Supporting Fargo-Moorhead AM in Bolivia and Guatemala
The Rotary Club of Wahpeton does many things both locally and internationally to make the world a better safer place for us all. On Tuesday, July 30th at their regular meeting members heard a report from Keith Brokke and Blake Crosby from the Fargo-Moorhead Club with respect to projects that the Wahpeton Club has supported them on in Bolivia. Working with Peace Corps volunteers and Mike Cochran of the Rotary Club of Duluth Harbortown and also working with Mano a Mano they have built clinics and schools, water reservoirs and airports in the highlands of Bolivia.
They have been working in the central highlands at an elevation of 11,000 feet between two ranges of the Andes. It is a poor rural area typically growing corn. A “large” farm field is the size to the land on which the Prante’s restaurant is, the soil is very poor and it is all farmed by hand. Without irrigation the crop is small and poor. In 2008 the first irrigation project was a dam 120 feet high, 330 feet deep in Choquechampi. A 12” pipe with a valve controls the flow from the dam to the fields irrigating 1,600 acres and benefiting 4,800 local inhabitants. The transport infrastructure is very poor so moving food produce in or out is near impossible; all of this is consumed locally. The dam was built on public land and has a rock and clay bottom to contain the water. They are planning a new dam which will benefit 500 families.
One of the most impressive successes is the 137 medical clinics built since 1993. At that time the average life expectancy in Bolivia was 42; today it is 67. The construction cost for these clinics in Bolivia today is $ 18.00 per square foot. F-M AM and Duluth Harbortown Rotary clubs have recently built two medical clinics in the Icla area; one in 2009 and a new one at San Jacinto in 2013. Once a village has a clinic the government provides a physician who lives on site. Additional to the drop in mortality mentioned above these clinics have resulted in a fifty percent drop in birth mortality.
The thumbnail photograph above is of Keith and Blake on the vast 4,000 square miles of Bolivian salt flats. The salt is 300 feet deep and the variation in altitude over the 4,000 square miles in 16 inches. They said thatw e know nothing about "flat" here in the red River Valley!
Keith and Blake also discussed the upcoming (March 14th to 25th) construction trip to Guatemala where they will be adding a class room to an existing school. Members of the Wahpeton Club were invited to join.