Oban Rotary to the rescue in Uganda
The Rotary Club of Oban is coming to the rescue of people thousands of miles away in Uganda, East Africa.
It has sponsored a motorbike ambulance serving the district of Mbale and is one of a fleet serving the population.
Since they were introduced in 2014, club officials say the ambulances have proved ‘crucial’ to providing emergency services across the area.
In particular, it helps pregnant women in a country which has one of the highest fertility rates in the world. More often than not, they live far away from skilled medical care and in locations where transport is either not available or is unaffordable.
A spokesman for Oban Rotary said: ‘Since 2014, the fleet of eRangers – as they are called – have carried out 31,308 emergency calls, over 50 per cent of which have been maternity-related and a great many will have been life saving.
Oban Rotary has contributed to this campaign and the eRanger sponsored by Oban Rotary, which bears the club’s name, has responded to 1,129 emergencies.
‘Most of these relate to pregnancies or children under the age of five years old suffering from life-threatening illnesses.
‘Oban Rotary’s fundraising and charitable giving is generally regarded as focused on local good causes and while on the whole this is very much the case, like other clubs, Oban has an international dimension given that Rotary is a worldwide movement which includes in its endeavours support for third world countries.’
The eRangers have been developed to provide transport to and from local health-centres, providing communities with the means to take advantage of distant and widespread healthcare resources. They are able to safely and comfortably carry one patient and an outreach medical worker, plus emergency supplies for on-site treatment. It can also greatly reduce the time taken to get essential and urgent medical assistance to remote communities.
Rotary International has also been working to help eradicate Polio and the movement has raised around £570 million worldwide. Oban Rotary has participated in the scheme and readers may remember the successful crocus scheme it ran which involved selling handmade lapel crocuses to raise funds.
Rotary said it is pleased the curse of Polio has almost been eradicated.