Plans for five international projects for this Rotary Year including FAIM, Dental support, Interplast and a twinning program.

 

International Projects  2007-8

1. RAWCS FAIM team visiting Tonga in October 2007 
   a. New Dental Clinic - NukuNuku Health Centre, Tongatapu 
   b. Water Tank / Kitchens / Handicapped Toilet - Nuku'alofa Fofo'anga Club. 
   c. Maintenance of Rotary Water Tanks in schools on Tongatapu
2. New Dental Surgery for the Cook Islands.
3. School Dental van donated by DHSV.
4. Interplast - Anaesthetist Dr. John Oswald repeated visits to Indonesia.
5. Facilitating the twinning program between Vaiola  Hospital in Tonga and the St. John of God Hospital in Ballarat 

RAWCS Tonga FAIM team October 22 TO Nov. 6th. 2007

A. NukuNuku Dental Clinic

Nukunuku is a village on Tongatapu, the main island and has a large local population, some of whom have difficulty accessing the main hospital at Vaiola. Presently there is a room in a health centre with nothing but a dental chair in it. This room is used on a weekly basis for dental treatment but all instruments, materials etc. have to be transported there and back from the main hospital. This causes sterilizing and infection control problems amongst others. We will convert this room into a fully operational, stand-alone dental surgery which will serve the western side of the main island of Tonga.  This is the top priority for the Dental Department of the Tonga Ministry of Health.

B. Fofo'anga Club, Nuku'alofa

The Fofo'anga club is a Kava drinking club and one of Tonga's oldest social groups. It has connections in high places in Tonga and has helped our Rotary teams in the past including providing volunteer FAIM members. This club helps the community by feeding for free, physically and mentally handicapped people of Nuku'alofa. They do this on a monthly basis (but would like to do it more often) and typically have a 120-220 turnout. However the food handling practices are poor with no heating or refrigeration facilities, so the possibility of a food poisoning outbreak is ever present.

There are no kitchen facilities at present but there are two small empty rooms in the clubhouse which we will convert and equip. A new rainwater tank will be provided and connected to the new kitchen, as the reticulated water supply is not always safe to drink. A handicapped and ladies toilet will also be provided.

The dental clinic installation will be supervised by FAIM team leader Ballarat West Rotarian David Goldsmith who will be supported by two dental nurses and a dental equipment technician. The building project will be supervised by Ballarat West Rotarian Wayne Cooper, with help from Darryl Elford, DIK chairman Anton Van Doornik, Trevor Chapman from Ballarat South RC, and Colin Burns, assistant RAWCS Southern Region Project Volunteers co-ordinator, plumber Peter Jones and others. Australian Fofo'anga members will help with fundraising here in Australia, and will supply logistic and tradesmen help in Tonga, as well as volunteering as FAIM team members.

C. Water Tanks in Tongatapu schools.
Rotary D9790 installed 20+ water tanks in schools on Tongatapu in 1999 and these will be inspected to check if they are still working satisfactorily. Any simple repairs will be done by the team but any more complex work will be done by a follow-up team in 2008 following this evaluation. Colin Burns from RC Bendigo will supervise this work.

A modern dental clinic for the Pacific

Dr. Raye Darrer retired from her Melbourne dental practice in August 2007 and she generously donated her complete two room modern surgeries to Ballarat West Rotary club to relocate to a suitable and worthy cause. This is a very generous donation and to find a completely intact surgery in this condition is very rare. We will relocate this surgery in its complete working form to the Cook Islands or Vanuatu in 2008. All the dental equipment, instrument and materials have been packed up, labeled and transported to the D9780 depot in Geelong and now await transportation.

School Dental Van.

Donated by Dental Health Services Victoria to the Ballarat West Rotary club this fully functional dental unit, as until recently used in the schools Dental service, would be a very useful addition to dental health services anywhere in the Pacific.
The dental van has one dental chair with full instrumentation, a waiting room, air conditioning, X-ray, sterilizing area, compressor, central suction system etc. etc.
DIK have given a costing to ship it to Tonga in the region of $27,500 so we are now looking for help with funding to take this to a Pacific Island nation.

David Goldsmith
Rotary Club of Ballarat West