International Projects
Laos - Huephen Water Project
The decision to build a permanent water supply in this rural village was due to the issues caused by their river changing direction. The river came from a mountain and changed direction to around the other side of the mountain. It happened during the first year of Covid. Since then, there has been a lot of planning and fundraising in advance of the project’s start date. With everything in place, the pipe was ordered, after 3 long years of waiting. It took about a month to receive it, but the villagers were pretty excited, knowing that their dreams were coming true. Next, the villagers transported sand, gravel, cement on their backs or by tractor to the river dam site. Others stayed back to make the wood forms for the dam. The dam was left to cure before pouring the huge cement lids to cover the compartments that would contain various sized stones to filter out any river sediment from entering the pipe.
Concurrently, many of the villagers laid over 4km of pipe from the dam site to the edge of the village. This was required to get water to the location of the soon-to-be built water tank, where cement could be prepared. The burying of the pipe would occur later. The kids certainly enjoyed it. The ground was levelled and prepared. The rebar was cut and tied to form a solid base, and walls were built to hold the cement. The almost finished water tank (curing before the cement lids were placed) also contained compartments to further filter the water before entering smaller pipes needed to run to the various taps in the village. And we have water with plenty of pressure! The water engineer poses, showing off the achievements. No water project is considered complete without the transfer of the inaugural pipe wrenches to announce the transfer of all assets to the village, followed by certificates of thanks to our team.
Laos - Huay Heed Water Dam Project (Adopt a village)
After a 3-year absence, it was great to be back in northern Laos, although it took some adjustment in lifestyle. There were new challenges with just about every project, but with patience and perseverance, all projects were completed, mostly within the expected timeframes.
Huay Heed Water Dam Project: Successfully completed. Building materials such as pipes, sand, and wood were transported to the dam, and dam structure and water tank were poured into wooden forms. Both the dam and Water tank were successfully built.
South Africa - Hout Bay Vision Testing
Hout Bay Vision Testing Project 2023: Vision Testing for Grade 1, 5 and 7 students was completed from 30 Jan – 28 Feb at five Hout Bay Primary Schools. Working with our optometry partners from Jonga Trust, we screened 1460 children, of whom 249 (17%) required spectacles and 13 needed eye drops for infections. Spectacles were delivered to the students in March. Detailed results attached. Vision Testing for Grades 9 and 11 students was completed from 6-14 March at two Hout Bay High Schools. Working with our optometry partners from Jonga Trust, we screened 429 students, of whom 129 (30%) required spectacles and 24 needed eye drops for infections. Spectacles will be delivered to the students in April.
Egypt - Establishing Agricultural Green Houses
The Rotary Club of Scarborough and ROOTA were delighted to partner to support the Zabbaleen community in Egypt in their initial steps towards building agricultural green houses in the regions and governorates of Giza, Buhaira, Wadi al-Natrun and al-Khattaba). The land on which the agricultural greenhouses were built was once used for collecting waste from Cairo’s neighborhoods and was filled with construction debris, plastic waste, and unrelated plants. During work and replacing layers of the earth’s surface, we were surprised by the presence of severe water leakage from the ground and subsidence.
Zimbabwe - Karanda Mission Hospital
The Rotary Club of Scarborough through the Rotary Club of Eglinton is proud to support this hospital in its construction of a rehabilitation unit and conducting outreach training for people who are in need of therapy after an injury or difficult birth. The hospital’s mission is to enhance the lives and livelihood of thousands of people requiring physical therapy and rehabilitation so they can lead healthy productive lives. The hospital is located in the northern part of Zimbabwe and serves a population of 250,000 people. The hospital attends to 100 000 patients a year (300/day). The current rehabilitation capacity is limited to treating patients in 2 crowded rooms.
The hospital’s activities benefit the population below
- Mothers and infants following delivery difficulties (2000 deliveries/year at Karanda)
- Fathers with fractures and injuries from farming injuries (the predominant livelihood in the area)
- Children with disabilities that they were born with or acquired after birth: brain and spinal cord injuries, cerebral palsy and hydrocephalus
- Individuals with injuries from road and sports accidents
- Seniors with chronic crippling conditions.
