International

The Rotary Club of Annapolis Improves Lives in Guatemala

Working in partnership with the Rotary International Foundation and District 7620, the Rotary Clubs of Annapolis and Lake Atitlan, Guatemala are funding a new well, installation of a pump and construction of a water delivery system for the people of Vista Hermosa, a small village high in the volcanic mountains of Guatemala.

This international effort was proposed to RC Annapolis by members of the Guatemala-based Rotary Club and Agua de Pueblo, a nonprofit water systems developer with decades of experience in Guatemala. The local experts understood that people of Vista Hermosa were spending hours daily traveling down steep, uneven slopes to carry water for drinking, cooking, and cleaning from a nearby stream. The hours spent retrieving water limited the ability of families to do income generating work – such as gardening or raising poultry. The dramatic topography of Guatemala includes 37 volcanoes and makes any type of construction difficult. The two Rotary Clubs worked with their expert partner, Agua de Pueblo, and the municipality to envision a brighter future for the people of Vista Hermosa.

This Spring construction began just outside of Vista Hermosa. Well digging must be done by hand because the steep, forested hillsides make delivery of excavation equipment impossible. RC of Annapolis members were able to visit the site in April. In June we learned that the well-diggers had hit water at 8.5 meters.

As construction continues, the grant has also funded education of the leaders of Vista received training in best practices for healthy hygiene. Phase 2 of the project funds a water treatment system which will ensure that water used within the village is responsibly treated and carried away. This protects Lake Atitlan, an important economic resource in this region, from pollution.

International Rotary’s motto is “Service above self.” Rotary members define themselves as “people of action!” This remarkable construction project, which will improve the lives of hundreds of men, women and children, is an exciting example of these principles.

Critical funding for this project was contributed by the following D7620 Rotary Clubs: BaltimoreMetro Bethesda RockvilleCapitol Hill Parole Washington, DC Carrolls Creek South Anne Arundel Co DuPont Circle Lakeshore/Severna Park

Additional Rotary support comes from clubs in Heritage Park, Canada, as well as Petaluma and Petaluma Valley in California, California. WASHRAG (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Rotary Action Group) reviewed the proposal and awarded funds, and Matching funds were given by District 7620 and The Rotary Foundation through Global Grant.

Annapolis Rotary Works to Improve Lives in Rural Honduras

La Paz is a rural community located in Honduras where 60 % of the population lives in poverty. In La Paz, 80% of the community does not have access to clean water, 50% of the population has no sanitary bathroom option and the whole community has traditionally had very limited access to education.

Compassion Partners (HCP) is a 501c Corporation founded in 2014. HCP’s stated mission is to transform La Paz. HCP has consistently collaborated with Rotary to super-charge their efforts. Over the past five years, Annapolis Rotary has worked with HCP to provide La Paz with sturdy, secure, new homes, water treatment, and improved educational opportunities for the people of La Paz. Members of Annapolis Rotary have even traveled to La Paz to work side by side with community members.

In 2024, HCP approached Annapolis Rotary with a request for funding to improve their computer classroom. The classroom served over 160 students, providing training in basic computer skills to students attending an HCP-run school as well as vocational computer training for adults during the weekends. The computer lab was housed in a concrete building with a metal roof. There was no air conditioning, and the doors and windows did not provide security or prevent dust from entering the building. As temperatures rose to 95 degrees on many days, both students and equipment suffered.

Annapolis Rotary provided $3,250 of club funding and secured another $3,250 from our Rotary District. The $6,500 was used add an acoustic tile drop ceiling, secure windows and a sturdy metal door, and air conditioning. All materials were purchased locally and community members, including members of the Rotary Club of La Paz, completed the installation earlier this year.

Today HCP’s students can learn 21st century skills in a computer lab that is secure and comfortable. Thanks to the power of Rotary!

As Carlos Johnathan Zelaya, a Rotarian and Director of HCP reminds us at the bottom of every email – “It’s all about relationships.”

Annapolis Rotary Conducts Community Assessment in Guatemala January 27 to February 2, 2025

Lake Atitlan

“Together we see a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change – across the globe, in our communities and in ourselves!”

--Rotary International Vision Statement

Early this year, the leadership of the Annapolis Rotary Club’s International Grant Committee visited Vista Hermosa, a village roughly 45 miles from Guatemala City, to conduct a community assessment.

