Spirited Rotarians– John Cole –

What did we need to do to change the life of a fifteen-year-old girl whose cataracts were so bad she could only see the difference between light and dark, or the sixty-year-old farmer who could no longer see his animals? John Cole. Recipient of the Stan Rowe Award - 2005

In the 1990s it was normal for the District Governor’s

spouse to select a project to raise funds for during their

partner’s DG year. Once Lynne and I had decided

that we would endeavour to continue this tradition

the challenge was then to come up with a worthwhile

project that would appeal to Rotarians.

We had many questions: What sort of project should

we help; where; should it involve another Rotary Club

or District; what was our criteria?

In a very short period of time we arrived at the

following:

1. it should be a project outside New Zealand;

2. it should involve a Rotary Club in the region of the

project;

3. the country should have a good infrastructure;

4. the people we would deal with would be fluent in

English;

5. the project should qualify for a matching grant

from The Rotary Foundation.

With the above in mind I spoke with The Rotary

Foundation regional coordinator for New Zealand,

Past District Governor Ewen McKenzie from the

Rotary Club of Waimate District 9980. Ewen had

previously told me of his involvement with Dam

Building in the Philippines and I was moved by the

difference that he, the Rotarians from his Club, the

Club in the Philippines, and The Rotary Foundation,

had been able to make.

Sewa Sadan Eye Hospital Project

City of Bhopal, India

Lynne and I had seen presentations from different

organisations on cataract surgery and after discussions

with Ewen we decided that we would like to support

an Eye Hospital in India as our project for my year of

District 9940 leadership.

Ewen suggested that a good person to contact was his

colleague and friend, The Rotary Foundation Regional

coordinator in Mumbai, Dr RM Bhat, who was a

medical doctor. I contacted Dr Bhat by email and

asked if he was able to advise on a possible area and

Rotary Club that we should make contact with. He

knew that the District Governor of Rotary District

3140 Kumar Kewairamani was involved with an eye

hospital in central India. After numerous emails and

phone calls it was decided that Lynne and I would go to

Mumbai, Bophal, and Delhi and look at eye hospitals

that could meet our criteria.

We felt we couldn’t sell this idea to 2,500 Rotarians

in District 9940 unless we were 100% sure that the

money raised would be well spent. The other concern

however was whether it would be better to not travel

and donate the airfares to the cause. This dilemma

was solved by the use of airpoints. So our major

costs were the internal flights in India and some hotel

accommodation.

Prior to departing on 1 June 2001 we met with a New

Zealand Rotarian who was an ophthalmic surgeon who

gave us an overview of the cataract procedures and the

type of pre and postoperative care needed. This was of

immense value when we visited the different hospitals

because without this background knowledge we would

have been at a loss to ask the appropriate probing

questions.

Armed with this little bit of knowledge we were on our

way to Mumbai (Bombay) arriving at 11.45pm after a

very long day.

To our surprise, as we exited the aircraft, there was a

customs official standing on the air bridge with our

names on a welcome board. It turned out he was

a Rotarian and senior customs officer at Mumbai

International Airport. He had us through immigration

in less than five minutes, past the queues of 20-plus

people, and through a special booth.

At the customs hall we met Dr Bhat and District

Governor Kumar together with about 10 other

Rotarians. We then received a traditional Indian

welcome ceremony to keep the evil spirits away whilst

on our trip. We were treated like royalty and all in the

wee small hours of the morning.

We were taken to Mr Kumar’s house and his wife,

sister, sons and daughter in law were all up to greet

us! It was such a lovely gesture to host us privately.

The experience of spending a few days living with

the extended family of a local Rotarian was a very

unexpected privilege.

Finding a suitable hospital

We visited a number of hospitals in Mumbai, together

with other Rotary medical projects including a hospital

totally funded by local Rotary Clubs that offered

laboratory analysis, x-rays, ultrasounds and eye surgery

free of charge to the poor of Mumbai. Within 24 hours

of arriving in India we were completely overawed at the

huge difference that the local Rotarians were making to

the lives of the underprivileged.

After three days in Mumbai we flew with Dr Bhat to

Bophal where we again received a traditional Indian

welcome and were greeted by photographers from four

different newspapers. You will see from the map that

Bophal is in the state of Madhya Pradesh and the city

has a population of over 1,500,000.

