Last week's Guest Speaker: Cal Toft - Prosthetic Hands
Cal Toft was introduced by Adrian Crowe who met Cal and his wife Beth at Bundaberg for the annual inner Wheel Conference (Beth is the President of Bundaberg Inner Wheel).He spoke on two projects - the first being water wells in Cambodia. It all started when he was on holiday there and the cab driver (Chan) showed them a waterhole he had built for 4100 for a village. Cal came back with the idea and together with a group of Clubs, has built some 32 wells over the last 4 years. These wells were built for villages, schools and even a maternity hospital which prior to that, had no clean water. They are relatively easy to construct as the water table is quite high. For $100, a village or facility can have lovey fresh water. The project has become a RAWCS (Rotary Australia World Community Service) Project. In one example, once fresh water was available, the village built a school and Rotarians helped sponsor teachers for the School - $100 per month for a teacher! $2400 for 2 teachers for 12 months - changes lives forever..jpg)
The second project: Prosthetic Hands for the thousands of victims of land mine explosions of the post Pol Pot era. Often children who are sent out to collect firewood and have their arms and hands blown off by unexploded devices. In the first year they fitted 203 and in 2014 they fitted 214. Cal told of a number of instances where victims had been spotted by the Rotarian volunteers - in cafes and on streets and they had been approached an fitted on the spot. This completely transforms lives. Build a hand. Change a life.
The prostethic hands are imported from the US in packs of 10 and are assembled by Rotarians. Cost of a pack is $5,000. Cal and the team have also taught the local University Rehab Centre to fit hands for people. He and Beth were joined by 13 Rotarians on their last trip.