[L-R] Rotary International President's Representative to the District 7620 Conference John Stairs, Bob Nelson and Potomac-Bethesda Rotary Club President Bob Fuhrman at the Montgomery County Clubs' Hospitality Suite on April 9, 2016.
Nancy Mason, Nan and Bob Fuhrman.
[Above] Nancy Mason and Bob Nelson with "Paul Harris." [Below] Nancy assists in magically multiplying balls.
Michael Zhuang was the guest speaker on March 17, 2016, with the presentation "Investment Insight of Nobel Prize Winners." The 2013 Nobel Prize Winners in Economics were Eugene Fama, Robert Shiller and Lars Peter Hansen. President Bob Fuhrman presented Michael Zhuang with a Rotary Cookbook.
Ellen Haggerty, Chair of the Rotarians for Hearing Action Group and a member of the Pleasant Valley New York Rotary Club exchanges club banners and presents President Bob Fuhrman with a check for $500 for the Ear Care Nepal Project.
Nabil Bedewi now has a condominium in Belize available for vacationing; Art Blitz told about the work project at the Jewish Foundation for Group Homes on May 14.
Debby Fisher, Interim Chief Operating Officer of CHI Centers, Inc., was the guest speaker at the March 3, 2016, Potomac-Bethesda Rotary Club meeting. CHI Centers, Inc. provides residential services in alternative living units, rent subsidized housing, vocational training, and working with adults with disabilities. In February, the Potomac-Bethesda Rotary Club Foundation donated $4,000 to CHI Centers, Inc.
Rotary Club of Potomac Bethesda Annual Valentine's Day Initiative
In honor of Valentine's Day, Potomac-Bethesda Rotary presented pashmina shawls to residents at Sophia's House in Rockville, Maryland. Sophia's House provides emergency shelter for women with mental illness, substance abuse, trauma or long term disabilities. This annual presentation of gifts is led by Rotarian Dr. Noel Howard and his wife, Gladys Howard. Potomac-Bethesda Rotary Foundation supports various projects in the local community related to housing and education.
Dinner and Fellowship at Far East Restaurant
Rotarians and guests enjoying dinner on 2/11 at Far East Restaurant in Rockville, Maryland.
The Rotary Club of Potomac-Bethesda (Maryland) prepared this document to provide a brief overview of our proposed Rotary District 7620 Global Grant application (I.D. number GG1637950). The proposed Global Grant is designed to benefit impoverished Nepalese school-age children who are at risk of becoming deaf due to correctible middle ear problems. Many such problems result from middle ear infections, some of which may lead or have already led to eardrum perforations.
We request that you consider making a donation in support of this $44,000 Grant. We need to raise approximately $12,500 in additional funds for this Grant to be approved.
Hearing Impairment in Nepal and the World
The incidence of deafness in Nepal is among the very highest in the world. In 2012, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that 5.3 percent of the world’s population suffers from disabling hearing loss, and 9 percent of these cases involve children. WHO also concluded that children in South Asia have a higher rate of hearing impairment than children in any other geographical region.
A 1991 statistical study by the charitable organization Britain Nepal Otology Services (BRINOS) concluded that 16.6 percent of the Nepalese population was significantly deaf at that time, with either ear exhibiting worse than 30 dB hearing threshold (HTL) 1.0 to 4.0 kHZ, or 50 dB HTL 0.5 kHz. According to that survey, 70 percent of those in Nepal who were suffering from middle ear infections or their aftermath were school-age children; and 50 percent of ear disease in Nepal was preventable.
Updated hearing loss statistics on a nationwide basis for Nepal are not available. However, recent data supports a very important point: There is only one ear, nose, and throat (ENT) surgeon in Nepal for every quarter of a million people. This situation can be accurately described as a silent crisis of significant proportion.
Planned Activities
Assuming the Global Grant is approved, over the next year, Ear Care Nepal (ECN), a charitable organization, will provide ear screenings to 5,000 children who attend public schools or Buddhist monastic schools in the Katmandu Valley.
