Rotary Club of Half Moon Bay
P. O. Box 31
Half Moon Bay, CA 94019
Meetings:
Community United Methodist Church
777 Miramontes St
Thursday 12:00
| Type | Matching Grant 55981 |
| Year Funded: | 2004/05 |
| Location: | Portoviejo, Ecuador |
| Local organization: | Rotary Club of Portoviejo Reales Tamarindos |
| HMB Project Leader: | Susan Hyder |
| Purpose / Overview: | This project was the construction of a system that takes water from an aqueduct, cleans and distributes it to the residents of the Los Angeles Barrio in Portoviejo. |
| Total Cost: | Total cost for this matching grant project was $25,000 and included funds from the Millbrae and Pacifica Clubs, in addition to the contribution of the Half Moon Bay Club. |
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| Delivering a basic need By STACY TREVENON--Half Moon Bay Review Last month, four members of the Half Moon Bay Rotary Club saw, up close, what it means to visit those in need to bring basic necessities the Coastsiders might take for granted back home. The quartet - Charles Nelson, Sue Hyder and Robin Jeffs, all of Half Moon Bay, and Eric Shapira of Montara - trekked up mountains, through jungles, to small villages and one city in Ecuador, to bring clean water to homes and schools. "It's part of the Rotary International effort to foster international fellowship and good will," said Nelson. The four make up the local club's International Projects committee, chaired by Nelson. Besides sturdy shoes and Nelson's command of Spanish, they were armed with funds raised through the club's annual fund-raising Rotary at the Ritz, with funds from Ecuadorian clubs, matched by the district to which the Half Moon Bay club belongs and then by Rotary International. The four went to Ecuador to check on ongoing projects and find new ones. With them was Geri Celestre of Southern California, who donated $12,000 toward the effort. "We were making a difference in people's lives half a hemisphere away," said Nelson in a presentation to the Half Moon Bay club, earlier this month. The trip actually began two years ago, when Nelson and Shapira attended a project fair in Quito, the capital of Ecuador, a country the size of Nevada. Many potential projects were displayed at the fair, but clean water - plus hunger, health and literacy - were priorities set by Rotary International. And, noted Nelson, long-term projects allowed countries to build positive, relationships. "Doing a project is important, but more important is building relationships with Rotarians of different countries," he said. "Water is an overwhelming concern for life," noted Shapira. "You can't live without it." With their visit, said Nelson, the team saw that the projects "came to a complete circle at this point." In Ecuador from Dec. 7 to 15, the group began with three days in the city of Portoviejo. There, they presented local officials with a $25,000 check that would set up a water purification and filtration plant, to bring clean water for household use to the roughly 2,500 residents of the barrio of Los Angeles, within the city. The presentation took place in a ceremony attended by reporters and television cameras, government representatives and grateful residents. But adulation wasn't why the Coastsiders were there. "I had a strong sense of excitement, (that) even our small club can make a difference in that country," said Hyder. "For so little money, we're touching lives, and clean water is a basic." From there the quartet spent a couple of days in Bahia de Caraquez, to attend a ribbon-cutting ceremony for an in-construction water distribution system that would serve the city's neighborhoods. The system, Nelson said, would pipe clean water to the roughly 125 houses in the neighborhood, at a cost of about $8 per month. Previously, residents had paid about $15 per month to trek down long roads to get water that they carried back home in bottles and stored in outside drums, where it quickly became dirty. Up to that time, the four had visited rural areas with small houses that often held up to eight people and were set up on stilts against seasonal flooding. But the visit also included a trip to Quito, the capital, a relatively large city perched some 8,500 feet up in the Andes, where some 11 local Rotary clubs were working to get potable water to six one-teacher rural schools outside the city. That work required drilling a well, installing a pump, purifying the water, and installing tile and washroom facilities. Those projects, completed with local labor, would come to nearly $4,000 per school. The final place the team checked in with was Latacunga, where a similar $25,000 project is under way. Though the team did not visit that city, they got a report on it; the project is due for completion early this year. Through their visit, the Coastside team stayed with local residents, and spoke glowingly about the Ecuadorian people, whom they described as highly compassionate and devoted to helping their fellows. "They are so intent on helping their own people," Shapira said. "I haven't been to a country where I've seen this kind of support for helping their own." "God, they were so nice," said Hyder. "Warm, open and friendly." In Ecuador, the team said, Rotary clubs tend to be even more active than the government in taking care of the people's needs. "We expect the government to provide the basics, like water, and they don't do that there for everyone," Hyder said. The trip was successful in that it assured the team that the money was going where it needed to go. Jeffs said he was particularly interested in discovering "was the money properly taken care of, and were (the Ecuadorians) adequate custodians?" But he said he soon discovered that the people there might put Westerners "to shame" with their "dedication and commitment." "It is a joy to work with them," said Nelson. "They are a very, very dedicated people." The joy went both ways, said Hyder. "It's hard to explain the feelings you have when people (I) don't know, hugged me and kissed me and thanked me for making their life better," she said. "It's in giving that you get." Copyright © 2006Half Moon Bay Review and Pescadero Pebble. | |
