Villagers get free eye tests
Villagers get free eye tests
GIANYAR: A team from the YKI and Rumah Sakit Indera recently visited Pesraman Ida Pedanda Gunung, Blahbatuh, Gianyar in Bali for the day as part of the YKI's outreach program.
Over the course of the day, the team examined 273 people with eye problems. Some of the problems were solved easily with standard prescription glasses, which the team issued on the spot.
For those who needed non-standard lens prescriptions, the team recorded the specifications to make up the glasses at its optometry base in Rumah Sakit Indera, Denpasar.
But what the team was most interested in was finding people who had been blinded by cataracts.
Thirteen people were identified as having cataracts during the screening.
The team members were delighted, as they were able to offer to the thirteen, some of whom had been blind for years, free surgery to remove the cataracts. The surgery will be carried out in the near future in a mobile eye clinic, complete with operating theater, which is based at Rumah Sakit Indera.
The YKI's Sight Restoration and Blindness Prevention Project has been running in Bali since 1991, and has, to date, performed sight-restoring operations on approximately 19,000 people. Since 2002, a similar project has been operating in South Kalimantan, funded by coal mine, PT Adaro.
In addition to the project, the YKI assists children with cleft lip and palate surgery, and those who are desperately ill and cannot afford medical treatment.
It also has an education assistance project that helps poor families keep their children in primary school.
All services from the YKI, including the cataract surgery, are offered free-of-charge to people in the lower socio-economic group. The organization works closely with the government departments of health, education and social affairs. Funds to cover the costs of the YKI's operations come from donations, and the organization is constantly looking for sources of funding.
If you are able to help this organization, the website, www.balieye.org, gives donation information on the "How You Can Help" page. Donations to the organization can be made in Indonesia. Donations are also tax deductible in the United States and in Australia.
The YKI can be contacted via e-mail at yki@indo.net.id, tel: 0361 270 812, or fax: 0361 287 707. -- JP
Grand Hyatt Bali gets new GM
NUSA DUA: The Grand Hyatt Bali has been appointed a new general manager, Detlev Truernit, in the middle of a major renovation process for better service.
For Truernit who replaces Robbert van der Maas, the assignment is the fourth in Indonesia and the second in Bali.
"I return to Bali at a very exciting time, when the Grand Hyatt is going through a major renovation process. We will be launching our brand new guest rooms later in the year and in mid-2006 open an exciting new all Villa Spa and a new ballroom in addition to our existing Grand Ballroom," Truernit said in a statement made available to The Jakarta Post.
"Combined with the already refurbished pools and beautiful new landscaping of the gardens, our hotel will truly be a new state-of-the-art property on the island," he added. --JP