New Partnership with Jubilee Foundation of Georg Fischer AG

Rocky Mount, Virginia USA and Schaffhausen, Switzerland, June 28, 2010; The Rocky Mount Rotary Club is excited to announce that a partnership of Rotary Clubs have been awarded $70,000 from the Jubilee Clean Water Foundation of Georg Fischer AG headquartered in Schaffhausen, Switzerland.


The funds will be used to dig hand dug wells, drill deep wells, repair wells, educate people about water borne illnesses, and provide basic medical care. The work will be managed by the Rotary Club of Sunyani Central, Ghana. We will be targeting communities with a high occurance of Buruli Ulcer disease. Buruli Ulcer is a flesh eating disease that is found in West Africa.

This is a major grant and it will be combined with ongoing and new grants from the Rotary Foundation. Matching Grant 71926 is now fully funded for over $104,800. We will also apply for a new grant from the Rotary Foundation that may be close to $200,000. All of these funds will be used to make a major impact on waterborne diseases. We are excited that there are only eight cases of Guinea Worm Disease in Ghana. It is our hope Guinea Worm Disease will be eliminated by the end of the year in Ghana. The last remaining country is the Sudan.


Georg Fischer AG with the Jubilee Clean Water Foundation has been involved in projects to improve water supply in developing countries and disaster areas. Since 2002, Georg Fischer has donated over $4.6 million to the Clean Water Foundation and has thus funded the implementation of more than 70 projects in 40 countries on four continents.

In 2009, seven projects were completed. Five new projects in Indonesia, Brazil, Tajikistan, southern Sudan and Bangladesh received around $300,000 in grants. In all projects, the aim is for experienced partners to support the local population in its efforts to sustainably improve its supply of drinking water.

In May 2010, six projects more were approved by the Jubilee Clean Water Foundation Council, composed by the CEO as chairman and two members of the Executive Committee. The projects will be executed in India, the Philippines, China (Tibet) Ecuador, Kenya and Ghana. Project partners were well known NGOs and local partners, for these projects among others the Swiss Red Cross and the Rotary Club of Rocky Mount, Virginia and our other partnering Rotary Clubs.


Walter Hughes, Jr., President of the Rotary Club of Rocky Mount, VA said "We are very honored and excited to be partnering with such a fine corporation and charitable foundation. We hope to continue this relationship for a very long time. We have Rotarians in eighty Rotary Clubs in twelve U.S. states, two Canadian provinces, Switzerland, and Ghana involved in raising money to provide clean water in West Africa."

More information about Georg Fischer AG can be found at http://www.georgfischer.com/ .


About Georg Fischer: Georg Fischer is focused on three key core business: GF Piping Systems, GF Automotive and GF AgieCharmilles. Founded in 1802, the company is headquartered in Switzerland and has some 130 companies, 50 of them production facilities, in 30 countries. Its 12,000 employees generated sales of $2.7 Billion in 2009.

It's Official: We Have A New Rotaract Club of Ferrum College

Dear Rocky Mount Rotary Club:

It is with great pleasure that I send you the enclosed charter certificate and Rotaract materials for the new Rotaract Club of Ferrum College, sponsored by the Rocky Mount Rotary Club. Please sign the certificate for presentation to the new club.

Congratulations and best wishes to all who worked so hard to establish the new Rotaract Club of Ferrum College. This investment in the young professionals in your community will undoubtedly produce great rewards in the future!

Please let me know if I can be of further assistance.

Sincerely,

Harris Sofradzija
Rotaract Programs Coordinator
Youth Programs Department
Rotary International

Rocky Mount Rotary Recognized at District Conference

The Rocky Mount Rotary Club is mentioned on the front screen of www.rotary.org web site today. The article is taking aim at "Guinea Worm in Ghana." http://www.rotary.org/en/MediaAndNews/News/Pages/100322_news_guineaworm.aspx

The Rocky Mount Rotary Club was recognized many times over the course of the District 7570 Conference. We won several prestigious awards:

* The Gold Club Award recognized our work in Membership, Service, Leadership, Rotary Foundation, and Public Relations.

* Rotary International Presidential Citation recognized our work with Stop Hunger Now, Polio Eradication and our Public Image.

* We also received the World Community Service Banner as the best club in the district for world service.

