Rotary's role in Eradicating Guinea worm disease
•Download as PPTX, PDF•
1 like•157 views
This presentation discusses Rotary's role in eradicating Guinea worm from Ghana and South Sudan. It also talks how trachoma was eradicated from Ghana.
Recommended
More Related Content
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (20)
Featured
Featured (20)
Rotary's role in Eradicating Guinea worm disease
- 1. Before 2007 ERADICATING GUINEA WORM DISEASE WALTER HUGHES JR JUNE 22, 2018
- 2. HOW DID IT HAPPEN? •START WITH ONE WELL •BUILD PARTNERSHIPS •PLAN •DREAM BIG •WRITE 10-YEAR PLAN TO GET RID OF GUINEA WORM IN GHANA & SOUTH SUDAN
- 4. FORMED ROTARY TEAM •$1.5 MILLION IN 10 YEARS •FIND PARTNERS •TEAM WITH 170 CLUBS IN 45 DISTRICTS •USA, CANADA & SWIZERLAND •FOCUS ON CLEAN WATER
- 5. GUINEA WORM CASES IN SOUTH SUDAN & GHANA Zero Cases by 2017
- 7. PARTNERS WERE KEY •LED BY GUINEA WORM ERADICATION PROGRAM CARTER CENTER MINISTRY OF HEALTH •NON-PROFITS •CHURCHES •GOVERNMENT •CDC, WHO & UNICEF
- 10. ERADICATE GUINEA WORM IN 2010 AND TRACHOMA IN 2018!
- 11. DREAM FOR SOUTH SUDAN ERADICATE GUINEA WORM FROM WORLD?
- 12. PROMOTING PEACE DURING WAR
- 13. 21 NEW & 66 REPAIRED WELLS DURING CIVIL WAR
- 14. GUINEA WORM DISEASE IS ONLY IN CHAD SO FAR IN 2018 3 CASES IN WORLD
- 15. PRICELESS - ERADICATING GUINEA WORM DISEASE AND POLIO FROM WORLD HOPE
- 16. QUESTIONS? WALTER K HUGHES JR +1 540-493-4715 WALTERKHUGHES@GMAIL.COM
- 17. This presentation and others from throughout the convention are available through the convention mobile app and on SlideShare at www.SlideShare.net/Rotary_International.
Editor's Notes
- Rotarians in Tamale, Ghana dreamed that we could impact their hometown illness. They showed me the children who were sick and in pain because they had a three-foot long parasite growing out of an arm, leg or any body part. The Guinea worm felt like a hot iron was stuck to your skin when it began to emerge after living off your body for one year. Guinea worm disease is caused by a parasite that first infects a water flea and then it feeds off of you for one year. It is difficult to go to school, work or farm during that year. THE GUINEA WORM PARASITE LIVES IN DIRTY WATER.
- Our dream started small to drill one well in Africa. We were able to get two assistant governors to help us raise funds within their area. We started to build partnerships within our district and around the USA. We started to plan how impact Guinea worm disease with our project. Our goal was $15,000. We raised $150,000 on our first grant. We learned to dream big and write a ten-year plan that could be implemented over the long-term with many complementary Rotary global grants.
- The Tamale Rotarians took me to the Ghana Guinea Worm Eradication Program office. I saw this map in the office. The red dots indicate the worst places for Guinea worm disease in the Northern Region of Ghana. The larger the red dot, the more people who were sick. This chart overwhelmed me. It looked like an impossible task. The Tamale Rotarians wanted our help because this was their “hometown” disease.
- Our team grew from Rotary Clubs in two areas to include the West Virginia District 7550. The Rotary Cadre from Switzerland joined the effort the second year. We are now partnering with 170 Rotary Clubs in 45 Rotary Districts in the USA, Canada and Switzerland. Our focus was putting wells in the communities with the highest incidence of Guinea worm disease communities.
- This chart just shows the Guinea worm cases in South Sudan and Ghana from 2007 to 2013. We went from thousands of cases in 2007 to zero cases in 2010 for Ghana and 2017 for South Sudan. It has been an honor to be part of this story. When I saw the bottle of three-foot parasites that were taken out of children in February 2007, I didn’t think eradication was possible. There were just too many people who were sick.
- We drilled new wells in the worst places in Ghana. We went from the community with the highest number of Guinea worm cases and trachoma to the next worst community in Ghana. We used the surveillance from the Carter Center to know the strategic places to drill new wells.
