News from the Rotary Doctor Bank

Issue no 3, 1999 -- English edition -- home

Page: -- Contents -- 1, (2), 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

• More Rotary -- editorial
• This is Africa - a world of its own
• Varying life expectency

More Rotary

From 1 July, Gunnar Fjellander is chairman and Kjell-Åke Åkesson is vice chairman in the Rotary Doctor Bank. What does this mean? The short answer: more Rotary.

	Gunnar Fjellander
	Kjell-Åke Åkesson

Both have been governor, the highest position a Rotarian can have in his own country. Gunnar Fjellander has an extensive list of accomplishments, e.g. as organizer of Rotary in Poland. He has represented the Rotary International President on seven different occasions. A member of the Rotary Doctor Bank since the early 90s, he has visited several of the Doctor Bank sites in Kenya. Since 1993 he has been the Doctor Bank contact person with the Swedish development aid authority (SIDA).

Kjell-Åke Åkesson developed a large number of international contacts during his time as governor. He is now in USA, where he is visiting Evanston and the Rotary headquarters. Kjell-Åke Åkesson has assumed responsibility for expanding the Doctor Bank to encompass several districts, a so-called multi-district project described in the previous issue of this newsletter.

At the time of writing, four districts have joined, in addition to district 2390 in which the Doctor Bank was founded.

For one who initiated the foundation The Rotary Doctor Bank in 1988, it is comforting to know that shortly 10,000 Rotarians will support the activities, and that perhaps in a few years all 67,000 Nordic Rotary Club members will be behind the Doctor Bank.

When we in the previous issue of News from the Rotary Doctor Bank introduced the concept of a Doctor Bank Allowance, the intent was to create a secure economic foundation to stand on. With 30,000 Rotarians in Sweden alone, it does not therefore require any great individual sacrifices to not only guarantee the survival of the Doctor Bank, but also fund significant expansions. In addition to this, we get magnificent donations from Rotary clubs, Inner Wheel, foundations and individuals.

Now we go another step further, as seen on page 1, and introduce the concept of a Doctor Bank Week.

We do this because we know that this is the meaning behind Rotary: "Service above self". This must be more than just a saying, and we can realize it through the Rotary Doctor Bank.

- LARS BRAW -

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This is Africa - a world of its own

"Yet another period is completed, for me the fifth, of which two were of double length. As usual, I have gone through the cycle I suffer each time, despite the fact that I should by now be prepared: first enthusiasm to get started, then a shift down to the actual tempo, later resignation in the face of all the lacks, and the disappointments over things that never get done. Finally I remind myself that this is Africa, a world of its own, where you are forced to perform your tasks at the rate and in any way that it is at all possible."

This is the start of the latest report from Garissa, Kenya, written by surgeon Göran Hambraeus, from Bjärred, Sweden. The following are short extracts.

Discredited

"In recent years, a number of reports have criticized conditions in Garissa since work has been going on for ten years. We who have repeatedly returned there and reported a positive outlook feel a little discredited. We too have highlighted the lacks and difficulties that are so clear to anyone, and have over time tried to accomplish some improvements, and succeeded. However, the unfavourable conditions apparently deserve to again be pointed out. Because of neglected maintenance, buildings and fittings are worn and run down. Many floorboards are defective or missing, there are broken window panes, beds are scraped and sometimes warped - often with mattresses that should have been replaced long ago, and there is much that depresses the overall view. Improvements are difficult to make, and even harder to make lasting. All that remains to be done obscures what has in fact been accomplished.

"With the Doctor Bank, the operation ward has been extended, received secure water and electricity supplies, and been given a new autoclave and washing machine. The wards have been equipped with fans, new bedside tables and mosquito nets over the beds."

Hottest in the world

Göran Hambraeus points out that Garissa is one of three locations in the world that have the highest average temperatures. The population is Somalian and by tradition nomad. Nobody here demands scrubbed floors or whole and clean bedclothes, not even the staff.

The positive with the Doctor Bank work in Garissa is the, in the circumstances well functioning, operation ward. However, the lack of instruments and suture supplies is greater than ever due to thefts.

"As long as this traffic continues, it is a waste to bring more instruments here," notes Dr Hambraeus.

He adds that corruption goes deeper than one can imagine, and seems to be one of the most effective activities in this society.

Lars Braw comments:

This report, which in its entirety runs to four compact pages, is like all our doctor reports available at the Doctor Bank office. That which feels difficult and sometimes hopeless does however often have a meaning. This is especially true for Garissa, where in many cases the same doctors return year after year. Their effort in these very difficult conditions, mainly in surgery and orthopaedics, is invaluable to the population in this impoverished and neglected part of Africa.

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The airplane The Helping Rotary, financed by the clubs in Rotary district 239 in 1987, provides safe and quick transport to the hospitals in Garissa and Mutomo in Kenya. Here Coordinator Benny Assarsson (to left) arrives with Samuel Sundh of the New Life Mission.

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Varying life expectency

This year the world's population will reach six billion, reports a Swedish newspaper correspondent from Geneva. Somewhere, a child, perhaps a girl, will be born to mark this threshold event.

In the developed part of the world, she can with all of today's medical achievements count on enjoying a long life with access to almost unlimited resources. By contrast, if born in Uganda, she would probably live only half as long as if born in Sweden. To then even experience her fifth birthday would be uncertain, because three of five African children die before that age. Some causes are malnutrition, impure water, poor environment, and disease.

Lars Braw comments:

This is why the Doctor Bank exists.