Seeing the rewards of PNG journey
by
When local optometrist John Farmer set out to Papua New Guinea in 1982, he never imagined how far his journey would take him.
Having helped those in need of eyecare in some of the most rural areas of Australia, John was asked if he’d be willing to make the journey to a new country where his services might be needed. He agreed, and after four decades of regular visits and consultations has become one of the major reasons for the development of eyecare in Papua New Guinea (PNG).
John, one of the founding members of Leunig and Farmer eyecare, now L&F Eyecare, recently returned to PNG after being unable to visit for some time due to COVID travel restrictions.
Of course, John had no idea he would end up playing such a role.
“You don’t start out thinking ‘oh okay I’ll go set up eyecare in PNG, where do I start,’ you start out doing the bit in front of you and then you do the next bit and the next bit and bit by bit something builds over time,” he says.
Having originally made the trip to help prescribe eye issues and provide glasses to those who needed them, John soon found himself training nurses in the specifics of eyecare so they could assist clients without him. John’s dedication to helping out expanded with time, until the three-month course he had delivered originally to those nurses become a year-long course that he helped build.
In 2008 he helped set up ‘PNG Eye Care,’ a not-forprofit organisation designed to help deliver low-cost glasses to people in need. The organisation has since become self-sufficient, though John remains on the board and provides background administration work, and was rewarded with an Order of Australia Medal in 2017 for his efforts.
The help has certainly been needed in a country like PNG. The country has a population of nine million, but just 12 active ophthalmologists, specialists who perform eye surgery. In comparison, Australia has more than 1000. PNG has 70 to 80 mid-level workers in the field of eyecare, Australia has almost 5000.
Blindness has been a serious issue for a long period of time, simply because people have been unable to access the surgery they need, even for something as relatively basic as cataracts.
And while there’s still been a major improvement on how things used to be, as John describes it it’s often been a case of “one step forward, one step back.”
“The people there are working extremely hard in difficult circumstances to try and make a difference,” he says.
“If all of the surgeons operated on cataracts for 24 hours a days they still wouldn’t catch up.”
Regardless, all of that has made John’s work all the more valuable. And while the effects of COVID meant he was unable to physically travel to PNG to provide support for the past few years, the wheels kept turning behind the scenes.
Online meetings, seminars and phone calls ensured that John was still able to help Eye Care PNG provide glasses and care to those who required them.
“In one sense it was good because it meant that had to do more for themselves, in another sense it was frustrating because somethings are hard to do online without being there,” John says.
Seeing the friends he hadn’t been able to physically see for a long time was something to treasure though, and John has a positive view of PNG’s future with regards to eyecare.
“There’s a sense in PNG there’s a lot of things coming together,” he says.
It’s not too difficult to see why. There are now serious plans in the works for a dedicated centre for eye health behind the Port Moresby Hospital in the country’s capital city, with the hope being that it will provide training and education for both optometry and ophthalmology.
And while costs and specifics are yet to be worked out, those involved remain hopeful that with the government returning its focus to eye health following initial issues of the pandemic, the future is bright.
John says while he has high hopes, he will be keen to see things unfold from the sidelines rather than the frontlines.
“I think I need to start thinking about someone to hand the baton off to,” he says with a slight smile.
The self sufficiency of the programs he’s helped to put in place should mean he’s able to do that sooner rather than later, and allow PNG to help itself, on its own terms.
As for the effects John has had on the country, whether it be through his direct help for people who need it, or the training he has provided that has allowed others to assist, it’s almost impossible to quantify how many lives he’s changed.
When asked about that fact and whether he realises what a difference he’s made, John pauses for a moment before saying “mostly yes.”
“Occasionally you sometimes wonder if we’ve made a real difference but the answer is yes, we’ve made a real difference. We all like to live lives where we’re making a difference somewhere,” he says.
“I guess I don’t think about it too much, I just do the next thing that needs to be done.”
“We all like to live lives where we’re making a difference somewhere.”