The Rotary Club of Sebastopol is deeply involved in finding, starting, funding, and particiapting in International projects. Below are the most recent examples.
Village Hopecore International
Village Hopecore International helps to alleviate poverty and halt the spread of HIV/AIDS in the village of Chogoria, Kenya by making microloans to family-based enterprises. But money alone does not disrupt the cycle of poverty. The organization provides business education, professional mentoring, personal development counseling, and HIV/AIDS prevention education to all their loan groups.
There are several criteria for judging the success of this program. The primary question is “Are people’s lives getting better?” With improved quality of food, water on their property, private schools for the children, and meaningful employment, nearly 2000 individuals have raised their quality of life exponentially.
This program can be deemed a success based on the repayment rates, which are remarkable: 90% of all loans are repaid on time. That figure improves to 100% on groups that have applied for and received second and third rounds of funding.
When it became apparent that the very high rate of malaria in the village was impacting group members ability to achieve their goals, Village Hopecore planned a comprehensive malaria mitigation program. With volunteer medical students from Stanford, and with treated mosquito nets purchased with donated funds, we hope to significantly reduce the incidence of malaria in Chogoria.
The Rotary Club of Sebastopol's support has been instrumental in the success of Village Hopecore:
Three club members contributed a total of $7,500 to train and fund the Mwicki Group in 2004
Sebastopol Rotary Club contributed $7,500 in 2005 initially to fund a second loan group, but agreed to reallocate it for the purchase of a used Land Rover at VHI's request
In 2007, the club and Healdsburg Rotary Club each contributed $6,000 in partnership with the Meru (Kenya) Rotary Club and secured District and Rotary Foundation matching grants that raised $42,000 that funded the training and loans for 7 more loan groups with 84 total individuals.
In 2009 Sebastopol Rotary contributed $2,500 to "replace" dollars "lost" due to shifting exchange rates from the $42,000 matching grant awarded in 2007.
Two members of Sebastopol Rotary Club, Kent Seegmiller and Steve Beck, sit on the Board of Directors of VHI.
In addition, the Rotary Club of Healdsburg contributed $5,000 toward the purchase of anti-malarial bednets in 2008.
The project will cost a total of $32,355. The club share is $9,144.
For more information about Village Hopecore, please visit http://www.villagehopecore.org/
Chidamoyo Christian Hospital
The Chidamoyo Christian Hospital provides the only healthcare access to a wide area of rural Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe has been in political turmoil and government services are nearly non-existent. The hospital reached out to us for emergency help due to persistent funding problems. Our club provided funds of $1,500 in 2009 and $10,000 in 2008 for the cost of badly needed medical supplies. The last shipment arrived just in time to help them treat a Cholera epidemic in their region. Our club is in the process of applying for a Rotary District & Foundation Matching Grant that would address the longer term needs of the hospital.
Nkubu Victory Academy
The Rotary Clubs of Sebastopol and Meru, Kenya jointly sought and received a Rotary Foundation Matching Grant to equip the computer lab at this private school located on donated land 4.2 miles outside the medium-size market of Nkubu, about 3 1/2 hours NE of the capitol city of Nairobi. Nkubu Victory Academy was established in 2003 to offer primary education (grades K-8) at an affordable quality instruction in smaller class sizes than is available at most public schools. The school is supported and governed by the Victory House Foundation Based Organization. Its mission statement reads, “To provide quality and holistic education and to uplift orphans and vulnerable children through education, care activities, and life skills”. About half of the school’s 200 enrollees are orphans and vulnerable children, having lost one or both parents to AIDS and being left with no adult financially capable of caring for them. These children reside on the campus, while the rest of the student body commutes from up to an hour away by mini-bus or on foot.
The school included space for a computer lab when it built the new stone and mortar, two-story dormitory for girls, but lacked the funds to equip it. The Rotary Foundation grant, which included base funds from both Rotary Clubs, which were matched by their District and the Rotary Foundation, provided $12,400 to purchase 10 computers, a printer, computer furniture, telephone connections, setup of the equipment and everything else needed to link the computers together and provide an Internet connection.
Within two months of receiving the grant, the computers were being installed and ready for use when the fall term began. During the past year, classes have been held on weekends, evening, and during school breaks to let parents and other adults, as well as students who have completed the 8th grade and left Nkubu Victory Academy become computer literate.
