Rotary projects around the globe

 

Rotary projects around the globe

February 2024

By Brad Webber

United States

Rotary clubs in the ski resort towns of Park City, Utah, and Breckenridge, Colorado, have a friendly rivalry for the longest “shot ski” — a ski affixed to shot glasses that people raise together to down whiskey at the same time. In October, the Rotary Club of Park City Sunrise recaptured the crown as 1,363 people lined a street to drink rye whiskey (or apple cider) in unison from hundreds of shot skis held end to end. The event raised more than $43,000 for grants to assist community organizations, club member Connie Nelson says. She concedes that she and fellow club member Mike Luers were inspired by the Colorado club during a “reconnaissance” tour of successful winter resorts. “Their main street was closed for a festival. I looked at Mike and he looked at me and we said, ‘We can beat that,’” she says. The festive affair is “branding for our Rotary club,” Nelson adds. “We not only sell out but we have people on a waiting list to try to get on the line. It’s not just to sample the alcohol. It’s about the getting together, the unique community sharing.”

Honduras

Nearly 40 percent of adolescents are not in secondary school in Honduras, where educational achievement scores are low. The Rotary clubs of Tegucigalpa Sur and Peterborough, Ontario, teamed up to address the issue. In 2018 the clubs, which have collaborated on projects before, constructed a teacher training center in the municipality of Lepaterique and supplied books and other learning materials. Most recently, the clubs partnered with a nonprofit organization and the country’s Ministry of Education to provide literacy training to primary school teachers. “Sixteen-hour workshops are being held on a rotating basis with 160 teachers” representing 62 schools, says Marie Press, a member of the Peterborough club. “The feedback has been incredibly positive.”

England

For its centennial project, the Rotary Club of Halifax built a scenic overlook above the town on an ancient road and footpath known as the Magna Via. Illustrated panels identify landmarks such as Wainhouse Tower, Borough Market, Square Church spire, the Halifax gibbet (a replica of the 16th century precursor to the guillotine), and the Town Hall, designed by Sir Charles Barry, architect of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. QR codes link to descriptions of the landmarks on the club website. “The views are magnificent and span the horizon,” says Ken Robertshaw, a past governor of District 1040. The $25,000 project, dedicated in late June, was funded by sponsoring businesses and individual donors, including Robertshaw, who contributed in honor of his late wife, Pauline. The Town Council agreed to maintain the overlook. “Given the history of the site, it seemed like an appropriate place for us to build something that celebrates the rich heritage of the town,” Robertshaw says.

Sri Lanka

All the world’s a stage for young Sri Lankan thespians who, with their Rotarian supporters, take their Shakespeare seriously. For nearly five decades, tens of thousands of them have participated in the All Island Inter-School Shakespeare Drama Competition. Known as the “Shakes,” last year’s contest, held in September and organized by the Rotary Club of Colombo North and the Colombo YMCA, included more than 1,000 students. The ensembles performed 30-minute scenes that organizers chose from eight plays. “They are judged mainly on acting, and marks are also allocated for direction, teamwork, and effects,” Club President Lasika Jayamaha says. Rotaractors assisted with front of house and backstage roles. “The competition has been a springboard for thousands of young people across the island” to careers in acting, directing, and media, Jayamaha says. Adding to the shine, the coveted rotating trophy is a silver bust of Shakespeare that was a gift from the mayor of Stratford-upon-Avon, the birthplace of the Bard.

Senegal

The Rotary Clubs of Dakar-Soleil and West Chester, Pennsylvania, celebrated a milestone last year in their project to drill for water in three villages in Senegal. Despite delays during the pandemic and “several difficult months searching for water on the part of the construction company,” productive boreholes were drilled in July and August in the southeastern Kédougou region, reports Samuel Lowry, a member of the Rotary Club of Greater Huntsville, Alabama, who assisted with the project. Three of five planned pumps are now in use providing potable water, Lowry says. A $130,000 global grant supported the project. Funds were also raised online during the pandemic. A project Facebook page yielded contributions as well as comments like “How can we get one of these where we are?”

