On behalf of Rotary District 5170, Happy New Year to all of you. With 2021 behind us, we wish that 2022 will be a more kindhearted year as we continue to deal with the Covid pandemic and overcome it. I want to congratulate our Rotary Clubs for growing membership and engaging every member of their clubs to help them stay with our organization. Increasing our membership allows our clubs to provide more service hours, an enhanced ability to raise funds to do good in the community and the world, and to share their knowledge, skills, and leadership to serve.
In January 2018, my wife Florence and I were on vacation on the island of Bali, Indonesia. Both Florence and I were born and grew up in Indonesia. While there, we met her high school friend who was working as a manager at one of the top hotels on the island. Being a manager, I asked her to join Rotary. She told me that she was doing community service by getting the hotels on the island to provide vocational training for the girls in the community by providing them job training, training on their presentation skills, and training for a job interview. The girls on the island are disproportionately affected as far as education and jobs.
When I became District Governor Nominee, I decided that I wanted to do a vocational project in my native country in the year 2021-2022. In February 2021, while attending Rotary International Assembly, our Rotary International President Shekhar Mehta strongly emphasized projects that empower girls this year. Fortunately, what I had in mind to do three years ago aligns with the emphasis of our Rotary International President this year.
For about nine months, I have been meeting with my Indonesian District Governor classmate in Indonesia to explore projects empowering girls there. Last month, our District has decided to form and send a Vocational Training Team (VTT), a Rotary Foundation program, to the community of Cilacap on the island of Java in Indonesia, to train teachers and students at the local Agriculture Vocational School with the study of soil and land use for the planting of fruits and vegetables. Additionally, we will help them with maintaining, harvesting, warehousing, presenting, and marketing fruits and vegetables. Many of those who will be trained are women and girls who are also the beneficiaries of the project. With the contributions of District Designated Funds from the clubs in our District, we have raised approximately $50,000 for this project. If your club has excess District Designated Funds to spend, our VTT could put them for beneficial use. Rotarian Gina Piper, Past President of the Rotary Club of Pleasanton North, will lead our VTT, and our Past District Governor Joe Hamilton of the Rotary Club of Cupertino will lead our District VTT Committee. Patrick Coyle of Rotary Club of Livermore, our District International Service Chair, will lead the process to apply for Global Grant. We are seeking applicants who have expertise in soil, land use, and agriculture to be members of our VTT to travel to Indonesia for this mission to help train the locals to empower the women and girls and to help the community to be self-sustaining. The VTT Global Grants will pay for their travel to and from and housing in Indonesia. If you know of any prospective applications, please let the District know.