Videographer Alael Griffin

Vista Hermosa came to the attention of the Annapolis Rotary Club through the efforts of Agua del Pueblo (AdP), a non-profit Guatemalan Organization that has completed more than 500 integrated rural water, sanitation and community developments since its founding in 1972. The people of Vista Hermosa contacted AdP about their lack of water and AdP determined that a water delivery and wastewater treatment system could be provided to Vista Hermosa at a cost of around $75,000. The nearby Lake Atitlan Rotary Club, which has a history of supporting sustainable water delivery sanitation projects in the Lake Atitlan region, expressed their willingness to act as the host sponsor for a grant to provide Vista Hermosa with water.

With a strong and knowledgeable nonprofit partner and a vibrant, involved, Rotary Club ready to collaborate on the necessary improvements, this grant looked like a great project for Annapolis Rotary to spearhead.

Our team included Alael Griffin, who was an Annapolis Rotary Exchange student from France five years ago. Now a young photographer and documentarian, Alael was invited along to document our interactions with the people of Vista Hermosa and the Lake Atitlan Rotary Club.

Our team also included Carla Cua, the Guatemalan engineer who would oversee the planning and installation of water treatment systems in Vista Hermosa.

Engineer Carla Cua

During our visit to Vista Hermosa, we met with the Water Committee, a group of local gentlemen who manage the water supply system there, setting the rates for water consumption and promoting the acquisition of skill and equipment necessary for system maintenance. These men explained that the system currently serving the Vista Hermosa homes and the local school delivers running water for less than three hours per day. The rest of the time water must be carried from a distant well. The women of Vista Hermosa reported spending two to three hours a day on water related tasks, including carrying laundry, children and babies down a steep and uneven path to the river for washing. The women were eager tell us what they would spend their time on if they didn’t have to lose 14 to 21 hours a week to carrying water. They said they would spend time on their needlework and raise poultry—both of which could bring additional income to their families.

The men of the Water Committee report on how water scarcity impacts their lives.

District School Administrator Rosita Magdalena Pancheco Chavajay

Carrying water home.

Alcalde Alfonso Caceres

During our time spent in and around Vista Hermosa, the team also met with the “Alcalde,” or Mayor, and the municipal Council to discuss the village’s need and the possibility of funding a water delivery and treatment project

Lydia Hohman of Annapolis Rotary with Clint White of the Lake Atitlan Rotary Club

The team also spent time with the Lake Atitlan Rotary Club, cultivating the friendship and cooperation that is at the heart of Rotary

Next Steps: The Rotary Club of Annapolis has pledged $8,000 towards the design and installation of an effective water delivery and wastewater treatment system in Vista Hermosa. We will be reaching out to other Rotary Clubs in District 7620 and beyond to raise the funding needed to make the dream of clean, reliable water a reality for Vista Hermosa!

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Welcome to the Rotary Club of Annapolis International Lane!

The mission of The Rotary International Foundation is to enable Rotarians to advance world understanding, goodwill and peace through the improvement of health, the support of education and the alleviation of poverty.

The Rotary Club of Annapolis is proud to be an informed and active participant in The Rotary Foundation. We promote service above self by encouraging our members to go beyond their local communities and share their expertise in areas such as water, literacy and education, economic and community development and medical intervention.

Our club has been a leader in Rotary Foundation Global Grants, which support larger projects with sustainable, high-impact outcomes within six areas.

• Peace and Conflict Resolution
• Disease Prevention and Treatment
• Water and Sanitation
• Maternal and Child Health
• Economic and Community Development
• Basic Education and Literacy

International Grant from Annapolis Rotary Has Big Impact

Annapolis, MD (September 16, 2020) The Rotary Club of Annapolis recently gave a $3,000 grant for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to hospital workers fighting the coronavirus in Caracas, Venezuela. The small grant has had a major impact on the community.

With the collapse of its healthcare system and ongoing humanitarian crisis, Venezuela has one of the highest mortality rates among healthcare workers of any country in the world. Doctors and nurses on the front lines routinely work without facemasks, gloves, or running water. Wages are meager and complaints about working conditions bring reprisals from authorities. Estimates from Amnesty International and the non-governmental organization Médicos Unidos de Venezuela indicate that medical professionals represent nearly 30% of the nation’s Covid-19 deaths.

