Congratulations to Dale Ford, he made his Paul Harris. And Doc made Paul Harris plus 5!
Gene Calvert, a rotary club member from Savusavu, Fiji Islands, talked about doing rotary service in Fiji, where he is developing land. Fiji is pretty remote, and is part of Rotary District 9820 which includes Toga, French Polynesia and other remote islands between Hawaii and Australia.The club has 18 members, mostly women!
The club members work with the local people to teach them a trade, it's mostly bush, and mostly very small business. The island has one foot in the old world and barely a foot in the new world.
The club is 15 years old, and has recently completed three potable water projects providing filtration systems. The club also renovated a school. Additional projects there include:
-Educational Projects: Books donated to the island and the club distributes the books, first sorting and cleaning them up.
Community Projects: Donating wheel chairs; installing a Solar water heater for the local hospital, they never had hot water there before this. Decorating the hospital.
The main focus of the club now is installing flooring for schools, the kids use to just sit and learn in the dirt floors. The average family has five kids and makes less than $3,000 annual income, most a subsistence living.
They also built a bus shelter, when it's hot or raining it's well used by the locals waiting for the bus.
Fiji is paradise. If you plan to attend the 2014 Sydney Rotary International Conference, stop over in Fiji on the way! You'll be welcomed by the club, and probably put to work on one of their projects.
