This Rotary year’s theme is “Serve to Change Lives”. Think of the impact we can have through your generosity in establishing an Endowment Fund. It will enable us to be bigger and bolder in our service projects locally and internationally. In 2021, our Club initiated a special Endowment for Maternal & Child Health. This fund will help establish and strengthen not only the “empowering of girls” but children as well. As you know, even today, girls and young women face disproportionate challenges all over the world, like gender equality in the workplace, inaccessibility to education, better healthcare, and employment.
Through my many travels with Rotary, I have come across human trafficking for sex or children sold as hard laborers in Africa and Asia. These girls were abandoned or sold by their parents. It’s a very sad sight when you see young girls living in constant fear, hunger, pregnant and with little hope and no future. Rotary Clubs have continuously tried very hard with funding from Global Grants to help these young women to escape this seemingly hopeless situation and restore a sense of pride and confidence in their lives. We have created “Safe Houses” for these young girls; some are as young as 10 years old. We had to move them out of their native areas and establish safe housing for them. Some of them have drug addictions, AIDS, and other diseases as well as suffering from mental health issues. Our help is needed for them to rehabilitate.
All this work needs hours of volunteer effort and funding. We also established partnerships with other organizations and local Rotary Clubs in the area to support our work. I have visited these “Safe Houses” and have spent time with these young girls and mothers giving them support and encouragement. It’s wonderful to see they can be successful with Rotary’s help and support. The Richmond Sunset Rotary Club of District 5040 decided to establish this MCH Endowment Fund of $100,000.00 to enable us to press on with our goals as well as the goals of The Rotary Foundation.
The Richmond Sunset Rotary Club, for the past 19 years, has hosted Winter Wonderland inside the Richmond City Hall galleria for fundraising. In 2021 due to Covid-19, we were unable to do this fundraising event indoors because of government restrictions. With many meetings and discussions, we were able to persuade the City of Richmond to let us host our fundraising event outdoors at the City’s Plaza. A total of 34 different species of live trees were sold to sponsors. We had Giant Sequoia, Douglas Fir, Blue Spruce, Oriental Spruce, North Pole Spruce, Hinoki Cypress and Korean Fir. Each tree was labeled so that visitors would know the names of the trees they were admiring while walking around them. These trees were planted after the event in different City Parks as part of their sustainability program. A total of 150 strings of lights were used to light up the trees. We engaged Interactors from Hugh Boyd and Steveston London Secondary Schools to participate in putting up the Christmas lights. Setting up the trees was very challenging as we had to work through strong winds, heavy rain and at times snow. With help from the City’s Parks Department, we were able to overcome these challenges and did bring a Winter Wonderland for our community to enjoy. With generous donations and fundraising, our Club was able to raise $88,000.00 for Maternal Child Health Endowment Fund. For the remainder of 2022, we will continue to fundraise to meet our goal of $100,000.00.