ROTARY CLUBS OF PAPUA NEW GUINEA District 9600
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Mission Statement: "Reaching Out to Mend All Children"

The purpose of ROMAC is to bring children from developing countries to Australia for the medical operations that will in some cases save their lives, and in some cases restore their bodies and provide them with a dignified life   For more information, contact the PNG Coordinator David Conn Medical Enquiries : Professor John Vince

Saving Joyce…

ROMAC proudly boasts another successful mercy mission as 11 year-old Joyce Raymond is flown to Melbourne for life-saving treatment for burns to 40% of her body

In June 2008 Joyce’s grass skirt accidentally caught fire while cooking and she was badly burned from her knees to the middle of her back. On remote Kanakwa Island in Sudest, Milne Bay there are no medical facilities to treat serious burns and under the care of Father Tony Young, Joyce remained at the Nimoa Catholic Mission Station aid post for almost six months and while her dressings were changed regularly, her burns were never going to heal…until Joyce was spotted by philanthropists Doug and Ann Rathbone who were visiting from Melbourne with executives from Doug’s Melbourne-based company, Nufarm

ROMAC became involved in February 2009 and with the aid of the Catholic Bishops Conference organised passports and visas to allow Joyce and her mother Lucia to fly to Melbourne. Travel formalities take time so ROMAC had Joyce transferred to Alotau Hospital where she received essential care and attention in preparation for her journey including suitable clothing and shoes for Melbourne’s brisk and chilly June climate! Notable was the assistance provided by Gari Conn, wife of ROMAC’s PNG director and member of the Rotary Club of Boroko, David Conn

The logistics of moving a critically ill child from Alotau through conventional travel routes were enormous so Joyce’s benefactors decided to take matters into their own hands! Doug Rathbone approached Lorne Cole at Jet City, a privately-owned international air ambulance service based at Essendon Airport, and with cooperation from PNG’s Customs and Immigration authorities, Doug and Lorne arranged and funded a Leah jet to fly to Alotau to collect Joyce and fly her directly to Melbourne. Accompanied by David Conn, a specialist nurse and members of her family, Joyce touched down safely in Melbourne and was met at the airport by Doug and Father Tony who was coincidentally visiting Melbourne to celebrate his mother’s 97^th birthday! Also at the airport was Past President Ian Fry from the Rotary Club of Broadmeadows and former member of the Rotary Club of Boroko

Joyce was featured in the June 28th edition of the Sunday Herald Sun and her progress will be monitored by many caring Melbournians. Her treatment, which includes extensive skin grafting, is expected to take up to three months and will be funded by ROMAC

Fellows at the Rotary Club of Boroko wish Joyce all the very best with her treatment and safe return to her family and five sisters on beautiful Kanakwa Island. Get well soon Joyce! We look forward to meeting you at our Thursday evening Club meeting…

Pictures from left: Joyce on board the mercy flight & she got to watch "Shrek". Centre: Safely in hospital with mother Lucia and Rotary Club of Boroko fellow, David Conn
Right: Hardly surprising that our little heart-breaker Joyce caught the attention of visiting clowns whilst in hospital...!

Photo Top: Joyce featured in the 28th June edition of the Sunday Herald Sun...

(Post Courier Weekend Edition)
Rotary restores Olascar’s sight...
ROTARY’S Overseas Medical Aid for Children has given young Olascar Numbos every reason to welcome the start of the New Year.  Without their intervention Olascar’s future would have been very bleak indeed. Today he is a happy child with a good future in front of him thanks, to Rotary and all who helped save his life. Identified by Dr Martyn Pannekoek at Vanimo Hospital, arrangements were being made through the Catholic Church and the Knights of St John in Brisbane, to send him to Australia for treatment. Olascar had been receiving treatment for a cancer growing behind his left eye, but required specialised surgery not available in PNG.

PNG’s ROMAC chairman, Dave Conn, referred the case to Queensland ROMAC’s Stan Schneider and Dr Darrell Price for acceptance as a ROMAC case and was quickly given the go ahead to make the necessary arrangements for the child’s transfer.  The first week in November is not only Melbourne Cup Day but also Boroko Rotary’s major fundraiser for the year. So after doing his duties as MC at that function it was a quick dash to the airport to accompany Olascar and Emma to Brisbane en route to Canberra, to hand them over to the local ROMAC representatives, Bryan Mason and Des Roberts. On November 9, radical surgery was performed by Dr Tim Sullivan at the St Andrew’s Hospital in Brisbane with great success and within four days he was allowed home.

