BULLETIN 22 OCTOBER 2021

 

Visitors: Maria Erica, Hamish ………, Sanjana France, Elizabeth Wright, Te Awamutu (guest speaker)

 

A big welcome to members and guests

 

 Birthdays of members and partners & Anniversaries

It was Dave Woodhouse’s birthday on 22/10/2021.

 

Elizabeth connected to the club via zoom. We quickly zoomed past the technical difficulties and moved straight to the business. Elizabeth explained that Interplast sends fully qualified Australian and New Zealand volunteer plastic and reconstructive surgeons, anaesthetists, nurses, and allied health professionals to 17 countries in the Indo Pacific region.

This is to provide free surgical treatment for patients who would otherwise not be able to afford access to such services. Objectives are two-fold, one is the volunteer work and second one is capacity building in the destination countries. Varied range of surgeries are done by the volunteers to restore functionality for beneficiaries who are varied in ages; youngest being 28 days old and oldest is 89 years old.

 Elizabeth then shared some examples such as James, a young boy with left sided severe burns, Gladi with tumour, Ropati, a middle-aged man with neurofibroma and Maria, a young girl with cleft lip. All of these people had surgical interventions provided by Interplast and had significant improvement in outcomes and now live normal lives.

COVID 19 has reduced the operations due to travel restrictions. However, Interplast has undertaken digital training, webinars and personalised mentoring in 17 current locations and expanded these services to help capacity building in 20 wealthier nations too. These initiatives include online training for skin grafts, cleft lip stimulator and IOCAM to support doctors in destination countries while doing surgery.

Elizabeth concluded by extending warm gratitude to Rotary, its team and individual members for their contributions towards Interplast’s success over the years. She also emphasises on the fact that together we can make a difference.

Our long-term Rotary member Kathy reciprocated the gratitude and concluded the guest speaker interaction for the day.

 

The members at the meeting sang Happy Birthday to Dave which was sent to him.

Dave has been discharged to his home. Members are encouraged to visit Dave in line with Rotary values and support him with recovery please txt first for availability.

 

Les Geraghty updated on the movie night. ( Latest James Bond Movie- No Time to Die )

This is to be held on Tuesday 16^th November 2021. Arrive at 6 pm for a meet and greet session planned to last an hour. Then the movie. If you want to go, please do so as soon as possible as the numbers are limited due to COVID social distancing norms.

Venue: Rialto cinemas Tauranga City.

 

26 February our 25^th Anniversary dinner to be held at the Tauranga Club. Chief guest is the District Governor.

 

6th March Guess who is coming to BBQ announced by Bob.

 

AGM meeting is to be held on 19^th November 2021. In this meeting new President will be nominated.

 

 

Bryan introduced the members to the concept of biodiversity and their lack of it by adding the mass of all the warm-blooded animals on our planet earth. More than 19,000 animals make into the list and we domesticate 40 of them. Chickens, cows and humans make the most of this biomass (about 96%) and the rest make up only 3-4 %. These figures painted a picture of human actions and its subsequent impact on biodiversity in the time when we need more of it.

 

Raffle Winner was our dear Guest Maria Erica.