- President Jimmy Carter had a dream to eradicate Guinea worm disease from the world starting in the 1980’s. He formed the Carter Center Foundation which worked with the ministry of health in each country to run the Guinea Worm Eradication Program. The program worked with non-profits, NGOs, churches, governmental organizations at every level, Center for Disease Control, World Health Organization and UNICEF.
- The Carter Center believed in EDUCATION that Guinea worm was caused by a parasite that could be filtered out with a cloth, clay or sand filter. They also recommended a straw filter. The Carter Center also believe in getting statistics where people were sick using surveillance.
- The Carter Center also provided MEDICAL CARE in containment centers where patients were cared for while they could infect the water source. The Carter Center also believed in using chemical abate to kill the water flea carrying the parasite in ponds and streams. President Carter did not believe in drilling wells. Rotary’s passion is clean water. Clean water was a very effective way to help reduce the cases of Guinea worm while supporting the programs provided by the Ghana Guinea Worm Eradication Program.
- The two men who headed the Ghana Guinea Worm Eradication Program and I celebrated in 2010 that the last case of Guinea worm disease was found in Ghana. The chart behind us shows that every region of the country had zero cases. This week (June 19, 2018), I received an article from Dr. Seth Wanye that Ghana is the first country to eradicate Trachoma in Africa. Trachoma is a disease where people go blind because they do not have clean water to wash their hands and face. Rotary provided medical equipment for surgeries and located wells where the most people were going blind. Rotary set the example of what water can do to eradicate disease. We gained creditability because Rotary had eradicated polio from Ghana a few years before our efforts.
- I had a dream that I was standing in the middle of South Sudan. I realized that the worst place for Guinea worm disease after Ghana was finished was South Sudan. South Sudan was a newly formed country. I went there in 2013 to meet with the Rotarians to tell them about my dream of a day where kids were not sick and people lived in peace. The Juba Rotarians in South Sudan said that the dream was too big, but they finally agreed to try. The South Sudan Guinea Worm Eradication Program director, Makoy Yibi and the director of the Carter Center in South Sudan agreed to support our effort to provide clean water where people were sick.
- In 2015, We flew over villages that were burning on our way from the capital of Juba to Kapoeta in the southeastern corner of South Sudan. Assistant Governor Tim Wilborne in Rocky Mount, Virginia joined me on the trip to see where Rotary located clean water projects that were targeted to end Guinea worm disease. People thanked us for coming to help. We knew we were in a war zone when men greeted us with AK 47’s and tanks went in front of our hotel. Tim and I camped out in remote areas so we could go see the Rotary water projects that were located in the worst places in the worst war torn country, South Sudan, in the world to eradicate Guinea worm disease.
- We raised $302,000 in two global grants to drill twenty-one new wells and we repaired sixty-six wells in the Guinea worm endemic communities in Eastern Equatoria State in South Sudan bordering Ethiopia and Kenya. We drilled a well for orphans who lost their parents during the current civil war and provided much needed clean water for Guinea worm endemic communities.
- The countries that are not certified as Guinea worm disease free are Mali, Ethiopia and Chad. There’s cases in dogs in Chad that will be dealt with before we can celebrate the end of Guinea Worm disease. It has been about 15 months since the last case of GUINEA WORM DISEASE in South Sudan. It usually takes three years since the last case for the World Health Organization to certify a country as Guinea Worm Disease free. Mali, Ethiopia and Chad could have cases in 2018 beyond the existing three cases, BUT WE HOPE THAT WE ARE THIS CLOSE TO ERADICATING GUINEA WORM DISEASE FROM THE WORLD.
- We are celebrating the end of Guinea worm disease in South Sudan and Ghana. Rotary was part of that story. We are also celebrating that children will no longer go blind because trachoma does not exist in Ghana. We are also celebrating that children will no longer be paralyzed in Ghana and much of the world because Rotarians dared to dream. Hope is priceless. Thank you very much. Note; For more information on eradicating Guinea worm, please read news articles and check out the Carter Center website.
- You are welcome to contact Walter Hughes to learn more about building large partnerships to change the world. He loves to talk about Guinea worm eradication and disease prevention using clean water and sanitation. There’s always one more project to provide water and sanitation, Simple Schools, disease prevention and much more. Ask how you can get involved.
- [Keep this slide at the end]