The grant, in partnership with the Rotary Club of El Peñón in Caracas, provided 3350 pairs of gloves, 2500 N95 face masks, and 52 gallons of antibacterial gel to San Juan de Dios Pediatric Hospital and Ana Francisca Pérez de León Hospital. The supplies will protect approximately 60 healthcare professionals for a month, enabling workers to continue their mission to improve health conditions in the neediest communities in Caracas.

Delegations from El Peñón Rotary Club and the recipient hospitals held an online meeting September 3rd to formally recognize the importance of the donated PPE. El Peñón Rotary Club representative Juan Quintera said, “Thank you Annapolis Rotary for this vital equipment to help us save lives.”

The Rotary Club of Annapolis was founded in 1921 and includes 140 members focused on improving our local community and the world. Members attend breakfast, lunch, or happy hour meetings depending on their schedules. Guests are always welcome at Club meetings.

Rotary International Global Grant GG1863665 Successfully completed

Improving Quality and access to reproductive heath services Mpererwe Uganda

The Rotary Club of Annapolis partnered with the Rotary Club of Kololo Uganda in a $53,500 grant to reduce the infant and maternal death rate at St. Stephen Community Hospital in Mpererwe Uganda. The Grant purchased a new ambulance to transport mothers and babies as needed, funded weekly home visits for mother after delivery and provided adolescent reproductive health education at area schools. It also aimed to reduce newborn deaths in the community in half through procuring infant warmers, Sonicaid dopler and training of staff in the newborn care.

The grant partners included - Rotary Clubs of Annapolis, Kololo Kampala Uganda, Annapolis Rotaract, Metro Bethesda, Dupont Circle, South AA county, and Washington DC, as well as matching funds from District 7620, District 9211, and Rotary International.

For more information about our international projects or how you can get involved; please Contact - Debra McGhee

International Grants

Uganda - Kololo Kampala 2019

The Rotary Club of Annapolis, South County Rotary, and Annapolis Rotaract Club partnered on a Rotary International grant with the Kololo Kampala Club to improve quality care and access to reproductive health services at St. Stephen’s Hospital in Npererwe, Uganda.

The $53,000 grant was made to address Uganda’s high infant mortality rate. The grant funds outreach clinics, neonatal home visits, school programs teaching reproductive health, and a template for training traditional medicine midwives in delivery protocols. Vital equipment including an infant crash cart (resuscitator), a fetal doppler ultrasound, and an ambulance were also funded.

Patrick Semwogerere, leader of the visiting delegation and past president of the Kololo Kampala Rotary, will speak at the Rotary Club of Annapolis' meeting on September 26 about the grant’s implementation, benchmarks reached, and plans for the future. While in the area, the delegation will tour Anne Arundel Medical Center’s maternity department and facilities throughout Annapolis and Washington, D.C.

Patrick Semwogerere’s counterpart, Annapolis Rotary International Lane Director Lydia Hohman, Renata Davis, and Rotarians Staff Warren, Sue Weber, Sharon Taylor, and Mike Datch visited the Uganda site a year ago. The Uganda delegation is reciprocating from that exchange as guests will be hosted by those who were themselves hosted last year.

Venezuela

Venezuela: Homeless children support (Asoprogar). In 2016, Annapolis club members contributed $950 to provide food and medication to three shelters that support homeless children in Caracas, Venezuela.

With inflation for 2016 estimated at over 800% and an economic decline of about 10%, Venezuela is facing a humanitarian crisis. Places like Asoprogar, which rely on private support are facing serious difficulties in raising the necessary funds to provide shelter, food, medicines and education to assist children in needs. The funds raised have been used to purchase food and medicines.

Children of Hope Uganda

Children of Hope Uganda: A Fence to Protect Income Generation. The Rotary Club of Annapolis contributed $5,011 to complete a fence at the Barlonyo Technical and Vocational School.

The school, operated by the Canadian NGO, Children of Hope, sits at the site of a 2004 of 301 villagers by the Lord's Resistance Army. It aims to empower war-affected youth impacted by actions of the Lord Resistance Army.

The 1,395 linear feet fence protects an area of approximately 1 acre of land enclosing the Poultry House, the Piggery, the Tilapia Fish Pond, and a crops field, all of which are income generating activities for the Barlonyo Technical and Vocational Institute (BTVI) in

Barlonyo, northern Uganda. The school trains around 200 formerly abducted and war-affected youth.

