ROMAC is the acronym for

“Rotary Oceania Medical Aid for Children”
and is a combined Australia and New Zealand Multi District Rotary initiative and  has been in operation for over 25 years.

ROMAC was commenced out of the actions of a single Rotarian, when a member of the Rotary Club of Kangaroo Flat in Victoria, visited Lambasa in Fiji with a group of Australian surgeons and saw the need for Australian help.

Mission Statement:

To provide specialist treatment for children, from developing countries, in the form of life saving and/or dignity restoring surgery not accessible to them in their home country

Objectives

• Provide hope and restore dignity to transform a child’s life
• Provide the best possible surgical and medical expertise
• Engage Rotary and the community at all levels to fund and support the ROMAC cause
• To maintain and improve the quality of the management process and ensure high quality governance of the ROMAC program

 ROMAC is quite a rare not-for-profit humanitarian organisation being run entirely with volunteers – no paid staff, no leased offices and so minimal fixed costs. We can proudly state that every dollar donated goes to Giving Life and our small expenses are recovered from our investments.

What do clubs do?

Children are flown in with an adult usually a relative -often not able to speak English and often never  been to a big airport, nor flown on a plane and often  never seen an escalator or lift. are met at airports such as Darwin, and other major airports- assisted through Customs & Immigration, transferred to domestic flights, hosted overnight  if no connecting flight are immediately available, met at the other end & hosted sometimes for months by Rotarians or members of ethnic community.

The child is admitted to a hospital in various cities in Australia and New Zealand including regional Hospitals such as Wagga- which often gives free or at least discounted facilities, and operations done by volunteer surgeons .

At end of treatment child and parent returned to their country. Put on planes- assisted through Immigration and Customs . Depending on treatment may have to make repeat trips.

For more on Romac visit their website.

Website: www.romac.org.au