Article Contributed on: 3/28/2006 2:30:47 PM
While their fellow members of the DTC Rotary Club remained in
Denver, locked in an Arctic freeze, three members of the club
traveled to the Dominican Republic in February to learn about local
Rotary projects as well as to visit the club's own projects, a
school for the deaf and bio-sand water filters for indigent
families. During the course of their visit they added a new project
to their already extensive involvement in the area.
Sally Shuler, past-president,
Bob Steiert, incoming president and
Martha Hildreth spent a week in Puerto Plata
where they attended a projects fair sponsored by Dominican Republic
Rotary Clubs seeking support for their projects. Martha's son,
Robert, is a long-time member of Club Roterio
Puerto Plata de Torres and in fact induced is mother to join Rotary
in Denver.
Glenn Packard, a close friend of DTC Rotary also
traveled with the group.
According to Steiert, the projects fair was the main reason
for the trip. Dominican Republic Rotary clubs showed Rotarians from
Colorado, Michigan and Canada projects that included collecting
school supplies, repairing school roofs, funding pediatric
cardiology surgeries, building a kidney transplant lab and a radio
station that provides schooling for children and adults in remote
areas.
More important to DTC club members was the Centro de Vocacion
Escuela Sordos that the club has been supporting for three years.
When the school was started over 30 years ago, the deaf were
largely ignored. Because of the school, many deaf children have
been educated and are now able to be productive members of society.
To its facility for younger children the school added vocational
training programs in woodworking, computers, sewing and cosmetology
for older students. The DTC Rotary Club pays the salaries of the
vocational teachers.
Another program that the DTC club supports is the CEPROSH
AIDS Clinic that provides formula for babies whose mothers are HIV
positive to prevent the babies from contracting AIDS from breast
milk. The clinic also educates the public about AIDS, helps those
with AIDS learn more about the disease and find treatment and it
recently started raising funds to support children whose parents
have died from AIDS.
While visiting Puerto Plata the DTC club members learned of
another project that desperately needed help. Children born without
birth certificates in the Dominican Republic, possibly due to
ignorance or poverty, are not allowed to attend school and thus
roam the streets. A Dominican woman named
Sandra and the Mercy Ship program built a school
for 120 of these children and the DTC and Rotary Clubs in Michigan
will be providing food during each school day throughout the year
for the next two years.
Last but not least, the club members watched bio-sand water
filters being installed in a village as part of Rotary
International's goal to bring clean drinking water to the world. To
date Rotary Clubs have installed 7500 filters in the Dominican
Republic. The filters cost $50 and can provide clean water for a
family of four for 50 years. Currently, the University of North
Carolina is conducting a health impact study to determine the
effect the installation of bio-sand filters will have on the health
of an entire community. If this scientific study proves the
effectiveness of the filters, it is expected that the World Health
Organization and the United Nations will support the widespread use
of bio-sand filters around the world. The DTC club has purchased 80
filters and just received a grant that will provide 410 more.
"There is so much need in the third world," said Steiert.
"It's so easy for Americans to help a lot of people in profound
ways. U.S. dollars go a long way," he added, referring to $30/day
that will feed 120 children and $50 that will provide clean
drinking water for 50 years.
Funds for the DTC Rotary projects in the Dominican Republic
are raised at their annual gala in November. The DTC Rotary Club
meets on Tuesdays at noon at the Glenmoor Country Club, East
Belleview Avenue and Glenmoor Drive. For more information on the
DTC Rotary Club and its projects, visit the
DTC Rotary Club website or e-mail
Sherry Hanson at
shehanson@msn.com.
Liz Martin is a member of the DTC Rotary Club.