Rotary news in brief from around the globe
The Rotarian -- May 2013
After three years of work, the Rotary Club of Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii, USA, completed a US$300,000 renovation of the Lahaina Public Library, a 57-year-old structure that had fallen into disrepair due to a lack of state funds.
The club collaborated with Maui Friends of the Library and the Hawaii State Library System to raise money, commission a redesign, remove and reshelve 35,000 books, and recruit 21 companies and more than 100 volunteers to provide pro bono services. It was the largest project in the club’s history.
Great Britain
In August, the Rotary Club of Ellon, Scotland, and the Ythan Cycle Club hosted their third annual Ellon Pedal Car Race. (A pedal car is a four-wheeled, one-person bike.) The closed-road race around a half-mile course drew pedal-car cyclists from Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Perth. Eighteen teams, sponsored by local businesses, competed to rack up the highest number of laps in the hourlong event, which raised more than US$9,000 for Maggie’s Cancer Centre in Aberdeen.
Honduras
Rotarians from seven clubs in Tegucigalpa worked together to fund two outreach centers for young people in the capital city. The clubs teamed up with the USAID Regional Youth Alliance project, the Rotarian Action Group for Population Growth and Sustainable Development, and Save the Children, which operates the facilities. Located in Buenas Nuevas and Villa Franca, neighborhoods with high rates of gang activity, the centers offer tutoring, vocational training, and sports programs to children and young adults ages 10 to 29.
Liberia
After enduring years of civil war, beginning in the 1980s and ending in 2003, Liberia has few facilities for youth recreation, so children often play in empty lots or streets without supervision. In January, the Rotary Club of Sinkor broke ground on a center for young people in a suburb of Monrovia. The Liberia Girl Guides Association donated an acre of land, which will accommodate an outdoor basketball court; two palaver huts, which are traditional spaces for dialogue; a cafeteria; and a playground.
New Zealand
Hundreds of New Zealanders got down and dirty in June at the Naki Run Amuck mud run in the village of Urenui. Hosted by the Rotary Club of New Plymouth North, the event featured a 2.5-mile course with a variety of mud-covered obstacles. The runners raised more than NZ$10,000, most of which went to help the local Taranaki Coastguard construct a new rescue boat. More than 800 participants are expected for the next event, also scheduled for June.
Sri Lanka
Land mines laid during the Sri Lanka’s quarter-century civil war have injured tens of thousands of people. Rotary clubs in districts 3220 (Sri Lanka) and 3140 (part of India) worked with the Colombo Friend-in-Need Society to host the International Jaipur Foot Prosthetic Limb camp in the capital in July. The workshop provided prosthetic limbs, gait training, and counseling to more than 350 people who had lost limbs to land mines.
Tanzania
Six Rotary clubs in Dar es Salaam came together to organize a fundraising “marathon” in October. The event included 13-mile run and 5.5-mile walk options for 5,000 participants from across Tanzania and Uganda, the two countries in the new Rotary District 9211. It raised more than US$330,000 for a pediatric oncology ward at the Muhimbili National Hospital, which sees more than 300 new cases every year. The ward will feature a 17-bed inpatient facility and six isolation rooms for children in danger of infection.
Turkey
In 1988, the Rotary Club of Istanbul-Findikli built the Findikli Primary School, which serves 650 students in its 20 classrooms. Last year, as part of its continued sponsorship of the school, the club installed solar panels. The new system is designed to produce enough power for the computers, kitchen, and emergency lighting. The club educated teachers and students about green energy and set up a computer that provides a digital measurement of the power produced.
Venezuela
Bed nets can save lives in tropical areas where mosquitoes transmit malaria. The Rotary Club of Key Biscayne, Fla., USA, received a Matching Grant from The Rotary Foundation to purchase 1,500 insecticide-treated bed nets, or mosquiteros, designed to fit the hammocks used in indigenous communities. Steve Baker, of the Key Biscayne club, joined with members of the Rotary clubs of Cachamay Nuevas Generaciones-Ciudad Guayana, Puerto Ordaz, and Caroni de Puerto Ordaz to distribute the nets in Bolívar State in October.
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