Rotary Zones 29-30 Helps!

On Tuesday January 12, 2010 at 4:57 pm a devastating 7.0 earthquake ravaged Haiti at the centre of population, Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas.  The effects were felt throughout the country and resulted in an estimated 316,000 deaths, 1.2 million more homeless, now in tents, and 400,000 more orphans.

Rotarians in District 7020 stepped up within hours to assist due to the Satellite phone system that was part of their Disaster Preparedness Program.  Coordinated by PDG Richard McCombe 169 flights were sent in with supplies as designated by Dr. Claude Surena, Chair of Disaster Relief in Haiti and for Rotary, and other Rotarians in Haiti.  Also containers of supplies were sent in.

The Rotarians in the 19 Rotary Clubs in Haiti are to be commended for their exceptional efforts to help their communities.  In order to assist the local Rotarians in their long term efforts a Donor Advised Fund for Haiti Earthquake Relief was set up at The Rotary Foundation as the account to raise funds and to coordinate long term rebuilding for Haiti.  The four account holders of the DAF, RID John Smarge, PRIVP Eric Adamson, PRID Robert Stuart and PRID Barry Rassin, set the priorities for the fund as Children and schools, prosthetics and sustainable housing.  They have worked with the Rotary Haiti Task Force with all projects.

The DAF has approved 9 matching grants, 12 non-funded projects and 72 funded projects.

The projects that have been funded are as follows:

1. Disease Prevention & Treatment
• Generator for the Super Kitchen
• Plumpy Nut for a school
• Nutrition Unit for the mountains – Albert Schweitzer
• Cholera Prevention
• Immunizations for 2,000
• Biomedical Repairs to 4 hospitals
• Jaipur Limb Buildings and equipment and vehicle
2. Water & Sanitation
• 150 Wells
• 80 Water Tankers
• Water Reservoir – 200,000 gallons
• Toilets – 5 projects for 106 toilets
• Biosand Filters – 1,000
• Water Filters – 1,000
3. Maternal and Child Health
• Clinic for Mothers and Children
• Vehicle for midwives
• Midwife Training program
4. Basic Education and Literacy
• Building 40 schools
• Supplies to 22 schools
• Secondary teacher education program
• Art Training
• Computer training
• 29,526 children will be able to go back to school
5. Economic and Community Development
• Building three bridges
• A Microcredit program

We have received assistance from Thousands of Rotarians and Rotary Clubs and Districts from 60 countries around the world.  Up to this point in time we have received about $2.2 million into the DAF and have leveraged those funds to produce all the projects with a total input of funding to Haiti of $6.5 million with NO funds going to administrative cost.

Click the REDI logo below for a link to Hugh Summer’s photos, taken at the REDI VI Conference in Berkeley, CA March 17 & 18, 2012.

January 12, 2010 at 5:00 pm a devastating earthquake struck Haiti, killing an estimated 316,000, forcing 1.2 million people into tents and causing 400,000 new orphans to be looking for homes.

The Caribbean Partnership already had Satellite phones in place and received communication quickly as to what was needed in Haiti. The Bahamas and many countries in the Caribbean immediately started sending plane loads of supplies into the country based on what their needs were on a particular day. About 175 small planes and numerous large planes were sent in over the next few months.

There are 19 Rotary Clubs and 350 Rotarians in Haiti who have worked tirelessly ever since the earthquake to help their communities. Dr. Claude Surena was appointed by the Government and by Rotary to lead the local efforts.

In October of that year we had to deal with the Cholera epidemic and raised $328,000 for education of the communities and the spread of the disease has slowed significantly.

The election in the country also caused some interruption of our activities but a very promising new President was elected, Michael Martelly.

The Haiti Earthquake Relief Donor Advised Fund was started immediately after the earthquake and has been coordinating their projects ever since. Their priorities have always been; Children and schools, Prosthetics, and Sustainable Housing.

The Rotary Haiti Task Force is involved on all projects.

The DAF has been involved in coordinating:
9 Matching Grants
10 non-funded projects
70 Funded DAFs which are in reality 106 different projects.

See TOTAL Expenditures here

The projects have related to the Six Areas of Focus

• Peace and Conflict Resolution
  • ALL of them
• Disease Prevention & Treatment
  • Generator for the Super Kitchen
  • Plumpy Nut for a school
  • Nutrition Unit for the mountains – Albert Schweitzer
  • Cholera Prevention
  • Immunizations for 2,000
  • Biomedical Repairs to 4 hospitals
  • Jaipur Limb Buildings and equipment and vehicle
• Water & Sanitation
  • 150 Wells
  • 80 Water Tankers
  • Water Reservoir – 200,000 gallons
  • Toilets – 5 projects for 106 toilets
  • Biosand Filters – 1,000
  • Water Filters – 1,000
• Maternal & Child Health
  • Clinic for Mothers and Children
  • Vehicle for midwives
  • Midwife Training program
• Basic Education and Literacy
  • Building 36 schools
  • Supplies to 22 schools
  • Secondary teacher education program
  • Art Training
  • Computer training
  • 29,526 children
• Economic and Community Development
  • 3 bridges
  • Microcredit

  In order to accomplish this there has been about $2.2 million donated to the DAF which was used for leverage and has resulted, so far, into $6.5 million worth of projects related to earthquake relief in Haiti. Rotarians and Clubs and Districts from some 60 countries including thousands of Rotarians and hundreds of Clubs and Districts have been a part of the restoration. 100% of those funds went into the projects with no administrative costs.

