“Welcome to Week TWO of RI’s Month of Membership & Extension.
This week’s report is culled from Etelka Lehoczky’s online publication, “Health workers trained through a Rotary project resuscitate infants struggling for air.”
“Birth asphyxia, or the failure to breathe at birth, kills an estimated 900,000 infants globally each year. Although it accounts for less than 0.1% of newborn deaths in industrialized countries, it’s the leading cause of neonatal mortality in low- and middle-income countries, like Sierra Leone. Many newborns who aren’t breathing can be saved if rural health care workers learn how to operate the self-inflating resuscitator. A self-inflating resuscitator sells for about US$11. Since 2022, Rotary members in Sierra Leone and North America have collaborated to offer the Helping Babies Breathe protocol to more than 650 nurses, midwives, and other health workers from all over Sierra Leone. The program was funded through a global grant co-sponsored by the Rotary Club of Freetown, Sierra Leone. Sybil Bailor, the club’s 2023-24 president, was committed to the program in part because of her own experience. She once had a difficult delivery, during which her baby struggled to get oxygen. Bailor collaborated on the grant application with Charlotte Israel, 2023-24 president of the Rotary Club of Palm Harbor, Florida, USA. Israel and Bailor’s clubs used The Rotary Foundation grant to purchase 160 NeoNatalies and other supplies. The trainees practiced with self-inflating resuscitation devices and used plastic bottles (known as “penguins” because of their shape) to learn to suction fluid from infants’ noses and mouths.”
Source: https://www.rotary.org/en/fighting-their-first-breath”
Submitted by: Christopher W Knapp, District 6000 Foundation Chair
#ServiceAboveSelf #Rotary #Membership #infants