ACMAV Foundation
The ACMAV Foundation is a charitable fund set up by the ACMAV Inc. It is a deductible gift recipient and donations to it are tax deductible. The purpose of the ACMAV Foundation is to further charitable work in the area of health both nationally and internationally in countries of need.
Our most recent mission, known as Project Starfish, was in Xian in late 2011. Its focus is around babies abandoned because of physical deformities such as cleft lips and palates. The care we provide is arduous but complete, beginning with general health optimisation preoperatively, the surgery itself and then finally adopting the children out to good families.
Our project in Africa centres around St Francis Nyenga Hospital in central Uganda, approximately 60km from Kampala. The aim of the project is focused on providing health care to the rural poor and needy. There is a mobile HIV clinic and an important patient cohort is our patients with leprosy who have been ostracised by their community and find the hospital a place to receive treatment as well as much needed accommodation. The ACMAV foundation has sent medical texts, beds, medical equipment and also provided the funding that built a new incinerator and installed a new water pump (Pedrollo 2CP32/210A 7.5kW) that delivered much needed water at 400L/min. Such simple measures in infrastructure have made drastic improvements to helping the hospital care for their patients.
In Vietnam, our project there has involved various surgeries including a girl to have surgery to remove a large mid-facial encephalocoele, a boy with Apert’s syndrome to come to Melbourne to have corrective craniofacial sugery and most recently a girl from the hills of central Vietnam has successfully undergone a series of operations after she suffered horrific injuries from a petrol burn to her head, trunk and arms which had fused her head to her neck and her arms to her lateral chest wall. Her hands had also been severely contracted, allowing for no function at all.
In Sri Lanka, we have previously supported the Rotary Club of Templestowe in providing much needed hospital medical equipment and beds.
On the home front, we are helping to disseminate the Cancer Council of Victoria’s hepatitis B program to our general practice members. In short, around 165,000 people have chronic hepatitis B in Australia yet one third are unaware of their status leading to poor outcomes and the ongoing spread of hepatitis B. Those at-risk generally rely on GPs to advise them to test for or protect against hepatitis B. However, studies have shown that for many, this never occurs, or occurs too late. We know that appropriate follow-up and early treatment can significantly improve the health of people with chronic hepatitis B. So this program funded by the RACGP and Equity Trustees is piloting an initiative to reduce the proportion of people that are unaware they have chronic hepatitis B by developing a clinical tool to help general practice make the diagnosis. Because our ACMAV association sees a large proportion of Asia-Pacific patients in Victoria, we are ideally placed to help disseminate this information.
So to raise funds to continue all these important projects, the ACMAV is hosting its second Charity Ball on the 18th Auguest, 2012 in the Savoy Ballroom at the Grand Hyatt in Melbourne. You are cordially invited to attend not only because you will be guaranteed to have a fun-packed night, but more importantly, you will be directly supporting the many worthwhile projects we are supporting.