Bridge to Education

Bridge to Education. The Annapolis Rotary Club joined efforts with the Dupont Circle and Harare (Zimbabwe) Rotary clubs for the construction of a footbridge in Zimbabwe to allow children to safely cross the treacherous waters of a river to gain access to school.

The Shavanhowe River regularly floods during Zimbabwe’s rainy season from December to April, posing a high risk for schoolchildren attempting to cross when to attend the Chemhondoro Primary School near Murehwa, approximately 65 kilometers northeast of Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare—also home to the Rotary Club of Harare City. In the last five years alone, 14 people have died, most of which were children in transit to their school, as a result of failed attempts to cross the river. Community leaders devastated by the continued loss of life reached out to the Rotary Club of Harare City for help in developing a solution to this issue. The Rotary Club of Harare City, in partnership with the Rotary Club of Dupont Circle and local community leaders; proposed the building of a footbridge for increased safety for travelers.

As a result of Rotary’s investment in this footbridge project: a) schoolchildren will be safer traveling to school; b) attendance in the classroom will improve; and c) parents will not have to supervise the schoolchildren’s river crossing four times a day, giving them more time to spend on community development and income generation activities.

CanUgan

CanUgan: Empowering the Disabled. A $1,000 contribution has provided people in the Kasese District (Uganda) with assistive devices to enable them to earn a living in spite of their disabilities. The Annapolis Rotary Club is pairing with CanUgan Disability Support, a Canadian charity,

Of Uganda’s population of 35 million, people with disabilities are estimated at five to six million. They are one of the most poverty-stricken and vulnerable groups of people. Because of a lack of education and vocational skills, they barely survive. To meet their need for independence, mobility, communication and economic empowerment, CanUgan Disability Support provides them with assistive devices like hand-pedaled tricycles, white canes, hearing aids, crutches, calipers, raised shoes, etc.

The most painful aspect for people with disabilities in Uganda is the stigma associated with being dependent on others for their livelihood and daily activities. Therefore, economic empowerment is their most important and urgent need.

To assist people with disabilities in becoming economically independent, the projects focusses on providing assistive devices that would help them with income-generating activities. One outstanding example (shown opposite) is a tricycle with an attached solar panel for use by the recipient to charge mobile telephones of others in their village and thereby earn an income.

Among the disabled, children and youth are the most vulnerable. They suffer from congenital disabilities or disabilities incurred because of abductions, malnutrition, accidents, injuries and diseases like HIV/AIDS. Without help, they remain dependent on others all their life and are shunned by their communities and often even by their own families. Children are provided with assistive devices so they are able to attend school.

Panama

Panama - Kuna Yala and Scabies Eradication. The Annapolis Rotary ($500 grant) is partnering with the Rotary Clubs of Panama City and Oklahoma in this initiative to eradicate scabies

Scabies is a harmless but very itchy and highly contagious skin condition caused by mites that burrow into the skin and lay eggs. Symptoms include pain, a severe itch, often worse at nighttime, and thin burrow tracks made of tiny bumps or blisters on the skin. Sometimes, the infection can lead to an inflammation of the kidneys. It is treatable, but must be eradicated to prevent reinfestation.
The project will work with local clinics to treat all infected people and their houses. It is expected that the islands will be declared scabies free after the intervention.

Nepal

Nepal: Shelter for Earthquake Victims in Nepal. On Saturday, April 25, 2015 a massive 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck Nepal, just northwest of the capital of Kathmandu. It was the worst quake to strike the region in more than 80 years.

The area was hit with a second 7.3 magnitude quake just 17 days later, on May 12, causing further damage and suffering for those who had survived the initial disaster.

Nepal, well known for its rich cultural heritage and extreme tourism, is one of the poorest countries in Southeast Asia. The damage done by the quake has put a strain on its citizens that will last for many years.

The Annapolis Rotary Club joined many other Rotary clubs and Shelterbox in providing tents and other nonfood items to quake victims.
A ShelterBox assistance package includes a disaster relief tent for a family, thermal blankets and groundsheets, water storage and purification equipment, solar lamps, cooking utensils, a basic tool kit, mosquito nets and children’s activity pack.

South Sudan

South Sudan - Mobile Clinics International. In 2015, the Annapolis Rotary Club provided a $ 2,012 grant in support Mobile Health International (MHI) activities in and around Kajo Keji County, South Sudan. MHI is involved in preventative health care and basic health education to unreached communities in East Africa.

