International Service Projects
The Rotary Club of Coronado conducts service projects across Rotary International's Four Avenues of Service: Club Service, Vocational Service, Community Service, and International Service. We are able to finance our service projects with the following fundraising activities:
- Member Pledges
- Pancake Breakfast
- Jim Laslavic Charity Golf Tournament
- Low Tide Ride & Stride
- Polio Plus Wine Tasting
This program, supported by our club, is the largest foreign study program in the world. Its purpose is to further world peace and understanding among peoples and nations by sending outstanding scholars to countries the world over to live and interrelate with the citizenry of those countries, thereby fostering better human and personal relationships. The awards can reach as high as $25,000, including airfare for a year of study in a foreign country.
This program, again supported by our club, is an international exchange program involving teams of business and professional persons visiting and living with Rotarians in other countries to learn about their customs, culture, living and business practices.
In 2011, our club provided funds for desks and benches for 430 poorest of the poor children in a school in Tijuana that receives no government support for its students. In the future, our goal is to provide clean drinking water for the students who now have to bring their own water to school each day.
In cooperation with the DIF (Mexican Government Family Health Group) Rehabilitation Center in Ensenada, B.C. Mexico, the Coronado Rotary Club and the Calafia Rotary Club of Ensenada support volunteer prostheticians who evaluate, fit, build, re-fit and adjust prosthetics for those in need. Our club has provided funds to equip the clinic with the necessary tools, equipment and materials and continues to provide the personnel and funds needed for food and lodging for the volunteers. We strive to conduct two to three clinics per year.
This is a school located Tijuana, Mexico. In addition to providing the students at this school with a library, a club member coordinated with other clubs in our district to supply computers to the school. Currently our club and other clubs in the district are contributing financially to provide Internet access for the school's computers.
This is the most ambitious program in Rotary's history. For more than 20 years, Rotary has led the private sector in the global effort to rid the world of this crippling disease. As of 1 August, 2010, Rotarians have raised over $141.2 million for Rotary's US$200 Million Challenge. These contributions will help Rotary raise $200 million to match $355 million in challenge grants received from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The resulting $555 million will directly support immunization campaigns in developing countries, where polio continues to infect and paralyze children, robbing them of their futures and compounding the hardships faced by their families.
Started by our own Dr. Jim Vernetti and other Rotarians in District 5340, Thousand Smiles focuses on care of the less fortunate children in Mexico who suffer from lack of dental care and from maxillo-facial deformities such as cleft palate. Four clinics take place each year and many Rotary Clubs join the effort. The volunteers, many of whom are Rotarians, are the backbone of the team and include both medical professionals and non-medical individuals. Our club also makes an annual contribution to this project.
This project was conceived and developed by a Rotarian in England in 2001. The mission is to deliver immediate relief to victims of natural and other disasters anywhere around the world. It provides a large plastic container containing a 10-person tent and a range of equipment which varies based upon the needs of a particular disaster. In response to the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, our club rapidly raised enough funds to provide twenty-four boxes.
In Port Elizabeth, South Africa, our club has successfully completed several Rotary Matching Grants to assist this poverty stricken area. Several club members have traveled to this township over the past two years to determine the priority of needs for the people of this area. Examples of support include food warehouse stocking and stoves for families. Our club recently secured a grant from Tom’s Shoes Corporation resulting in over 16,000 children receiving a new pair of shoes every six months.
Until March, 2009 this school had no source of clean water to drink or cook with. Our club, and its partner club in Kampala, completed a Matching Grant project ($12,000) which provided the school a well with potable water. The school and Orphanage in Mukono, Uganda serves 740 students, 480 of whom are orphans (primarily due to AIDS). The school also needs textbooks. Our club has donated $2,500 over the last two years to help meet that need. More books are still needed.
An area of high mortality due to HIV/aids, there are many orphans who need medical assistance and care. There are 43 dispensaries in the Moshi, Tanzania area in need of medical supplies. Our club has provided financial aid to the personnel administering to these facilities to assist the orphans.