President's Message April 2023

Dear fellow Rotarians,

April is Maternal and Child Health Month in the Rotary Calendar. Maternal health describes the health of women during pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period (after the birth), whilst Child health refers to the health, nutrition status, and mortality experienced in the key child age groups (neonatal, infant, under five).

Our club has a proud history of supporting medical projects in our community, these may not be directly linked to maternal and child health, however they help improve the overall health care in our community.

On the 25th and 26th of March our club partnered with the Spine Clinic and Bangkok Hospital to deliver a community based medical project at the Nongkhon School where 0ver 350 people both children and adults from the local community visited the school and received advice and treatment from our two partners. Thanks to our Rotary and Rotary Ann volunteers who acted as translators, cooked and served food to these people. Overall, the event was a great success.

Last year we used our District Designated Fund (DDF) to provide essential items of equipment to the new neurological unit at Hua Hin Hospital spending over 5,000 USD. In addition, we donated 1,000 USD to the Rotary Club of Thavaravadi and Rotary Club of Pra Pathom Chedi to help them purchase automatic Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) machines and build 2 new Intensive Care Units (ICUs) in their local clinics and hospital.

On the 7th April 2023 the World Health Organisation (WHO) will celebrate its 75th Anniversary, and this event will coincide with World Health Day. From its inception at the First Health Assembly in 1948 and since taking effect in 1950, the celebration has aimed to create awareness of a specific health theme to highlight a priority area of concern for the World Health Organisation.

The WHO slogan is we champion health and a better future for all.

Here in Thailand this time of year brings its own problem with air quality being very poor, it is very worrying that the quality of air in some districts is some of the worst in the world, even here in Hua Hin the PPM has been in the yellow zone due to crop burning, forest fires and of course vehicle pollution, much of this could be managed.

Perhaps in the future our club can link environmental projects with health projects as they seem to go hand in hand, preventing environmental pollution will lessen the impact of poor air quality on our communities, especially those people who already have existing respiratory problems.

I am confident that our club will continue to be a local leader in supporting medical projects

Yours in Rotary

Phil Lawrence

President Rotary Club of Royal Hua Hin.