This story originally appeared in the February 2024 issue of Rotary magazine.

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https://www.rotary.org/en/rotary-projects-around-globe-february-2024

Rotary honors six members as People of Action: Champions of Impact

 

Rotary honors six members as People of Action: Champions of Impact

Members promoted mental health, protected mangrove forests, and helped Indigenous young people increase their economic opportunities

By Etelka Lehoczky

Rotary recognized six extraordinary members as People of Action: Champions of Impact in January. This distinction celebrates the honorees’ successes in projects that have had positive, long-term impact. Their work relates to several of Rotary’s areas of focus, including fighting disease, growing local economies, and protecting the environment.

Rita Aggarwal

Rotary Club of Nagpur, Maharashtra, India
Project: Wellness in a Box—Nagpur

Rita Aggarwal has been a consulting psychologist for 35 years. In 1992 she established Manodaya, a private mental health clinic in central India. She is an officer of the Mental Health Initiatives Rotary Action Group.

Both a community assessment by members of that Rotary Action Group and a study published in the Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine found that mental health literacy in young people in India was very low. To address the high number of students who showed signs of anxiety, depression, and other psychological problems, effective mental health services were needed.

The Mental Health Initiatives Rotary Action Group had developed a toolkit called Wellness in a Box, and Aggarwal applied it in her hometown of Nagpur. The project created a curriculum for 14-year-olds that covered depression awareness and coping skills, which helped counter the stigma that surrounds mental health care. It also taught teachers counseling skills and established sites for fieldwork, in cooperation with the Tirpude College of Social Work. Ten teachers have completed a yearlong counseling course, and another 10 are expected to complete it in March.

Wellness in a Box—Nagpur has trained 2,280 students and 768 parents and faculty members in the “Break Free From Depression” curriculum. One hundred young people have volunteered for further training as peer mentors.

Steve Dudenhoefer

Rotary Club of Puerto Barrios, Izabal, Guatemala
Project: Guatemalan Tomorrow Fund

Steve Dudenhoefer founded the Guatemalan Tomorrow Fund and Asociación Ak’ Tenamit 33 years ago, after selling his business in the US and moving to Guatemala to serve as a full-time volunteer accompanying rural Indigenous Central American communities in their sustainable development processes.

The Guatemalan Tomorrow Fund helped develop a program of work-based learning and job placement for young Indigenous people in the country. One thousand Indigenous girls and boys receive vocational training at rural residential schools. Community education promoters visited communities to recruit students and offer scholarships. Teachers were trained in improved methodologies and taught how to provide psychological support to students who had been abused. More than 4,000 students have graduated from the program, and 86% of them are gainfully employed.

Members of five Rotary clubs in Guatemala and 36 clubs in the United States worked with Asociación Ak’ Tenamit, the Guatemalan Ministry of Education, and local municipalities to ensure the project’s long-term financial and operational sustainability. The project is now managed by a board of directors composed of Indigenous graduates of the program.

Amal El-Sisi

Rotary Club of El Tahrir, Egypt
Project: Heart2Heart

Amal El-Sisi is a longtime Rotarian, professor of pediatrics, and a member of The Rotary Foundation Cadre of Technical Advisers. For four years, El-Sisi led Heart2Heart, which helps children in remote parts of Egypt, Kenya, Libya, and Yemen who have heart conditions. El-Sisi recruited 30 local Rotary clubs and 10 clubs in other countries to collaborate on the project. Rotary members also raised funds and secured global grants for the project and used surveys of community members and care providers to measure its success.

Heart2Heart treats children born with heart disease through state-of-the-art, less invasive catheterization procedures. Before it was started, patients and their families in remote areas of the region had to travel to cities to get these lifesaving procedures. Those who could not make the trip faced suffering and even death. .