MHI’s initiatives not only increase overall health knowledge, but they also empower communities to take ownership of their country’s healthcare system and participate in its improvement. One of the only organizations of its kind, MHI provides community-based preventative health education to community health volunteers (CHVs), who then train their families and neighbors. CHVs are selected by community leadership members. They are exceptional leaders, respected by their village members, with a desire to educate the rest of their community. After taking an assessment test, volunteers attend eight days of training. Upon completion of the training, CHVs are then assigned to home visits for four months. At the end of these assignments they take another test, and those who pass graduate from the CHV program. For two years after graduation, MHI continues working with CHVs to make sure the training and its impact are effective.

It should be noted that South Sudan has suffered from successive conflicts over the last 25 years. More than two million people died and over four million people were displaced during the 21-year-long Sudanese Civil War, making it one of the most horrific conflicts of the 20th century. This left South Sudan, the world’s newest country, with no proper health education and extremely poor health services. As a result, many people suffer from unnecessary and preventable sickness and disease.
The Annapolis grants was used by MHIl for the acquisition of medicines and supplies.

Water, Sanitation & Hygiene in Aloi and Barlonyo —Northern Uganda

Water, Sanitation & Hygiene in Aloi and Barlonyo —Northern Uganda (Wash Project). The project was sponsored by the Rotary clubs of Oakville Trafalgar, Kampala and Lira, as well as various clubs in the United States and Canada and was able to bring water, sanitation, hygiene education and income generating micro-credit to the villages of Aloi and Barlonyo in Northern Uganda. The people from these two communities suffered during the insurgencies perpetrated by the soldiers of Joseph Kony's Lord’s Resistance Army. During this period, there was massive displacement of residents, more than 300 people were massacred (Barlonyo), infrastructures were destroyed, and economic activities ground to a halt.

TODAY ...In Uganda, diarrhea, which is due to lack of clean water and basic hygiene, is the second biggest cause of child deaths contributing to an under five mortality rate of 152 deaths per 1,000 live births.

AS A RESULT OF THE WASH PROJECT, the 6,600 strong community of Aloi and Barlonyo with:

Improved access to safe and adequate water, and to sanitation facilities
Creation of awareness on sustainable hygiene practices and sanitation behavior
Building local capacity to sustainably manage water and sanitation facilities
Creation of income generating opportunities for approximately 400 women

Russia

Russia: The Beacon Hope Initiative in Kirov Blast. The project assisted visually impaired children, some of which are orphans, residing in the Kirov Oblast of Russia by focusing on resolving a critical water and sanitation crisis within a boarding school. Funds provided brought the facility up to sanitary regulations and health codes. Originally built in 1965, the boarding school facility was in dire need of repairs, renovations, reconstruction and replacement of multiple deteriorating and non-functioning pipes, toilets, sinks and other vital structures.

The boarding school is the only specialized facility for visually impaired children of middle and high school age serving the Kirov Oblast (population of 1.3 million). The school has the capacity to serve 267 students, but because of water and sanitation constraints, it was serving only 109 children, many of them visually impaired or with mental handicaps. As a result of the capital improvements, the boarding school is now better equipped to serve its current students and expand to students who await admittance for the services that this specialized school offers.

Infrastructure renovations to the building under the water and sanitation area of focus have created a safer and more amenable atmosphere conducive to learning and to an enhanced quality of life for current and future students.

The Annapolis Rotary Club donated $1,000 for the improvements of the school. The project was sponsored by the Rotary Clubs of MetroBethesda and Vyatka.

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Rotary Peace Fellowship Program in Australia

Our Grant Partner in Uganda, Godfrey Geoffrey Mukalazi, sent us this video that celebrates the 10 th anniversary of the Rotary Peace Fellowship Program in Australia. It includes interviews with several Peace Fellow graduates. Godfrey is pictured in the video next to Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

International Lane at the 2013 Naptown BBQ

Chris Spain and Patricia Burnham working at our International Lane Table at the Parole Rotary Club's 2013 Naptown BarBayQue.

Peace through Service

Please check out Film Maker Robert Romano's informative video documenting RI Global Grant 25754 Uganda Peace and Mediation training. Rotarian Romano is a member of the Rotary Club of DuPont Circle, Washington DC, and a member of our global grant peace team -- "Click here to view video"."

