Restoring sight in Timor-Leste: Timor Program Delivers 10,000 Spectacles

Working in partnership with local NGO Fo Naroman Timor-Leste (FNTL), The Fred Hollows Foundation NZ-FNTL program has dispensed 10,000 spectacles in some of the poorest regions of Timor-Leste in the past two years.

Approximately 87,500 people over the age of 40 need glasses, but most people simply cannot afford them.  Recent surveys have found that half the population cannot afford to pay $1 for a pair of glasses and, for almost half the people living in rural areas, even 25 cents is too much.

Most Timorese people live rurally, far away from the country's few eye clinics. The FHFNZ-FNTL project is getting affordable glasses out to these people, and providing other eye health services at the same time.

Jenivia was one of almost 2000 school pupils who have had their eyes screened in the past year.  Going to school is not something children take for granted in Timor-Leste.

During the civil unrest in 1999, over 90% of schools were destroyed and most teachers and school administrators fled the country. Schools are slowly being re-established, but there are still tens of thousands of children who do not attend, and nearly half the population are illiterate.  This makes it even more important that children at school can actually see to read and learn. 

Receiving a pair of spectacles will help Jenivia graduate from school, and could be the difference between a life of poverty or one of opportunity. 

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