Rotary International

FIRE has been honored to work closely with local Rotary Clubs since 2004. Our collaboration with Rotary has been an invaluable partnership that has helped shape our programs. We value “service above self,” as well as the principles of the Four-Way Test. We continue to visit and work with Rotary Clubs around the world through grants and information sharing. Please contact us for more information, to host FIRE as a guest speaker, or to learn more about our work. Please read below for more information about the exciting programs FIRE has worked on with Rotary.


Strategic partnerships are a key aspect of keeping FIRE’s  overhead low and maximizing efficiency and impact. One of our largest partners is Rotary International
FIRE has been honored to work closely with Rotary Clubs and RotarAct Clubs since 2004. Rotary volunteers helped with every aspect of our winter clothing distribution trips through 2009 including translation, transportation, filming, building computers, and so much more.
In 2015, with the Ulaanbaatar Rotary Club, we started “Healthy Smiles,” an oral health project for kindergartners.
In the fall of 2017, FIRE worked with the Rotary Club of Ulaanbaatar, Flagstaff Rotary Club and 35 different Rotary Clubs and Districts from around the world to implement “Hepatitis Free Mongolia,” a Rotary funded Global Grant totalling $112,000. This project will be repeated in in Spring 2019 under a 2nd Global Grant from the Rotary Foundation.
Rotary International has been leading the global fight to eliminate Polio for decades. Their support, as FIRE fights to eliminate hepatitis in Mongolia, has been invaluable.
To learn more about FIRE’s partnership with Rotary International please visit our Rotary webpage. Or if you are a Rotarian and would like to be involved, please contact us!
FIRE’s partnership with Rotary has been so long and extensive that we could not fit all the great work we have done together into one newsletter.

From 2009 to 2012, FIRE worked with the Selbe Rotary Club and Albuquerque del Norte Rotary Club  to distribute 152,077 sharps containers (biohazard boxes for sharp medical waste) to 266 rural hospitals and clinics in Mongolia. We reached 10 provinces and trained 1,730 health care workers. These containers were distributed in conjunction with training sessions on use of the containers and proper medical waste management practices. We distributed educational posters and handouts as well as a one-hour training DVD which FIRE wrote, directed and produced.

We are very excited to merge an enhanced “Safety Box Project” with “Hepatitis Free Mongolia” next year. In 2019, in addition to screening thousands of uninsured Mongolians for hepatitis, liver cancer and cirrhosis, we will also provide extensive training for health care workers about liver issues,  medical waste management, and health safety practices. We will provide all the necessary supplies to help make health care facilities safe for everyone and prevent the spread of hepatitis in Mongolia. 

The “Safety Box Project” also connected FIRE to Charlie Ofelt and the Patlovich Family. Their tireless volunteer and fundraising support combined with their overall expertise helped FIRE shift our focus from clothing distribution to liver health. The last 10 years of FIRE’s work was made possible largely by our invaluable relationship with these wonderful people-whose connection with FIRE at the perfect time changed our history.

This Rotary Foundation Global Grant is initiated by the Rotary Club of Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia), District 3450, and the Flagstaff Rotary Club (Arizona, USA), District 5495. Rotary Global Grant #2011973, “Hepatitis Free Mongolia, Phase 2”, will eliminate hepatitis C (HCV) in one province with a replicable, “proof-of-concept” system to be scaled up in communities across Mongolia and around the world to manage liver health and other diseases including Covid-19. It will address barriers to awareness, testing, and treatment in the government’s Healthy Liver Program within Mongolia’s challenging rural environment.

Over 14-months we will visit all 16 clinics and hospitals in Sukhbaatar province multiple times. By conducting a mobile screening, community education activities, health care worker capacity building, Hepatitis Coordinator training and support, and facilitating treatment for the uninsured, we will eliminate hepatitis C in Sukhbaatar province.

Mongolia has the highest rate of liver cancer in the world, 6 times the international average, and among the highest rates of hepatitis B and C in the world. One in six people have hepatitis C and one in 10 have hepatitis B. 75.6% of liver cancer patients are not diagnosed until stage III or IV, with 68% dying within one year of being diagnosed. 80% of people with liver cancer have hepatitis.

Please visit our Global Grant #2011973 Page for more information.

In the fall of 2017, FIRE worked with the Rotary Club of Ulaanbaatar and Flagstaff Rotary Club to implement “Hepatitis Free Mongolia, Phase 1” a Rotary funded Global Grant, #1529067. Rotary supplied $112,000 and FIRE matched that cash contribution dollar-for-dollar, as well as managed the project in Mongolia. “Hepatitis Free Mongolia, Phase 1” visited every country and every rural public hospital in the province.

Throughout this project, 5,017 people were screened with blood tests, FibroScan, ultrasound, and physical examinations by specialists in 14 locations across Dornod province. 1,966 people were vaccinated against HBV, 36 health care workers were trained, 20 computers were delivered, 50,000 information pamphlets were distributed, and 20 community leaders were part of an advocacy meeting.

From the total budget, 8% was saved and redirected to the training of health care workers and social workers to be Hepatitis Coordinators in Dornod and Tov provinces in 2018 and 2019. For more information about “Hepatitis Free Mongolia, Phase 1,” GG#1529067, please view our final report.

“Hepatitis Free Mongolia, Phase 2” will be conducted in Sukhbaatar Province in Spring 2021 under GG#2011973.

A school boy learning proper oral health practicesIn 2015, FIRE, in conjunction with the Rotary Club of Ulaanbaatar, the School of Dentistry of Mongolian National University of Medical Science (MNUMS), and the National Center of Public Health, completed a pilot project, “Healthy Smiles,” to improve oral health among kindergarten-aged children.  Activities included an assessment of the children’s oral health, teaching the students proper oral health practices, and distributing supplies such as toothbrushes and calendars for tracking their teeth brushing routines. It also included creating a supportive environment for children to brush their teeth, through outreach and training of parents and teachers. A complete teaching tool kit was given to each school in the program so they can continue to teach the children proper oral hygiene. Tool kits include: a Velcro teaching apron, cartoons, booklets, and many interactive teach aids. New sinks were also installed in each kindergarten.

For more information, please visit our Healthy Smiles project page

Between 2009 and 2012, FIRE worked with the Albuquerque Del Norte Rotary Club in New Mexico, USA, and the Selbe Rotary Club in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, to distribute 152,000 sharps containers (biohazard boxes for sharp medical waste) to 305 rural hospitals and clinics in Mongolia. We reached 10 provinces and trained 2,030 health care workers. This was a two-year supply of sharps containers for every hospital in each province. These containers were distributed in conjunction with a one-day training session for representatives from every hospital, on the use of the containers and proper medical waste management. We distributed educational posters and handouts as well as a one-hour training DVD that FIRE wrote, directed, and produced.

Please visit our Safety Box project page for more information.

During the 2004 and 2005 aid distribution trips in Mongolia, the assistants and translators were volunteers from the Ulaanbaatar RotarAct Club. In 2006, in cooperation with the Ulaanbaatar Rotary Club, FIRE brought 80 computers to Mongolia, loaded each one with English language teaching software, and distributed them to 12 schools in both Ulaanbaatar and rural Mongolia, including a deaf-student learning lab and vocational school.