Noting that the school lacked modern textbooks in good condition or teaching charts that are standard in US schools, Rotarian Steve Beck approached the club-sponsored Interact Clubs encouraging them to raise funds for this purpose. Brookhaven Interact contributed $150 (one third of what they earned during the year) to the delight of the headmaster and students. In 2009 they are being challenged to make another contribution from a donor who has pledged to match their contribution.
LHAF: Open Heart Program
Lotus Humanitarian Aid Foundation (LHAF) is a non-profit charitable organization. LHAF seeks to enhance the basic needs and well being of the poorest families and communities in Vietnam. LHAF works directly with their beneficiaries in Viet Nam and in cooperation with local governments in defining and prioritizing LHAF projects related to health and education.
Post Surgery Photo of Tham
The Open Heart Program helps children from poor families who have congenital or acquired heart disease get treatment and life-saving operations needed to lead healthy, happy, and productive lives. The Open Heart Program is implemented in Ha Tinh Province because no other domestic or international organization is providing this kind of help to in this province.
The cost of an open heart surgery in Viet Nam currently ranges from $1,500 to 3,200 USD. LHAF typically funds $500 to 1,000 USD for surgery costs and helps identify funding from cooperative organizations.
The Rotary Club of Sebastopol has supported the Open Heart Program with two rounds of funding in 2007 and 2008 totaling over $14,000. This amount has helped to fund 31 successful surgeries to date. For more information about LHAF please visit
www.LHAF.org.
Adopt a Village Project in Biranga-Maundo Village, Tororo, Uganda
This project is our club's major matching grants project for 2007 - 2008. We funded $8,554, matched by District 5130, and the Rotary Foundation added $12,891 for a project totaling $30,079. This money was use to dig a borehole and purchase a pump that will provide a source of clean water for the villagers. We will educate them with techniques for maintaining its purity. Insecticide treated mosquito nets and hardware to properly hang the nets will be given to families to prevent disease transfer. Kerosene lamps will be given to replace paraffin candles that produced smoke and poor lighting. Cows will also be given along with education in single home-based dairy farming (zero grazing) techniques including fertilizer for food crops as a by product. The elements of this project are to provide the people of the village with basic tools to lift themselves out of poverty.
Two members of our club visited the project in September, 2007 to see the changes being made in the lives of the villagers. The clean water source made an immediate change in the occurrence of water borne disease and diarrhea amongst the villagers. The insecticide treated mosquito nets dramatically decreased the incidence of malaria and is saving the lives of children. The only element remaining is the distribution of the heifers to several families. This was completed after our visiting team left. This project was completed in 2008.
Phase Two-Adopt a Village Project in Biranga-Maudo Village, Torroro District, Uganda
With the completion of the first phase, a second phase matching grant was put together that enhances the process of lifting the village out of poverty with additional, sustainable help in the form of:
Clean water and latrines for the local primary school to improve health and sanitation.
A Revolving Loan Fund to provide opportunities to for the villagers to purchase animals or start small businesses.
Rocket stoves to reduce the amount of wood burned and to reduce respiratory distress among the women and small children.
Fruit trees to boost house hold incomes and improve diets, especially for the children.
Furniture for the local nursery school to improve the learning experience for young children.
The project will cost a total of $32,355. The club share is $9,144.
Vietnam Water Projects
From 2000 to 2002 our club led efforts to fund development of fresh water wells and installation of distribution lines and individual residence spigots in rural Vietnamese villages. Bob Cary invited Northern California Rotary Clubs to join us in raising a total of $64,000 to complete ten separate projects. Whatever was raised would be matched dollar for dollar by our partner, East Meets West Foundation. Clubs wishing to participate were asked to seek District Simplified Grants in addition to what they raised themselves, since these projects were not eligible for RI Matching Grants this year.
The Sebastopol Rotary Club provided $2,500 of its own money, and received a District Simplified Grant for $975, for a total contribution to the East Meets West Foundation of $3,475. Nine other clubs participated in raising a combined total, including Sebastopol's contribution, of $9,750, plus $6,975 in District Simplified Grants. The total came to $16,725. With East Meets West Foundation matching 100%, the grand total was $33,450.
