April is Rotary’s month to recognize and celebrate Maternal and Child Health. At Chiang Mai International Rotary Club our signature focus is always Child Safety, Health and Education. So April is the month when we best align with Rotary International’s monthly theme.
The CMIRC Children’s Water Safety and Drowning Prevention program is expanding. In collaboration with the 11 Tessaban (Municipal) schools in Chiang Mai we are planning to provide vision screening for those children very soon.
We have just finished a very successful fundraising campaign to support students at Mae Tao Clinic’s Child Development Center. Our next project with MTC will be to assist with birth registration. It’s hard to imagine, but there are thousands of children in Northern Thailand who have no birth certificate, no civil rights and no chance to compete for a better life! The challenges are too many to mention here and the issues are complicated to say the least. Our club is grateful to have an opportunity to support this good work. (See the article below).
CMIRC supports the Burma Children’s Medical Fund (BCMF), especially the B.K.Kee Patient house here in Chiang Mai. The ultimate goal of BCMF is to identify illness and treat them early in new clinics in Myanmar, so that fewer patients have to come to Chiang Mai for treatment. Still there are many who must come and stay at the B.K.Kee Patient House in Chiang Mai. We support the patients and their parents as we can. We’ve funded a new toilet building with a sink, mirror and electric lights. Dangerous drainage ditches have just been covered with metal grates as well.
As the result of William Churchill’s efforts to make contact with Chiang Mai University, Immediate Past President Shana Kongmun, myself as President and President Elect John Schorr had an excellent meeting with Ajarn Rome of the CMU International Relations Department and representatives from the CMU Student Affairs Department on Thursday 22 March. Possible ways in which CMIRC and CMU could work together in the future were discussed and we expect to receive a formal letter from CMU soon, which will indicate ways in which CMIRC can have a presence in the international community on campus.