There are 6 Areas of Focus in the Rotary Foundation world … Economic & Community Development is one of them:

IPTC Creator: Alyce Henson     IPTC Credit (c) Rotary International

We cruise Rotary Images on http://www.rotary.org from time to time.  When you pull up Rotary Images you can input a search term to pull up a cluster of photos meeting that search criterion.  This photo is one of the images which popped up when we searched “Economic and Community Development.  In the photo, Christopher Castro (center) of the Rotary Club of Brentwood, New York, is in Nan Sema on the island of LaGonave, Haiti.  He is helping to secure solar panels on the roof of a local clinic.  With Rotary Foundation Matching Grant 73919 Rotarians from District 7250 and Haitian Rotarians, staffed a week-long medical clinic, installed a laptop and satellite to be used to for telemedicine and converted the community center’s power source to solar energy. After the 2010 Haitian earthquake, Port Au Prince residents fled to the island, increasing the population by 30%, creating stress on the available services on this small island.

The thought came to mind that with the recent ravaging of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and other weather destroyed communities, such a similar grant effort might be considered.  The uses for such projects are so many … water pumping & purification, fire & ems (any first responder) services, schools, communications … so many possibilities.  Just planting a seed …

Local Economic & Community Development Grants

The first round of District 7600 grants have been awarded and round 2 grants are in the bin.  In the next issue of this blog, we’ll report on some of the District Grants which had the economic and community development identified their primary area of focus.  Helping communities overcome barriers to employment, transportation, health, education and other community enhancers is a worthy Rotary goal. It will be informative to learn what some of our local clubs are doing in this arena.

Don’t forget to register for the District Foundation Awards Banquet (November 9) on the dacdb.com calendar.  Enough said for now.