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International Service - Director Marie MacDonald
The purpose of International Service is to foster better
international relations and to assist developing countries.
Included in International Service are the following committees:
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World Community Service
The World Community Service committee oversees several international projects sponsored or supported by our club such as the Farmers Helping Farmers organization projects in Kenya, the Cherry Valley church Tanzania projects, a foster child in Cameroon, Sister Noreen MacDonald's projects in Cameroon, etc.
Some of the projects of the World Community Services include:
Kirwin International Relief Foundation
The Rotary Club of Charlottetown Royalty has given a donation to Diane Kirwin's ( Rotarian in Bermuda who founded KIRF) Kirwin International Relief Foundation in India. Diane lives and works there 3 months of every year.
Our donation went towards their water initiative fund in the drought area Bodhgaya, Bihar.
Diane's thank you note and photos:
Dear Rtn. Paul Hickey,
You will be happy to know that the generous donation from your Rotary Club in PEI of $500 was used towards the drilling and establishing of our first Rotary/KIRF INDIA well in the village of Shekhwara.
The well was completed early in March 2010.
Approximately three hundred villagers and families are very grateful for the water provided and the well is seldom at rest. The water is of good quality.
The villagers who benefit are of the Manji population which is the poorest section of society in the area of Bihar where we work. Most of the villagers work as labourers in the fields.
Currently it is extremely hot in this region. The heat in March was what is usually experienced in May and there were no monsoon rains this year. The temperatures can reach 120 degrees F in the shade.
Our students must have a cup of water when they leave school to ensure that they reach home without heat stroke. Our classes now are from 6.00am - 10.00am.
The photos are of the celebration of opening the well with our Trustees and myself present. There are also some of the actual construction.
Please know that KIRF INDIA and all of the villagers in Shekhwara send you immense gratitude.
With all best wishes Diane (Kirwin) Founder KIRF INDIA
Diane Kirwin
KIVA
KIVA is an organization that administers small loans to individuals in developing countries in order to help them to establish a business. The loans are interest free and as they are re-paid the money is recycled to assist another individual.
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| Loans are given to people like Gerard (left) who runs a rickshaw business in Peru, Nafi who runs a small cloth business in Senegal, Rabiyya who raises cattle in Azerbaijan, and Gloria who is a baker in Ghana. |
Heal Africa
The Rotary Club of Charlottetown Royalty provided money for five 'Fresh Start Kits'. This will enable five women , who have been raped and violated by the war in the Congo, to return to their village and start a new business and earn a livelihood for themselves and their families.
*Fresh Start Kit This provides small-business training and skills and provides the equipment they need to go back to the village and begin to support themselves . It may be a sewing machine, or money for small trade capital, or a goat or small livestock.
"Thank you, for this great help!!! Please convey our thanks (Asante Sana!! in Swahili) to the members of your club in Charlottetown Royalty!
"You’ll get a more formal thanks as well, but just wanted to tell you today that we appreciate so very much your help and the support of the club for these courageous women in Congo. Bless you all! "
Judy Anderson, Heal Africa
Teaching in Rwanda
With support from the Rotary Club of Charlottetown Royalty for some teaching supplies, Mary Hickey (partner of Rotarian Paul Hickey) is spending a year teaching in Nyamata, Rwanda. Mary is a CUSO/VSO volunteer.
Following is an excerpt from Mary's blog (www.maryhickey.ca)
"As I was walking down the road I could hear this wonderful music . There was a competition for choirs going on down on the soccer field. The music was amazing and every member of the performing choir was dancing in sync. There was an older woman walking towards me and suddenly she took a few swaying steps and started to move to the music. It was contagious. There, on the side of the road we had a little dance, two strangers, no common language, but both caught up in the joy of the moment. At the end, we clasped each other’s hands, grinned at each other, and continued on our way.
Earlier in the month I had another opportunity to dance. I was at an open house at one of my schools. They were celebrating the inclusion of all children at their school. There was a long program of speeches which ended in some of the young girls of the school doing a display of traditional dances. At the end of their last number they pulled willing guests up to dance with them. What fun it was to be to up there stamping my feet to the music created by clapping and traditional singing. It was intoxicating. The only other time I felt that caught up in music like that was when Paul and I and our friends, Ron and Donna, went to a nightclub in West Africa and there was traditional drumming music."
Education in Cameroon
 Sister Noreen MacDonald is an Honorary Life Member of our Club
Our most recent donation will help Sr. Noreen to build a much needed well in her new assignment in Cameroon.
Sr. Noreen, a young 76 years of age, has devoted 17 years to building education in the Cameroon and in the fall of 2009 took on a new assignment to help improve the education and infrastructure at a another school in Njarum, Cameroon.
