The Foundation was established in March 2007. It is a charitable trust registered with the Australian Taxation Office, with Julie Tyers as its Founder, its sole trustee and its main driving force.
Julie is an ophthalmic nurse with over 30 years experience with the Eye and Ear Hospital in Melbourne. She also works regularly as a nurse with the College of Surgeons in Timor under an AUSAID funded project to perform cataract operations there. This experience has proved invaluable to her in setting up her own project in Ethiopia. In recognition of her work, Julie received the Deakin University Leadership in Nursing Award. for 2007.
Julie is assisted in the running of the Foundation by a dedicated group of volunteers.
There is a small advisory committee consisting of Graham Romanes (the Honorary Consul for Ethiopia), Michael Bishop (Solicitor), Christine Wilson (Psychologist), Michael Vanewijk (Graphic Designer), Caroline Ondracek (Librarian) and Ron Hoppenbrouwer (Opthalmic Nurse), and Julie's brother Bruce MacDonald (Photographer). She also has additional support from Jady Mulqueeney (professional IT).
Our aim is to spend all of our private donations on the ground in Ethiopia, restoring sight to as many people as possible who cannot afford it and who would otherwise remain blind.
No one in Australia benefits from the donations. Our goal is to pay no salaries and the absolute minimum administration costs (eg. telephone, stationery and the like).
The costs of Julie to supervise and monitor the expenditure of funds on the ground, and to provide nursing expertise where appropriate, is met by her personally. She donates all her services freely and receives no money from the Foundation for her work. Her transport and related expenses travelling to Ethiopia have in the past also been met by her personally. Clearly this cannot continue indefinitely and we propose to seek corporate sponsorship, or dedicated private sponsorship, for such purposes.
The people here in Australia who support the Foundation, and make it run, do so on an entirely voluntary basis.
The costs of bringing outside ophthalmic surgeons and nurses to Ethiopia will be met by the individuals concerned who will also donate their services free of charge.
It depends very much on the location and personal circumstances of the people requiring the operations. At Butajirra the actual cost of a cataract operation to someone who presents at the door is AU$40-50. Only people who are relatively better off and who are well supported can afford this.
What the Foundation is trying to do is to go one step further, to provide this opportunity to the poor, to those who have no money, to those who may live in outlying villages and have no means of transport, to those who lack the kind of support the slightly better off members of the community have available to them. To do this obviously takes a lot more effort and costs more than the simple cost of the operation. This can easily add 50% to the cost of the operation.
There is also the cost of supervising and monitoring such a project to ensure that the money goes where it is most beneficial. The major expense here is air fares for Julie to and from Ethiopia.
We had at total sum of $10,000 available for our last project in Butajirra in November 2007. This was made up of $6,000 in private donations and $4,000 donated by Julie personally from her Deakin University 2007 Leadership in Nursing Award. All lenses and consumables were donated by our sponsors.
The cost breakdown was as follows:
Costs met from private donations to the Foundation |
$6000 |
|
Cost of operations |
200 x $20 |
$4,000 |
Additional costs associated with servicing a poorer, more remote clientele (field trips to outlying areas, transport, accommodation, follow up etc) |
200 x $10 |
$2,000 |
Costs met personally by Julie from her Award |
$4,000 |
|
Her airfares and transport with essential medical supplies, accommodation, food etc |
(in excess of, but say) |
$2,000 |
Additional donation to the Grarbet Institute in recognition of its crucial role in our partnership and to support its ongoing work with restoring sight to people in Butajirra |
$2,000 |
|
Total cost of the project |
$10,000 |
($8,000 was transferred from the Foundation directly to the Grarbet Institute. $2,000 went to pay airfares and related expenses for Julie to supervise the Project. We restored sight to 200 people who could otherwise not have afforded it and who would otherwise have remained and most probably died blind. The impact on the individuals, their families and their communities was immediate, dramatic, powerful and very moving.)
Although the Foundation is a registered charity with income tax exemption from the Australian Taxation Office, it does not have tax deductible status and cannot issue tax-deductible receipts.
Individual donors cannot, therefore, claim a tax deduction for donations to the Foundation.
Corporations and businesses who wish to donate may, subject to their own independent tax/legal advice, be able to claim a tax deduction for such donations as a legitimate business expense.
Under current Government guidelines for overseas aid projects, the Foundation cannot apply for tax-deductible status until it has completed two years of project work overseas and only then if we decide to concentrate more on "development" (ie. prevention, infrastructure and capacity building) rather than "welfare" (simply giving the gift of sight), which has been our primary purpose to date. In this regard, we intend to be guided by our donors' wishes and the wishes of our overseas partners over the next 12 months.