Our Club's World Community Service

COCHABAMBA, BOLIVIA

• 3 or 4 Club trips, each involving 15-25 people ,including spouses, friends and family in the 1990's
• Dr. Clyde Horstmann and Dr/ Ernie Rider each made 5-6 trips
• Dental treatment on 400+ kids in 3 orphanages
• The dentists taught at Dental School/taught procedures at orphanages
• Provided dental supplies, tooth brushes and toothpaste, clothing, toys and games; also did some painting and repair work
• Worked with AMANECER- a program for street kids and abused women
• Together with local Rotary Club, helped build toilets and showers for local High School
• Provided excellent used x-ray equipment (including installation ) at dental school
• Together with local Rotary Club, helped provide first-class, state-of-the-art Burn Center, the
first in Bolivia, and took leading burn surgeon from UNC Medical Center in Chapel Hill to teach and do surgery.

(Side trips: La Paz, Tiahuanaca Ruins, Lake Titicaca, Buenos Aires, Argentina, Iguacu Falls, Brazil)

LA CEIBA, HONDURAS

• Joint program with Monroe Rotary Club
•15 guys and a gal (David Hodgkins daughter, Jessica)
•Those who traveled said it was not a vacation!...remembered as "the week from hell"; a week of non-stop rain (+/- 20") and this
was during the "dry "season !
•Memories of slippery, red clay mud and the most hospitable Pizza Hut in the whole world!
•Armed guards at hotel, restaurant, shopping areas; warnings to get off the mountain before dark because of "banditos"
•Still, we managed to build a few walls and roof about 3 houses for those who had lost everything
in Hurricane Mitch; one of the families who house we roofed, their 20 year old son was
murdered while we were there!
•Common response of Dilworthians: "my life has been forever changed"!

GUATEMALA CITY and ANTIGUA, GUATEMALA
"COMMON HOPE"

•Work team of +/- 16 Dilworthian Rotarian women and me, shared two rooms and cooked their own meals
•A program to bring the poorest of the poor to a new location with educational and medical
facilities, housing and job opportunities; a total new village.
• Our crew helped in construction and new water lines
• A number of our club members are now sponsoring children there
•After a recent visit and presentation to our club, about 35 new computers were contributed by Dilworth members

QUITO and GUALACEO , ECUADOR

•Two teams (one of dentists and one of non-dentists, plus spouses)
•Both teams met with Quito Rotary Club and participated in dedication of large mobile dental trailer, refurbished and given to Ecuador Red Cross ( this was mostly Ernie Rider's project); trailer was flown to Ecuador by US Air Force

•Dentists taught and worked at dental school in Quito
•All of us learned about inexpensive heart surgery being done on children, sponsored by Quito Club (Project Broken Heart)
•Non dentists had hoped to do work project in Gualaceo...were disappointed that this would not be the case! As Joe Morris pointed out "sometimes you work with your hands, othertimes you work
with your head and your heart! And this we did. Great time with a quite new and quite small RC high in the Andes.
We spent three terrific days with them. And talk about projects! Housing for poor, trade education via Agricultural High School.
•We agreed to provide 7 computers and add'l supplies for a high school computer lab (see thank you and final report)
•Some individuals continue to support the building project for single women with children
•Though no calluses on our hands, Ecuador was great in terms of Rotary comraderie!
( a number of family members flew in to join us as we chartered a boat and crew for a week in the Galapagos Islands. Terrific!)

Rotary International Foundation & Major International Programs

Rotary Youth ExchangeAs a Rotary Youth Exchange student, you’ll spend up to a year living with a few host families and attending school in a different country.
Whether you participate in Rotary’s long-term or short-term Youth Exchange programs, you’ll learn a new way of living, a great deal about yourself, and maybe even a new language.. Read more...

Rotary Foundation The mission of The Rotary Foundation is to enable Rotarians to advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace through the improvement of health, the support of education, and the alleviation of poverty.Read more...

Polio PlusAfter 20 years of hard work, Rotary and its partners are on the brink of eradicating this tenacious disease, but a strong push is needed now to root it out once and for all. It is a window of opportunity of historic proportions.Read more...