Bicycles for Humanity
Under the leadership of Rotarian Henk Van Leeuwen, the Rotary Club of Charlotteotown Royalty collected bicycles and prepared them for shipment to Montreal to be included in the Bicycles for Humanity program. The club received assistance from MacQueen's Bicycles who stored them during the collection period, and Midland Transport who shipped them to Montreal free of charge.
The following is an article from the October 26, 2009 Charlottetown Guardian, written by Mary MacKay about the project:
Bikes bound for Africa (by Mary MacKay, The Guardian)
The wheels on the Midland Transport truck will be going round and round when it makes its way from Charlottetown to Montreal with a full load of bicycles bound for Africa soon.
The Rotary Club of Charlottetonw Royalty was hoping for 30 donated bicycles from Islanders to send to Namibia on the west Aftican coast with a shipment being made by the Montreal chapter of Bicycles for Humanity. But instead, once word got out and a story appeared in the Guardian, the numbers skyrocketed to 150 bicycles, which were stored at MacQueens Bike Shop in Charlottetown until they were loaded onto the truck last week.
“We were amazed at the generosity of people,” says Rotary member Paul Hickey. “And a lot of people made trips from other towns to get them there. It’s just another reminder of the willingness of Islanders to help other people. We’re also really appreciative of MacQueens and Midland for their part in helping to make this (project) work.
“And it’s great to be part of a club that is so willing to do these things. The members pitch in.”
Bicycles for Humanity is a non-profit organization that strives to get some of the millions of unused bicycles in North America, Europe and other parts of the Western world to people in developing countries for whom this mode of transportation is of paramount importance.
In Namibia, the average wage is a few dollars a day, yet the cost of a new bike is about $100 US. So the main mode of transportation is walking, even for medical staff. Many of the bicycles collected on P.E.I. are destined for doctors and nurses so they can better provide medical care to the people in Namibia.
Eye Hospital in India
The club also contributes to an eye hospital in India that helps to restore eyesight to thousands of people.
Brazil Seniors Home
"Lars Esperanca, Place of Hope, provides poor seniors in San Jose do Rio preto, Brazil, a home filled with kindness, care, good health, music and art, education and even the opportunity to sale their crafts. This is all done through the great work of the Novas Geracoes Rotary Club there. Our club was pleased to partner with them and RI to create and deliver a Matching Grant project totaling $11000.00. The funds were used to providing shading from Brazil's intense sun, better cleaning equipment, improved kitchen tools, washing equipment and a computer. Thanks to Novas Greacoes and our club's support the seniors' homes and health care have been improved."
The Rotary Club of Charlottetown Royalty, working with the Rotary club of Jose Bonifacio in Brazil conducted a project to install a kitchen in a senior home. The two clubs acquired a Rotary International Matching Grant for this project.
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Better kitchen tools. |
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Computer equipment |
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New clean equipment
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New health equipment
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Protection from the sun
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Recycling bins
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Farmers Helping Farmers Projects in Kenya
See photos of the Farmers Helping Farmers projects, that are supported by our club
School Twinning
As part of the program of the Rotary Club of Charlottetown Royalty to emphasize youth and education, the school twinning program of Farmers Helping Farmers has received support to increase the awareness of Island school children for life in a developing country. The program provides resource materials for the curriculum of Island schools and facilitates contacts between Island and Kenyan schools whereby students in both countries benefit. The following provides a description of this program whereby Island students have the opportunity to achieve a greater understanding of life in another country.
Karibu: Two Easts, a school twinning program, is a magnificent cross-cultural learning experience which promotes global understanding and facilitates global citizenship and responsibility. Since the program began in 2002, students in both Prince Edward Island and Kenya have begun a journey of understanding and respect that has inspired our youth to make meaningful contributions to our global community.
Karibu is a Swahili word for welcome. Karibu: Two Easts is a program to twin schools in Eastern Canada (PEI) with schools in East Africa (Kenya). While visiting Farmers Helping Farmers projects in Kenya, in 2002, Islanders were amazed at the positive impact the projects were having on the schools. The Islanders returned home determined to establish a school twinning program. With some seed money from the Rotary Club of Charlottetown Royalty and the support of FHF project managers in both PEI and Kenya, three schools from each country started to exchange letters and photos. Today the number of schools twinned has grown to include:
- Morell Consolidated School - Mwati School (2002)
- Miscouche Consolidated School - Gathukimundu School (2002)
- Vernon River Consolidated School - Khuti School (2003)
- Montague Senior High School – Kirua Boys School (2004)
- Kinyenjere Primary School with Tracadie Cross Consolidated (2007)
This year, in 2008, we have approved three more schools and two church groups for school twinning. They are:
- Three Oaks Senior High
- Stonepark Intermediate School
- Prince Street School
- South Shore United Church Sunday School
- Kensington United Church Sunday School
The Island youth have gone beyond their commitment to exchange letters and have raised thousands of dollars to support their twinned schools. The support has included money to purchase books, water tanks and mosquito nets. They have improved classrooms, and paid teachers’ salaries. Gardens have been planted and a library and soccer field have been constructed.