Uganda - The Ongutoi Project in Northern Uganda
The Rotary Club of Scarborough is proud of its continued support of this project that has been led by Rtn. Richard Mewhinney. The project continues to support tree farming, water systems and Health Clinic that provide work and income to the community. Ongutoi Health Centre in found in Amuria District located in the Teso sub-region of Northeastern Uganda. Historically the local people raised cattle and have been highly educated prior to the challenges with the LRA. While cattle are currently being re-established in the region most agriculture is subsistence farming and per traditional methods dependant on rain fed irrigation.
In 2003, this region was dramatically affected by the LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army) insurgency. Ongutoi is in one of two sub-districts that were 100 percent displaced during this time through 2005 when the LRA were removed from this region and essentially the country of Uganda. Rtn. Richard Mewhinney made his first trip to Uganda in 2009 and has been visiting Uganda for 6-8 weeks per years since that time. Spending a great deal of time in Ongutoi and Teso sub-region specifically the District of Amuria, Rtn. Richard has been actively involved is the development in both the pilot phase of this project and its expansion.
Uganda - Bukerere Maternity and Child Care Centre
The Rotary Club of Scarborough is proud to have contributed to the upgrading of a Maternity and Child Care Centre in Uganda.
Turkey - A Global Voice for Autism
A Global voice for Autism partnered with the Rotary Club of Scarborough to provide care and education to Autistic children after the earthquake. The club received thank you letters with photos and two heartwarming success stories. A child started to communicate vocally for the first time at age 7 after working through pointing and some basic signs. He then started saying his first words and his family was so happy. Another child who had been self injuring by biting himself, has had this behaviour reduced to less than three instances per week in the last two weeks. Such exciting news to share by another happy family.
Nepal - New Road City
With funds provided by the Rotary Club of Scarborough, the Rotary Club "New Road City" purchased computers for Panchakanya Secondary School in Ramkot village. This school of 200 students, had no computers and thus no computer classes. However, they had room to conduct computer classes. The students of this school will definitely benefit from our contribution of computers.
After research on what type of computers would be good for the school, it was decided that the Thin Client System, which has been used by many Rotary clubs, would be best. This system uses a server through which we can make multiple stations. Rotary provided a system with a server and 8 stations with Power backup battery system to run the computers so that their computer classes don’t get affected due to load sharing.
The Thin client system is good for the school in numerous ways:
- Less power consumption,
- Hassle free environment for the students,
- Central server control,
- Occupied less space,
- Low cost,
- Low trouble system (software).
Our District Web master, Rotarian Sailendra Joshi gave the club the idea of the Thin Client System. Club members thanked him for this very good idea and he was also given the responsibility of arranging for the hardware and software installation.
On November 16th, a team of ten Rotarians led by President Nilkantha and Rotarian Ramila Shakya Shrestha ,visited the school with the computer hardware. After a warm welcome and introduction with school management and teachers, everyone got to work and set up the computers. The school principal said that he was very grateful to Rotary Club New Road City and is happy that his students can get computer classes. These classes will be beneficial once students leave school to get jobs. President Nilkantha mentioned to the school management that the teachers will be given training and the club members will be visiting quarterly to check how effectively the computer classes are running.
Guyana
When Rotarian Sydney Baxter-Dennis traveled to Guyana, he was asked by the Rotary Club of Demara to support a fund raising effort by their Interact Club, the youth arm of Rotary. This group of young people identified a need in their community and were actively fund raising. They wished to buy school supplies and backpacks to give to children in their community who would have trouble returning to school after the summer break because they would not have the necessary supplies. Funds were sent to the Interact Club of Demarara to support this worthwhile cause.
Rotary Club of Guyana: http://www.rotary-site.org/officers.php?SiteID=369&lang=en
This photo shows what Rotarian funds were able to purchase.
The Rotaract Club of Demerara joins the Rotaract Club of Linden in thanking sponsors Digicel Guyana, the Rotaract Club of Scarborough, Canada, Mark’s Foot Locker, ACVS Studio and LTI.
Liberia
This year an unprecedented epidemic affected countries in West Africa. A call went out to other Rotary Clubs from the Rotary Club of Monrovia, Liberia was seeking medical equipment or funds to help them to meet the rising needs in their community to combat the Ebola crisis.
Rotary Club of Monrovia members were strategically positioned as hospital administrators who could ensure the funds were used on the most important issues at the time. The Rotary Club of Scarborough immediately sent funds. Seen here are members of the Rotary Club of Monrovia distributing:
- medical equipment to smaller clinics who were under equipped during a time of crisis, and
- portable thermometers to the police force so that people entering the police station could be monitored for exposure to Ebola.