The Portland Rotary’s signature international project is 3H – Hearing, Hands, and H2O in the Dominican Republic. Since 1999, the project has been providing hearing aids, prosthetic hands, and water filters and solar lights to the poorest of the poor in the La Romana area of the Dominican Republic.
Portland Rotary is currently raising funds to build the Rotary Hearing Center at Good Samaritan Hospital in La Romana in the DR.
Hearing: Through the leadership of doctors Roger Fagan and Elizabeth Fagan, Portland Rotary has provided audiological services in the Dominican Republic since 2005. Since we started this work, 4,500 hearing aids have been donated and fitted with rechargeable batteries and solar chargers for sustainability. At a retail cost of $1,000 for each hearing aid (in the DR), that equates to some $4.5 million worth of benefit to the hearing impaired on the island.
Hands: Since 2010, Portland Rotary has been supplying prosthetic hands to amputees in the Dominican Republic. The LN4 model was the first one used. Portland Rotary, teaming up with University of Southern Maine students made design changes to create the 3D printable version, which can be fitted very accurately using castings from the patient. The USM students have continued to make improvements over the following five years. With the expansion to providing both hand and leg prosthesis, and funding support beyond Rotary, a self-supporting nonprofit organization took over this project in 2024.
H2O: For over a decade, Rotarians have purchased, distributed, and installed water filters in villages in the Bateyes in the Dominica Republic – which have no running water or electricity. We recently added the installation of solar lanterns in each dwelling. The team trains the residents on the use and maintenance of both the water filters and lights. Thousands of Dominicans now have access to clean, potable drinking water and safe lighting.
The Rotary Hearing Clinic at Good Samaritan Hospital: The Portland Rotary Club has an opportunity to leverage the 25 years of work by Drs. Roger and Liz Fagan and establish a permanent Rotary Hearing Clinic at Good Samaritan Hospital in La Romana, Dominican Republic. The hospital has agreed to dedicate space for a hearing center, provided The Portland Rotary Club can supply the equipment, including a soundproof booth – which will allow for better diagnostics and extend the range of care to infants.
This space and the equipment will encourage professional groups and universities to send practitioners, volunteer audiologists, students in training and technicians to the Dominican Republic to support and expand our work.
The cost of the equipment is $140,000. Portland Rotary needs to raise the initial $51,000 and then with the District matching and a Rotary Foundation global grant, will increase to the needed $140,000.
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