Heart2Heart has used highly sophisticated catheterization procedures to treat 120 children in remote areas. It also trained 20 doctors and 50 nurses and technicians over four years. With El-Sisi’s leadership, Rotary members oversaw the monitoring and evaluation of all of Heart2Heart’s activities, including follow-up with patients and health care providers.

Evangeline Buella Mandia

Rotary Club of Marinduque North, Marinduque, Philippines
Project: Mangrove Rehabilitation and Aqua-silviculture Project

Evangeline Buella Mandia is the club Foundation chair and a past president of the Rotary Club of Marinduque North and dean of the College of Environmental Studies at Marinduque State College, in Marinduque, Philippines. She is a member of The Rotary Foundation Cadre of Technical Advisers.

Mandia’s project addressed the decline in mangrove populations in parts of Marinduque. This decline, caused by deforestation, pollution, and climate change, has increased coastal erosion, degraded water quality, and caused a loss of biodiversity. Rotary members raised funds to plant mangrove seedlings and rehabilitate established forests as well as train community members in mangrove propagation and aquaculture. The project also established a seedling nursery and a long-term mangrove conservation plan. Mandia oversaw daily operations, communicated with everyone who was involved, monitored progress, and ensured that the project’s objectives were met.

Local fishers and farmers gained better job prospects and higher earnings, while the entire community enjoyed a more dependable supply of fresh, local food. The revived mangroves protect against storm surges and reduce coastal erosion. Training improved community members’ understanding of their environment and their ability to take care of it. As a result, the whole community began working together to conserve local natural resources.

Bindi Rajasegaran

Rotary Club of Ipoh Central, Perak, Malaysia
Project: National Coalition for Mental Wellbeing

Bindi Rajasegaran is a past Rotary club president and past governor of District 3300. A member of the Advisory Council to Malaysia’s Ministry of Health, she helped establish the National Coalition for Mental Wellbeing in 2019. Rajasegaran’s project addressed youth mental health. A study found that more than 400,000 children in Malaysia have mental health problems, but many do not seek care. Family and societal pressures, bullying, and loneliness all contribute to poor mental health.

The project helped school counselors develop their crisis management skills through a Mental Health First Aid certification course. It also showed counselors how to foster supportive and inclusive school environments that promote mental wellness and reduce stigma. A series of awareness campaigns encouraged students to discuss mental health issues and seek help when they need it. The project also developed an online platform where counselors recorded case data so the results of their efforts could be measured.

Walley Temple

Rotary Club of Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Project: Towards the Elimination of Cervical Cancer in Guatemala

Walley J. Temple is a professor emeritus in the Department of Oncology at the University of Calgary and the Tom Baker Cancer Centre. He established a Royal College-approved training program in surgical oncology that has drawn trainees from around the world.

Temple’s project sought to identify and treat the conditions that lead to cervical cancer, a disease that one in 33 women in Guatemala will contract in their lifetime. Cervical cancer, which is caused by the human papillomavirus, can be prevented by vaccinating girls aged 9 to 14 and screening women aged 30 to 55. The equipment that is needed for screenings is low-cost and can be carried to even the most remote communities by mobile health care teams.

Under Temple’s leadership, teams of clinicians conducted training, did examinations, and provided treatment. Temple and his team purchased mobile screening equipment and trained nurses in its use. The project has screened more than 8,000 women, educated more than 3,000 women about cervical cancer, and trained and certified 65 health care practitioners.

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https://www.rotary.org/en/rotary-honors-six-members-people-action-champions-impact

Rotary projects around the globe

 

Rotary projects around the globe

March 2024

By Brad Webber

United States

Most North American plant species depend on insects, predominantly bees, for pollination. “Your whole food web is supported by bees,” says Dave Hunter, a member of the Rotary Club of Woodinville, Washington. The club leads a project that nourishes bees while beautifying the Seattle suburb. Members use donated wine barrels to construct planters to attract pollinators. Local businesses can sign up to have one placed at their storefront for a donation of $150 a year to the club’s foundation. The planters have QR codes that take visitors to information on the club’s website about the program and pollinators’ importance. “We are not just putting planters out; we’re educating through them,” says Hunter, proprietor of Crown Bees, which sells bees, bee houses, and other materials. The club also partnered with the city, businesses, a garden club, and a nonprofit organization to host a Pollinator Fest in May that attracted about 500 people to hear the latest buzz on bees.

