With the arrival of warmer Spring weather, memories of the last winter snow are fading into the past and Spring clean-up season is upon us, with several events on the Club calendar needing Rotary People of Action to answer the call.
First up, mark your calendars for the Great Lakes Watershed Cleanup coming up at Rotary Park this coming Saturday, April 20, together with the Rotary Club of Kingston. For those interested more aquatic pursuits, the Kingston Waterfront Club will be leading their annual waterfront clean-up project on Saturday, June 8 and require land-based support for their divers.
Speaking of People of Action, a special shout-out and thanks to Anne Desgagnés, Arja, M-C and Jennifer who, together with BMO employees, volunteered at the Partners in Mission Food Bank Blitz last Saturday, raising money and food donations from generous shoppers at a local supermarket. Scroll down to see their smiling faces!
There are more opportunities for all members to get involved in the community including tomorrow night (April 17) at the April Food Packing evening at the Community Food Distribution Warehouse, where we'll be joined by volunteers from Lake Effect Robotics, the club-sponsored competitive robotics team who just returned from a successful showing at the Ontario Provincial Finals.
And don't forget "No Mow May" is coming up, a passive way you can support a better habitat for bee pollination by putting off cutting your lawn for a month - see Arja if you need or would like a lawn sign.
On the international front, I am pleased to share with you a story updating the Rainwater Collection Project at the Ruicho School in Tanzania. And don't forget to reserve your place by May 6 at the Gananoque Club's International (Nepal) Night, featuring Hari as guest speaker and including a Nepalese dinner and Silent Auction. More details can be found on the RCKF webpage.
Finally, I will be heading to the 2024 Rotary Foundation D7040 Walk in Clayton, NY on Sunday morning, May 5. If any members would like to come along, please get in touch and we can arrange to share a ride.
Peter
YOUR HELP IS NEEDED !
Your Rotary Club of Kingston-Frontenac is looking forward to sponsoring high-school aged students in the upcoming Youth Adventures and programs:
Adventure in Understanding - 1 student
Peterborough-Kawartha, August 25-30 http://pkaiu.com/about/
If you know any interested young people aged 15-18, including grandchildren, children, nieces, nephews, friends and neighbours, please see if they would like to take part in these outstanding experiences! Nominations are open - get involved !
For more information, please click on the links above or contact
.....please bring gloves & tools for cleaning-up !
Thanks to K-F members Anne, Arja, M-C and Jennifer, together with BMO employees at the Partners in Mission Food Bank Blitz
last Saturday April 13.
LAKE EFFECTS ROBOTICS - FRC Team 2708
will be joining our April Food Packing evening tomorrow at the CFRW, fresh off competing at the FRC Ontario Provincial Finals in Mississauga, ON. The team placed 72nd in Ontario and was recognized with the First Robotics Imagery Award for harmonizing the robot design, colours and accessories with the musical theme of this year's competition. Well done and, in the words of the judges, "Rock on, you purple guitar heroes!"
RAINWATER COLLECTION SYSTEM PROJECT
Ruicho Secondary School
Kagera, Tanzania
This project is a story of human connections. Eliud Jacob, the Chemistry teacher at the school, and Peter Morrin of the Rotary Club of Kingston-Frontenac, had never met in person. They new of each other through mutual friends in Eliud’s old Rotary Club of Machame (Tanzania) and they had spoken of their mutual interest of Food Education through email, but they had never met until Peter showed up at Ruicho School in early December 2022.
Ruicho School is in Kagera Region on the west side of Lake Victoria. It is not an easy place to get to. Serendipity intervened, when a Civil Engineer who Peter had helped through school, asked him come to Kagera to inspect a hospital project that he was working on. When he agreed, Peter did not know that the construction site was less than 15 kilometres from Ruicho School. A short first meeting with Eliud at the school and a new partnership was formed.
Ruicho school appears quite new and well maintained, but a number of key infra-structure items did not make it into the construction budget. A well and water pump did not make the final budget cut. The school’s system of rain-water collection works well, but is limited to drinking and cooking water. Even these needs are stretched in the dry season.
The ”appearance” of a school in Tanzania has a very significant impact on the educational performance of the students. A school that is well maintained, clean, with fresh paint and a flourishing garden promotes a positive learning environment for students, a positive workplace for staff, and a point of pride for the parents and the greater community. It translates into better academic performance when measured by the system of National Examinations.
Eliud teaches chemistry and biology, but he is a farmer at heart. Originally from the area, he has an intensive garden of bananas, pineapples, avocados, vegetables and fruit trees at his home about 10 km down the road from Ruicho school. Eliud’s contribution to the beautification of the school was to plant fruit trees in the large open area between the school buildings. The one challenge was inadequate water.
At the brief meeting with Peter in December of 2022, Eliud asked for a solution to his water problem. Following the system employed elsewhere at the school, a rain-water collection system on the newly constructed Chemistry/Biology building seemed a logical choice.
Peter and the RCKF had previously installed a similar system at a rural primary school on Ukerewe Island in Lake Victoria, so were familiar with the basic needs. Eliud sourced the material locally and contacted the local builder who had been working on the buildings at the school. In less than three days the equipment was purchased and transported to the site, the tank foundation built, and the gutters and piping installed. The first test of the system came in the traditional dry season of January-February 2023 and Eliud reports that the tank is helping his mango, papaya, and avocado seedlings weather the lack of water while they wait for the traditional rains of March.
Rotary funding is frequently rooted in the concept of leverage. While we traditionally use the term in a financial context, another type of leverage is Human Leverage. In this instance the connection between Peter and Eliud led to a Water Project at a remote government school in Tanzania. It also allowed the two math teachers at the school to hear about a new computer program developed by the Rotary Club of Kingston-Frontenac. Bernard Kisha and Jamil Makenge have joined the Raspberry Pi Africa group and hope to introduce the Raspberry Pi computer platform for programming and automation development to their school in 2024. Perhaps they will have Eliud’s garden irrigation system fully automated in the coming years. This is the Leveraging of Human Connections.
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