For parents of premature babies at the Ospital ng Maynila Medical Center, every breath once came with a staggering financial burden. Now, an international alliance is helping ensure the city’s most vulnerable newborns can breathe more freely.

The hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) had been operating without dedicated neonatal ventilators, forcing families to choose between using adult machines for fragile infants or paying for costly external rentals.

“Whenever the neonates needed one, they would either have to use the adult hospital ventilators or rent from outside, which costs around 8,500 pesos,” said Dr. Reynand Jay Canoy, grants management chair for the Rotary Club of the Asian Institute of Management (AIM). “If you can imagine, for a 30-day ventilation, a patient would need at least 100,000 pesos.”

To address the gap, the Rotary Club of AIM formally turned over modern digital neonatal ventilators to the hospital on Thursday, funded through a Rotary Foundation Global Grant.

The initiative stemmed from a community needs assessment conducted in February with Dr. Carlos Nuñez, the hospital’s pediatrics chair. After identifying the equipment shortage, local Rotarians sought international support, launching a multi-country collaboration.

“Here at the Ospital ng Maynila, we saw that the neonatal patients are critical. They won’t survive if they have respiratory complications,” said Jake Que, charter president of the Rotary Club of AIM, citing UNICEF data that identifies respiratory issues as a leading cause of infant mortality.

“After finding that out, it was continuous—communications with our District 3830 and the Rotary Korean clubs. This is what gives us self-fulfillment as Rotarians who want to help society.”

Despite being founded just two years ago, the Rotary Club of AIM led the project, bringing together international and local partners. The effort included South Korean sponsors—the Rotary Clubs of Onyang-Oncheon and Onyang-Mogryeon—as well as local clubs such as Makati Premier District, Makati Legazpi, and Manila JP Laurel Malacañang.

“We are thankful to the Rotary clubs and the district that trusted us. We are only in our second year, yet we were already given a Global Grant,” said Adam Ong, current president of the Rotary Club of AIM, in Filipino. “Collaboration is really what made this project happen... Filipinos are very generous and always want to help; sometimes they just need to be given an avenue.”

The ventilators are calibrated specifically for premature infants, whose lungs require specialized support. Based on hospital admission rates, the equipment is expected to benefit around 100 neonatal patients annually. The turnover also includes a one-year warranty and maintenance training for hospital staff.

Hospital administrators said additional needs remain, including transport incubators and an Arterial Blood Gas (ABG) machine.

“The wishlist comes from a real need. We just have to establish and document that need,” Canoy said. “Hopefully, this equipment provided by the Rotary Club will save a lot of lives.”

Buoyed by the project’s success, the Rotary Club of AIM and its partners said they are optimistic about pursuing further initiatives to support the hospital’s needs.