Saving
Youth and Children from Blindness
 Tracy
Giles, and her husband Brody Giles, traveled
to Nepal to assist an American doctor,
Dr. Paul. Dr.
Pual was there to treat children who needed specialized eye
surgery to save or improve their vision.
The
trip had personal meaning and significance for Tracy. First,
because
she was
a child
who had worn an eye
bandage for 5 years of her early life because a doctor could
not be found to heal her eye. Secondly, because she and her
husband Brody had traveled to Nepal before their daughter
was born and fallen in love with the place and people.
Tracy observed the many creative ways that Nepalese
and foreign doctors at Tilganga Eye Centre are working
to help prevent blindness. For
example, they have high tech equipment from the West that
they are
using to
make lens
for cataract surgery. Lens that cost $150 are available for
$7. They are also working with the families of the recently
deceased by approaching them at cremetoriums. to get donations
of corneas for those who need them.
One goal of the trip was to
teach local surgeons to do any kind of needed surgery with
what equipment
is available. In this Tracy felt the trip was very
successful. Not only were 30 surgeries performed
on children but 5 doctors
were also trained at the Tilganga Eye Centre in Katmandu. Furthermore,
70 doctors from all over Nepal attended a symposium in which
Dr. Paul showed photos of the surgeries he’d
just performed. And another symposium was held for 30 staff..
Tracy is invested in giving children the gift of
better vision. Tracy Giles' next step
is to work with Dr. Paul to build a more complete facility
for the children. That facility
would include a waiting room and an anesthesia room to
make the surgeries less stressful and more comfortable
for children
and their families.
Donating an Incubator
to Save Infants in Jamaica
A past major project
was to assist the Rotary Club of St. Andrew in
Kingston Jamaica with their project to provide much needed
equipment to the Children’s Unit of the University
Hospital of the West Indies in Kingston.
 We identified one of the more pressing
needs to be
a portable incubator for newborn babies. The
hospital had only one such
unit to serve the needs of a city of 650,000 as
well as standby for the entire island of 2.5
million.
Working with the St.
Andrew club we procured a reconditioned unit and
were pleased to present it to the Chief Medical
Officer
at the hospital
at a hand over ceremony on April 6, 2004 at the UHWI.
Since
then we have been told by the President of
the St. Andrew Rotary club that the unit was instrumental
in saving
the life
of a newborn infant who needed to be transported
from
Montego bay to Kingston for treatment.
photo: Immediate Past President Don Farquharson
presenting the incubator to the Cheif Medical Officer of
the University Hospital of the West Indies in Kingston.
Clean Water in Nepal
We
donated $1000 towards providing a water supply for a village
in Nepal. SEEDS means Social,
Educational, Environmental, Development Services and provides
grass roots support
for villagers in Nepal. Club member Tracy Giles has visited
the area and done a first hand assessment of their needs.
We intend to continue our support for this charity.
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