Rol Walters brought our Rotaract Club President and Vice-President to the Saturday session at the Homestead. My presentation on our work in Ghana was a hit. You can view the PowerPoint presentation on our web site: www.rockymountrotary.blogspot.com . The Gold Club is a major award. It shows that we were united to run the 4th of July Celebration and start the Interact and Rotaract Clubs at the high school and Ferrum College.

Yours in Rotary,

Walter
President, Rocky Mount Rotary

March Rotary News

Dear Fellow Rotarians:
We have several meetings after the meeting:
Major Project Planning Meeting - if you want to discuss any of the ideas for the major project, please stay after the meeting.
YMCA Playground Refurbishing Team: Jeanne Martin and Ron Evans would like people who would like to organize this project to meet. We need to paint the wooden surfaces, add mulch, and repair a climbing element on the large playground equipment.
4th of July Planning Team: It is time to start talking about the next steps on the 4th of July Celebration.

Our Speakers for Thursday are Barbara Humphreys and Sandra Layman. They will be talking about career coaches at the Franklin County High School.

If you are not on a committee or team, please talk to me. If you are chairperson and your team hasn't met recently, please consider getting your team together to plan the work for the rest of the year. I need help creating the club display and the water project for District Conference. Can you help?

We have an important decision to make in the next couple of weeks. We are deciding the project for our club which will make a difference in our community. We can use your help in proposing projects and making that decision. We have several project ideas:

* Housing for the Homeless - spearheaded by Jon Morris and STEP. The housing would be a couple of duplexes which could allow men and families a chance to start over.
* Free Clinic - The Free Clinic will use our $3,333.33 to help renovate a new space. We could help the Free Clinic with medical equipment and supplies for a new location. We helped to outfit the Tamale Hospital and Eye Clinic with almost $1 million in medical equipment. We could do a similar project right here at home.
* Golf Driving Range - This project was postponed until 2011-2012. Dean Stone asked the club to take it out of consideration for this year only.
* Lynch Park/Veterans Park - Bathroom facilities and/or additional playground equipment to go with the Rotary Rocks playground.
* Help Fund More Charities like Helping Hands since it is a tough year.
* Fund Solar Technology and other gear for the new addition at the Gereau Center at CATCE.
* Gulley Park Enhancements - park needs almost everything

I thought that providing a list of projects done by other Rotary Clubs could get the creative juices flowing. The physical projects on this list usually are things like parks, clinics and food pantries. Here's a list of projects done by other Rotary Clubs in our District 7570:

After School Program to Feed Kids
Cancer Awareness program

Elementary School Dictionaries and Kid's First Book

Local Park : Fencing, Soccer Fields, refurbish old park

Library: Archival Document Storage, New Books, New Computers

Provide a Disaster Relief Work Trailer

Various Food Programs such as Stop Hunger Now, local food pantries, encouraging local gardens

High School Technology Lab - buy science equipment

Water Quality Testing in Augusta County - help to improve stream quality by working with farmers.

School book bags and teacher supplies.

Equipment for Free Dental Clinic

Emergency Phones or defibrillators in Park

Outside Lighting to make public places safer

Literacy Program for Adults and Children

Provide handicap access for disabled in key buildings in community


If you have any kind of ideas for our major project, please speak up! We need your ideas. We need your discussion to find the best idea for our major project. Please check our web site: www.RockyMountRotary.blogspot.com

Yours in Rotary,

Walter
President
Rotary Club of Rocky Mount, VA

Congratulations for a Great Fundraising Event

Dear Rocky Mount Rotarians,
I want to be the first to thank everyone who made the Reverse Raffle a success. We don't have the exact amount raised yet, but we estimate that it is over $10,000. Jason Turner and the Fundraising Team did a great job organizing and planning the event. Danny Perdue and all of the top salespeople are to be congratulations. Lisa Schenk did a great job as treasurer for this event. It was wonderful to see new members stepping into leadership roles for this event such as Mark Newbill.

We have a new web site for our club: www.rockymountrotary.blogspot.com . I am so proud to be a member of a club that comes together to help three great charities in Franklin County. The money will help the Free Clinic, Rising Opportunities (Didlake), and Helping Hands.

Please keep in mind ideas for our major fundraiser this year. The two main ideas are the homeless shelter with STEP and the golf driving range. I've had a few members express a desire for a project similar to the playgrounds which would visible to the whole community. Our goal is to decide on that project in the next few weeks.

