Donations In Kind - Samoa: Project WR504-2008

This project provides donated hospital beds, other medical equipment and children's books to support health and literacy projects in the Western Pacific island nation of Samoa.

Sponsor Club: RC of Heirisson (D9450) and West Perth (D9450)

Project Manager: Diane Gilbert (RC of Heirisson)

Donations in Kind Director: Jill Smith (RC of West Perth)

RAWCS-WR's DIK Director Jill Smith tries out one of the beds, watched by West Perth Rotarians Bill Young, Brad Baker, Christine Gray and Rade Grozdanovski (RPH).

A conga line of double-stacked beds waiting for the lift at RPH.

Steve Thomas (West Perth) and Colin Gilbert (Heirisson) wait for the truck in the RPH courtyard.

Heirisson Rotarians Colin Gilbert and Tim Collins take a break with Russell Whiteall during the loading of Russell's Express Link truck.

Partner Club: RC of Apia, Samoa

Partner Org.: National Health Service, Samoa

This project is the first in the new Donations in Kind (DIK) program being developed by RAWCS Western Region.

The program is directed by the RAWCS-WR DIK Director, Jill Smith, and managed by the Rotary Club of West Perth, which has taken overall responsibility for coordinating DIK projects in Western Region.

The Samoa project grew out of a request for children's books to support literacy efforts, and expanded to include medical equipment including hospital beds no longer required by the Royal Perth Hospital in Perth since it upgraded to a newer model.

Saturday 4 October was a busy day for a team of Rotarians from West Perth and Heirisson as they moved more than 100 beds from the 11th floor of the Royal Perth Hospital to a factory complex in Wangara, where more than 40 beds were loaded into a 40ft container, ready for shipment to Samoa.

The beds were first double-stacked, ready for moving, then lined up in the 11-floor corridor waiting for the hospital's goods lift, which took one set of beds at a time.

In the hospital loading dock, they were loaded into two Express Link trucks provided by volunteer Russell Whiteall. Then off to Wangara. The trucks each made two round trips to Wangara to drop off the beds.

At Wangara, West Perth Rotarian Stan Mania had made available his Mania National factory and grounds for the container.

Another team of West Perth Rotarians and Stan's staff prepared the beds for despatch and loaded them into the container.

Further times including children's books and other medical supplies and equipment for a women's clinic were added before the container is despatched to Apia, the capital of Samoa.

There, Rotarians from the Rotary Club of Apia supervised the unloading of the container and distribution of its contents.

You Can Help:

The beds have been donated, but funds are still required to cover transport costs. You can sponsor a bed by paying the freight costs of $200 per bed.

To donate funds to support the project, download the donation form, complete it and send to the RAWCS-WR Treasurer.

Rotary Clubs interested in partnering in Donations in Kind projects: contact dik@western.rawcs.org.au

Stan Mania (West Perth) shows off the container at his Wangara factory.