Hi Gropers,

Ross Littlewood, a regular swimmer on Tuesday and Thursday nights, was recently featured in the Australian Medical Associations’ journal “Medicus” for his great work in East Timor. Fantastic work Ross!

Thanks to Trevor Beer for pointing this out to me.

The text from the article and pictures follow. Clicking on the article pages will bring up larger versions of them.

Paul

WA ophthalmologist ROSS LITTLEWOOD has been involved in the humanitarian effort to restore the sight of thousands of East Timorese who became victims of the fight for independence. In this article he describes his experience and the work being done by the large group of Australian volunteers:

During 24 years of Indonesian occupation the ophthalmic service in East Timor was poorly equipped by our standards and there was a lack of services in outlying areas.

Amidst the destruc ion which accompanied independence in 1999 the Indonesian army and militias systematically destroyed the existing ophthalmic infrastructure and there were no indigenous eye trained nurses or doctors to provide services.

The humanitarian disaster was exacerbated by a rapidly growing burden of cataract blindness for which the country had no resources.

An Australian ophthalmologist, Dr Nitin Verma, was invited to start a visiting service in 2000 and since then has progressively developed a well resourced service, largely funded by a charity he est ablished in 2001 called the East Timor Eye Program (ETEP www.etep.org).

Dr Verma has also been successful in finding and renovating old equipment so now donated Australian microscopes, slit lamps, autoclaves and clinic equipment occupy the six district hospitals of Timor Leste.

From an individual initiative the ETEP has grown to include a large group of Australian volunteers including ophthalmologists, ophthalmic nurses and optometrists.

In October 2006 the RACS began providing a range of specialist services to East Timor  funded by Ausaid. Several instrument companies in Australia have provided generous donation s of consumables including intra ocular lenses.

Ausaid funding is sufficient for four trips a year so there is a need for extra support to reach all six administrative centers in Timor Leste.

In 2007 the Order of St. John in Australia agreed to sponsor the former AMA President Dr Bill Glasson on an annual visit to the Oecussi enclave . This year I was granted fund ing from the Eye Surgery Foundation (ESF – http://www.eyesurgeryfoundation.com.au/home) to provide an annual visit to Maubisse in the central highlands, the last of the six regional centres to be serviced. Maubisse has a new hospital serving a population of 150,000 who are so poor that most cannot afford the bus fare to Dili.

The ESF have sup ported many other eye related charities including: Lions Eye Institute ($1,000,000), Order of St John ($90,000), Equal Health ($60,000), Association for the Blind ($40,000), Foresight Australia ($20,000), Fred Hollows Foundation ($20,00D), John Fawcett Foundation (Bali) ($20,000), RANZCO Eye Foundation ($50,000), Glaucoma Australia ($1,500), Epidemiology of Blindness Study ($300,000), and the Rare Eye Disease Surveillance Unit ($285,000).

The Order of St John in WA has a long history of suppor ting eye- related charities which started with St John’s Hospital in Jerusalem. They have also provided funding for equipment to be used in Maubisse.

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