The Inheemsche Hoofden — the indigenous chiefs — were the local authorities with whose cooperation Dr. C. E. Gomperts selected the places of examination for his eye survey of 1937 in Groot-Atjeh.
Role in the survey
In order to draw as large a number of children, blind persons and old people as possible into the survey, the place of examination was chosen “in samenwerking met de Inheemsche Hoofden” so that the kampongs to be examined lay at most within a radius of one kilometre from it. Small outlying kampongs, Gomperts noted, necessarily fell outside this scheme.
The wider administrative cooperation
The chiefs’ cooperation formed part of the wider reliance of the medical service on the civil administration. Gomperts obtained his population figures from the B.B., and attempted through its mediation an enquiry into the food supply of the surveyed districts — though this “bleek bij steekproeven niet geheel betrouwbaar” (proved on spot checks not entirely reliable), so that he gathered the usable and certain harvest data himself.
The fourth of his recommended measures for combating xerophthalmie made the point general: at the kampongonderzoek by which the population was to be instructed about nutrition and xerophthalmia cases demonstrated to them, “kan de medewerking van het Binnenlandsch Bestuur niet worden gemist” — the cooperation of the Binnenlandsch Bestuur cannot be dispensed with.
See Also
- Oogheelkundig kampongonderzoek in Groot-Atjeh (Maart-December 1937)
- Binnenlandsch Bestuur
- C. E. Gomperts
- Kampong
Source
Oriënteerend oogheelkundig onderzoek bij de Atjehsche bevolking van Groot-Atjeh gedurende 1937 (“Orienting Ophthalmological Survey among the Atjehnese Population of Groot-Atjeh during 1937”), by Dr. C. E. Gomperts, offprint from the Geneeskundig Tijdschrift voor Nederlandsch-Indië, Afl. 19, Deel 80 (1940), pp. 1191-1238 (Batavia-Centrum: G. Kolff & Co.). Received by the editors 25 October 1939. Offprint DLP-157, Bibliotheek KITLV.