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DTC Rotary expands activity in Dominican Republic

Contributed by: Liz Martin on 3/28/2006

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.


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CONTRIBUTOR INFORMATION

Liz Martin

Englewood , CO

Liz Martin has posted 54 stories and 0 comments since joining on 9/14/2005. Liz Martin 's average story rating is 5.
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