From March 8 through March 22 a team from District 7930 left to volunteer on the District sponsored Rotaplast mission to the Philippines. This was District 7930's 20th anniversary mission. Rotaplast missions provides free reconstructive surgery for children with cleft lip and palate anomalies in developing countries.
We met at the San Francisco Airport on Saturday, March 8 at 8:00 pm to register for the flights and claim the supply and equipment boxes that accompanied us. At 11:30 pm we boarded the 15-hour flight that would take us to Taipei, Taiwan and then onto Cebu Island in the Philippines.
We were greeted by the Rotarians of the Cebu Port Centre Club, gathering our boxes and securing our luggage for the trip to our hotel. Once there they celebrated our arrival with a luncheon and introduced themselves to us. The next morning (and every morning thereafter) they arrived with 4 vans to transport our volunteers to the Seventh Day Adventist/Miller Hospital. The first day we unpacked boxes with equipment and supplies. The next day we did the clinic, where we registered 107 patients to possibly be seen during the mission. The next day we were up and running and the surgeries started.
Donna and Bruce Denio from Rockport Rotary and Jean Leider from the Andover Club, were always on the first van leaving the hotel. Donna and Bruce were the Ward Coordinator and Transporter respectively and they needed to get up to the ward and find the first patients going into surgery and get them down to the operating suite. Jean was in charge of medical records and worked with the Head Nurse coordinating surgeries. Dave Midland of the Chelsea Club and myself took that extra cup of coffee at breakfast and usually grabbed that last van heading to the hospital. Dave was the Sterilizer in charge of keeping the instruments sanitized, so his work started after the first surgery finished. Then my work started as the patients came into the recovery room after surgery.
This was the pace day after day as we did eight days of surgery. On palate surgery days, we stayed later as the patients came out late and needed at least an hour in recovery to get meds, start drinking and smiling at their parents. At the beginning, the RCPCC invited the team to a “Welcome Dinner” pig roast where we all received banners from the host club. On the last evening, we attended an “Appreciation Dinner” where we all received small presents and certificates thanking us for making this mission successful.
I’m working on a PowerPoint presentation to share with the clubs which should be ready by the District Conference. There is still time to financially support this mission by sending a check made out to Rotaplast to: Eagle Bank, c/o Stephen Miliotis, 350 Broadway, Everett, MA 02149.
To schedule a presentation to your club on our Rotaplast Mission, contact me at terrycurran7930@gmail.com.