Many people claim that the Bhopal chemical leak that

occurred in December 1984 was the worst industrial

disaster in history. It was caused by the release of 40

tons of methyl isocyanate from the Union Carbide

plant in the poorer part of the city. The escaping

gas was heavier than air and rolled along the ground

killing thousands outright. The gases also injured up

to 600,000 people, at least 15,000 of whom later died.

Many thousands of people who did survive suffered

severe health problems. Many of these people had

eyesight problems and private hospitals were established

to assist in reversing the damage. Although this was

a major part of hospitals’ work in the years after the

accident, the hospitals are still extremely busy assisting

both local residents and villagers from the surrounding

area who develop problems with their eyes.

In Bophal we visited two eye hospitals. One was partly

funded by the Rotary Club of Bophal South and an

English charity. We spent part of the morning looking

at their facilities/procedures and meeting with their

staff. This hospital, however, did not look like it was

being used to anything like its full potential and, as it

was also being well supported, we decided that their

needs were not quite as pressing as other hospitals we

had seen.

We then moved on to visit the Sewa Sadan Eye

Hospital in the village of Sant Hirdaram Nagar that

District Governor Kumar’s family supported from

Mumbai. At this hospital we were completely

overawed by the love and care shown to the patients.

The hospital was managed by several local successful

businessmen who were the trustees. Dr Bhat advised

that the superintendent and senior medical staff had

qualifications that would be recognised in most English

speaking countries including New Zealand and the

United Kingdom. The other area that really impressed

us was the number of local and out of town people that

worked as volunteers in different parts of the hospital.

This included the trustees, doctors, nurses and others in

many less skilled areas.

That evening we made our decision that we would ask

the Rotarians in District 9940 to support the Sewa

Sadan Eye Hospital in Bhopal.

How Sewa Sadan Eye Hospital works

The hospital provides eye surgery and treatment, free

of charge, to Bhopal residents and residents of the rural

area that spreads approximately 100 miles from the base

hospital.

The hospital patients from the city of Bhopal are either

referred to the hospital by their General Practitioner or

come directly to the hospital for treatment. In the case

of the more rural patients the hospital runs eye camps in

local villages for these people.

Firstly the hospital advertises that they will be holding

an eye camp on a certain date. The hospital sends

ophthalmic nurses and a surgeon to examine all

patients. Some patients are treated at the clinic, but

those with more serious conditions that can be treated

at the base hospital are asked to return to the clinic on

another date for transport to the hospital.

The hospital has its own buses that are used to bring the

patients from their rural village to the hospital for more

specialised treatment including cataract surgery.

The majority of the hospital’s surgical patients are

peasant farmers who in many cases have spent 30 or 40

years in the fields without eye protection and as a result

have developed severe eye damage. Many would have

never been on a modern bus or visited a major city such

as Bhopal.

The buses arrive at the hospital at about 5pm. Patients

awaiting cataract surgery are allocated a bed in one of

the open wards with about 80 others. Patients are fed

an evening meal and examined to ensure they are fit

for surgery. The next morning surgery commences

with four operating tables in the theatre, each surgeon

assisted by an ophthalmic nurse.

The average cataract operation takes about ten minutes.

Post operation patients are returned to the ward with an

eye shield over their eye that the hospital removes 24 hours

later. After removal patients are re-examined by a specialist.

Patients remain at the hospital for a further 24 hours.

Patients are given the medication they need and sunglasses

to protect their eyes in the future before being bussed back

to their villages in the hospital buses. Two weeks after the

operation they are asked to return to the rural clinic where

staff from the hospital check their eyes again to see that the

operation has been successful and there is no infection.

The Sewa Sadan Eye Hospital does a wide range of eye

surgery procedures but we decided to concentrate on cataract

surgery. We chose cataract surgery over other eye surgery

because, for a relatively small cost, the patients gained a huge

increase in their quality of life. The cost to the Sewa Sadan

Eye Hospital of providing a preoperative clinic, patient

transport, food, accommodation, surgery including new

lens and post operative care, was approximately NZ$75 per

patient after subsidies received from the Indian government

and the World Health Organisation.

How could New Zealand Rotarians help?

After discussions with the Eye Hospital’s trustees it was

decided the most appropriate assistance would be to

purchase operating theatre equipment for a new hospital

building that was to be constructed. In return for the

purchase of equipment the hospital agreed to provide

additional cataract operations free of charge to an

equivalent value of the equipment.

Tins of spaghetti

On our return to New Zealand, and commencing our

official visits to Rotary Clubs as Governor, we showed a

7-minute video to each of the 64 Clubs in the District.