Annapolis Rotary Club Foundation Awards Grant to Children of Hope Uganda

In December 2012 the Children of Hope Uganda’s newly built Early Childhood Development Center in Barlonyo, Lira District, Uganda was awarded a $2372 grant by the Annapolis Rotary Club Foundation . The funds will enable 300 young children at the center to receive health services and to be screened for HIV and other diseases so that early intervention will be possible . In addition, a latrine and hand washing station will be built to encourage disease prevention and good hygiene.

The Annapolis Rotary Club International Lane was made aware of the needs of this organization during a chance meeting of Lydia Hohman, incoming Lane Director, and Peace Akite of the Lira Rotary Club of Uganda , at the Rotary International Convention in Bangkok 2012. Rotarian Akite carried a notebook of pictures from Barlonyo, a village near Lira which experienced the effects of the massacre in Uganda of over 10,000 villagers and kidnapping of 20,000 children by Joseph Kony to serve as soldiers and sex slaves in the Lord’s Resistance Army. The notebook included tragic images of the Barlonyo massacre as well as of a large group of children and young adults who are now being educated on the site by the COHU projects as a symbol of healing and reunification after the conflict. The organization has built a vocational training school in Barlonyo, and facilitated Income Generating activities such as paper bead making, tailoring, and tilapia farming. Since the meeting in Bangkok, COHU has also raised funds to build the Childhood Education Center which opened in late 2012.
In addition to the grant provided by the Annapolis Rotary Club’s foundation, the members of the club's International Lane and Annapolis High school Interact Club support COHU’s projects by sales of recycled paper bead jewelry made by family members of the Ugandan children as an income generating activity to contribute towards school fees for their children. The bead sales have generated over $2500 for this effort in 2012.

Lydia Hohman will be visiting the Early Childhood Education Center project in late February 2013 and will be bringing greetings from the Rotary Club of Annapolis to the our Rotarian friends in Uganda, as well as some additional needed supplies for the school. Please contact her if you are interested in supporting this project. (Email Akicat2@verizon.net)

For more information about the COHU project, check out http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/giving/giving-profiles/a-made-in-canada-way-to-help-children-hurt-by-kony/article2381659/

Ecuador - Basic Education and Literacy

Global Grant 25003 - Literacy Initiative in Ecuador

Executive Summary: Teacher-Training Program for Primary School Teachers in early grade reading using the USAID Centers for Excellence in Teacher Training (CETT) Model

Country: Ecuador

Project Type: Education in primary schools in the Quito metropolitan district, evaluated by the Ministry of Education, Ecuador and executed by the University Andina Simon Bolivar

Target Population: 60 Teachers from marginalized areas, 15 schools

Beneficiaries: Over 3,000 primary school children

Global Grant #25003: Approved by The Rotary Foundation on 10 November 2010 for $61,375 (Pilot Project)

Host Club: Quito Occidente Rotary Club

International Club: Annapolis Rotary Club

Contributing Clubs: Bethesda Chevy Chase Rotary Club, Washington DC Rotary Club, Capitol Hill Rotary Club, Greenbelt Rotary Club, Bladensburg Rotary Club, Woodlawn-Westview Rotary Club, Dover Capital City Rotary Club, Camden Wyoming Rotary Club

Contributing Districts: Rotary Districts 7620 and 7630

Cooperating Organizations: The Rotary Foundation, The Organization of American States, the University Andina Simon Bolivar, the Ministry of Education (Ecuador), the International Reading Association

Contact person(s): Rachael Blair, District 7620 Grants Chair

Proposed Literacy Initiative in the Americas

How can Rotary International leverage its current partnerships and attract a rigorous and innovative public/private sector collaboration in the promotion of child literacy throughout the Americas?

