Rotary sends wheelchairs via Mercy Ships

“There’s a consignment of wheelchairs for you at the railway station from Cairns.”
That’s the message received by the National Director of Mercy Ships Australia, Brian Ross, at Caloundra, on the Queensland Sunshine Coast.

Wheelchairs and walking frames collected by Rotarians in Cairns in the state’s north are now on their way to West Africa where they will be supplied to disabled people in the war-ravaged nation of Sierra Leone through a Mercy Ships project called New Steps.

Operating since 2000, New Steps is a permanent land-based program providing integrated physical, psycho-social, spiritual, educational and economic rehabilitation with primary health care, HIV/AIDS education and counselling for children and adults with disabilities.

Many of them are the tragedies of 10 years of civil war in a country now described as one of the least developed countries of the world.
Mercy Ships is currently involved in comprehensive community development programs in more than 30 communities throughout Sierra Leone.

Rotarian and Mercy Ships crew member Richard Brewster, from the United States, recently finished a project to supply 240 wheelchairs to disabled people in Sierra Leone. He and volunteers from New Steps took a trip to the interior of the country to deliver some chairs to more remote areas. The trip followed an earlier assessment of polio victims and other disabled people to determine who could use a wheelchair.

Richard Brewster said that after years of hobbling, crawling and even dragging themselves along the ground, the wheelchair recipients now enjoy a new-found freedom as they learn how to maximise use of the chairs.
“Some wheeled away very cautiously, while others, mainly kids, took off like a rocket. The crowds seemed amazed and pleased as friends and relatives took on new mobility.”

New Steps, with 40 volunteer staff, will move from a rented building in the poorest part of the capital, Freetown, to a new centre currently under construction.

St John Ambulance passes on knowledge through Rotary

Helena Goldie Hospital is conducted by the Uniting Church at Munda, New Georgia, serving the Western Province of the Solomon Islands. The hospital undertakes surgical procedures and has an extensive out-patients and community health training program. Malaria is still a major concern and hospital staff conduct programs to raise community awareness of the disease. The hospital also takes in 30 nursing trainees every 15 months. Graduate nurses live and work in villages, providing much-needed first aid and medical care.

South Australian Rotarians were at the Rotary Donations In Kind Depot, at Salisbury, S.A., to send copies of the Australian First Aid Manual to the Helena Goldie Hospital in the Solomons to support the nurse-training program.

The hospital has few resources and operates on a tight budget. Much equipment is recycled.

A Rotary Australia World Community Service (RAWCS) team of six from South Australia lived and worked in Munda for three weeks during August, 2003.

Team members were Reg Hutchinson of Henley Beach, David, Karen and Ben Chambers of Peterborough and Peter and Jenny Geer of Noarlunga East. Ben Chambers was sponsored by the Rotary Club of Adelaide.

The RAWCS project was to rebuild an existing house for use by an anti-malaria worker and his family. The malaria program in the Solomon Islands is administered by the World Health Organisation.

The Rotary housing project was funded by The Rotary Foundation of Rotary International through a Matching Grant, with Australian Rotarians contributing 50 per cent of the cost.
During the team’s time on Munda they visited Helena Goldie Hospital. Excellent work by the staff was evident despite limited and outdated resources.

At home, the Rotary Club of Noarlunga East approached St John Ambulance Australia to provide copies of the Australian First Aid Manual for the Helena Goldie Hospital to support the training program.

St John Ambulance agreed to donate 40 copies, valued at more than $A1,000, of the manual for use in the nurse training program at Helena Goldie.

The text books will enable students to become proficient in the latest first aid techniques and will serve as a useful reference in the field.

This is an excellent example of project co-operation between community organisations which should be encouraged in the future for the benefit of local and international communities.
At the official handover at the Rotary Donations In Kind Depot, at Salisbury, S.A., the St John Ambulance officers discussed how the two organisations could work more closely together, especially on international projects. These discussions are on-going.

St John Ambulance South Australia Chairman Garry Coombes said helping the Helena Goldie Hospital reflected St John’s desire as a national organisation to work in genuine partnership with kindred organisations.

“This initial step might lead to greater international activities for St John Ambulance in the Pacific,’’ he said.