Centennial UPDATE - Club Celebration:  I hope you and your club members enjoyed your Rotary Foundation Centennial celebration along with Tim and Anna. Please be sure to remind your members to complete the donation envelopes and return them to me by January 1 for a chance to win a Paul Harris Fellow award and Centennial wine bottles. If you want to see the video again, it is on the home page at http://Rotary6650.org.
 
New Global Grant REQUEST – Dialysis Center Support for Mataashakahoy, Philippines - PDG Jim Russell and Elayne Bozick have been working with PDG and past-GSE team leader Tato (Dimayuga Fortunato) from the Rotary Club Mataasnakahoy in the Philippines (District 3820) on a new project. Tato's club has formed a Rotary Community Corps (RCC) to manage the Tanauan Rotary Dialysis Center for indigent patients in their community. The Clinic has five dialysis machines and employs a doctor, two nurses, and other staff to provide this much-needed life-saving care.
 
To help support the operations of the Dialysis Center, the group has decided to erect a large LED screen in the center of the city and utilize sponsored advertisements to generate funds for the Center. 80% of the usage would be allotted for advertisements and 20% will be allotted for Rotary and city announcements. “Your advertisement can help save lives,” will assist in the sales.
 
Our District has approved $10K DDF toward the grant to purchase and erect the sign to help the Dialysis Center to remain viable. If your club would like to support this project, please contact Elayne at emsbozick@gmail.com.
 
Global Grant APPROVED – Water Project for Odisha, India - $52,310 - PDG Dr. Meena Patel has requested our committee consider a new project which consists of construction of 40 Units of toilet blocks in and around schools of District 3262 – Odisha, India.
 
Lack of sanitary facilities in schools is a significant problem in this area. Sanitation, and hygiene education in schools, commonly known as WASH in Schools, (WinS) provides improved sanitation facilities and hygiene education. With the grant, they plan to construct sanitary blocks / toilets as well as wash basins for hand wash in the school. They will also provide for water purification systems for safe drinking water to some schools where these facilities are not available. After construction and proper sanitary education, they expect better attendance in the school. Encouraging the development of healthy behaviors in the youth, will change behavior throughout the community and bring significant breakthroughs in eradicating disease and improving health.
 
The sanitation issue is also important because of the effect on girls. The lack of privacy related to puberty causes girls to drop out of school, and girls are expected to contribute to the household far younger than boys – being trained for a role as a wife, mother and daughter-in-law, whereas boys are being trained for an occupation.
 
Local District Grant Funds:  Nearly $50,000 in funds have been distributed to our Clubs for local project. Please visit our website at http://Rotary6650.org to read more and view pictures of current and past projects.
 
When you have completed your club’s project, visit the website and complete the ‘Local Grant Final Project Report’ on the right-side and forward to me.
 
Military Grant - UPDATE:  There has been a lot of activity on the Pegasus Project to assist Military and First Responders. More will be shared as this project comes to fruition. If you would like to help please contact PDG Meena Patel (durdarshan19@gmail.com ) or PDG Phil Mariola (philmariola22@gmail.com ).
 
Have a Global Grant Project in Mind?  If you or your club has a Global Grant projects in mind, please let me know. Visit our website at http://Rotary6650.org to find out more.
 
Thank you all for your support of the Foundation.
 
Peter L. Apicella, DRFC, Peter@salemrad.com, 330-207-0500 (cell).