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Saturday Sep 21, 2024
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Rotary Sri Lanka has the capacity to be one of the best project management entities in Sri Lanka for the roll out of community projects. An average Rotarian dedicates 11% of the time daily to service projects free of charge. Rotary had assisted in the eradication of polio, and has carried out some outstanding work on cancer prevention, control of dengue and provision of equipment for children with congenital heart disease. Following are excerpts of an interview with Rotary Sri Lanka and Maldives Governor Dushan Soza:
Q: As Rotary has a permanent seat in the UN, to what extent is it involved when it comes to Government-related issues, say the war crime allegations that Sri Lanka was challenged with?
Rotary does not take political approach to anything and we’re above politics. Our involvement in the UN is from a perspective of humanitarian work. We work for the people and that is our sole aim. But I will be failing my duty as the Governor of Rotary Sri Lanka, if we don’t highlight the recent attack that took place on 21 April. It could have been averted with timely action. Sri Lanka must not forget the people that were injured and the support that must be extended to ensure they live a normal life.
We at Rotary are involved in many fronts starting from psychological support to humanitarian and livelihood development. Last week we also initiated infrastructure support like the setting up of playgrounds, etc., so that we give the leadership for other stakeholders to follow.
Q: How would you rate Rotary Sri Lanka’s performance in the areas of polio, cancer eradication and in the recent kidney ailment due to water issues which Rotary has helped with global funding?
Rotary in Sri Lanka is outstanding and has done some brilliant work. It was an inspiration to the communities in this part of the world when Rotary assisted the eradication of polio from here as being the first country to eradicate polio in South Asia. If I am to be specific Rotary was able to facilitate a truce day in the 1990s between the Government of Sri Lanka and LTTE, so that all children in the geographic areas of hostilities were able to be vaccinated. It was a classic example of the relevance of Rotary in Sri Lanka during that time.
Q: I’m told that the current percentage of the world being free of polio is 97%, and Rotary has invested in around $ 1.5 billion dollars to partner with governments across the world in working towards a polio-free world; when are you hoping to achieve this target?
Now, the success is much more than that. We started with 350,000 cases a year, 1,000 cases a day in 1985. We’re now 15 cases in 11 months this year. I’m an electronic engineer and I can assure you that the percentage is at 99.99 at present, and almost gone. Unfortunately the last tiny bit is always going to be the most difficult because it tends to be in countries where there is some sort of conflict taking place and we’re talking here about the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan in particular, but we’re confident that it isn’t too far away.
We have to keep going to finish the job because we’ve been at this since 1985 so it’s absolutely critical. However we do have great partners in the World Health Organisation, UNICEF and of course the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation which have been very generous in their financial support. Thereby we have had a good team together and we’ve had fabulous success. Who would have believed that India will be polio-free almost three years ago? It’s truly fabulous so we just have to keep going until it’s done and we’re optimistic it’s not far away.
Q: What about cancer?
Each year, around 20,000 new cases of cancer are diagnosed in Sri Lanka of which over 50% are females. Most of these cases finally lose their lives to this killer disease, primarily due to late presentation to the health authorities.
Recognising the lifesaving value and the urgent need for screening and early detection, the Rotary Club of Colombo, launched its flagship project the Cancer Prevention and Early Detection Project in partnership with the National Cancer Control Program under the auspices of the Ministry of Health, over 12 years ago.
The National Cancer Prevention and Early Detection Centre is presently the only dedicated national facility offering a comprehensive screening and early detection service entirely free of charge, as well as carrying out awareness building for prevention, with the focus on the less privileged members of our community. It is situated in Narahenpita, and is a centrally-located facility, easily accessible by public transport. All services are provided free of charge with an ambience that ameliorates the stress of screening process.
Whilst the building, infrastructure and equipment is provided by the Club, the facilities such as examination, screening, diagnosis and counselling is provided by the National Cancer Control Program doctors and nurses. The Club, together with NCCP, also jointly undertakes awareness-building activities for prevention and early detection. Leading corporate, Dialog Axiata PLC joined hands with Rotary in this project a few years ago to fund the proposed new building, and continues to be a partner.
As at end 2016, the National Cancer Prevention and Early Detection Centre has screened over 48,000 individuals from all parts of the country, primarily low income, and over 13,000 detections have been made, of cases showing abnormalities, needing further investigation.
The centre has a specific emphasis on breast cancer in view of this having the highest incidence among all cancers, and being the leading cancer amongst females, accounting for over 25% of all cancers, and the leading cause of death amongst women in Sri Lanka in the 40-45 years age group. A radiographer and radiologist are available at the centre to operate this facility. Cervical cancer, the second most common cancer amongst females, accounting for 12% of all cancers, is screened through pap tests and a colposcopy machine. This facility is operated by a visiting VOG.
