A patient with diabetes receives foot care on the Caribbean island of Dominica.

By Rotary Voices staff

In 1983, Alan Hudson spent several weeks on the Caribbean Island of Dominica as part of a Rotary Group Study Exchange. He was charmed by the local culture, and the warm welcome he received. So when an opportunity arose in 2012 to help people with diabetes on the island avoid having their legs amputated, Hudson jumped at the chance to give back.

Hudson’s Rotary Club of Hereford Wye Valley, Herefordshire, England, partnered with the Rotary Club of Dominica to sponsor a Step by Step program providing those with diabetes foot screenings at local clinics and training by health care professionals on how to exercise their lower limbs and take care of their extremities. Clubs in Herefordshire and Kent, Ohio, teamed up to raise more than $9,000 for the project, supported by a Rotary Foundation grant.

In the two years of the program, the number of lower limb amputations dropped 25 percent in 2012 and 72 percent in 2013. The government of Dominica has provided additional funds for diagnostic equipment to continue the progress.

The project is just one of many that Rotary members have shared on Rotary Showcase.

Other notable ones include:

• The Rotary clubs of Patumwan, Thailand; Taipei Lungmen, Taipei, Taiwan; Suntec City, Singapore; Yuki, Ibraki, Japan; and the E-Club of 9920 Francophone; teamed up to provide free heart surgeries for infants at the Rajavithi Hospital in Bangkok, Thailand, with equipment provided through a Rotary global grant.
• Twelve Rotary clubs in the United States, France, Italy, Germany, and Egypt are partnering to provide a new sewer system for the village of Al-Aldys near Cairo, Egypt, and connect 300 homes to the metro sanitary system.
• Rotary members in England, Belgium, the Netherlands, and India are helping children in rural India learn English through the ILSE (I Learn to Speak English) program. The goal of the program is to educate 5,000 children and 100 teachers.
• The Rotary Club of Fort Collins, Colorado, USA, is raising funds to build latrines for 100 families in Las Lomas, a small community near the city of San Jacinto, Guatemala.
• Rotary members in Virginia, USA, got together with local high school students to pack 10,000 meals for Stop Hunger Now, destined for needy children in Zambia.

Is your club’s project on Rotary Showcase? Find out how easy it is to share your project.