Trustees Report March 2018
I am pleased to report on the very successful activities of the Trust over the past Year. Our vision continues to be to make donations for specific community purposes and needs as envisaged by the Charity’s founder Dr Geok Hua Wong.
AUSTRALIA In Melbourne we have had the privilege to assist with a number of very worthwhile projects where we can really see the benefits of our donations. It is particularly pleasing to see for ourselves first hand the benefits of what we are doing and to then receive updates from our recipients. Some of the organisations we have assisted over the past year include:
Stroke Foundation
Odyssey House
Kids For Hope
St Vincents Hospital ( equipment )
Moira Kelly Foundation
Port Phillip Specialist School
Oaktree Foundation
OVERSEAS
Overseas, we are particularly pleased and excited about what we have been doing which fits in to what Dr Wong envisaged, himself being a young immigrant who came to Australia in the 1950’s and who went on to be a successful medical practioner and philanthroptist.
VIETNAM
In Vietnam we are providing a number of medical scholarships each year to gifted but disadvantaged and poor students in conjunction with Hue University Medical School. This program will initially run for 2 years and will be administered by Karen Leonard OAM and Lifestart Foundation. We are also sponsoring similar gifted students for other university degrees. I would like to thank Karen Leonard and Lifestart for their efforts in getting this program with Hue University up and going and for the administration of the program from their office in Hoi An. The Geok Hua Wong Charitable Trust will be recognized as the scholarship provider.
We are also pleased to support Hearing and Beyond which is a school for underprivileged deaf children in Hoi An run by an Australian nurse Mai Mcann. I have had the opportunity to visit the school and it is a credit to Mai Mcann what she is achieving with her limited resources .
We have also funded 100 water tanks for a local remote town.
CAMBODIA
In Cambodia we are working with Sight For All and funding a Cambodia Corneal In Country Fellowship utilizing Australian specialists to train colleagues at the Khmer Soviet Friendship Hospital in Phnom Penh. The fellowship will involve the training of 4 fellows at KSFH including representatives from regional areas of Cambodia as well as Phnom Penh.
This program will run for 2-3 years.
MYANMAR
In conjunction with Sight For All, we have funded the Myanmar Neuro Ophtalmology In Country Fellowship and also the Myanmar Corneal Fellowship.
This latter fellowship involves corneal specialists from the Sydney Eye Hospital to train 2 ophthalmologists from the Mandalay Eye Ear Nose and Throat Hospital.
We are extremely proud to be the sole sponsor of the Cambodian and Myanmar Sight For All projects and the work that is being done is both exciting and extremely beneficial to the local community.
NEPAL
In Nepal we have assisted Megs Children , a charity for homeless children and also assisted a local hospital in Kathmandu to purchase some basic equipment.
PHILIP WEBB
Trustee
March 2018