An oral cancer screening unit for oral cancer detection was installed early this year, in view of oral cancer having the highest incidence amongst males. In addition, a palliative care and long-term care program was also launched with the support of a visiting WHO expert in this field. The centre also operates a mobile screening unit islandwide, with ultra sound scanning and pap tests and physical examinations, in order to reach the rural areas and carry out screening, and education for prevention.
The goal of Rotary is to establish a fully-fledged centralised comprehensive facility for cancer early detection, prevention and control. The building under construction will facilitate expansion of screening and early detection as well as investigation and education. The second phase of the project is presently underway to expand and upgrade the existing screening and early detection facilities through upgraded facilities for breast cancer and cervical cancer screening, as well as strengthen the infrastructure through introduction of an electronic data information facility which will enable better follow up of those diagnosed with cancer to ensure treatment is obtained, as well as analyse the trends and geographical incidence of various cancers, so necessary for planning of cancer control activities.
Q: Congenital heart disease is one of the major killers in Sri Lanka for children under five years of age, thereby the Human Heart Valve Bank Project which you gifted to the people of Sri Lanka can save approximately 1,500 children’s lives annually. Could you tell us about this?
It’s exciting. Who wouldn’t be positive about saving children’s lives and it’s a really good example of the way in which Rotary does work in its local communities.
The Ministry of Health states that today there are 2,500-3,000 children born with a congenital heart disease every year in Sri Lanka. Most of them will need either surgical or catheter-based treatment within the first year of their life. Unless treated in a timely manner some of them will not live to see their first birthday and a majority will die before they reach adulthood.
The reality is that Sri Lanka does not have a human heart valve bank and the current practice in Sri Lanka to use imported bovine grafts, which costs approximately $ 2,300 per graft and is beyond the reach of an average Sri Lankan household. The use of animal and artificial valves with a high number of rejection by the system also costs Rs. 300,000.
With this reality Rotary Foundation funded the first-ever Human Heart Valve Tissue Bank based on the needs assessment done by Paediatric Cardiologist Dr. Duminda Samarasinghe and the then Governor of Rotary Sri Lanka and Maldives Gowri Rajan and past Rotary International President K. Ravindran, and Project Chairman Sushena Ranatunga.
The Rotary foundation raised over $ 400,000 to set up the first-ever Human Heart Valve Bank at the Lady Ridgeway Hospital (LRH). By the way the LRH is the largest children’s hospital in the country and largest in the South Asian region. Children from all over the island are treated here for serious illness. With the setting up of the Heart Valve Bank, Sri Lanka has the option of storing valves of dead people in this bank for use as and when required. Many Sri Lankans have given consent to donate their organs once they are dead. This will elevate heart surgeries to the next level in Sri Lanka. “We will not stop there. We will now partner the setting up of the Critical Care Unit at Lady Ridgeway which is estimated to cost around Rs. 2 billion and it will be a partnership with the Ministry of Health.”
Q: What about dengue?
As I explained Rotary International was responsible for eradicating polio from 99% of the world by partnering governments. We have now ventured into a challenging project to make Sri Lanka dengue-free in partnership with the Sri Lankan Government.
As a pilot project, Rotary Sri Lanka is partnering with the Colombo Municipal Council and the Ministry of Health to introduce a product called ‘OviTraps’ at a controlled geographical area in Grandpass in Colombo, to test the product’s efficacy and monitor the results, before a national roll-out.
“The key activities carried out at the test site included cleaning, fogging, educating and installation of OviTraps in the New Bazaar area. Several Rotarians and Rotaractors actively engaged in the project, making it a success lately. Hopefully, we will see the results post the monsoon. If it’s successful this would be a landmark project for the entire world. The project is under the radar of the WHO.
Q: Any concluding comments?
Rotary Sri Lanka has proved to be having the capacity to be one of the best project management entities in Sri Lanka for the roll out of community projects. An average Rotarian dedicates 11% of the time daily to service projects free of charge. We never charge any administration costs when conducting projects. We have a control mechanism which is electronically-monitored by a computer-based data management program so that at any time we can get a status on each project. We are linked to 1.2 million Rotarians globally whilst in Sri Lanka we have over 2,000 Rotarians with the support of 6,000 plus Rotaractors and another 8,000 Interactors which tell us the depth and width of the organisation that cuts across schools, universities and organisations in Sri Lanka. We invite likeminded people to join us to make Sri Lanka a ‘Miracle of Asia with a high happiness index’.
