Vermilion Rotary at Work Internationally

Posted by Shirley McRobert 
 

The Rotary Club of Vermilion embraces the opportunity to contribute time, skills, and financial support to a broad range of humanitarian and intercultural activities designed to respond to health, education, literacy, clean water, training and youth initiatives.

 

The building of goodwill and understanding through international service was present in February. Rotarians Lionel Van Peteghen and Shirley McRobert who volunteered over the years on projects took community member Dave Gamracy along for the experience. "It's so different from us here," said Dave Gamracy, who was on his first trip to the country.

 

Fly from Edmonton to Puerto Plata 5 hours 55 minutes, bus from Puerto Plata to Santo Domingo 3 hours 30 minutes, Santo Domingo to the village where they were to stay (Arroyo Hondo) 2 hours driving time. Volunteers pay for their own travel and living expenses. 

 

Upon arriving in Santo Domingo Shirley was greeted by her son, yes, son Chance McRobert who has been volunteering these past 6 months with projects and Shawn Daley, Father Joe's assistant were ready to whisk them away in Father Joe's truck. A point of interest on Father Joe's truck, his family members from Clandonald purchased it for him and his parish work. Father Joe is from Clandonald originally and has been in the Dominican Republic for 40 plus years and is the Rotary's contact for these humanitarian projects.

 

The following Dominican Republic projects have benefited from the Vermilion Rotary Club involvement:

  • Assistance with the establishment of a sewing centre
  • Library and culture centre
  • Financial support for safe water and installing water filter systems
  • Leprosy project
  • Financial assistance to youth volunteers assisting with home renovations for needy families

One of the goals of this trip was to help set up and distribute bio-sands water filter systems which would provide clean drinking water. The village of Arroyo Hondo is in the middle of a desert which hasn't had any rain for three years. Water is a respected commodity and being able to produce your own clean safe water, priceless! Not only for drinking but to be able to shower with virus free water helps stop skin conditions such as open sores that do not heal. Showering consists of an ice cream pail amount of water. No one wastes water. Water is available only on certain days and people who can afford to purchase pumps hook on to the under ground lines and pump a 45 gallon drum full at a time. On that note they are not sure what days water will be on. The cost of a water filter system is approximately 1500 pesos and several families may share one system. Clean drinking water is produced at a litre a minute, and all you have to do it keep adding the raw water. A concern is that they weigh approximately 300 pounds and need to be handled very careful so they do not break. The total number delivered this trip was 18. That could translate into 200 people being able to have safe water.

 

Another goal was to assist with the finishing touches to a project that Lionel and Shirley worked on in 2006. The library and culture centre. Shawn and Chance had 95% of the work done but left them with one more floor to title and get ready for the computers. Indotel an internet company the same as Telus here provided free 18 computers for the computer lab. This in itself was a huge undertaking for Shawn to accomplish. At 6:00am on the opening day Lionel and Shirley spent the morning with steel wool scraping the extra cement off the floor. It looked beautiful for the official opening. On Feb. 19, 2007 all the hard work had paid off and the Library and Computer lab were officially opened for children and adults.  

 

This is just a sample of the good work volunteers from the Vermilion Community have been able to accomplish. From the individuals who donated cash, fabric, medicine and the list goes on and on. Supporting the projects of the Vermilion Rotary Club has definitely made all this possible.