Skidaway Island Rotary Club Saves Lives By Providing Free Medications to the Needy of Savannah

What do thousands of needy people do if they can’t afford life-saving medications required for such chronic illnesses and diseases as diabetes, hypertension, and asthma? Lacking sufficient incomes, health insurance, and access to quality health facilities and professionals, the working poor, often suffer in silence, while their quality of life deteriorates. 

The Rotary Club of Skidaway Island, other Georgia Rotary Clubs, and MAP International have partnered to create “Saving Lives with Medicines”, a program to provide timely treatments to individuals falling through today’s medical cracks. MAP donates the medications and Rotary covers the distribution expenses.

Thousands of local residents now are receiving free medications at six community clinics throughout Georgia, including two clinics in Savannah. Saving Lives with Medicines has reached 4,942 patients, provided 10,831 treatments, and offered $608,000 in services since its October 2017 launch.

A total of 28 Rotary Clubs support clinic partners in Valdosta, Lyons, Hinesville, Ludowici, Jesup, Augusta, Brunswick, and Savannah. From January to March 2021, patients demonstrated significant clinical improvement in the management of their hypertension (68%), diabetes (92%), high cholesterol (81%), and asthma (92%).

Clinic partners also provided critical COVID-19 relief supplies (masks, gloves, thermometers, protective eyewear, and gowns), plus many became COVID-19 testing and/or vaccination sites. Together, Rotary and MAP International have developed a collaborative model for improving health outcomes among the needy in Georgia.

ABOUT MAP AND ROTARY INTERNATIONAL:

MAP International (www.map.org) is a Brunswick-based global health organization dedicated to providing medicines and health supplies to millions of needy people around the world.

Rotary International, a non-political, non-religious organization established in 1905, is among the world’s largest service organizations with 1.2+ million members in over 35,000 clubs in more than 160 countries. Its efforts here and around the globe focus on eradicating poverty and disease (most notably polio) through improved sanitation and safe water supplies, promoting education and peace, and developing leadership skills. Rotary International’s network of local chapters and youth groups provides a powerful, time-tested organizational infrastructure to community-minded members (known as Rotarians) who contribute their time and money to making a difference in the lives of others. Rotarians everywhere are committed to “Service Above Self".

To learn more about Skidaway Island Rotary Club, its midwife training programs, or its local service to and support of Parent University, Hesse School, and P.A.C.K., or how you can become a member or “Friend of Skidaway Rotary”, please visit our website (skidawayrotary.org) or email lgensamer@icloud.com or tmstanley2@gmail.com.