As we end the year, please remember The Rotary Foundation in your gift-giving. Feel free to contact your club Foundation Chair or simply mail a check made out to The Rotary Foundation to me, and I will promptly complete the paperwork and forward it to the Foundation so you can receive a charitable receipt. (Peter Apicella, 2205 Pearce St, Salem, OH 44460, 330-207-0500)
Our Paul Harris Fellow Challenge ($20 donation for a chance to win a Paul Harris Fellow award) has raised nearly $10,000 so far, but the contest ends on December 31st. Please mail in your donations now.
As a reminder the District Rotary Foundation Committee has approved Global Grants for several international projects this year. We would like all clubs and individual members to consider supporting these projects. Donors will receive a tax-deductible receipt and donations count towards Paul Harris Fellow status.
Mekong Delta, Vietnam - Empowerment of young women through education in the prevention of trafficking. SPDG Sieglinde Warren, Do Nguyen D6600.
Assist Acid Attack Survivors in Uganda - Concentrated sulfuric acid is inexpensive weapon used in premeditated attacks leaving hundreds of women physically, psychologically, and socially scarred. Julia Wetstein jwetste@yahoo.com of the Warren club.
Children Safe Uganda – Children Safe Uganda is a child and community development organization and funds will provide vocational support for students - Kathleen Musso kathymusso528@gmail.com of the Steubenville club.
APPROVED: Central American Medical Outreach (CAMO) - Funds will provide state-of-the-art basic, advanced, pediatric, and neonatal life support education and equipment including manikins to train trainers, medical professionals, and first-responders in Honduras - Becky Jewel bljewell@zoominternet.net of the Orville club.
Ahmadnagar Agriculture Equipment Bank - Funds will assist farmers cultivating land in Ahmadnagar, India. PDG Meena Patel durdarshan19@gmail.com.
Oholi STEM Program - Funds will create a mini science center to assist STEM education by providing equipment and education to children in the Oholi village where no science educational tools are available promoting the concept ‘Learning by Doing'. This is the village where we placed a water well this past year freeing up children to learn rather than carry water all day. PDG Meena Patel durdarshan19@gmail.com.
School Sanitation in Chennai, India - Assist in providing sanitation facilities in 32 schools in Madras Coromandel, India, which are being rebuilt with 19 partner clubs. PDG George Hays haysgws@gmail.com.
Thank you for your consideration. Please feel free to email or call me with questions/concerns.
Peter Apicella, M.D., DRFC
330-207-0500 (cell)
More about our CAMO Grant:
In 2016 the Orrville Rotary Club reached out to the founder of Central American Medical Outreach (CAMO), Orrville Rotarian Kathryn Tschiegg, to see how we could help CAMO with a meaningful project. As a result, the Orrville Rotary Club is working with other Ohio Rotary Clubs to obtain a Rotary Foundation Global Grant for $60,000 to provide state-of-the-art basic, advanced, pediatric, and neonatal life support education and equipment including manikins to train trainers, medical professionals, and first-responders. Moneys will also be used to educate Hondurans on the prevention and treatment of heart disease, heart attacks and strokes.
CAMO is a not-for-profit humanitarian organization that brings life-saving medical services, education and community development to Central America. It was started in 1993 by Rotarian and former Peace Corps nurse Kathryn Tschiegg after she witnessed desperate need of medical accessibility and community improvement in Honduras. CAMO’s success is its unique model that pairs U.S. and Honduran professionals (medical, educational and leadership) in a long-term relationship called “counterparts”. This model identifies the need, trains trainers to meet future challenges, and promotes long-term sustainability and empowered local citizens who encourage positive change and save lives.
CAMO serves as the National Training Center for the American Heart Association (AHA) and is the sole provider of AHA certification for the Honduras Medical Association, training 1500 medical professionals throughout Honduras per year. Medical professionals trained include physicians, surgeons, nurses, nurses aides, administrators, physical therapists, paramedics, first responders. These health care workers are from local and outlying public and private hospitals, public health centers, clinics and other medical settings. The Ministry of Health in Honduras contracts with CAMO to staff, equip and provide 17 programs in the local Hospital Regional de Occidente (HRO) and recognizes and approves CAMO operating the National Training Center for the AHA. Rotarian Dr. Nelson Penman (on the Host Committee) is a local Pediatrician and serves as one of the AHA Trainers. His wife, Dr. Natalie Penman is a local anesthesiologist, a Woman of Rotary (women are not allowed to be Rotarians in Santa Rosa), and has served as lead AHA instructor for CAMO since 2004.
The Advanced AHA Courses taught to medical professionals by CAMO’s National Trainer Center are described in Training Templates (Supporting Document #1). They include:
Basic Life Support Course (BLS): teaches high quality CPR, Automated External Defibrillators (AED) training and resuscitation techniques (bag-mask, rescue and airway clearance) for adults and children.
Advanced Cardiopulmonary Life Support (ACLS): emphasizes team dynamics and respiratory arrest, airway management, pharmacology, and management of acute coronary syndromes and strokes.
Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) and Neonatal Advanced Life Support (NALS): improves the skills of health professionals in the treatment of pediatric and newborn patients with heart failure and arrhythmias; effective resuscitation and medical team dynamics (e.g. CPR, AED, and vascular access).
Drs. Penman and other instructors have trained medical professionals in Honduras with the same equipment since 1995; some of it being transported to rural areas and other health care centers countrywide. Today, the manikins are 20 years old; the monitors, AED's and electrocardiogram (EKG) simulators are 10+ years old and the equipment is worn from high usage.
A recent community and hospital needs assessment (see document Programo Piloto pages 5-13; Supporting Document #2) conducted by local professional Hondurans (including 3 members of the Rotary Host Committee) revealed 1) poor standardized care by medical professionals, 2) serious deficiencies of knowledge and skills, 3) erroneous use of available equipment, and 4) scarce and non-certified training. These serious conditions are causing unnecessary patient deaths and complications from newborns to adults. To address these serious community needs, CAMO recently opened its Academy of Professional Excellence to train medical professionals. It is critical that all hospital nurses and physicians know how to respond to critical care situations using appropriate equipment.
The proposed Rotary funding will provide highly-advanced infant and adult simulation equipment for more advanced training. The proposed SMART STAT trainer manikins with iPad technology will train physicians, nurses and paramedics in a state-of-the-art training lab in the Academy (see photos in Supporting Document #3). The infrastructure is complete, the local government is onboard and the advisory committee is in place. With Rotary funding, Advanced Life Support training will become standard protocol; all hospital physicians and nurses will know proper management of the airway; all labor and delivery personnel will be certified in newborn care; and infant, maternal and adult mortality will decrease.
Project Goals:
1. To decrease mortality in Honduras: maternal, infant, child and adult
2. To increase knowledge and skills of medical professionals in Honduras
The proposed project will be implemented in Santa Rosa de Copan region of Honduras. The requested equipment and manikins will be primarily utilized in CAMO’s Academy classrooms and laboratories training health care professionals from around the country. The manikins that are portable will be taken to remote villages to train local First Responders and village leaders. In addition, outlying cities and health care organizations can contract with CAMO to deliver the training on-site. The proposed equipment will be purchased, delivered, installed and operational within one year of the grant award. The AHA training is delivered on a continuous basis by CAMO. After AHA trainers have completed training with the new equipment, they will incorporate the use of the advanced manikins and technology into the curriculum (see Project Implementation Plan).