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Need: There are over 900 patients in northern Thailand who have difficulty breathing due to asthma, emphysema, pneumonia etc. The region is often inundated with unhealthy levels of smoke from Thailand and neighboring countries who burn rice fields. They can be helped by the use of an at home Oxygen concentrator. The Maechan hospital currently has only 10 units to lend out and would like to do more. Maechan is a city in northern Thailand and the Rotary Club of Maechan would be our partner in this project.
Many patients are in home-based care and develop bedsores because caretakers don't have time to look after them. The anti-bedsore mattress can help. The Maechan hospital currently has only 10 of these mattresses. The patients are primarily from very low-income areas in the ChiangRai district of Thailand. Many are ethnic Hilltribe farmers.
The need for these pieces of medical equipment is coupled with the education to increase the levels of awareness and attitudes towards palliative care to the general public.
The Maechan Hospital serves many under-privileged, low income and low literate farmers and Hilltribe people including undocumented citizens from 4 nearby districts in the north of Thailand.
We are asking for funding to purchase 34 more oxygen concentrators, 10 bedsore mattresses and funding for training and project management. The line item for "project management" is put in to cover any fluctuations in currency exchange rates, or change in costs.
Timeline: Once funds are received, the equipment will be purchased and given to the Maechan Hospital for distribution to those in need. Education and training would be done shortly thereafter within the 2019-2020 Rotary year.
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