The mission of Mercy Health Clinic (Mercy) is to provide high quality medical care, health educaon and pharmaceucals to medically underserved, low -income residents of Montgomery County, Maryland. All on-site services are offered free of charge.
Founded in October 2000 by members of the social concerns commiee at Our Lady of Mercy Church in Potomac, Maryland, Mercy started as an all-volunteer clinic occupying a few rooms in the Montgomery Up-County Regional Services Center in Germantown, Maryland. The clinic quickly grew in the number of paents served and the number of volunteer physicians and nurses recruited to serve them. In 2007 Mercy moved to where it is located today, an expanded facility in Gaithersburg, Maryland with nine modern and well-equipped examinaon rooms, a conference room for health educaon classes and meengs, separate space for eligibility screenings and a few administrave offices. Today Mercy has a small paid staff and nearly 50 volunteer physicians who provide primary and paent specialty care to nearly 1,800 paents annually. We are currently providing approximately 7,200 paent appointments annually for our uninsured neighbors. Among the care we provide is a nearly dozen specialty clinics offered on-site including cardiology, dermatology, ENT (Ear, Nose & Throat), endocrinology, gastroenterology, gynecology, orthopedics, ophthalmology, pulmonology, psychiatry, rheumatology and urology.
Mark Foraker, Execuve Director is a non-profit execuve with extensive management and fundraising experience in Montgomery County, MD including St. Luke’s House (now Cornerstone Montgomery) and Manna Food Center. He has a Master’s Degree in Nonprofit Management and a PMP cerficaon in project management. Mr. Foraker became Execuve Director of Mercy in June, 2015 and has priorized establishing partnerships with other social service organizaons, implemenng operaonal sustainability and an expansion from uninsured paents to the inclusion addional payors starng with adding Medicaid paents. He has placed a strong emphasis on program evaluaon and has worked with the Medical Director and Clinic Manager to ensure that Mercy is moving towards paent centered medical care and that the organizaon is operang as efficiently as possible while staying true to our purpose as a safety net for the safety net.
As an amazing entrepreneur, Abby will share with us her road to success from Iran to Bethesda. In addition, she will discuss her sponsorship of an intership for Culinary Arts and Restaurant Management CTE student from Edison High School. She and Sue McWilliams, the Internship Instructor at Edison and an ownermanager of a local restaurant, are going to collaborate on a multinational menu at Oakville Grill. Food for thought: NB Rotary should consider having the monthly social dinner at Oakville Grill with different multinational menus.
NB Rotary Club and Rotary Club of Poona Downtown of India are submittig a Global Grant application to Rotary International to provide sustainable drinking water to a tribal village in the Borghar Area in Maharastra State of India. The purpose of the project is to ensure availability of water for farming and drinking throughout the year in one of the most neglected tribal villages of Ambegaon Taluka of Maharashtra, India.
Water is the essence of rural economy in India. Rain is the primary source of water for this hilly region. The construction of watersheds and plantations will raise groundwater level and prevent unhurdled run off of rain water and soil loss. The rainwater saved by this project will provide fodder and biomass to the community and increase the number of crops in a year. Throughout the year, it will give the community a dependable source of drinking water.
The availability of water will prevent the migration of people from rural to urban area to meet the necessity of their livelihood and it has the potential to the reverse migration trend. Since the watershed are to be built with continuous Contour Trenches,Water Absorption Trenches, Stone Bunding and Plantations on it’s border, it is expected that the life of the watersheds will be at least ten years making this a long term sustainable project.
NB Rotary Club’s commitment to the project is $10,000. Hat’s off to Bob Sanowane for fundraising 90% of the funds. To donate to the project, please send a check to the NB Rotary Rotary Charitable Foundation of North Bethesda, Inc.