Last week new RCFC member Eric Nachtrieb shared how Rotarians have had a significant impact on the continent of Africa and the island of Hispaniola over the years through their support of Children of the Nations (COTN). On a personal note, Eric had long been aware of Rotary, but wondered as he considered joining this club, if he would be engaged by its members. He reports, no problem.
Since the inception of COTN local Rotarians (US and abroad along with RI) have helped to build educational facilities, clinics, clean water wells, and install solar equipment that has helped in the transformation of orphaned and marginalized children in Sierra Leon, Malawi, Uganda, the Dominican Republic (DR), and Haiti. COTN was founded in 1995 to meet these needs. Currently more than 5,000 children are in the program. Greg was introduced to COTN in 2009 at a business meeting in California. Impressed by the mission and impact of this organization, he flew to Sierra Leon where he learned more and learned of many personal success stories.
Slides featured the first Dominican Republic school and its current modern school buildings and campus. COTN tries to shepherd children “from cradle to college”. Students at this school test to a national standard, competing with comparatively well-off students in the capital city of Santo Domingo. Recently an 8-year-old student tested out as number 1 in the entire country!
There was time for 2 personal stories. A former member of the program, Doctor Yenson grew up in poverty in the DR with little chance to attend school regularly. Today he is a graduate of Santiago University of Technology with a degree in medicine!
Next, we were introduced to David (Malawi). First a picture of a young boy, when David believed everyone lived as he did, and he expected to continue to be poor and uneducated for his whole life. His university graduation picture illustrated the impact of COTN.
The impact of RI was illustrated by pictures of desks, clean water wells and a motorbike. Rotary involvement for over 20 years was detailed in the next 3 slides. The very first gift of $500 in January 2003 from the Riverdale, WA club fed 30 children for 30 days. Twenty-seven clubs in the US have since been represented, raised, and donated $145,996.
Turning next to present-day challenges, we were reminded that one of the greatest contributors to poverty is lack of access to clean energy and most COTN countries and ministries do not have access to a constant source of electricity. The COTN solution is solar power and stored battery energy. A strategic partner in this effort is World Light Africa. This company was registered in Kenya in 2014 and has partnered with COTN in Uganda to build a state-of-the-art solar facility. Such facilities are planned across Africa. A project in Malawi is planned and will be financed and built in 2 phases. RI is providing a grant to COTN which will provide a match of 40% for the upcoming Solar unit being constructed on the Malawi campus.
To conclude, COTN has a passion for every child to have access to an energy secure environment that will ensure their sustainable futures! An African proverb says “If you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together.”