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