Tony Gilmore spoke on the Need for Medical Equiptment in Mongolia

 Text by Tony Gilmore

About a year and a half ago at the Rotary Northeast LINK training session, I listened to a presentation from a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar from Mongolia, Batuka Baterdene, on the absence of medical equipment in rural medical clinics in his country, the least densely populated in the world. His presentation struck a chord with me and I said I’d help him with a Global Grant, but only after my District Governor year.

Batuka and I visited IMEC (International Medical Equipment Consortium) in North Andover, MA this past summer. We chose Maternal Newborn Care Pods (attached) based on the surveys of need of five rural area clinics conducted by our Mongolian partner club, Ulaanbaatar Pearce Avenue Rotary.
A winning bid on transportation has been secured from North Andover to UB (Ulaanbaatar), Peace Avenue will deliver to the final destination and will supply a medical professional to do any requisite equipment training. Peace avenue will also supply ongoing maintenance and support.

As District Governor, I rolled over $15000 DDF in support of this project - that will be doubled by The Foundation. A good start toward the $60,000 needed for this grant. We need to raise $20,000 from Districts, Clubs and Rotarians which will be matched $.50 to the dollar for a total of $30,000. That is what we are working on now. I have been presenting a video program of the need to a number of clubs. Pledges of support are what we now need to make this grant happen.