Nicole Cotts, Executive Director of Aspire Medical Services and Education, addressed the Rotary Club of Pagosa Springs on July 18, as part of Rotary’s Maternal and Child Health Month.
Aspire Medical Services and Education offers essential services including free prenatal care, pregnancy tests, ultrasounds, childbirth and parenting classes, and personalized coaching.
Rotary International is committed to fostering international relationships, improving lives, and advancing global peace efforts, including the eradication of polio.
Rotary strives to ensure access to quality healthcare for vulnerable mothers and children worldwide, aiming to extend their lives and enhance their wellbeing.
Rotary International confronts challenges such as malnutrition and inadequate healthcare, which claim the lives of 5.9 million children annually, through preventive measures.
“If mothers are empowered and healthy, so are their families, leading to an alleviation of poverty and hunger,” said Robert Zinser, co-founder of the Rotarian Action Group for Population and Development.
Rotary’s initiatives encompass education, immunizations, birth kits, and mobile health clinics. They educate women on preventing mother-to-infant HIV transmission, breastfeeding, and disease prevention.
Rotary has facilitated transformative projects such as:
- Deploying mobile prenatal clinics in remote areas of Haiti, combating the highest maternal and infant mortality rates in the Western Hemisphere.
- Introducing a mobile cancer screening unit in Chennai, India, to address high mortality rates from breast and cervical cancer.
- Launching a $3 million initiative in Nigeria to reduce maternal and child mortality during home deliveries, alongside repairing 1,500 obstetric fistulas since 2005.
To support mothers and children globally, consider joining Rotary and learning more at www.pagosaspringsrotary.org.
To learn more about Aspire Medical Services and Education, visit aspirepagosa.org/.
Photo courtesy Shellie Peterson