WORKING BEE FOR FIJI DENTAL VAN
We had a successful Ballarat West Rotary Club Working Bee on Sunday 6th January to ready the Trailer Dental Van forthe Fiji National University Oral Health Faculty. This is a D9780 RAWCS registered Project.
Ballarat West Rotarian Ross Huntington kindly provided a Ute and covered trailer and loaded and drove our considerable stock of stored donations of dental supplies and equipment from Ballarat to the DIK depot in Geelong as well as helping with the cleaning
Two dental nurses, Maddi Taylor and Kim Allen gave up their day off to volunteer to help load the trailer and clean the van inside and out.
Alison and Paul Trevenen together with PHF Peter Copp and DIK Rotarians Ron Smith and Anton Van Doornik were on hand when we arrived at Geelong to help. Peter brought along hoses and cleaning equipment.
Peter Copp has installed a second chair, light and operating system into the van which will double its capacity for treatment as well as checking out all the electrical equipment and keying all the locks on the cupboards.
Everyone worked together to clean the van inside and outside – for the first time in more than 4 years!
We had a donated but non-functioning mobile dental unit which folds up into a small suitcase. Peter has restored it to full working condition and has provided a small lightweight oil-free compressor to operate it. Will be very useful !
Small portable dental unit for use in remote areas and the outer islands of Fiji
We were able to pack10s of 1000s of dollars of dental supplies and equipment into the lockers and cupboards – there is an enormous amount of lockable storage space in the van. To this will be added donations of orthopaedic supplies, together with other useful articles from the resources of District 9780 DIK.
Some DIK donations will also go to help those affected by the Fiji cyclones.
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Rotary Australia logo attached to outside of the VanInside packed solid with donated supplies and ready to ship
Final packing of the van took place at Geelong DIK on Wednesday 9/1/13. The Van has now left the DIK depot for the Melbourne docks and it will be shipped to Fiji on 10/2/2013. The Rotary Club of Suva Peninsula Sunset and the Fiji National University are funding transportation and will be the facilitators and supporters of the project in Fiji.
Rotarians David Goldsmith and Ron Smith plan to accompany the van to Fiji and formally hand it over to the University in March 2013.
David Goldsmith
Rotary Club of Ballarat West
RAWCS Chair