With 32,000 rotary clubs worldwide in over 200 countries and with over 1.2 million strong, Rotary International would like to strengthen its impact on child literacy by creating sustainable literacy training programs with the enthusiasm of strategic partners who will offer the following:

• in particular, the elevation/promotion of female children as individuals who have an inalienable right to education
• technical expertise
• cost sharing
• support through advocacy groups
• performance and professionalism rewards
• effective evaluation of programs
• motivational approaches (tie in with the “child experience” through artistic expression, creating the professional development of teachers who are well trained, well equipped and self confident)
• integration and coordination of educational systems
• installation of libraries and classroom reading nooks
• targeted messages through marketing, public relations that are culturally sensitive and have national appeal (e.g., The Future of our Economy depends on the Quality of our Education, Increasing Access to Education is a Key Step to Future Development, Before you can be Altruistic you Need to Know Yourself, Children who Read are more Creative and Curious, Spreading Understanding and Familiarity, Make our Families Strong)
• the enhancement of human rights

Once the pilot project in Quito has been evaluated (February 2011), we propose to take this program nationwide and then target other countries in the Americas until all of the OAS member states have received the full literacy teacher-training program. We anticipate a nationwide approach lasting 4 years and requiring a multi-million dollar investment. After 4 years, it is hoped that the program will have reached a sustainable existence with the in-country public/private sector.

Teacher-Training (CETT) highlights
• In CETT schools, the majority of children are able to read in first grade. In second grade they are able to produce texts (stories, letters that they share with peers from neighborhood schools, recipes for local meals, etc.) This is in dramatic contrast to non-CETT schools, where students often cannot read even at the end of third grade.
• The Andean CETT is providing small libraries to classrooms and materials to support learning processes.
As stated by JBS International, the company hired by CETT to analyze performance measurement and management, “The private sector’s involvement is critical in ensuring that every child learns to read. Companies exert tremendous efforts in the area of primary education and literacy training. Companies adopt schools, provide special programs for children of their employees, encourage employee mentoring and volunteerism in disadvantaged schools, promote “stay-in-school” programs, and much more. Partnership between CETT and the private sector will bring new force and advocacy to the fight against child illiteracy. Corporations and governmental organizations working together for child literacy can deliver a strong message that a well-educated population is the cornerstone of personal, social and economic development.”

Any effective literacy program requires the utilization of local resources, regional input and indigenous knowledge. These markers will create the innovation required to maintain a sustainable literacy ethos.
Prepared by Rachael Blair – 8 January 2011 – Annapolis Rotary Club – 443 716-6917

Phase 2 - The Reading Nooks
We would like to create reading nooks in each classroom participating in this project by creating a small, yet comfortable and visually appealing area designated for reading. The area will have age appropriate books and furniture to stimulate a child's desire to read. We estimate that each reading nook will cost approximately $600 (inclusive of books, furniture and creative displays). Our total project budget is $27,000. We have approached several publishing companies and hope to implement this project beginning in August 2011.

We have commissioned a well known artist from Peru, "Tarmeño" - Jorge Fernandez Villalba, to paint watercolours of children reading. Tarmeño studied at the National School of Fine Arts in Lima, Peru. He has spent a great deal of time in Ecuador sharing his talents with many social organizations. His attention to marginalized groups has created a social-artistic theme in many of this paintings. They reflect his sensitivity and tenderness to issies we sometimes avoid. We hope these artistic wonders will inspire the private sector and others to contribute to this effort.

Mali - Disease Prevention and Treatment - Malaria

Ecuador - Water and Sanitation

Host Club - Quito Occidente Rotary Club
International Club - Annapolis Rotary Club
Project Amount - $14,400

Project Objectives: To provide clean water and adequate sanitation facilities to 6 schools in very poor and neglected areas outside of Quito, Ecuador.

Peru - Safe Blood

Peru – Safe Blood Awareness Program

Host Club - Inka Cusco Rotary Club
International Club - College Park Rotary Club
Contributing Clubs - Parole Rotary Club and Annapolis Rotary Club
Cooperating Organizations - Pan American Health Organization, Ministry of Health, Safe Blood Inc
Project Amount - $15,000

PROJECT OBJECTIVES: (1) For Rotarians to promote blood donations among the population of Cusco (approx. 350,000 - urban population 60% and rural population 40%) by the strategic implementation of a media campaign (press, radio, TV). (2) To educate the public about the importance of having voluntary, safe blood donors instead of paid and replacement donors. (3) To improve the overall capacity and efficiency of blood banks in the public hospitals. (4) To increase the number of voluntary blood donors and repeat blood donors.

Turkey - Computer Lab

Education and Community Development – Computer Lab for Primary School

Host Club – Soke Rotary Club
International Club – Lexington Park Rotary Club
Contributing Club – Annapolis Rotary Club
Project Amount - $17,300

Project Objective: To equip a primary school with much needed computers and educational supplies to stimulate and enhance early learning.