The Grant will pay for 100 of these children to have middle ear surgeries either to restore their hearing or to prevent further loss of hearing. ECN’s volunteer ENT surgeons will perform these surgeries without remuneration, resulting in a per-surgery cost of only $183, the average amount this Grant will pay for each of these surgeries.
The $183 figure reflects only the out-of-pocket costs actually incurred. Without discounts provided by Nidan Hospital in Katmandu, the lack of surgical charges, a low negotiated fee agreement with a group of participating anesthesiologists, and subsidies for lab work and pharmacy services, the unit cost of these surgeries would be $344, still a bargain price compared to the costs of identical surgeries performed in the United States.
Approximately $19,000 from this Grant will be used to pay for additional surgical and ear screening equipment, including (1) a portable, battery-operated audiometer, to overcome problems posed by frequent electrical power outages in Nepal; (2) an impedance meter, a very important diagnostic tool that ECN does not have but that can lead to better diagnoses of ear problems, (3) an operating microscope that would enable ECN to perform some surgeries outside a hospital setting, and (4) microsurgical tools to accommodate such surgeries.
Although manufacturers’ warranties for each of these pieces of equipment would cover either one or two years of maintenance, the Grant will provide an additional $3,000 for the purpose of maintaining this equipment through the end of the fifth year after each item’s date of purchase.
Finally, funds will be provided to pay for a “Community Ear Assistant”for one year to aid in ear care educational efforts that would reach over 5,000 children, their teachers, and some of their parents and guardians, as well as for training of the Community Ear Assistant, printing of additional educational materials, and provision of funds for gasoline necessary to fulfill the goals of this Grant. The Community Ear Assistant will also aid in ear screenings and help during ear surgeries.
How You Can Help
If you represent a Rotary Club, your Club’s gift of “District Designated Funds” (DDF) will be eligible for a dollar per dollar match by the Rotary Foundation’s World Fund. Thus, $1,000 in DDF would be eligible to become $2,000 for the purposes of this Grant.
If you donate cash either from your Club or as a personal or Foundation donation, please write a check to the “PB Rotary Club Foundation,” one the memo line insert “Nepal Hearing Project,” and mail it to PB Rotary, c/o 8 Old Club Court, Rockville, Maryland 20852, or use your credit card on-line by clicking on the “Donate” button on our website, www.pbrotary.org. Your check or credit card donation will be eligible for a 50 percent match by The World Fund.
Questions
If you would like to obtain a copy of our Grant application or have any questions, please send an e-mail tobob_fuhrman@msn.com.
(Picture of Dr. Milan Maharjan, Chairperson of ECN, Providing Ear Care Education to Adults)
"Thank you Rotary Club of Potomac-Bethesda, Maryland, USA for their generous contributions. Also Ear Care Nepal is very grateful to 'The Rotary Club of Kathmandu Mid-town' for their kind support. Thank you all !!!"
Here is a very easy way to help us with fundraising. If you are an Amazon shopper please bookmark this link http://pbrotary.org/Page/amazon in your browser and ask your friends and family to do the same. Whenever you start your Amazon shopping from this page the club gets a percentage. See the link above for details. You can also get to it from our website banner at http://pbrotary.org.
We now have a page which serves as a launching point to our club’s Foundation. Check it out at http://pbrotary.org/Page/our-foundation. You can get to it in three ways from our home page (www.pbrotary.org) : Look for “Foundation” located on the banner or under the menu choices “About Us” or “Services/Projects”. Besides evolving content and links to internal and external resources, on that page we can now accept online donations for everything we do.
If you shop at Amazon through this link http://smile.amazon.com/ch/52-1264058, Amazon will donate 0.5% of your eligible purchases (millions of products) to the charitable foundation of our club. Thank You!
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In honor of Valentine's Day, Potomac-Bethesda Rotary presented pashmina shawls to residents at Sophia's House in Rockville, Maryland. Sophia's House provides emergency shelter for women with mental illness, substance abuse, trauma or long term disabilities. This annual presentation of gifts is led by Rotarian Dr. Noel Howard and his wife, Gladys Howard. Potomac-Bethesda Rotary Foundation supports various projects in the local community related to housing and education.
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