Category: International

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Doing Good in South Africa with the GOGO Project

Thanks to the contacts which Club member and Foundation Chairman Ivan Hill has developed with the Rotary Club of Knysna in South Africa we’ve recently been able to work with that Club on a project to provide some much needed welfare to vulnerable and needy children in the nearby communities.

Knysna have been involved with the “Gogo” project for some years. “Gogo” is ‘grandmother’ in Xhosa and pronounced ‘gorgor’. The Gogo project is a nationally run welfare scheme which effectively puts trained social workers (Gogo’s) in direct contact with needy and vulnerable black children.

The focus of the Gogo workers is on both education and welfare, with particular emphasis on HIV/AIDS. Each Gogo is allocated up to 20 children who are at risk – childheaded households, single HIV patients deserted by their spouse due to fear of AIDS, or single parents who have had to leave their homes due to alcohol abuse, physical violence etc.

The Matching Grant funding for the project of R.110,000 (£7,500) will fund Knysna’s Gogo activities for a year and will be spent on clothing (mainly warm underwear for the cold summers, May to August, and School Uniforms), food, health and sanitary requirements, with a very small payment to the Gogos to help them with buying shoes, as they have to walk several miles every day.

Currently, there are 6 Gogos involved, looking after 140 children with the support of Rotarians from the Knysna Club whotake turns at purchasing the week’s necessities and delivering the produce to the soup kitchens and the supplies to the Gogos.

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Rotary Summer BBQ

Today saw the Club’s annual summer BBQ at the Wolverhampton Cricket Club. Oragnised by Doug Evans and his International team the event was held to raise funds for Village Water, a charity which had impressed the Club with the emphasis that it places on the sustainability of its projects.

In the past many schemes which aimed to deliver clean drinking water to communities in Africa have foundered as organisations have simply dumped pumps in communities without providing the infrastructure necessary for their continuing maintenance. Village Water ensures that local people are trained to maintain and repair the pumps which they install so as to ensure that their projects have a meaningful long term impact. Additionally the supply of the water pump is only part of a wider sanitation programme with all the occupiers of the village being required to sign up to and to implement basic sanitation measures in the form of latrines and handwashing facilities before the pump is brought into use. By invloving the comunity in this way Village Water ensures that their projects have a long term impact on the communities which they help reducing ill health and deaths as well as encouraging economic activity.

With Chris Bowyer and Izeham Che Dan on BBQ duty it was wonderful opportunity to enjoy a range of BBQ food generously supplied by the Club’s very own butcher John Whitten – the black pudding being especially good. Monies raised from ticket and raffle sales on the day mean that the Club has now met its Village Water fundraising target and another Zambian Village will benefit from the sanitation services and clean water supplies which the charity delivers.

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Village Water

We were joined this evening by Steve Evans a member of the Rotary Club of Ironbridge. Steve has long been involved with the development of Rotary’s international programme but had come to talk to the Club about the work of the Village Water charity in advance of World Water Day on the 22nd March.

Billions of people lack access to safe drinking water and proper sanitation. Village Water provides hygiene education and sustainable water for rural villages in western Zambia. The charity installs protected shallow wells with manual water pumps that allow the people to draw uncontaminated water from underground.

Diarrhoea is one of the leading causes of infant mortality in Zambia and a major contributor to malnutrition. Village Water will only install pumps in villages where the community agrees to implement measures to provide for the safe disposal of human waste, and to adopt basic hygiene practices such as hand washing with soap in order to break the cycle of disease transmission for diarrhoea, particularly amongst children under five.

To date, Village Water has succeeded in helping over 75,000 people in 326 villages, each with either a new or rehabilitated well and with around 20 pit latrines for toilets, with hand washing, refuse pits and plate and vegetable racks to keep the food off the ground – and this has had a dramatic impact upon the health of the people. All the sanitation work is undertaken by the people themselves with Village Water providing cement and other materials.

Our thanks to Steve for his work in promoting the work of this very worthwhile charity and rest assured that we shall be supporting its work over the coming year.

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V Festival Tent Collection

Gerry Turner and Doug Evans reported back to the Club on their involvement with the Charity Tent Collection which takes place each year following the V Festival at Weston Park.

The collection, which is co-ordinated by the Rotary Club of Brewood and District, is now in its fourth year.

Over 250 volunteers helped to collect in over 1000 tents on the first day of the clean up alone. These tents which have been left by visitors to the festival and which otherwise would end up in landfill are distributed by the International Aid Trust Charity to be used in connection with disaster relief.

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Pakistan Floods – Disaster Relief

Working with other Rotary Clubs and with the World Water Works charity the Tettenhall Club has helped to ship 200 Water Survival Boxes to the flood affected areas in Pakistan.

These boxes are filled with new items that people who have lost everything would need to survive – including mugs to drink out of, cooking pots, bowls to eat from, spoons, anti-septic spray, cotton materials and needles and thread, basic tools, tarpaulin and bungee cords to make simple shelters.

The Water Survival Box itself is a rigid, reinforced 54 litre plastic container that becomes a receptacle for water when emptied of these survival items, it includes a filtration pack including chlorine tablets – enough for family of 4 for some 4 months.

Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland (RIBI) has launched an appeal to help the hundreds of thousands of people affected by the Pakistan floods. Donations will be used to aid the long-term rebuilding of communities in the affected areas. If you’d like to donate to this appeal follow the link here.