Guest Speaker - Graeme Chester

Posted by John Lynch 
 

ImageGraeme Chester is a member of the Rotary Club of Healesville and on the ROMAC District Committee. 

Rotary Oceania Medical Aid for Children (ROMAC) is now in its 25th year of operations. Rotarians volunteer their time and expertise to run this Rotary program that encompasses all the Districts of Australia and New Zealand. Assisted by many eminent Australian surgeons who generously donate their time free for the treatment of young patients, this humanitarian program has provided over 300 children from 20 developing countries with urgent medical treatment that has given them new hope.

To date, children have been brought from Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Malaysia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Cambodia, Russia, China, Tonga, Solomon Islands, The Philippines, Pakistan, Iran, Timor-Leste, Vanuatu, Kiribati, Nauru and Zimbabwe. The children usually come from very remote areas and are brought to Australia, since medical treatment is simply not available in their home countries. These are children with herniated brains, deformed limbs, horrific burns, heart conditions and in the case of the Bosun (Siamese) twins, conjoined face to face from the lower chest to the umbilicus.

The three main challenges are:

  • Communications with remote areas of the world where these children reside:
  • Availability of child Intensive Care beds;
  • Funds to pay from airfares, hospital accommodation and fees.

All money donated to ROMAC goes directly towards funding the children's treatment. All administration costs are covered by a Trust Fund set up for this purpose.