A small Sri Lanka tragedy

One of the victims of the Sri Lanka flooding this month ( January 2011)

Rose Charities Sri Lanka staff deliver emergency food to children and families stranded by the flooding. Motorcycles can often go where other vehicles cannot

Noot Seear (co-founder of Rose Charities USA) has a lovely website...

 "During the last 13 years of her career, Noot has remained established in the fashion industry, and yet has found time to work on outside projects close to her heart. Brought up in a family dedicated to raising money and awareness for children in the developing world, Noot became the chairman of the board of Rose Charities in 2005. Rose produces events in New York City and Vancouver, to raise money and support for the likes of survivors of natural disasters and children born with birth defects in third world countries.  Her commitment to Rose has taken her around the world to visit Rose supported clinics in Sri Lanka, Cambodia and Vietnam..."

See    http://nootseear.com

Care with codeine

Codeine is a commonly used painkiller in both developing and non developing countries. Often it is sold as a combination with acetaminophen / paracetamol in 'cocktail' drugs. It is cheap and usually readily available.  Research at the University of British Columbia (Stuart MacLeod and Noni MacDonald) indicates that it should be used with more caution than previously condsidered.

Codeine acts by being metabolized to morphine in the body, but the degree of metabolism depends on a person's genetic make-up. Thus the amount of morphine produced can be seriously unpredictable.This it may be that for some persons, the drug has almost no pain-killing effects

For infants, the problem can be particularly serious. The researchers have cited two children who died after being given codeine following a tonsillectomy, and two studies have shown toxicity in infants being breastfed by mothers taking codeine.

While for the vast majority, codeine remains a very useful  analgesic for pain control  its effects must neither be taken for granted by users/prescribers/health workers, nor assumed to always be benign for everyone.
This combined with the non-existent controls on the sale of of strong drugs in many developing countries is a cause for concern. 

Phaeco can be expensive for developing countries

(click article above to enlarge)

Rose Rehab and other NGO's stage Phnom Penh ball to help kids...

(Click on article to enlarge)

For original article click here

Cambodian Tot passes pre-op screening tests... set for surgery

Little 'Tot' in Cambodia has passed all his pre-operation screening tests and so is now set for surgery.

We needed to screen for things like hemoglobin levels, and other blood chemistry. There is so much endemic disease, in Cambodia, not to mention malnutrition / poor diet that it is very important to screen carefully before surgery.  Any of these things, not least the awful problem of Malaria - Cambodia has some of the most drug resistant strains in the world. can put down the oxygen carrying capacity of the blood (hemoglobin levels) and make surgery dangerous.  So we needed to check that all is ok. And I am delighted to say that it is.

Tot's surgery can now go ahead. It is scheduled for the 4th January in Singapore.  All staff are donating their time free, including the surgeon, Dr Myra Elliot, an experienced, Singapore registered maxillo-facial expert. Singapore, like Canada has tight regulations on who can practice there so we are very lucky to get Dr Elliot.   Current plan is for Dr Sarom from First Rose Cambodia and Joanna Thomson (physio) from Rose Rehab Cambodia (both Rose Charities projects) to attend / assist the surgery also. 

Tot will convalesce until the 15th January in Singapore then fly back to Cambodia and to our Rose Charities medical facilities there.   So things are very much falling into place.  Vancouver donors have generously donated $1500 to date which will help enormously both with the surgical as well as the rehab elements.

We all intend to follow Tot long after he has recovered and been rehabilitated.  There is the moral argument whether it is appropriate to spend a lot of money on one individual  But by ensuring that Tot gets a proper education and a happy, productive life, that amount spent can be considered to be working over a lifetime.   An individual unable to communicate by speech, malnourished, and with all his debilitation would certainly  be a financial drain on his family or community over the years.  But restoring him to a place where he can have a normal life may create, though that life which will include education, a bright future for himself, his family and his community too.  So many more will be helped by the financial outlay than just one poor little Cambodian boy.

Stand Tall Education School Uganda gets vehicle from Vancouvers 'African Nights' fundraiser .. thank you Vancouver !!!

WE HAVE A CAR!

December 7th, 2010 | Author: nicole

Here’s what our African Nights fundraiser got us. We are breathing a sigh of relief that our cherished Principal now has a much safer vehicle to travel in. One of the first outings was the transport of two Stand Tall student representatives to the The Daily Monitor Christmas celebration at the first class Serena Hotel in Kampala. Our young ladies represented us with grace and good manners.