Background on the operations of ROMAC;
Mission Statement;
ROMAC provides surgical treatment for children in Australia and New Zealand from developing countries from our Pacific region in the form of life giving and/or dignity restoring surgery not accessible to them in their home country.
Objectives;
- Provide hope and restore dignity to transform a child’s life
- Provide the best possible surgical and medical expertise
- Engage Rotary and the community at all levels to fund and support the ROMAC cause
- To maintain and improve the quality of the management process and ensure high quality governance of the ROMAC project
Harold Sharp explained;
“As Chairman, with the support of my wife, we have been to over 80 Rotary meetings across Australia and New Zealand promoting ROMAC to Rotarians and others.
In the past few years, we have brought in on average, 50 children per year. However, in this last year, with the COVID pandemic, we have been unable to bring any children into Australia.
Currently we have over 30 children ready to fly in who need urgent medical attention.
Although there are fund raising events planned throughout this year, because Rotary Clubs have been unable to fund raise, ROMAC donations are down 50% from a normal year. ROMAC needs donations/income each year of $750,000 just to breakeven.
When children are flown into Australia, they go to each of the capital cities where we have a paediatric hospital, and volunteer Surgeons and Doctors give their time and expertise ‘Pro-Bono’. Unfortunately, hospitals charge ROMAC children as if they were a private international patients; per day $6,000 in ICU plus $2,000 for a ward bed. It is an ongoing struggle to reduce these fees. It costs ROMAC $25,000 per year just for an IT data base to handle children information and our income and expenditure. Every cost is recorded, Fees paid to Government Hospitals, and reimbursement of costs to our volunteers, who do not get paid!
With over 30 children waiting for treatment, if there are not sufficient funds in our bank to cover their costs, then we will be forced to prioritise until funds are available.
When children fly into Australia, they are looked after by ROMAC volunteers and volunteer home mothers, who look after them in their own homes, and transport them to and from hospitals. One child recently returned to his home in New Guinea, after a stay of 16 months in Australia. Our Volunteers cannot help but get attached to our ROMAC children, and unfortunately it is a sad point for all our volunteers, that when a child flies home, they tend to live far from a country’s major cities and we lose touch with them.
In recent years we have sent surgeons/doctors to overseas countries, to train their surgeons and doctors to look after children needing life giving and/or dignity restoring surgery.
Some patients cost a lot more than the initial estimates, and ROMAC receives no money from our Government/s, unlike other charities. It’s an ongoing challenge!
So, overall, we are reliant on Rotarians. Over the last few years, we have spent time enlarging our data base of donators. But, Rotary membership is declining, so donations to ROMAC are declining.
Please remember ROMAC!
ROMAC gives a child a second chance in life!”
