District 7890 Clubs Join Forces
District 7890 Clubs Join Together to Complete Ninth and Tenth Water Projects
Twenty-nine Rotary Clubs in northern CT and Western MA (Rotary District 7890) have joined together to fund a project that will bring fresh drinking water to two needy communities in Guatemala. Clubs from Avon-Canton, Bloomfield, Broad Brook, Danielson, East Hartford, East Windsor, Enfield, Farmington, Kensington-Berlin, Manchester, Newington, New Britain-Berlin, Plainfield, Rockville, Salisbury, Southington, Torrington, Watertown, Wethersfield/Rocky Hill, Willimantic and Windsor/Windsor Locks, CT along with Massachusetts’ clubs in Holyoke, Ludlow, Palmer, Southwick, Tri-Town, West Springfield and Wilbraham/Hampden have raised at total of $100,610. These funds will build a complete gravity fed water system with gray water filters, vented pit latrines and improved vented stoves for the 240 families (1,200 people) that live in the rural communities of Chuacacay and El Llano, Guatemala. These are the ninth and tenth funded projects continuing the goal of Rotary International to have every Rotary Club support an international water and sanitation project every year. By working together, pooling their resources and obtaining a Global Grant with matching funds from The Rotary Foundation, the Rotarians have been successful in adding size and strength to their chosen projects. Two Rotary clubs from neighboring Massachusetts/Rhode Island District 7950, East Greenwich and Wakefield, RI, and the Ft. Lauderdale, FL North Beach club from District 6990 also contributed funds to achieve the fund raising goal.
At a recent meeting of the Manchester Rotary Club representatives from clubs contributing to the Chuacacay and El Llano, Guatemala water projects are as follows (L-R):
Front Row behind check: District Governor Michael Barnett; Maria Bogdanski – Kensington-Berlin; Zoe Kopp – BPD Past Vice President; Lisa-Barall Matt – Avon-Canton; seated Bobbi Mazurek – Broad Brook.
Back Row: District Grants Chair Don Chandler; Tom Accomando – Holyoke, MA; Kate Sims – Manchester; Olivia Martino – Berlin H. S. Interact Club; Danielle Varley - Berlin H. S. Interact Club; Derek Meade – Enfield; Bob Newbold – Newington; Eric Fahnoe – Bloomfield; Lynn Dobrowsky – Windsor-Windsor Locks; Mike Gorzoch – New Britain-Berlin; Thora Cowperthwaite – Rockville; Manchester Rotarian & Project Chair Rick Lawrence.
District Water Committee Chair and Manchester Rotarian Rick Lawrence again spearheaded the drive to raise the necessary funds by making presentations about the project to the area clubs as well as several other Rotary clubs in Greater Hartford. In March he and his wife traveled to Guatemala to visit the village that was funded the previous year. While there, he documented photographically the improvements and expressions of gratitude displayed by the members of the village, utilizing these during his presentations and showing the Rotarians how important their past contributions were to these indigenous Mayans.
The project’s implementation will be coordinated through the host partner, the Rotary Club of La Antigua, Guatemala and its cooperating partner, Behrhorst Partners for Development (BPD), a non-profit organization with ties to over 60 communities in Guatemala. Behrhorst helps train community-chosen people as traditional birth attendants, a health promoter, a village dispensary manager and someone to oversee use of medical emergency transportation funds. Behrhorst also provides extensive training in hygiene, maintenance of the water system components, micro loans, nutrition, including help in school and home vegetable gardens, as well as educational talks about family planning and birth spacing. In Guatemala over 50% of children suffer from chronic malnutrition.
This Rotary project will help address some of the basic causes of poor health in this area, and will help the villagers address basic sanitation – water systems, gray-water filters and latrines – in order to help prevent the constant illnesses that afflict the population, particularly children.
For further information, contact Rick Lawrence at elawrlaw@sbcglobal.net or (860) 643-4560.