Projects in Chile
When I visited Chile after the earthquake, I met with three rotary clubs in the most affected areas and they all agreed that one of the most important things that we could do to help the cities of Arauco, Curanilahue and Canete was to fundraise for an emergency vehicle that also will be a mobile dental clinic to help the rural areas around these cities.
With personal donations and fundraiser dinners in the Shark Club and at the Second Street Theatre we were able to raise $20,000 US. The three clubs in Chile donated to this fund and a matching grant from Rotary International made it possible to raise the $54,000 US needed to realize this project.
I would like to recognize all the individual Rotarians that generously donated money. Also all the individuals that donated their time at the Shark Club fundraiser and the Shark Club organization for allowing us to use their Club.
I would also like to thank all of my committee of volunteers that donated their time and energy to make this possible.
Now I'd like to talk about the wheelchair project. In 2003, I was part of a delegation to Brazil and the south of Chile and during this visit in Chile we saw a mother carrying her large handicapped son in her arms and then setting him down and picking him up again and walking. We asked our fellow Rotarian why she was doing that and he informed us that she had to do this to take her son to his kinesiology appointment at the rotary club. This sparked the wheelchair campaign.
Individual Rotarians donated and over the last decade approximately 250 wheelchairs were donated in this area.
More recently another shipment was made with your help and the help of the Canadian Wheel Chair Foundation. This allowed for 280 more wheelchairs to be distributed to various areas in Chile. Funding for this project came from a combination of gaming funds from our club, some fundraising and a $25,000 Community Initiatives Program (C.I.P.) grant from the Government of Alberta. This allowed us to send 150 wheelchairs to a clinic in the city of San Felipe and 130 went to different agencies in the city of Lota.
They opened these brand new red wheelchairs and were incredibly grateful. They couldn't believe they were new chairs not used ones.Now because of this the lives of many handicapped children and adults and all of their families lives are changed forever.
Simple things like coming to the table for a meal can now be done independently instead of having to be carried. Imagine the difference if you had to take your child to the Doctor or even out for a walk.
The image of that small woman carrying her handicapped child was just unacceptable and due to your generous gifts we are helping to lessen the suffering of so many people.
A video of the ceremony celebrating the donation is shown below. The newscast is in Spanish and represents the 2nd half of the project where the 150 wheelchairs were delivered to a clinic in San Felipe.