Canada

The Rotary Club of Olds, Alberta, is livening up its process for awarding grants to community groups. In November, representatives of about a dozen organizations pitched their proposals at a contest modeled on Dragons’ Den, a CBC television program (much like Shark Tank in the U.S.) in which venture capitalists judge entrepreneurs’ proposals for investment. The organizations were allotted five minutes to make their pitch, followed by five minutes of questioning by a panel of Rotarian “dragons,” or judges. Club President Randy Smith concedes that the awardees would have received their share of the roughly $10,000 regardless of who won. But he says the spirited affair gave the groups, including Interactors and fire department cadets, an opportunity to hone their presentation skills and showcase their creativity.

Hungary

When the operator of a summer camp for children with Down syndrome or other cognitive disabilities announced in 2021 that she could no longer run the weeklong program, the Rotaract Club of Kecskemét stepped up. The initiative to keep the program going has become “our club’s biggest and favorite project,” says Anna Antalfalvi. She and other members of the university-based club are education and psychology students. “Our aim is to help children develop through activities during the day. This allows parents to relax and work through their difficulties in support groups.” The club’s eight active members and a few volunteers run workshops, cook, serve, and clean. The camp, which is free for participants (17 children and their families in 2023), costs the club about $3,100 a year. “Our sponsoring Rotary club helped for the first time this year, providing a day’s food and cooking a lunch on another day,” Antalfalvi says. “When they personally experienced the atmosphere of the camp and the importance of the work we do there, they decided to make it part of their annual fundraising goal to help fund the camp.”

South Africa

What began with an enthusiastic health worker telling U.S. Rotarians about water scarcity in South Africa has blossomed into a partnership that has overhauled kitchens, bathrooms, and other sanitation facilities at nearly a dozen schools serving more than 7,200 students. It began with Julia Heemstra, who grew up in South Africa, speaking to a meeting of the Rotary Club of Jackson Hole, Wyoming, in 2018. Club members decided to support her in providing handheld water filters — and were eager to do more. Heemstra connected the Wyoming Rotarians with the Rotary Club of Grahamstown, South Africa, which was at the time rehabilitating sanitation facilities at Ntsika Secondary School. “They had an inconsistent water supply. When the water is shut off, the schools have to shut,” says Stuart Palmer, a past governor of District 5440. “We were seeing the children shortchanged in their education.” The clubs partnered on a global grant to do that work, then a district grant to upgrade the water systems at 10 additional schools. Then, in 2022, the two clubs received a $400,000 global grant to upgrade toilet and kitchen facilities at seven of the schools where they’d previously worked. “Seeing the incredible change — you not only have water, but you’re getting a face-lift on all these schools — it’s huge,” Palmer says.

India

Monsoon rains regularly pummel Maharashtra state. With the support of a $50,000 global grant, the Rotary Club of Mumbai Down Town Sea Land oversaw construction of five check dams that will help farming families manage flooding in the Palghar district. “The majority of the rainwater runs off the surface, as the land is mostly rocky and consists of hard soil,” says member Chandraprabha Khona, who directed the project in cooperation with the Rotary Club of Colombo, Sri Lanka. A nearly $30,000 contribution from Shabbir Rangwala, a past president of the Mumbai club, was instrumental. The new concrete dams will allow farmers to expand irrigation and cultivate additional crops, as well as store water for sanitation and top off bore wells. Khona adds that the project will lead to “an exponential jump” in farmers’ income.

This story originally appeared in the March 2024 issue of Rotary magazine.

