The Downtown Rotary Club is now working on two international projects. The first is our commitment to a $35,000 project in Nepal to provide Chorkate Village with a Drinking Water Supply in conjunction with the Rotary club of Gorka in Nepal. Our Club is the international partner. Gorkha is a Hill District in Nepal. The literacy rate of Gorkha is 66.3%. The female literacy rate is 59.4% and the male literacy rate is 75.1%. K.B. Chettry of Nepal previously spoke to our club about this project (image to left).The project seeks to support around 600 poor and marginal residents of Chorkate Village where ongoing scarcity of drinking water is an acute problem. With no water sources available, the village residents have to walk downhill for about an hour and climb uphill with the load of water, which takes double the time. The village was also badly devasted by the 2015 earthquake (7.8 Magnitude) in Nepal.
A perennial, natural spring water source has been identified at the bottom of the hill. The water from the source needs to be pumped to a concrete storage tank with a 2000 liter capacity. The storage tank will be built on top of a flattened hill. The location and height of the storage tank will provide sufficient pressure for a gravity fed system to distribute water to community households via ¾ inch heavy duty plastic pipes.
The project will provide:
- Equitable community access to safe drinking water, improved sanitation and hygiene.
- Strengthen the ability of the community to develop, fund and maintain sustainable water and sanitation systems.
- Enhance community awareness towards the benefits of safe water and sanitation.
- Strengthen the ability of communities to develop, fund, and maintain sustainable water and sanitation systems.
The club has committed $1,000 to this $35,000 project – to date we have raised approximately $8,000. Our hope is that we will be able to secure approval for obtaining funds from the District 6460 DDF, bringing us to a total of $17,500 and apply for a global grant where The Rotary Foundation will double the monies and bring us to the $35,000.
The second project is supplying 35 computers to three mid-level schools in Progreso, Yucatan, Mexico through a “Zone” level program called Heart to Heart. This Computers for Progress project is one of 100 projects in Zones 30-31 that Rotarians are trying to complete in honor of 100 years of Rotary in Mexico. The project being actively promoted throughout the District to encourage more clubs to participate. The five Rotary Clubs in Springfield committed $3,000 towards the $10,000 project cost and challenged the rest of the clubs in the District to join us in support. This challenge was relayed through District Governor Maura Donnelly prior to the District Conference. Several other clubs are now considering the amount of their contributions. The image to the right shows students from Carlos-Marx School in Progreso and was provided by Rotarian Stephen Hopper. Stephen has spoken to our club about Heart to Heart projects for the April 21 Centennial of Rotary in Mexico.