Indonesia

Our Work in Indonesia

Despite significant advances in overall health, Indonesia has some of the highest levels of avoidable blindness in Southeast Asia. With 30 million people living below the poverty line and 46% of people living in rural areas, access to eye health services for Indonesia’s 3.6 million blind remains a challenge.

Some of the key factors contributing to poor eye health in Indonesia are an insufficient number of trained health professionals, a low level of community eye health awareness, and inadequate resources and policies to support eye health service provision.

Almost 60% of blindness among children in Indonesia is avoidable. Evidence suggests a large portion of a child’s early learning is through vision. Poor vision impacts childhood development, education, participation in community life and social interaction.

OUR ACHIEVEMENTS

The Foundation is integrating eye health into the Indonesian health system, in order to build a model that can operate sustainably.

We work in partnership with the Government of Indonesia to:

Improve the quality of eye health services provided in schools to properly screen children, refer when necessary and provide glasses to treat refractive error
Provide education in eye health care for children and community members
Ensure sustainable financing systems are in place to support new eye health facilities

Strengthen health systems within vulnerable populations by creating a sustainable referral pathway, and providing proper resources for adequate screening, diagnosis and treatment of cataract, support local eye care capacity by training general nurses in surgical support and teachers in screening and referral.

2019 Results

Helping people see

420,149 people screened
3,944 cataract operations
3,595 pairs of glasses distributed

Investing in people

3,278 people trained including:
4 clinic support staff
3,258 teachers

Equipment and Technology

4 medical facilities equipped