BEAM OF HOPE PROJECTThe Beam of Hope Project was created by the embryonic Rotary Club of Summerland Sunrise in 1997, in response to the very high incidence of diabetes and associated loss of vision in the Fiji population. Diabetic patients and administrators in Fiji were distressingly ignorant of the link between diabetes and blindness at that time. Patients simply went to the eye clinic when they became blind and the Western concepts of education in risk reduction and routine eye screening, along with laser surgery, did not exist. |
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In 1998, after Rotary fund raising had produced $50,000, the club, cosponsored by the Rotary Clubs of Suva, became the first in Australia to receive an individual Rotary 3H grant which was valued at US$152,050. These funds created Fiji’s first ophthalmic laser clinic valued at US$80,000 and established a program of public awareness via the news media to inform the public on strategies to reduce the risk of blindness and other disabling complications of diabetes. The ongoing cost of public awareness programs broadcast on radio since 1999 currently exceeds US$80,000 As a result of our five-year public awareness programs, we find that in 2004, 15,000 new diabetes sufferers attended the three eye clinics throughout Fiji seeking reassurance that they were not harbouring the early stage of the potentially blinding retinal disease. Constant exposure to the message this project has delivered is resulting in lower blood sugar levels, earlier detection of disease, more successful laser surgery and fewer patients presenting to the clinic with inoperable blindness. Since the Rotary Ophthalmic Laser Unit was opened in Suva, in May 1999, over 6000 patients with diabetic eye disease have undergone argon retinal laser surgery in Fiji. Review of the data suggests that vision has been improved or stabilised in 70%, and pre-laser vision maintained in another 29%. Most of these patients may have progressed to severe or total loss of vision without this treatment. Another 300 have had their sight restored by the YAG laser following complicated cataract surgery. In February 2004, a second Rotary Ophthalmic Laser and Cataract Unit was established in Labasa, the main town on the second of Fiji’s main islands, Vanua Levu. The Australian government contributed F$40,000 towards the total cost of F$100,000 through Aus Aid. The Labasa community raised a further F$20,000. Other donors were the Prime Minister of Fiji, Mr Laisenia Qarase and the New Zealand High Commission in Suva, while the Rotary Club of Summerland Sunrise joined Fiji Rotary Clubs once again in contributing the remaining $20,000 needed to establish this clinic. The Beam of Hope 3H Grant concludes in 2005. The value of the project since its inception in 1999 approaches $500,000. The public awareness programs it has established will continue at Rotary expense until funds are totally exhausted, when the Fiji Government will commence production of these highly successful initiatives. This has been a spectacularly successful project which has achieved all its objectives of raising public awareness and reducing the incidence of diabetic blindness in Fiji. I must thank the Rotary Foundation and all Rotarians, both in Fiji and Australia, for their generous support and active contribution to its ultimate success.
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