Rotary District 5280’s Humanitarian Trip for 2015
by Lorine Parks
Want to do good and also do well? Here’s Rotary District 5280’s Humanitarian Trip for 2015, to Guatemala, for $1600 per person, all-inclusive, even the air! Dates are Feb 5-9, climate is spring-like, and it’s the travel bargain of the year.
As Richard Hamm, District Trip Chair, put it, the indigenous people living outside Guatemala's major cities are the most wonderful people you can meet but also the poorest in our hemisphere. Guatemala is a beautiful country, with steep mountains, sparkling lakes, world-class Mayan ruins and indigenous weaving and other crafts. But Guatemala also has a need in its picturesque countryside for better water supplies, increased literacy and hospital access. Here are some examples of how Rotary will take action.
Guatemala needs to break its cycle of poverty, by improving literacy, and Rotary has plans to provide textbooks and computers with a small rental fee that can keep the project self-sustaining.
Improve the quality of life? Around Lake Atitlan, our District 5280, along with Guatemala Rotary District 4250, has a plan to reduce smoke pollution. Decreasing logging and replacing wood as a fuel with something less costly, will help stop run-off from the de-forested hillsides into the clear blue crater lake, rated as one of the twenty most beautiful places on Planet Earth. Unique high altitude scuba diving experiences there help Guatemala’s tourist industry grow.
Want to contribute to building local leadership? Rotarians can help with leadership training seminars. Crime and violent in personal conflict seems to go with low literacy rates and poverty. Classes in conflict resolution start with an examination of personal values. A Rotary Global Grant of $31,000 goes toward this.
Further humanitarian experiences will be the distribution of wheelchairs. And thanks to a Rotarian/Global Grant gift of $42000 to the Moore Pediatric Surgery Center, there will be improved technology, new computer software and kitchen expansion.
Beside observing local conditions and contributing, Rotarians will get a chance to tour this beautiful country. Two nights will be spent headquartered in Antigua, a colonial city in the central highlands. Antigua is a UNESCO Cultural World Heritage Site with a 5 Star resort Hotel Casa de Santo Domingo, where trip participants will stay. Beautifully preserved Spanish Baroque colonial buildings from the 1500’s stand next to violently jumbled walls that fell during an earthquake in 1771.
An optional day trip to Tikal, the largest and best-preserved Mayan ruin, shows temples, ball courts and how on-going archeological excavations work. A side trip to Roatan in neighboring British Honduras may be purchased for $800 as a post-tour trip. Roatan is a scuba and skin diver’s paradise on the Caribbean side of Central America.
“World Peace Through better Understanding” is the mission of these humanitarian field trips. Here’s one not to be missed. Only 120 from the District can go, and reservations must be made by September 15. Register online.