Posted by Peter Roaf on Feb 17, 2018
Doctors will now be able to detect early breast cancer more accurately among low income women in Manila, The Philippines, instead of through hand detection, thanks to five used ultrasound machines now making their way in a shipping container to the Rotary Club of Manila San Miguel.
The ultrasound machines, with a replacement value of $200,000 each, are among 217 items which Rotarians in the Rotary World Help Network, of District 5040 and 5050 clubs in the Lower Mainland loaded into a 40-foot shipping container on February 17, 2018, with the help of members from the Rotary Clubs of Ladner, Richmond Sunrise and the Sunshine Coast.
 
The shipping container holds medical and dental equipment which will make a difference to thousands of people in the Philippines. It was full loaded at the Rotary World Help Network warehouse on the site of Riverview Hospital in Coquitlam.
 
In addition to the five ultrasound machines, the container holds a dental compressor, an anaesthetic machine, a dentist chair, 19 hospital beds and 28 mattresses, cots, 12 computers, even looseleaf binders and books. It will take up to five weeks to arrive by ship in Manila.
 
Rotary World Help is a non-religious, non-political charity run by Rotary Clubs from British Columbia, which collects and distributes medical equipment and supplies, dental, optical, education and sports equipment and disaster relief supplies to international communities in need. Since 1992 it has shipped 379 containers, to 60 countries, with equipment and supplies valued at $134 million, benefitting: 11,350,000 people.