Yours in Rotary

Walter Hughes
President
Rocky Mount Rotary

Reverse Raffle Update for Feb. 20, 2010

Dear Fellow Rotarians,
The reverse raffle and dinner will provide support to Helping Hands, The Free Clinic, and Rising Opportunities which is taking over for Didlake to support handicapped of Franklin County.

The reverse raffle set for Saturday, February 20, 2010 is coming together thanks to some last minute ticket sales from a group on Thursday night led by Danny Perdue. We've found the PA System provided by Andre Peery. Jason Turner is handling a lot of work to prepare Mod-U-Kraf for the event on Saturday night.

It looks like we are going to have a good event on Saturday.

My thanks goes out to everyone who is making this event happen.

Matching Grant 71926 Approved by Rotary Foundation

Thank you for your support for the Ghana Clean Water Grant in partnership with the Sunyani Central Rotary Club. It is really appreciated. The Rotary Foundation approved matching grant 71926 on 2 February 2010. Clubs in District 7570 and 7610 will send the funds to the Annual Program Fund and notify me that the funds were sent into the Rotary Foundation. The "cash exchange" method will be used in those two districts. If you don't know how to complete the paperwork, then the check can be sent to me and I'll get the check mailed and the paperwork completed. Money can be sent to the Rotary Foundation at anytime using the attached forms.

We are planning to drill fifteen (15) boreholes and reduce the cases of Buruli Ulcer Disease in the thirty (30) worst communities. We will be working with Ghana Health Services to determine ways to reduce the occurrences of the flesh eating disease. The total Rotary budget is $103,300. The total grant budget is $122,800 with the matching funds from W.A.T.E.R., AWASH, and Ghana Health Services.

We've received matching funds from W.A.T.E.R. for $10,000 for two more boreholes. Their web site is http://www.waterinafrica.org . Ghana Health Services matched the grant with $1,500 to fight buruli ulcer disese. We may have matches from AWASH to place a borehole near a girl's school and from Water and Sanitation Rotary Action Group (www.WASRAG.com). WASRAG is having a fundraising campaign to raise money to match grants like this one. You may want to join the Rotary action group.

We tried very hard to get the Rotary and USAID alliance match to extend outside of the target districts near Accra, but it was not possible. We felt it was necessary to finish the job on guinea worm and start on buruli ulcer disease. We have a "compromise fix" for Future Vision will will allow us to continue work from 2010 to 2013 within Ghana.

The WHO web site for buruli ulcer is http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs199/en/ . The approved version of the matching grant document is attached. It is dated 2 Feb 2010. We made tremendous strides regarding guinea worm disease in Ghana. The chart by year for Ghana is below. November 2009 was the first month without any cases of guinea worm disease in Ghana. We had two (2) cases in the entire country of Ghana in January 2010! The cases declined from 486 cases in 2008 to 242 cases in 2009. Rotary got involved in this effort in 2006 in a big way.

The Carter Center is fighting guinea worm around the world. The fight is almost won except in southern Sudan. Rotary needs to dig a few wells in the Sudan to help the fight there. The chart of cases by country around the world is below. The total for 2009 for Sudan is estimated. Many of my dedicated friends from the Carter Center have moved to the Sudan to aid in the final fight to eradicate guinea worm.

The number of cases for 2009 by county are:
2800 in Sudan, 242 in Ghana, 186 in Mali, 24 in Ethiopia, 5 in Niger, and ZERO (0) cases in Nigeria.

We are very close to eradicating the guinea worm disease from the world. It is wonderful to be able to see a city that is disease free because of the teamwork with Rotarians, the Carter Center, and Ghana Health Services. If you know any Rotarians working in Sudan, please let them know that we need a few wells in that country, too.

If you have any questions, please let me know. I am honored to be able to work with you to get water to people in need in West Africa. I plan on going back this summer, If you want to spend two "fun filled" weeks in Africa, please let me know. Thank you for supporting the continuation of this work. It is really appreciated.

The two most current videos to place on your web sites are:
Reach for Clean Water - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_aB8-9MD4Y
Share the Well - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeFEYkz_nKw

Yours in Rotary,

Walter Hughes
President of Rotary Club of Rocky Mount, VA USA