cataract operations had been performed on 44746, cleft palate operations had been carried out on 3047 with education-children's assistance for 329.
John Fawcett and a mobile eye clinic operating theatre in Bali, 2015
Funding for the project has been an ongoing by successful challenge, described in detail by John Hollinghead in this link Funding for the Bali eye clinic project
Pat Emery OAM, and John Hollinghead OAM remain members of the West Perth Rotary club. John was the main driving force behind the original Bali project and Pat was Treasurer of the John Fawcett foundation until recently.