Dear Rotarians

Although there is no preferred project this year from either RIBI or the District, there is a project which is dear to my own heart and has been endorsed by Brian Doggrell, the DG for 2007-08.

I have a close relationship with South Africa as I know several others of you have also.  I have a house (about 90 miles north of Cape Town) in the Western Cape and regularly attend the Saldanha Rotary Club whilst I am there.   I have become increasingly aware of the huge difficulties that poor people have in an area which I had originally thought to be well off.   The gap between rich and poor remains enormous and is very difficult to solve.

It is difficult for us to appreciate the sheer size of South Africa.  The Saldanha Rotary Club covers an area equivalent to the size of our whole District.  The nearest neighbour club is over 70 miles away.  There are two good hospitals in Vredenburg the largest town in the area, with very good facilities that provide acute care.  However, they have no beds available for chronic care as demand in the area is so great.   To get to these hospitals by ambulance or car can take over half an hour – it would be hit and miss if you had a heart attack as to whether you would survive.  If you have no car you stand no chance.  That is why the Saldanha Rotary Club became involved with health care.

Until 2003 there was no hospice care in the Western Cape outside Cape Town!  The Saldanha Rotary Club as its centennial project decided to set up a hospice providing palliative care at home,   obtaining help mainly from the USA to set it up initially.  The project has been very successful.  Three nurses with cars are now employed to treat the patients.  A hospice charity shop has been set up near to the local township which makes the project self sufficient and the club has been able to hand the project over now to the community to run it.

In 2005 a local nurse practitioner decided to set up a 25 bed residential care hospital providing 24 hour care to terminally ill, disabled, frail care and mentally ill patients.  She works part time at the local fish factory but lives in one room at the centre.   She receives no salary and is devoting her life to the patients’ care.   Together with several paid nurses and some volunteers she has made a great success of this and is now treating 90 patients.  This was the focus of the short film I showed at the Assembly – Siyabonga.

Siyabonga receives state funding providing about 70% of the costs, but it is not enough to pay for medicines.  The rotary club provides a charity shop which helps to meet most of the extra costs.  

The centre also runs a clinic for the local black community, about three miles away.  This provides the only medical care for anyone, black or white, within a ten mile radius.

The project I propose

The big problem is a total lack of public transport.  For poor people, the only way to get to this centre or to the hospitals in Vredenburg is by a minibus taxi which costs 22 rand – less than two pounds but if you only earn seven pounds a day when you are healthy it is beyond your reach.   It is an irony of South Africa that the drugs for Aids treatment are now readily available - if you can get to a clinic for treatment!   The Rotary Club of Saldanha wants to provide a 14-seater minibus fitted with wheelchair access so that patients can be fetched for treatment and existing patients can be taken to hospital.  

The project will cost only £20,000 and with our District help we can achieve it.   Foundation and matching grants will provide half the funds, Saldanha Rotary Club have £2,000, we need to provide the missing £8,000.  If several clubs become involved the cost can be spread and is more manageable.

If your club is interested in this please get in touch with me.  Time is pressing.  I need to apply for a matching grant in October.

This will make an enormous difference for many people in this region of the Cape and is literally the difference between life and death for many people. 

Thank you

John Versey

International District Chairman 2007-08

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