INTERNATIONAL PROJECT – WATER AND SANITATION
The Wilmington Rotary Club has and will continue to be involved in international water and sanitation projects. Rotary International has endorsed the United Nations “Water For Life” decade goals. President Stein-Hammar has encouraged every Rotary Club to be involved in a water or sanitation project. The lack of clean water is one of the main causes of disease and death in the world. One billion people do not have access to safe drinking water and 2.6 billion people lack basic sanitation facilities. More than five million people die of waterborne illnesses each year. Only half of the population of Africa has access to safe drinking water.
The Wilmington Rotary Club has teamed up with Mercy Ships in Honduras in the past and in Africa this year for our water and sanitation projects. Mercy Ships is a global charity operating hospital ships since 1978. They also provide extensive water and sanitation projects. Mercy Ships is an amazing organization where everyone not only works for free but will pay their own way to the ship and pay their room and board on the ship. They are very experienced and organized and it is a way for a Rotary Club to make sure their time and money is very effectively spent on the project.
Our project this Rotary year is to assist Mercy Ships with their Mainstay Project, which will provide potable water and improved sanitation in Ghana, West Africa from May, 2006 through March, 2007. Our club will have a member going to Ghana in addition to financial support of this project. Our club has had a member on board the Mercy Ships in the past on a well drilling project. The opportunity to go to a poor part of the world and provide service is a very powerful experience and it can be done with Mercy Ships.
Mercy Ships provide a great partner for an international project. The Wilmington Rotary Club invites all other Rotary clubs in District 7730 to participate in this exciting and worthy endeavor.
Contact Bill Fuller at 910 763 0380, Wilmington, NC for further information.