  Barry Rassin

   

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I thought now would be a good time to update you and ask for your assistance.

I am confident we have a well rounded program that will educate and urge attendees to action for the upcoming REDI VI Conference. We have an excellent cross section of speakers all aimed at awareness and action. Perhaps the single most important session will be the panel discussion about Rotary’s role in disasters. I personally like the session on Operation Tomodachi during which Commander Kenneth Marshall , USN will tell us how the US military and others responded to the 3-11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan last year. I attended a briefing on this operation last month while in Japan and I found it very engaging and informative. You can find more about the programs and other information on the website www.rediconference.org .

All the planning is completed and all we have to do is get people registered. It’s easy, simply go to thewebsite and follow the links for conference registration and hotel reservations.

This is where you come in. We are doing pretty well locally on registrations, but we have not had a great deal of success beyond our immediate market area. We have collected a few hundred e-mail addresses and are regularly sending out information and encouraging registration. The next three weeks are prime registration time and we need a broader reach. Frankly, this conferences success is in some part dependent on attracting an audience from through the country and beyond. While numbers are important our real success will be measured by the diversity of the attendees.

You can help. You have established a great network throughout your years in Rotary and a message from you to your network will surely get people to at least look at the website and consider attending. Please take a few minutes and let your network know about this conference and its benefits. You will also do us a great service if you ask other Rotary leaders to do the same.

Thank you for considering this request and we look forward to seeing you at the REDI VI Conference, March 16 and 17 in Berkeley, CA, in the heart of the San Francisco Bay Area. Don’t forget to stay a day or two longer and visit the beautiful Napa Valley just an hour north.

Karl Diekman

REDI VI Conference Chair

Rotary Club of Woodland

Governor District 5160 2010-2011

Rotary relief efforts for Haiti are now in preparation for the next phase which is sustainable restoration projects to enable long-term rehabilitation to begin, schools to reopen, and adequate housing for the future. To date, Rotary has delivered more than 100 plane loads and numerous containers of medical supplies, food, water, toys, clothes, bedding and tents. Many volunteer doctors, surgeons and nurses have also been transported by Rotary. $50,000 in seed has been organized to catch the planting season in Haiti.

A freighter with about sixty 20 and 40 foot containers is still being organized to be partially filled (about ten filled in Florida along with a truck, two ambulances, and a bus) and shipped to Nassau, Bahamas where the balance of the containers will be filled. Most of these items have been donated but some of the specific needs have been purchased to ensure we are meeting the real needs of the population. This freighter has been leased and the containers purchased by Rotary so they can be left in Haiti for other uses. This will be the last of phase one for providing immediate relief items. During this process the cost to Rotary in the Bahamas has been more than US$320,000 with $540,000 already raised. The Rotary District 7020 (D7020) account for Haiti Relief has about US$400,000 which will be used for the sustainable efforts in the next phase. The value of “in-kind” donations raised by D7020 is estimated at US$2 million.

The D7020 Committee overseeing the Relief efforts is developing specific recommendations for the future efforts based on comments and requests from the Government of Haiti and the Rotarian Leaders in Haiti. The focus will be in three areas:

• The children are considered a priority and they must get back to school. In addition to literacy, this ensures one meal a day and keeps them occupied. The 17 Haitian Rotary clubs are developing a plan for at least one school to be restored back to operating capabilities. They will include desks, supplies and other necessary items that will bring the school back into operation.
• It is estimated that about 4,000 individuals have had amputations and require prosthetics. D7020 has appointed a committee to coordinate the efforts locally with the numerous organizations interested in helping to provide prosthetics. Currently the committee is reviewing a proposal from the Rotary Jaipur Limb Project, which will provide free limbs once we provide clinics/laboratories for them to be produced. The containers may be used for this purpose. We are looking at perhaps three clinics at $50,000 each. This will not only provide limbs but also jobs to help build the economy. Within these clinics there could be physical therapy and psychological therapy, etc. to aid in the healing process but we may just focus Rotary on the prosthetics.
• With 1.2 million now homeless, living in tents or under various types of material and the rainy/hurricane season approaching, sustainable housing must be addressed. D7020 has appointed a committee to investigate various types of appropriate ways to provide shelter that can withstand hurricanes and earthquakes. A possibility is to provide Rotary Villages that have the entire infrastructure a village needs such as water, sanitation, a clinic, a school, a community center, job creation, etc.

As soon as specific details have been provided by the Rotarians, approved by the Rotary in Haiti Task Force and concurred by the Government of Haiti, we can provide information to clubs and districts as to how the Haiti Donor Advised Fund monies can be recommended for grants. We wish the process could be faster but due diligence, transparency and complete accountability are essential.