Our Club's New International Service Project

 

Our Board of Directors has approved a new international service project to provide running water for 32 schools in Mexico City. The project includes hygiene and literacy education.  Our club’s contributions are being supported by matching grants from Rotary District 6460 and the Rotary Foundation.  Further grants should allow this project to begin in the summer of 2016. 

 
 
 
For nearly a year and a half, the international Services Committee under Neal Miller‘s initiative has been seeking an international project pertaining to water and sanitation that The Rotary Club of Springfield could support in a variety of ways.  Initially the committee developed criteria for project screening and selection including:
  • Emphasis on water, sanitation or literacy,
  • safety in travel to the project,
  • a strong Rotary club/district presence at the project site,
  • potential for longstanding continuing relationships with a Rotary Club and city/village in the country chosen,
  • opportunities to work on the project to the level of our club’s interests,  
  • reasonable travel costs to the project, and
  • within reasonable distance of a popular vacation destination for members who visit the project and want to add a leisure extension.
 
At the October district conference members of our club heard a presentation by Ron Apphun of Rotary’s Heart 2 Heart.  Heart 2 Heart is a cooperative effort between Rotarians primarily in the "Heart of America" (Zones 30 and 31) and in the "Heart of Mexico" (District 4170) and The Rotary Foundation to provide humanitarian service through matching grant projects. The first cooperative effort was in fall 2004 when all the 2005-06 District Governors in both U.S. zones agreed to support a water well project in a rural town in Mexico.
 
The project the International Services Committee selected is called “the Whole School Project” and involves the installation of water tanks to provide running water installation for 32 schools in the southern portion of Mexico City.  The project also has a educational hygiene and literacy component.  Further support for the project can be extended to include a self-esteem component for girls and an anti-bullying initiative.  All of the schools are within 30 to 60 minutes of Mexico City’s international airport.  The project location is less than a one hour flight to popular vacation destinations Acapulco and Ixtapa.
 
In late December, we received news that District Governor Steve Hopper has enthusiastically supported the idea of matching Springfield's cash contribution of up to $2,500 with District Designated Funds (DDF) up to $2,500. Therefore, with the Rotary Foundation match of 50 cents to each dollar of club (or individual) cash, and dollar for dollar for DDF, the cash contribution from the Springfield club of $2,500 would result in a total of $8,750 in the global grant when all the matches are included!  Further work on a global grant is being done and hopefully the project will all come together by summer 2016.