Generous generous Cortes de Cima, Portugal: helping Japan tsunami victims

The need to help Japan

Posted by Carrie on Sunday March 13th, 2011 at 19:42

Anyone watching the horrendous images on the TV of the devastation wrought by the 11th March earthquake and tsunami cannot be left in doubt that Japan needs help. Cortes de Cima is responding by making a cash donation to help Japan, by way of our friends Rose Charities. We were not at all surprised to learn that Rose Charities are already responding to this latest crisis, by collecting donations to assist AMDA HQ relief teams, who since 12th March have been active in Japan helping with emergency health care. AMDA is one of Japans foremost emergency relief organizations.
We have on many occasions in the past, supported Rose Charities, both with donations in money and in wine for their charity fundraising events, like BeBare. The previous time was March 2010, when they were raising money in support of the Haitian earthquake victims. We know that money given to Rose Charities is money well spent.  It was founded by aid workers who were disillusioned by the waste and bureaucracy often seen in international aid, and 98% of donations goes directly to support their work in many parts of the world.

On a personal note, we have been fortunate to have visited Japan on a couple of occasions, and never failed to be fascinated with the country, culture and people. Many Japanese visitors often visit us too. The previous Japanese ambassador to Portugal, Mr. Hara Satoshi, a very keen fan of Portuguese wines, honored us with attending our annual Danish Christmas Wine tasting and lunch.  Japan has been one of our earliest export markets, and they continue as enthusiastic customers for both our wines and olive oil. Since the disaster, we have received relieving news from both our distributors Liquor Mountain and Harimaya, that they and their employees have personally escaped any harm. We extend our most heartfelt wishes to all of our Japanese friends in these difficult times.

Pediatric Cataract Initiative Awards

Innovative Programs in Nepal, India and Nigeria Receive Funding

ROCHESTER, N.Y. - The Pediatric Cataract Initiative has announced its inaugural small research grant recipients for treating and preventing vision loss in children.

The Initiative, a partnership of the Bausch + Lomb Early Vision Institute and Lions Clubs International Foundation (LCIF), will provide two research grants of US$50,000 each to:
Lumbini Eye Institute to study the cost and clinical effectiveness of a comprehensive pediatric cataract surgery follow-up system in western Nepal and adjacent northern Indian states. The outcomes are expected to have a wide-ranging effect on follow-up regimens in developing nations worldwide.
Calabar Teaching Hospital to investigate the burden and causes of severe visual impairment and blindness among children in the Cross River State of Nigeria. This is believed to be the first large-scale study of the root causes of childhood blindness in Africa.


Launched in June 2010, the Pediatric Cataract Initiative is the first dedicated global effort aimed at preventing and treating cataract - a clouding of the eye's natural lens - in children so as to reduce childhood blindness. Causes of pediatric cataract can include intrauterine infections such as pregnancy rubella, metabolic disorders and genetically transmitted syndromes.

"While the knowledge and techniques for diagnosis and treatment of pediatric cataract are well known, there is a lack in the understanding of factors that determine success of interventions and factors that will enhance accessing services," said Dr. Gullapalli Rao, chairman of the Pediatric Cataract Initiative Global Advisory Council and founder of the LV Prasad Eye Institute in Hyderabad, India.

The inaugural small research grant application was open to clinicians and researchers around the world. Members of the Pediatric Cataract Initiative Global Advisory Council, which is composed of eye health experts from around the world, met in December 2010 to review 16 small research grant applications from countries including India, Cameroon, Nigeria, Nepal, Guatemala, Kenya, the United States, the United Kingdom and elsewhere.

"In children, despite the best cataract surgery, long term and more frequent follow up is required because of changing refractive error due to their constantly growing eyes and the special concern of amblyopia, which is exclusive to children," notes Dr. Salma K.C. Rai, principal investigator, academic director and ophthalmic assistant training in-charge and consultant pediatric ophthalmologist at Lumbini Eye Institute, Nepal.

"It is very important for the pediatric ophthalmologist and the team to repeatedly stress to parents the importance of follow up visits, at least in the initial few years following pediatric cataract surgery. The seed needs to be sown at the right time, and any delay will result in poor results," said Dr. Rai.

"Receiving the grant will engage people in our region to take more action towards eliminating childhood blindness," said Dr. Roseline Duke of the Calabar Teaching Hospital in Nigeria. "At the end of our research, I hope to have restored good vision to children who are affected by cataract, and integrated those who have lost their vision into their schools and communities."

An estimated 1.4 million children are blind worldwide, 1 million of whom live in Asia and 300,000 in Africa. The prevalence of pediatric cataract in developing countries can be 10 times more common than in developed nations.
Childhood blindness affects not only children, but their families and communities for life. One study places the global economic loss over 10 years of childhood cataract at between US$1 billion to US$6 billion.

The Initiative also intends to announce a major prevention and treatment grant for a Chinese institution in the coming months.

"Lions have long been dedicated to saving and restoring sight, so this partnership is a natural for us. Dedicated research that will help prevent blindness is a new area of great interest for our Foundation, and one that will pay great dividends for years to come," said Wing Kun Tam, a member of the Global Advisory Council and vice president, Lions Clubs International.

The Pediatric Cataract Initiative (www.PediatricCataract.org) utilizes the resources of both Bausch + Lomb's Early Vision Institute and LCIF to identify, fund and promote innovative methods of overcoming this challenge for the long-term benefit of children, their families and their communities

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

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

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For original article click here