School twinning has also enabled FHF to cooperate with the Faculty of Education, UPEI to send pre-service teachers to Kenya as part of their Specialization in International Education Program. To date, eighteen teachers have had the opportunity to experience life as a teacher in Kenya.
Farmers Helping Farmers, with funding from The Canadian International Development Agency, has produced global classroom materials for all Prince Edward Island Schools. They may be accessed at http://www.edu.pe.ca/global_ed/index.htm
Karibu; Two Easts is a success story indeed!
Rotarian Winston Johnston recently visited a number of rural schools in Kenya which are twinned with local schools on Prince Edward Island. The twinning program promotes the understanding between students in schools in both countries and of what is important in the lives of families in both countries. The Kenyan schools receive financial support to learn more about Canada and prepare exchange letters and photos of their home and school life. The PEI schools, receive visits from UPEI students majoring in International Education, and who have completed their practicums in these Kenyan schools. These visits provide a personal touch to learning about each other and currently (March - April 2010) six student teachers are at the Kenyan schools for six weeks of what will be their experience of a lifetime.
During his stay in Kenya he also visited a number of schools which have school gardens where the students or parents produce the food needed for a noon lunch program. These schools, in difficult drought times, sometimes provide the best and sometimes only, meal of the day that some students receive. One school in particular has received Rotary funds to provide doors and windows so that books and other learning materials can be kept in the classrooms. This school now has cement floors in the classrooms which keeps both students and books dry in the rainy seasons. Winston was fortunate to be able to unveil a plaque which recognizes the support of the Rotary Club of Charlottetown Royalty has provided these rural Kenyan schools.
 
Recognition plaque - Gerald Keruiki, from the local Wakulima diary who provided the plaque. Gerald visited PEI in 2000 at which time he was a guest speaker at our Club.
Shelter Boxes
With the January 2010 earthquake disaster in Haiti the Rotary Club of Charlottetown responded by purchasing ten more shelterboxes, bringing the total to 22 that the club has purchased to date.
Shelter Boxes are held in storage for disaster relief when a country is struck with an earthquake or other natural disaster. They are a self-contained unit that can provide temporary shelter for 10 people for up to 6 months. The first five Shelter Boxes were used in Nepal after an earthquake struck that country. Five more were sent to Taiwan and although the remaining 7 have not yet been assigned, undoubtedly some, if not all, will be sent to Haiti.
The Shelter Box project is a Rotary International project that began in England in 2000. More information on shelterboxes can be from the Shelter Box Canada website.
Cherry Valley Anglican Church orphanage project in Tanzania.
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The Rotary Club of Charlottetown Royalty donated $1,000 to the Cherry Valley Anglican Church which is conducting a major project at the Good Hope Orphanage in Arusha, Tanzania.
The club's donation was used to install electral wiring at the orphanage which will provide power for computers, lights, TVs etc., as well as to run the water pump which will provide clean safe drinking water. |
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Support for Guatemala
 Recently Ernie Mutch of Charlottetown was honoured for his contributions to
improving the lives of women and children of Guatemala. For a number of
years Ernie drove a school bus filled with goods for Guatemala, and his
presentation, a clock based on the design of a school bus, was fitting. The
Rotary Club of Charlottetown Royalty assisted Ernie in his efforts to
establish the first and only women’s shelter in Guatemala by providing funds
over a number of years to equipt the home with furniture and kitchen items.
Our Club also helped Ernie to establish a technical training school for
street children.
Pictured are Ernie with two other Islanders who have also contributed to the
well being of women and children of Guatemala, left, Margie Loo, and centre,
Michele Morrison. The RCCR helped Margie with funding for a school her
family were building in Guatemala. Michele Morrison, a former outbound
exchange student in Chile, also received funding from the Club for her work
in Guatemala.
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Rotary Youth Exchange
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The Rotary Club of Charlottetown's outound Rotary Youth Exchange Student for 2010-11 is Dana Kenny.
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The club's inbound Youth Exchange Student is Valentin Moser from Switzerland.
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Rotary Youth Parliament, sponsored by all of the PEI Rotary Clubs, is held each year
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