Some Rotarians exemplify Service Above Self. District 7090’s Dr. David Johnson is one of those Rotarians. David is a family physician and certified geriatrician winding down a long-standing practice in the Buffalo area. He is also the President of Himalayan Healthcare (HHC), a small nonprofit started in 1992 that focuses on providing medical care, education, and income-generating projects in impoverished and remote mountain villages of Nepal. (Check out this video.)
David was asked for his views about vaccinations, nonprofits, and collaboration with Rotary International for grants.
Now 76, he remembers being vaccinated at age five, and he had classmates who had suffered from polio. He had patients who had contracted polio before the vaccines became available, who developed post-polio syndrome.
As an international traveler, to Jamaica, Nepal, India, Peru, Ethiopia and Bangladesh, he has seen itinerant young physicians searching in the mountains for polio cases. And he saw countless people on the street with polio sequelae.
He saw leprosy, tetanus, and rabies. He has seen people drinking from a stream with someone butchering an animal just upstream.
However, he never saw a case of measles in the United States, since the vaccine has been so effective.
David is convinced that polio (and other disease) prevention through vaccination is essential. Through numerous grants he has helped Rotarians in distant places build outdoor toilets and institute vaccination programs, saving countless lives (especially among newborns and infants).
He would be happy to visit your club and discuss opportunities for international programs, made possible with the help of The Rotary Foundation.
He can be reached at dnsailor250@gmail.com or at 716-432-9495