Mekdes Gete and Nathan Hesketh have come on as new permanent members of the committee. Additionally, they have both joined the Board of Rotary World Help (RWH).
Mekdes presented the project she has been passionate about. Mekdes has been a Montessori teacher for over 20 years. Education is of paramount importance to her. She founded the Hibret Amharic & Cultural School Society (HAACSS) where she teaches Ethiopian children traditional cultural language, food, music, and dance thereby bridging the gap between their family heritage and their Canadian upbringing. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the scheduled weekly Saturday classes have been given on-line. This year the society was registered as a non-profit.
One of the projects that HAACSS has been working on is to support the Hibret Elementary School, Debre Zeyit, Ethipia. When Mekdes visited their a number of years ago (her home town) she saw that the equipment was in very poor condition. She made the commitment then and there to help them upgrade. The most manageable project to start with was to fundraise for benches, desks. They were successful and 40 were delivered in 2018.
In June 2019, Mekdes visited the school again. This time a new library was brought to the fore as the next project. Mekdes, through HAACSS has been fundraising and working remotely on the project. In April 2020, despite the pandemic, they started construction for the new library. As a side benefit to this being a fabulous thing for student, a number of jobs were provided for the community during construction. As we continue our fundraising efforts, the construction continues. The basic structure is up. There is quite a bit left to do including reinforcing the walls, windows & doors, laying floors, and ultimately finishing the space. They need between $8,000-10,000 to complete the project.
For more information,
CLICK HERE. Contact Mekdes if you’d like to talk to her about it.
Michael added that the Ethiopian community, about 3,000 in the lower mainland, put together the funds to send a container to Ethiopia last fall via RWH.
Verona Edelstein let everyone know about a recent proposal received for another project in the Congo. Lucy Hopgood-Brown, a Rotarian in Sydney, Australia, sent the invitation via Verona to our club. There was a pilot project in Lucy’s home village in the Congo with emergency care doctors that went very well. They are now moving on to a full project, being led by a Rotarian and doctor, Margaret Loewen from Colorado. They will be working with the Protestant University in the Congo. Interestingly, Verona discovered that the university was CITA funded – a Canadian connection. Planning is that the project will be over 4 years with an end cost of approximately USD$800,000. They will be working to international standards. The idea is to bring doctors from all over the Congo to Kinshasa, for now virtually, to provide a year long training program for medical health workers. They will be going to get equipment and supplies needed for the program. The 1st year will be training the trainers. Over the 4 years medical personnel all over the country will be trained.
It seems that Lucy who started this in Australia, and Margaret in Colorado, went to school together in the Congo. Verona will be pursuing further discussions next week to decide how our club can support the project.
Michael: The far reaching and collective power of Rotary is enormous. This project and the way Rotarians from different countries connect to make it happen is a perfect example of that.
Sandra Lowe, via Michael, provided a follow up on joint project in the Dominican Republic. A project to help disadvantaged, mostly Haitian immigrants, providing them with support and resources for the benefit of their health and education. This was a private member project that just received a global $130,000 grant.
The Karantina Children’s hospital in Beirut (Cosmopolitan Club in Beirut) was nearly destroyed with the tragic explosion. In response a nearly USD$400,000 global grant was developed. Our club embraced the idea to help in a big way; our contribution was major. 150 clubs in 6 countries combined to provide funding and equipment.
Rene Abi-Rached added that in the area of the hospital, 3-4 other hospitals were horribly damaged or destroyed completely. His Dad was an engineer on the projects when they were initially built. The area of the blast was about ¼ of the area of Hiroshima. Luckily it was close to the water. The blast created a, roughly, 4.0 earthquake.
Michael: learned that a few containers had been sent from eastern Canada, and on the strength of that, knowing that they were received and the contents reached their intended recipients, our CS committee has approved sending a container with medical equipment to Beirut later this year via RWH.
Michael’s own passion lies in Cambodia. They are currently suffering very badly from COVID. Sustainable Cambodia, started by a Rotary group out of Florida, is working on education projects, adopting villages who need water, hygiene resources, etc. Our club is a participant. A report was recently received showing that 2 wells have been drilled in Domrey Sor Village. As a result, 17 families, 77 individuals, will now have clean water easily accessible year round. Without having to carry water, the children can attend school regularly.
Our club through the committee, this year has sponsored and loaded a container to the Philippines (a 2nd one). And also, we helped fund a project led by the West Vancouver Sunrise club (Chris Loat) for water sanitation in Uganda.
Verona: kudos to John Bathurst for bringing the Belinda project to all of the Vancouver area clubs – most of whom contributed.
A personal thank you from President Gerry to Michael for all the work he has done over the years as chair of the committee. Parisa Adrangi will be stepping in as chair of the committee starting in 2021-22 relieving Michael and Ian Storrs, who have been co-chairs.
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