[D9640general] [eFlash_Rotary] Digest Number 875

[Garry Krischock]

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 1         1656: <>  Matching Grant helps leprosy patients in India From:
Sunil K Zachariah 

 

2.         1657: Rotary's 104th anniversary <>  From: Sunil K Zachariah 

  

Messages         

 

1.
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/eFlash_Rotary/message/1576;_ylc=X3oDMTJxdHFka
HQwBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE1BGdycElkAzI3ODYwNzYEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1MDY0MDg2BG1zZ0lkAzE1N
zYEc2VjA2Rtc2cEc2xrA3Ztc2cEc3RpbWUDMTIzNDI5Nzg4MQ--> 1656: Matching Grant
helps leprosy patients in India 

 

Tue Feb 10, 2009 2:59 am (PST) 

Matching Grant helps leprosy patients in India

By Peter Schmidtke 

Leprosy patient Phool Kumari (right) consults with a physical 
therapist prior to receiving surgery to repair her foot. Photo 
courtesy of Rotary club of Lucknow, India. Leprosy patients in India 
have regained the use of previously paralyzed eyelids, fingers, 
wrists, and ankles through a project funded in part by a US$21,000 
Matching Grant from The Rotary Foundation. 

The Rotary clubs of the Hague-Metropolitan, The Netherlands, and 
Lucknow, India, partnered to provide reconstructive surgery to 106 
leprosy patients in Uttar Pradesh, India. 

The surgeries, completed in March, corrected conditions caused by 
leprosy, a bacterial disease that affects the skin, nerves, and 
mucous of the upper respiratory tract and eyes. 

Although the disease had permanently damaged specific nerve fibers in 
some of the patients, doctors were able to restore movement by 
connecting tendons from muscles with healthy nerve tissue to joints 
in the affected areas. 

One of the beneficiaries was 25-year-old Phool Kumari, who received 
physical therapy as well as surgery. Kumari had been losing the 
ability to lift her left foot or move her toes, which affected her 
ability to walk normally. Even though she had received drug treatment 
to cure the leprosy, she was still stigmatized by villagers. The 
surgery and therapy improved her situation considerably. 

Dispelling myths about leprosy, such as how the disease spreads, was 
another goal of the project. According to the World Health 
Organization, leprosy is not highly contagious. The 137,000 new cases 
in India last year -- more than half of the total global cases in 
2007 -- were transmitted through close and frequent contact. 

Despite the project's benefits, Rotarians faced challenges finding 
patients. They worked with a state government health agency to 
contact leprosy patients and bring them in for surgical screenings 
hosted by local Rotarians. 

Spreading the word
"Most of the leprosy-affected persons live in isolation," says Indian-
born Dev Chadha, a member of the Dutch club and coordinator for 
Netherlands Leprosy Relief for Uttar Pradesh. "Convincing them to 
undergo surgery was a difficult task." 

"Initially, the turnout at the camps was low," says Chadha. "But word 
spread about the surgery from patients whose deformed limbs had 
become functional." 

Lucknow Rotarians coordinated transportation for the patients and 
assisted with pre- and postoperative care, including providing all 
meals. 

Government officials throughout India have praised the project. 

"It's the first time I have seen Rotary rendering a service of a 
permanent nature for leprosy patients and enabling them to earn a 
livelihood -- by correcting their deformed limbs," says Arun K. 
Mishra, national government planning commission adviser. "I want 
Rotary to continue this project." 

In an earlier phase of the Matching Grant project, Lucknow Rotarians 
recruited 19 other clubs and numerous health workers in 2004 to 
distribute kitchen utensils with insulated handles to patients who 
had suffered irreversible sensory loss. Those who had developed 
ulcers from related injuries received ulcer care kits. 

Source: Rotary International News / Courtesy: eFlash_Rotary

 

2
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/eFlash_Rotary/message/1577;_ylc=X3oDMTJxbmZpO
GMyBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE1BGdycElkAzI3ODYwNzYEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1MDY0MDg2BG1zZ0lkAzE1N
zcEc2VjA2Rtc2cEc2xrA3Ztc2cEc3RpbWUDMTIzNDI5Nzg4MQ--> 1657: Rotary's 104th
anniversary 

 

Tue Feb 10, 2009 3:07 am (PST) 

Historic Moments -- Rotary's 104th anniversary 
[http://www.rotary.org/SiteCollectionImages/News/080201_history.jpg]
The first four Rotarians: (left to right) Gustavus Loehr, Silvester
Schiele, Hiram Shorey, and Paul Harris. Rotary Images
During the first Rotary club meeting on 23 February 1905 in Chicago,
Paul Harris, Gustavus Loehr, Hiram Shorey, and Silvester Schiele met to
talk about their personal experiences. Harris then unfolded his general
plan for their club meetings.

This was the simple beginning of the world's first service club, the
Rotary Club of Chicago. It was created because of Harris' wish to
capture in a professional club the same friendly spirit he had felt in
the small towns of his youth. The Rotary name derived from the early
practice of rotating meetings among members' offices.

Rotarians continue to take pride in their history. In honor of that
first club, Rotarians have preserved its original meeting place, Room
711 in Chicago's Unity Building, by re-creating the office as it
existed in 1905. For several years, the Paul Harris 711 Club maintained
the room as a shrine for visiting Rotarians. In 1989, when the building
was scheduled to be demolished, the club carefully dismantled the office
and salvaged the interior, including doors and radiators. In 1993, the
RI Board of Directors set aside a permanent home for the restored Room
711 at RI World Headquarters in the Chicago suburb of Evanston.

For more historical information about Rotary, visit Rotary History and
Archives <http://www.rotary.org/en/AboutUs/History/Pages/ridefault.aspx>
or the Rotary Global History Fellowship <http://www.rghf.org/>

Source: Rotary International News / Courtesy: eFlash_Rotary

 

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