In August of last year, the Rotary Club of Bali Lovina provided Bali Advertiser readers with an outline of our eyeglasses project. Now, eight months later, it is time to bring our readers up to date with the project.
As mentioned previously, one of our major ongoing community projects is the provision of free eyeglasses to high school students in Buleleng. As the only Rotary Club in Buleleng (the largest regency by area in Bali) we certainly have our work cut out for us!
To fund this project we depend entirely on donations from other sources – over the years these have included overseas Rotary Clubs, charitable organizations and private individuals. At this point we should mention the great generosity of Clifford Grant from White Rock, Canada – he organized donations from his Rotary Club and friends amounting to around $2000 for this project.
From these donations, our Club pays for the lenses. Our incredible partners in the project, Bali Top Optical, provide free testing, frames, fitting and after-sales service. We have been greatly assisted in our selection of needy schools by a local yayasan, Peduli Sesama Philanthropic Work – their front-liners in villages scattered across Buleleng have been invaluable in introducing us to schools, and providing much practical assistance.
So far, through this project, we have distributed around 615 pairs of glasses. This means that we have actually personally tested a total of about 6,000 students. Pretty darn good for a club as small as ours! Our members, armed with eye charts, pointers and enthusiasm, carry out most of the initial testing. The experts from Bali Top Optical then test our “short list” with their computerized equipment, coming up with the prescription required for each individual student.
Although we mainly focus (pun intended) on SMP students, we have also found ourselves over the last few months at a variety of other locations. In fact, since our last report to the Bali Advertiser in August, we have completed testing and provided eyeglasses to students at the following:
August 2017
Rumah Bapaku Orphanage, Anturan
September/October 2017
SMP3 Tejakula, Sembiran
Narayan Seva Children’s Home, Singaraja
December 2017
SMA/SMK Bali Mandara, Kubutambahan
January 2018
Tourism and Home Assistant Diploma, Sambangan (a project of Peduli Sesama Philanthropic Work)
April 2018
SMP/SMA1, Tukadmungga
We could not possibly have achieved this without the support of Bali Top Optical, and the dedicated assistance of the staff of their Singaraja office: Ayu Yuningsih, Kadek Suartika, Kadek Sugiharta and Eka Fridayanthi. They have been truly wonderful! The accompanying photos show just a fraction of the work carried out over the last few months.
We still have sufficient funds to keep the project running for another couple of months, but we are always hoping for further financial assistance to materialize! If you, or someone or some organization you know, would like to contribute, our contact details are on our website www.jepunsegara.com/rotaryclubbalilovina
Have a look at the News Archives pages of our website for further details of the great work of the Rotary Club of Bali Lovina. We’re possibly the smallest club in Bali (but growing) and somehow manage to cover as much as possible of the largest Regency.
On the website you will also find details of our meetings – please come along and join us next time you’re in Lovina! Or contact us: President Conchita on 081 139 908 66, or Secretary David on 0813 3865 2107.
Keith Fletcher – Vice-President, Rotary Club of Bali Lovina
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