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https://www.rotary.org/en/rotary-projects-around-globe-march-2024

Rotary projects around the globe

 

Rotary projects around the globe

May 2024

By Brad Webber

Mexico

A community kitchen built by the Rotary Club of Nuevo Santander at a local school is ensuring hundreds of children have meals in low-income neighborhoods of Nuevo Laredo, a city on the U.S. border. “Most of the houses in this area do not have running water or electricity,” says Club President Jorge Tello. The club launched the $150,000 project in 2018, and the kitchen at the Comedor Santa María school began operating in August 2020; meals were first served to-go due to the COVID-19 pandemic before the dining room opened in May 2021. “Operation costs for providing breakfast and lunch for 230 children every day is $9,300 a month,” Tello says. The funds are donated by businesses and individuals. Club members supervise the operation, and Rotarians are providing solar panels to the facility.

Burundi

A spinal surgery for a child in Burundi was made possible by the coordination of Rotary members on multiple continents. The young girl, named Maïssa, had early-onset scoliosis, a curvature of the spine. A team of Belgian surgeons working in the country found that she was in urgent need of intervention. A local doctor was not available, and her family could not afford to travel out of the country. So the doctors contacted Pierre De Vriendt, a member of the Rotary Club of Gand Maritime-Gent Haven with experience coordinating medical missions, to help recruit surgeons from India in hopes of finding a lower-cost option. Word of the girl’s need eventually reached Els Reynaers Kini of the Rotary Club of Mumbai Sobo, which supports the work of the Spine Foundation in India with the help of a Rotary Foundation global grant. In November, two doctors, Abhay Nene and Harshal Babulal Bamb, traveled at their own expense to Burundi, where they performed the first operation on Maïssa, now 6. Reynaers Kini, who intends to expand the medical work in Burundi, relays the gratitude of the girl’s mother, Martine Karabona: “Not only has Maïssa been given a new lease on life so she can grow into a confident woman, but along the way all of us have grown really close and are now truly one global family spread across India, Belgium, and Burundi.”

This story originally appeared in the May 2024 issue of Rotary magazine.

Albania

In December the Rotaract Club of Durrës delivered care packages to 30 families in need in the city on the Adriatic coast. Each package was tailored for the recipients, an approach that was important to the project’s success, says Club President Geri Emiri. Rotaractors gathered information on the number of family members, their genders, and their health needs before assembling the packages, which were supplied using monetary and in-kind contributions. The club distributed food packages, along with panettone (a Christmas sweet bread), lemonade, fruit and vegetables, hygiene goods, detergent, children’s books, toys, clothing, household appliances, and furniture. The aid “was modest and does not solve the problems of these families,” Emiri says, “but it aims to strengthen the relationships.”

Netherlands

Thousands of Rotary members celebrated the centennial of Rotary in the Netherlands in 2023 in typical Dutch fashion: with a bicycle tour, specifically a yearlong, 3,100-mile journey on an electric cargo bicycle. Cyclists taking turns in the relay-style tour visited most of the roughly 500 clubs in the country. Past RI President Holger Knaack, district governors, and about 1,000 other revelers were on hand for the start of the relay in January at Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam. At the end of the ride in December in the province of Zeeland, Rotarians planted trees for a food forest, a type of food cultivation based on woodland ecosystems. “With the electric bike and the forest, we made many people aware of Rotary’s environment area of focus,” says Madelon Schaap, of the Rotary Club of Amsterdam-Zuid, immediate past governor of District 1580. The project made Rotary visible to the public. Schaap adds that “connecting the clubs and unifying them is a great achievement that we did not expect at the beginning.”

United States

The Viva! Vienna! festival offers a master class in how a special event can galvanize residents and community groups, says Gunnar Spafford, a member of the Rotary Club of Vienna, Virginia, which took on the project in the mid-1990s. The Memorial Day weekend event in a suburb of Washington, D.C., has grown into a celebration that features food, ukulele performances, singing princesses, and tributes to those who’ve died in military service. The 2023 event raised $230,000 and attracted 60,000 people. The biggest share of the proceeds, about $130,000, came from carnival rides. The next highest sum was brought in from vendors, who pay higher fees for spots closer to the town green, the hub of activity. “I see this as an opportunity to have other Rotarians experience Viva! Vienna! for the fundraising prowess it has,” Spafford says.

