As you know from an earlier mention I made within Pete’s Postbag a few weeks ago, besides being the District Coordinator for this District, I have accepted a position of ROMAC Marketing and Public Relations Manager for Southern Region, which is the whole of Victoria and Tasmania. I thought that you might be interested in the type of work with which this area of RI deals. ROMAC’s interests are in children 15 years of age or under, who basically have an illness or disfigurement in which the medial facilities or skills of Medical staff do not match the type of treatment which Medical staff within Australia can provide. You will see some photographs of a young Vietnamese girl, Linh Da, who has recently arrived in Melbourne and has a terribly disfigured face. In the photographs she is being examined by a medical team who are deciding upon her treatment at the Monash Hospital. The Lead Surgeon, Dr James Leong, in these procedures has advised that he’ll do the operation in about a months time, when he has rustled up the voluntary Medical Team he requires to undertake the operation. At the moment the mother of the child is being hosted by the Rotary Club who advised the Region Medical Officer of the case and then the enquiry was undertaken by ROMAC Regional staff. This includes likes of myself meeting up with the Surgeons and Hospital staff to seek costs to correct the disfigurement. Surgeons etc usually do this work pro-bono, and hospitals attempt to keep their charges to a minimum, so that the work can be undertaken. The usual cost for this type of work other than the Operating Theatre Medical staff is approximately $ AUD 30 – 40 K. ! How dedicated these doctors are, and another demonstration of the value that ROMAC programs bring to the medical profession in Australia. Other than this patient, the ROMAC Region Clubs have three other eligible children to be brought across to this Region for this work to be undertaken in the new Rotary Year . So if any of you are holidaying within Pacific Rim countries, and you should come across such an incident as this, or illness, and it cannot be treated in that particular country, you now know that you can refer the child to ROMAC and we will see if it can be arranged for work to be undertaken etc………… Pres Pete.