Robert Lockhart introduced Grant Kimball as our guest speaker on March 5, 2012. Grant is the President of Angus-Miller Ltd., Past Chair of the 2010 Rotary District Conference and Past President of the Rotary Club of Rothesay Kings.
He recently travelled to the Dominican Republic with his wife Kathi and several esteemed Rotarians to participate in the Clean Water Project with Dr. Bob from Calais, Maine. Grant and the crew went to the Dominican Republic for the first week of February. After an email had been sent to the Club exploring an interest, Grant and his wife Kathi were booked within four hours and were in the Dominican Republic two weeks later.
The Dominican Republic has over 400 bateyes (settlements around sugar mills) and is an area of Rotary focus for clean water projects...
Dr. Bob from Calais has been visiting there for the past twenty years. Grant said it was a very qualified, dedicated and diverse team that went with him. The team included Pam Harrison, who visited us last year and was the founder of the Paul Harris Society, our Past District Governor John Carkner, along with doctors, engineers and a marine biologist.
The target was to install 100 water systems, of which 75 were achieved. Grant had a very well constructed slide show to help tell the story.
He found a hospital in La Romana called the "Good Samaritan Hospital," and Rotary and various religious groups solely fund it. The Dominican Republic is a single Rotary District. When they installed dialysis units in Romana, they didn't have the water required to run the equipment. Rotarians there raised $50,000 to purchase and install two of the largest water reservoirs in the region. The water systems were biosand filters, a point-of-use water treatment system adapted from traditional slow sand filters. Biosand filters remove pathogens and suspended solids from water using biological and physical processes that take place in a sand column covered with a biofilm. The clean water would be used to support dialysis equipment.
One of the bateys visited was Tentacione Batey, which is Creole for temptation. While they are at the bateys, they teach about sanitation and hygiene.
The Rothesay Rotary Club hosted a Boots & Bikes event in 2011 and Grant got to meet some of the lucky recipients. He said that "Crocks" were the biggest hit.
Water is so crucial and essential in the Bateys that it is everyone's job to make sure they have it there, right from little children to the great grandparents. One of their teams had brought 50 pairs of underwear there, and the kids thought this was the greatest thing ever. Many children have never owned a pair. They visited a school there and found out that they have one teacher for over 75 children of all ages. They also brought all kinds of school supplies and passed them out to the kids. The kids were very creative with making toys from materials like bottles and soup cans. The group had previously gone to Canadian Tire, who donated 100 soccer balls, which were presented as gifts to the children. The children are not used to owning things that can be shared, so they had to explain what sharing meant and how it worked.
The Paul Harris Society money is available for a $50,000 budget for next year, and they are looking at getting a matching grant from Rotary International. They have $30,000 accumulated to date, and the $50,000 will turn into $100,000 with the matching from Rotary International.
Grant asked that we commit to the Clean Water Project at least $1,000.