Visit :-

https://www.rotary.org/en/rotary-projects-around-globe-may-2024

around the globe

 

Rotary projects around the globe

August 2024

By Brad Webber

Belize

The Rotaract Club of Belize City is renovating a rural school and a Rotary club-sponsored park as part of its youth-focused agenda. In April, club members met at the Hattieville Government Preschool to paint restrooms and complete other beautification work. A later phase will include new toilets. “We’ve been able to replace chalkboards in 10 classrooms with whiteboards and to donate a printer and other school and hygiene materials,” says Kristoff Nicholson, immediate past president. The club partnered with a telecom provider and raffled off smartphones to help pay for the project. It also received a District 4250 grant of $1,000. In March, club members replaced basketball and goal nets and painted benches and a playset at Love Park in Balama, another element of the project, Nicholson says.

Colombia

In January, the Rotary Club of Cúcuta-Ciudad de Arboles purchased about $600 of school supplies and delivered 100 sets of notebooks, pencils, pens, erasers, sharpeners, and more to students in the city. It’s about 350 miles northeast of Bogotá. Club members also visited with students in the neighborhood of Las Delicias, says Dora Patricia Lobo, a past president of the club. “The hustle and bustle and joy of these students when they receive their school package warms our souls and encourages us to continue,” Lobo says. More than 1,400 students have benefited since the project began.

Liberia

The Rotary Club of Monrovia is helping train young women to establish microenterprises to make and sell reusable sanitary pads and address “period poverty.” With financial support from the Rotary Club of Loveland, Colorado, the Liberian Rotarians paired with the nonprofit Dignity:Liberia and held two training sessions for 200 women earlier this year in Monrovia, the capital, and in Kakata, a semirural community. “The high, recurring cost of pads makes them out of reach for many families that struggle to make ends meet,” says Monique Cooper-Liverpool, a past president of the Monrovia club. “This leads thousands of girls to miss classes so often that they eventually drop out of school.” The initiative grew out of a partnership between the two clubs to advance reproductive care and treatment for fistulas, an injury often caused by prolonged labor during childbirth.

Northern Ireland

Volunteers led by the Rotary Club of Belfast made improvements to the courtyard garden of a senior home in January. The team of Rotarians, community members, and people in transitional employment through the judicial system cleared weeds, constructed raised garden platforms, and filled them with soil. Cold temperatures scaled back their plans, but it was still a “rather back-breaking” effort, says club member Jenny Boyd. A District 1160 grant of about $1,250 was used to underwrite the expense. Karen Blair, a past president and project leader, recruited colleagues from her law firm to get a little dirt under their fingernails. “This project allows all members to be involved in a very hands-on activity,” Blair says. “And even those with no gardening ability can participate by chatting with the residents over coffee.”

Thailand

About 1,500 drowning deaths occur each year in Thailand, one of the highest rates per capita in the world. While the Thai government is working to prevent fatalities, drowning remains the leading cause of death for those 15 and younger in the country, which has thousands of miles of coastline. On the island of Samui, a popular tourist destination, there are no public swimming pools, says Adam Preston, immediate past president of the Rotary Club of Samui-Phangan. Club members received training from the Rotary Club of Global Water Safety and Drowning Prevention and in 2019 started Swim4Life, a series of lessons for children ages 10 to 12 at an international school’s pool. Three Samui-Phangan club members offer basic instruction alongside 15 community members who serve as assistant teachers. Nearly 100 children had completed the course as of April. The children, from public schools, “have gone from being scared of the water to being able to swim 25 meters,” Preston says.

This story originally appeared in the August 2024 issue of Rotary magazine.

Visit :-https://www.rotary.org/en/rotary-projects-around-globe-august-2024