Daywa Afghan Widows Vocational School
This project in 2004 provided both commercial ovens and sewing machines to the Daywa Widows Training Center in Kabul, Afghanistan, to train 500 widows, living at a subsistence level, in marketable skills to create products badly needed in this war-torn country, In addition to teaching commercial baking and sewing, the school assists those with apparent entrepreneurial skills to establish their own commercial bakeries or clothing manufacturing firms, which, in turn, will employ the school's graduates.
This project, headed by Rotarian Russ Cunningham and his wife Shirlee, was developed with the assistance of the Hayward Sunset Rotary Club, a club of predominantly Afghan immigrants who have many contacts in Afghanistan. The in-country Rotary Partner is the Rotary Club of Kabul.
The Sebastopol Rotary contributed $6,080 with a 100% Matching Grant from District 5130. The Los Gatos Sunset Rotary contributed $1,000 with $708 from District 5170. And, the Delhi Mid-town Rotary Club, District 3010 in India, contributed $1,000. RI approved a matching grant for $10,328, thereby completing the funding needed. Subsequent to filing the RI Matching Grant application, the oven manufacturer, Merrill Bevan of Woodstone Pizza, agreed to donate $995 of used equipment to go with the ovens.
A 40 ft container was sent that not only contained the 12 commercial sewing
machines but also cabinets for them so that each will have a
free-standing workstation. Also sent were two generators with transmission
systems built by the Club's two Russ's so that all the sewing machines could be run off of them.
In addition we shipped the pizza oven and all of its equipment
(5,000 lbs). Also shipped were 41 sewing machines (home-type);
11 hospital beds; a wheel chair; an exam table; 16 heart monitors;
and many other miscellaneous supplies donated by Palm Drive Hospital. Total value for the shipment
ended up being close to $200,000.
Programma des Beca
This is an ongoing partnership with the Rotary Club of Puerto Vallarta Sur, Mexico,
which provides scholarship support to low-income students desiring to continue
their education beyond the sixth grade. During the 2008/09 academic year, twelve Sebastopol Rotarians contributed $4,600 for thirteen (13) scholarships. Their support helps to pay for required school uniforms, books and school supplies to enable the students to continue their academics.
Community Kitchen/Community Hall
The Rotary Club of Puerto Vallarta Sur, Mexico, initiated a weekly feeding program for 150 - 200 women and children living near the community dump, and invited the Sebastopol Rotary Club to be their partner. In 2002 the club allocated $1,000 to equip the kitchen in the building constructed by local Rotarians. District 5130 committed to match this amount. An application to the RI Foundation was resubmitted earlier that year for a matching grant. Now that the building is completed, it will serve as a place for mothers to learn better hygiene and health and food preparation methods. It will also serve as an activity center for the children. Before the building was in place, Puerto Vallarta Rotarians discovered that the one hour of attention the children received on feeding day was as important as the healthy meal.
This program can be deemed a success based on the repayment rates, which are remarkable: 90% of all loans are repaid on time. That figure improves to 100% on groups that have applied for and received second and third rounds of funding.
This project is our club's major matching grants project for 2007 - 2008. We funded $8,554, matched by District 5130, and the Rotary Foundation added $12,891 for a project totaling $30,079. This money was use to dig a borehole and purchase a pump that will provide a source of clean water for the villagers. We will educate them with techniques for maintaining its purity. Insecticide treated mosquito nets and hardware to properly hang the nets will be given to families to prevent disease transfer. Kerosene lamps will be given to replace paraffin candles that produced smoke and poor lighting. Cows will also be given along with education in single home-based dairy farming (zero grazing) techniques including fertilizer for food crops as a by product. The elements of this project are to provide the people of the village with basic tools to lift themselves out of poverty.
Two members of our club visited the project in September, 2007 to see the changes being made in the lives of the villagers. The clean water source made an immediate change in the occurrence of water borne disease and diarrhea amongst the villagers. The insecticide treated mosquito nets dramatically decreased the incidence of malaria and is saving the lives of children. The only element remaining is the distribution of the heifers to several families. This was completed after our visiting team left. This project was completed in 2008.
Vietnam Water Projects
their education beyond the sixth grade. During the 2008/09 academic year, twelve Sebastopol Rotarians contributed $4,600 for thirteen (13) scholarships. Their support helps to pay for required school uniforms, books and school supplies to enable the students to continue their academics.