District Governor Cindy Rold spoke to Longmont Rotary Club on DATE about her recent visit to Kenya, where she viewed several Rotary water projects and saw first-hand the impact that Rotary has had on the lives of local residents.Cindy spoke about the importance of the educational component of water projects, because people who have never been educated about the importance of clean water don’t understand why they should invest effort to maintain the cleanliness of the water.
Rotary projects provide both clan water and education. For example,Rotary has undertaken a program of spring protection at 58 spring sites, so that the water which flows out of the ground will remain clean. Local residents are empowered and trained to maintain the clean area around the spring. Residents come to fill containers of water at the spring head, often carrying 20 liters of water on their head up to 8 times a day!
In Nairobi, Cindy went on, there are over one million people living in slums, with entire families sharing 10x10 shacks with no running water. She visited the largest school in that city, which serves 6000 students, also without running water. The Littleton Rotary club had sponsored a water filtration project for that school. Cindy said that the filtered water “tasted delicious!” The educational component of that project included training 100 students as “wash champions” who educate their classmates about the importance of clean water and how to maintain the pipes. One of the students told her gleefully that “we don’t have stomach aches any more.”
Cindy also told us about some unmet needs in the area, for example a school with 400 students that has only 4 hole-in-the-ground latrines. They requested help to replace those “disgusting” latrines with more hygienic facilities. She also visited an orphanage that has no running water. The children must carry in buckets of water to wash themselves. That orphanage and 6 local schools have all requested water filtration systems.
Cindy’s talk provided clear evidence that Rotary is, indeed, “United for Good!”