Rotary Keilor East has now formally offered to sponsor the visit to Australia of a 12-year-old PNG boy for surgery to his disfigured face and jaw due to abnormality of blood vessels, a condition called Maxillofacial abnormality.
A surgeon has agreed to provide the surgery at St Vincent’s Private under the marvellous Rotary Oceania Medical Aid for Children (ROMAC) program to help improve his quality of life. Our club as such is not involved in issues of immigration permits for the boy and his aunt, cost, day to day management of the visit etc. But our sponsorship means the project gets Rotary insurance indemnity. Medical insurance is via the medicos involved. If all goes well the PNG visit will be about a fortnight late this year.As a general guide, the Sponsor Club can determine their level of involvement (or engage other clubs to participate in sharing) in activities such as:
Patient arrival and departure,
Hosting and/or liaison with carer families.
Visits to Rotary meetings with patient and parent/guardian.
Transport to medical appointments.
Hospital visitation.
Our club members Cherrie Osborn and Minh Nguyen, as individuals, do ROMAC committee work and in that capacity, will take on various roles in the project. They are willing to give a talk to the club about it and are keen to see if other members would like to help smooth the visit.
The picture above shows a baby Christine from Vanuatu getting ROMAC medical treatment in Auckland. Her home was flattened after cyclone Pam and she required urgent surgery for a serious heart condition.