At the end of the presentation I produced a tin of

spaghetti and asked each Rotarian to consider staying

home and having a tin of spaghetti for dinner instead

of going out to a restaurant for a meal. I estimated the

difference between the cost of the restaurant meal and

the tin of spaghetti as $50. That $50, together with a

Rotary Foundation matching grant, would enable one

patient to have their sight restored through the Sewa

Sadan Eye Hospital.

Rotarians responded generously. Over 70% of Rotary

Clubs in District 9940 contributed financially to the

project. At the end of the Rotary year over $68,000 had

been received.

It was decided that this money, together with a

contribution from the Rotary Club of Bhopal South

and a Foundation matching grant, would be used to

purchase a Phaco Emulsification System – a flash name

for the machine that sucks a cataract out of an eye – and

a Zeiss Opmi Visu 150 surgical microscope. The cost

of these two pieces of equipment was over 2.4 million

Indian rupees, roughly US$49,500.

The difference Rotarians will make.

Returning to the Eye Hospital.

In late 2003 we received an invitation to attend the

dedication of the equipment that Rotarians had

donated. The dedication coincided with the opening

of the new wing of the hospital that was to house the

donated equipment.

As this project had been so close to my heart for

over two years, I decided to accept the invitation. In

January 2004 I travelled with my son Mark to Bhopal

to attend the dedication ceremony. The ceremony was

a very moving occasion attended by over 250 people

associated with the hospital including the District

3040 Governor, the District Governor Elect, the local

Member of Parliament and several other city dignitaries.

There were numerous speeches and the ceremony was

very formal.

Presentations were made to Mark and myself, together

with all other visiting dignitaries including several

Rotarians. Seven other Rotary Club presidents from

the greater Bhopal area also attended the dedication

together with supporters of the hospital from overseas

that had travelled for the dedication of the new hospital

wing the previous day. We were also privileged to have

been invited to this major event.

The equipment that Rotarians purchased will be used

for approximately 4,000 operations per year. That is

4,000 people every year whose sight will be improved as

a result of Rotarians’ generosity and their decision, on

one evening, to eat a can of spaghetti instead of eating

at a restaurant. We really felt that District 9940, The

Rotary Foundation and the Rotary Club of Bhopal

South has had, and will continue to have, a major

impact on the lives of those less fortunate.

An added Bonus: Polio Immunisation Day

– 150 million children immunised on one

day in India.

After we received the invitation to attend the dedication

of the equipment that Rotarians funded, we checked

to see if by any chance there was a national polio

immunisation day in India around the time that we

would be there. Ever since the start of the Rotary polio

eradication programme I had always thought it would

be a very moving experience to participate in a national

day.

By sheer coincidence luck was on our side and the

National Immunisation Day was on the same day as the

hospital equipment dedication. After discussions with

local Rotarians in Bhophal, they arranged for Mark

and myself to visit four different immunisation centres

in the morning before we attended the equipment

dedication in the afternoon. Then to finish the day the

Rotarians arranged a joint meeting of all the Rotary

Clubs in Bhopal. What a 24 hours that was!!!

Arriving at the first immunisation centre we were

greeted by two news reporters and a photographer

together with the local MP and city officials. The

vaccine was transported in polystyrene chilly bins and

the children lined up to have the drops administered.

Each child who had received the immunisation had

their finger marked with a felt pen and they received a

lollypop or balloon. I think the gifts were given because

local dignitaries were visiting – as children in other

areas didn’t receive gifts. Some children were brought

by parents, others by elder siblings and others came by

themselves. There were banners in many parts of the

city advertising the national immunisation day and the

Rotary wheel was prominently displayed on them all. It

was anticipated that over 150 million children would be

immunised on that day alone, in India.

What next?

District 9940 still has over $15,000 of donated funds

awaiting another smaller project to assist the Sewa

Sedan Eye Hospital. We are waiting a request for a

relatively small piece of equipment that could be funded

with this money.

Thank you

I’ve always been very proud to be a Rotarian. It has been

a privilege to have had the opportunity to see first hand

the differences that can be made by committed people.

I would like to finish by quoting past Rotary

International President Clem Renouf who said

“Rotary takes ordinary men and gives them

extraordinary opportunities to do more with their lives

than they ever dreamed possible”.

Thank you Rotary for giving Lynne and myself such an

opportunity.

John Cole, District Govenor 9940, 2001-2002