ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REMINDERS
Michelle reminded us that we will be having our major fundraiser April 26th. It will be a roast of John Laird. It should be very entertaining.
February 14th will be the speech contest for high school seniors in the area. ] Please come early that day, no later than noon. We may have as many as 10 contestants so we will need every minute! If you are a volunteer, come a bit earlier.
There will also be a board meeting on the 14th. Because of the speech contest it will begin at 10:30 and end promptly at 11:30.
Wed Feb 20th from 4:00 to 7:00 will be Aptos area Chamber of Commerce Business Showcase. We will have a booth there. You can sign up to help with Doug Deaver.
Our speaker today was Peggy Pollard who spoke to us about the Rotary safari to Kasese Uganda. It is part of a Rotary Global Grant for clean water. The trip is planned to be this April from the 1st – 15th.
She spoke to us about Uganda. It is one of the poorest countries in the world. Ninety percent of the people in the area are subsistence farmers. Rotary has already worked to improve the water source in another village. The Kasese Rotary club itself has been working on sanitation projects for almost 40 years. The trip will include a visit to the model Rotary village project in Lhuhwahwa. There will also be a visit to Queen Elizabeth National Park and Rwenzori Mountains National Park.
$36,000 in DDF funds has already been transferred to Kasese. They are doing three things with those funds. They are increasing the source of the water to the village. They will also install 40 composting latrines. Good sanitation will help to stop the ebola virus which is raging across the border in the Congo. No cases in Uganda as yet, however. The project fits with the Rotary saying “Start with Water.” There is also an emphasis on cultural sustainability, so that the project will continue after Rotary Involvement. That makes education an important component of the project.
The last project is surveying the health care facilities for sanitation. Many health facilities lack handwashing and basic sanitation facilities. This means people get sicker from going into a clinic rather than healing.
For more information contact Peggy at ISI.santacruz@gmail.com. Or call (831) 239-3429.