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May 1, 2003 Media Contact:
Jan Jennings, (858) 822-1684 The Korle-Bu Children’s Hospital Project was selected as the African Region and International Winner of this year’s Outstanding Rotaract Club Project Award. It was chosen from projects of more than 7,000 Rotaract Clubs in the world. It is the highest honor possible for a Rotaract project. The award will be presented at the Rotary International Convention in Brisbane, Australia, at the end of May and Thomas will be in Australia to accept. The Children’s Block of the Korle-Bu Hospital opened in 1965 to serve children one day to 12 years old. It receives limited funding and caters to the poorest in Ghana. “Until our project, the Children’s Block had not had maintenance or any form of refurbishment to the building or its facilities since its opening,” Thomas says. “As a result, the equipment was in poor condition, broken or entirely lacking. By any standard, the conditions at this Children’s Hospital were appalling.” With major financial assistance from the Rotary Club of Foster City, Thomas’s home Rotary club; Rotary District 5150; Rotary District 9100 in West Africa, and the Rotary Foundation, and assistance also from other Rotarians, private donations, and special funding projects, $75,000 was raised to benefit the Korle-Bu Children’s Hospital Project. These funds provide new equipment for the hospital including hospital beds, cribs, a centrifuge, thermometers, bed sheets, pulse oximeters, silicon reanimation bags, laryngoscopes and patient trolleys, as well as many other pieces of badly needed equipment. The Children’s Block’s worn linoleum floor is being replaced with new porcelain tiles, easily cleaned. In addition to new hospital equipment and flooring, Thomas and a crew of more than 100 volunteers spent a weekend at what he calls “a massive painting and cleaning.” They cleaned windows, bathrooms and sinks, repaired broken doors, replaced rotted wood, and painted furniture. They replaced dark, peeling wall paint with fresh, light colors. “Several student artists painted beautiful artwork on the walls,” Thomas says. “Now it really looks like a Children’s Hospital should – bright and happy.” And not only that, Thomas and company visit with the children weekly. “Ten people, Rotaractors, Rotarians, and other members of the community, read, chat and play with the children,” Thomas says. “Instead of lying helplessly for hours, children are now reading, drawing, learning, and feeling genuine human contact. We sincerely believe this is making a difference in the spirits of the children.” Thomas says that although the project could not have been possible without the monies raised, it has far greater value than the dollars and cents. “Our aim was that this serve as an example of true community service. It demonstrated that members of the local and international community can successfully come together to help. A need was seen and at the very grassroots level, resources and people were mobilized.” Thomas is a member of the UCSD
Rotaract Club. He is participating in UCSD’s Opportunities Abroad
Program and is spending a year in Ghana on a Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial
Scholarship initiated through the Rotary Club of Foster City. The Rotary
Foundation is a nonprofit corporation that promotes world understanding
through international humanitarian service programs and educational and
cultural exchanges. Rotaract is a Rotary-sponsored service club for young
men and women ages 18 to 30. For information on Thomas and the Korle-Bu
Children’s Hospital Project, call (858) 534-1123.
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Ben
Thomas, a junior in UCSD’s Eleanor Roosevelt College majoring in
political science and international relations, is the Rotary Foundation
Ambassadorial Scholar and coordinator for the Korle-Bu Children’s
Hospital Project in Ghana’s capital, Accra.