Rotary raisings inspire Interplast

For the past 40 years, Interplast Australia & New Zealand has sent reconstructive surgeons and other medical specialists to 25 countries across the Asia-Pacific.

Its volunteers help to fill big gaps in the medical services available in these countries. For the volunteers to be effective, they need equipment and support, and that means money.

That’s where Rotary clubs come in.

Established in 1983 as a partnership between the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and Melbourne-based Rotarians, Interplast attracts support from dozens of Rotary clubs across Australia each year.

But of all its many supporters, there is one that stands out.

“The Rotary Club of Kenwick is by far our largest Rotary donor,” Interplast chief executive Cameron Glover told Business News.

The Kenwick group started donating to Interplast 16 years ago and is currently just a few thousand dollars short of raising $1 million.

Ironically, this has been achieved by a group that is about to disappear because of falling membership.

The Kenwick and Canning clubs will be merging to form Rotary Canning River. Brian Guest, who is a former Rotary district governor and a former Interplast board member, remains positive.

“We’re hoping it will widen the net and bring some new members in,” Mr Guest said.

“We will have about 25 members to start, which is a good number, and hopefully we will do bigger and better things.”

He said it was always challenging to raise money, especially when Rotary clubs relied on the generosity of their own members.

“So I decided to start a direct-debit program, where I would ask small businesses to make a donation each month,” Mr Guest said.

Club members approached businesses they had a relationship with and in some cases cold-called local businesses.

About 100 businesses signed up to the direct-debit program and, crucially, a majority are still giving.

Mr Guest said regular communication was key to that loyalty.

“Each year we invite them to a function to keep them up to date with what Interplast is doing,” he said.

“We also bring along a few potential donors each year and they usually sign up, so it has worked remarkably well.

“Of the original 100 or so donors there are still 55 or 56 in the system who are still giving 16 years later; it’s quite remarkable.”

Cameron Glover (left) and Brian Guest. Photo: David Henry

Mr Guest said most donors provided financial support to Rotary as well as Interplast.

“That money pays for academically bright students who can’t afford to go onto year 12 or further; we support them,” he said.

The club also supports the elderly, disabled people and youth, including through youth camps.

“And we support the Rotary Foundation each year,” Mr Guest said.

“We give them several thousand [dollars] every year, and it’s done by a handful of volunteers.”

Interplast’s Mr Glover said the charity had about 400 volunteers at any one time, all fully trained clinicians.

They include plastic and reconstructive surgeons, anaesthetists, nurses, and allied health professionals such as podiatrists and speech therapists.

Its volunteers typically spend two weeks per year working overseas. The volunteers from Western Australia usually go to Laos and Papua New Guinea.

Interplast had total income last year of $2.1 million, which included some government funding ($434,000) but most came from donations and bequests.

Mr Glover said the group could easily expand its operations if it had access to more funding.

“It’s dollars, purely dollars,” he said.

“Based on our volunteer pool, we could almost double our service provision in any given year if we had the available funding.”

Interplast’s activities are built on four pillars, only one of which is direct patient care.

It focuses on treating people who are born with or acquire a medical condition such as cleft lip and palate and other congenital conditions.

Volunteers also work to ameliorate the effects of acute and chronic burns injuries, hand, arm and lower limb injuries, debilitating tumours or other growths.

Over 40 years, its volunteers have performed 26,800 surgical procedures. Interplast also focuses on longer-term capacity building and workforce strengthening in each of the countries it visits.

This includes in-country training and mentoring, helped by Interplast volunteers returning multiple times to each country.

“They build local relationships, which allows them to do more mentoring and capacity building,” Mr Glover said.

In addition, it has supported over 100 surgeons, anaesthetists and nurses from developing countries to continue part of their training in Australia.

“Ultimately, if we don’t have to go back, that is a success,” Mr Glover said.

Another area of focus is improving and strengthening clinical facilities in each country.

“None of that happens without governments having the right policy levers, so we do a lot of work to help with health workforce strategies and surgical plans,” he said.

Mr Glover said Interplast was keen to make increased commitments to particular locations. For instance, it is aiming to place plastic surgeons on three-month rotating cycles in Fiji.

Interplast’s 40-year anniversary coincided with another major fundraiser with a strong Rotary connection.

The St Vincent de Paul Society recently hosted its annual Vinnies CEO Sleep Out, which raised about $800,000 in WA and $8.4 million nationally.

A portion goes to Passages, a joint venture between the Rotary Club of Perth and St Vincent de Paul with facilities in East Perth and Mandurah.

Established in 1999 as a result of the growing rate of youth homelessness, Passages provides a non-judgemental safe space for marginalised and at-risk young people.

Vinnies WA also runs Tom Fisher House, which provides intensive intervention services for homeless adults.