Olascar was accompanied by his aunt, Emma Numbos and both were cared for during their time in Australia by Rotary carers, Reg and Joan Carmichael. All costs for airfares and medical costs were borne by ROMAC.

It was a busy year end for Rotary with Mr. Conn also being involved just before Xmas in evacuating Rotary volunteer past District Governor Ray Lambert out of Aitape to Cairns after he encountered serious problems with a dislocated artificial hip.

(Post Courier Weekend Edition)

Priceless gift for Chris...

CHRIS Pirimui of Mainika village, Buin in North Solomon's will probably never forget doctors Andrew Heggie and Tony Holmes of the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, Australia. They repaired the 12-year old jungle boy’s badly twisted face and restored his dignity, something many of us take for granted but which is priceless. 

Chris, like most shy Papua New Guinean children will have great difficulty thanking the doctors and the staff of the hospital in Melbourne. He will have been tongue-tied and simply surveyed all those beaming faces in a spotless surrounding with glazed eyes. But there is no doubt he will tell the stories of his extraordinary adventure with unceasing gusto for many years to his old age. This is because the opportunity to travel to a land like Australia can be the highest point in his life. Even if Chris does not ever leave his village or see Buka airport again, his trip to Australia will keep him satisfied for the rest of his life.

There are many more people he will never get to thank because their paths only crossed once. There was Glen Ludemann of the Peace Monitoring Group who discovered Chris, Barrie Cooper of Rotary Overseas Medical Aid for Children(ROMAC), and Port Moresby based Rotarian and businessman David Conn. Let the people’s paper thank all these messengers of peace on behalf of Chris, whose home-coming took place around Christmas when most of us had deserted the paper on holidays. But a good story is never too old to tell, especially when it is about light shining in a dark place.

Chris Pirimui had a severe tessier which meant he had a cleft running up from his mouth and upper jaw which was disfigured through to his right eye. It was a condition he would have been born with, and although he never had vision in his right eye, his left eye worked perfectly. After discovering him in the jungles of Buin, Glen who is president of Rotary Club Kangaroo Flat Bendigo rang ROMAC founder Barrie Cooper on his satellite phone. Barry then contacted David Conn for the local arrangements. David asked Glen to get the boy to Buka by helicopter and ROMAC PNG took over and arranged for the transfer to Melbourne. Chris was accompanied by his uncle Joseph Puipui, an elementary teacher in Buin. They were in Melbourne for five months. The surgery to Chris’ face lasted five hours first time and several minor ones after that. Mr Conn said it was a very difficult surgery and a very involving one to perform because it involved cutting Chris’ jaw in several places. Before the surgery Chris was not in any life threatening situation but the operation gave him some proper facial function and restored his pride. Mr Conn said Chris looked vastly improved after the surgery. Although his right eye remained closed, the cleft had been repaired and he looked a normal good looking lad. His teeth were also straightened. 

The total cost to ROMAC was in excess of K20,000. There have been other ROMAC cases. Olascar Numbos from Vanimo had the cancer in his right eye treated at Brisbane which also involved the Church and the Knights of St John. Mr Conn said there were several cases pending transfer but others included young Mark Maipakai from Gulf who was treated for scoliosis (bending of the spine), Bradley Bola from Central, Ipa Kenafori from Mendi with a brain herniating between his eyes, and Pape Minape from Pajiaka in Southern Highlands with severe burns to his head. The most famous case is the Bosin Siamese twins who were successfully separated.

The world is full of magic. A sign in an office underlined this somewhat poetically: If you don’t believe in magic, you won’t recognise it. Put it this way. When you see a nice flower, you instinctively pull it to your nose to sample its perfume. The flowers that ROMAC members pull toward them are not always the freshest when you look at them, but like everlasting flowers, the joy lasts for ever. Now that’s a special kind of magic, isn’t it? You and I get to hear such stories and marvel at the goodness of human hearts, but the angels get more...they get a special room in the heart of Chris.

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