Tag Archives: our partners

Visiting water-deprived communities in western Ghana

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Talking to villagers in western Ghana.

By Nana Konduah Dickye, Rotary Club of Sekondi-Takoradi, Ghana

On 12 November, I led a three-member team to visit seven communities my Rotary club is responsible for as part of the multi-year Rotary-USAID International H2O Collaboration in Ghana. The aim of the collaboration is to provide water, sanitation, and hygiene infrastructure and advocacy to deprived communities.

The total journey to these seven communities – Akwaso, Samfifire, Amoada, Kyeikrom, Nkakaa, Bonuama and Anyabream – began at Takoradi and covered a distance of 800 kilometers. It is one thing to hear about communities without basic water supply and sanitation needs. Actually having been to these communities and experiencing the kind of hardships they go through is quite another. Continue reading →

Good news for Ghana sanitation efforts

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Rotary and USAID are creating Tippy Tap devices to encourage good hygiene in remote areas. The devices use a simple foot paddle to tip a water container so people can safely wash their hands.

Rotary and USAID are creating Tippy Tap devices to encourage good hygiene in remote areas. The devices use a simple foot paddle to tip a water container so people can safely wash their hands.

By Mohamed Keita, RI staff, Administrative Coordinator, Areas of Focus, Programs and Grants

In January, a new government came into office in Ghana and set a different tone in addressing access to water and public sanitation in the country. President Nana Akufo-Addo announced the creation of a Ministry for Sanitation and Water Resources. It is the first time an administration has dedicated the centrepiece of an executive cabinet agency to public sanitation.

Ghanaian Rotarians who are involved in the rollout of the Rotary-USAID International H2O Collaboration, a $4 million initiative to support lasting, positive change to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) initiatives in Ghana, have welcomed the move. Continue reading →

Visit to new ShelterBox HQ in Truro

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Operations Coordinator Sam Hewett briefs Newton

Operations Coordinator Sam Hewett (left) briefs MP Sarah Newton on preparations to help people fleeing Mosul. Photo © Thom Axon

By Sarah Newton, Rotary Club of Falmouth, and a Member of Parliament representing Truro and Falmouth, United Kingdom

In July, Cornwall-based international disaster relief charity ShelterBox moved its headquarters to Truro, keeping its warehousing and aid-packing base in Helston.

On 10 November, I made my first visit to Falcon House, now that ShelterBox has relocated most if its staff, including its operational and fundraising teams, into my Continue reading →

Life-giving water in Ghana

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Theresa Osei Tutu

Theresa Osei Tutu

By Theresa Osei Tutu, a member of the Rotary Club of Accra-Airport, Ghana

It is often said that water is life. But for many in Ghana, water is disease and death. It is for this reason that Ghanaian Rotarians have embraced the RI-USAID Water and Sanitation Project, to help reduce the diseases that break out as a result of poor water quality and improper sanitation.

About 80 Rotary members from 31 clubs assembled at the Tema Rotary Centre on 12 March to get more insight on their role in the project. Continue reading →

Ghana excited to take part in next phase of H2O Collaboration

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School children at spigot in Volta

Primary school children in the Volta region of Ghana use a new spigot to wash their hands.

By Ako Odotei, a member of the Rotary Club of Tema, Ghana, Africa. This is the first in a series of planned posts from Rotary members involved in the Rotary-USAID International H2O Collaboration that supports lasting, positive change to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) initiatives.

When the Rotary-USAID International H20 Collaboration asked Rotary clubs in Ghana to participate in the second phase of the partnership, there was a lot of excitement as well as some trepidation. US$4 million (the amount the collaboration has committed to each country for 2015-18) is a lot of money! Continue reading →

WHO’s new director of polio eradication: the end is in sight

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Michel ZaffranIn February, Michel Zaffran will take over as director of polio eradication for the World Health Organization (WHO). Most recently, Zaffran has served as coordinator of WHO’s Expanded Programme on Immunization. He has also served as Deputy Executive Secretary of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations (GAVI), and  represented WHO on the working group that designed and launched GAVI. We caught up with him recently to ask his thoughts about this new challenge:

I am extremely excited, but also emotionally very moved, to have been selected for this position. I started working for the World Health Organization in September of 1987 in the immunization program. A few months later in May the World Health Assembly endorsed the resolution to actually eradicate polio. I was just at a very junior level but remember seeing my bosses work on the resolution, and so I was there from the very beginning. So to actually toward the end of my career be coming back and heading the program for its last miles basically is very exciting and very moving. Continue reading →

Peace Corps, Rotary bound by service

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140505_Hessler_RadeletBy Carrie Hessler-Radelet, acting director of the Peace Corps

I come from a family of Rotarians. My father is a Rotarian, and my Aunt Ginny — whose Peace Corps service inspired me to become a volunteer — was also a Rotarian. Peace Corps volunteers and Rotarians like my father and aunt are bound by a common purpose: service. That’s why I’m excited about Peace Corps’ partnership with Rotary International and to see what we can accomplish together. Continue reading →

On a mission of mercy to Guinea

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The vocational training team assists with cataract surgeries during the eleventh day of the trip.

The vocational training team assists with cataract surgeries during the eleventh day of the trip.

By Arun Chaudhari, past president of the Rotary Club of Mumbai West Coast, India 

Earlier this year, I had the pleasure of leading a team of four eye surgeons to Conakry, Guinea, West Africa to work with our strategic partner, Mercy Ships, on training eye surgeons in West Africa and performing cataract surgeries.

Our trip was coordinated by Mark Wright from Mercy Ships, and made possible through the work of many Rotary members in Mumbai, India, including our district governor, Dr Balakrishna Inamdar, a well-known gynaecologist.  Continue reading →

Dolly, Rotary put books into the hands of children

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Above: Dolly Patron talks about the Imagination Library and the partnership with Rotary during the 2010 Convention in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

By David Dotson, president of the Dollywood Foundation

The wonderful partnership between Dolly Parton and Rotary International continues to flourish in communities both large and small all across the USA, Canada, the United Kingdom, and most recently Australia.

Although every community approaches the program in its own way, one thing impresses me much more than dollars raised or even time invested –and this is the enormous influence Rotarians exert in their communities. Continue reading →

Join us in celebrating World Polio Day

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By Amanda Peet, actress and vaccine ambassador for Every Child By Two

Today is World Polio Day. To most Americans this day of observance will quietly slip under the radar; and understandably so. Here in America, our children are protected from this horrible disease, which prior to the development of a polio vaccine in 1955, paralyzed up to 20,000 and killed nearly 1,000 of our citizens each year. Most of the victims who survived polio were young children, many who remained in iron lungs for a lifetime. Today, polio remains endemic in only three countries (Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan) and in 2011, less than 700 cases were reported. This is a reduction of more than 99 percent since 1985. Continue reading →