After lunch our outbound Youth Exchange student, Jude Little, was invited to the podium to give us some thoughts on his upcoming adventure to Belgium.
Jude advised that he was heading over on August 22. He will be staying with 4 host families. The first family has 2 sons who he is hoping to get to know.
He will be enrolled in a local Ecole and will be living in the French section of the country. Luckily there are 2 other students from this area going to the same Town as he is so there will be some confort in that. He looks forward to improving his French and also to visiting Brussels and many other European cities. He also looks forward to trying Belgian Waffles!!
Introduction of Guest Speaker: PP Jen introduced Steve Rutledge as a man who doesn't really need much of an intro to our club. He has been giving us updates on the progress of his charity 'Adopt A Village in Laos' (AAVIL) for a number of years now and our club has been supporting him for a few years
Steve opened by advising that this recent trip was the first one since the Covid pandemic stopped International travel in 2019. While much was accomplished there were numerous challenges as well.
Steve brought us a little taste of this by sharing that given our recent air quality issues due to wildfires and heat domes we complained about a 'breathing index' of a little over 100. In Laos the index was 571 due to smoke from fires as farmers had to burn their rice crops in the fields as they could not get them to market. This was a double whammy for their economy and healthcare systems.
On their first delivery to a remote school the truck broke down and actually never came. School children waited outside in low cold temperatures waiting for the truck. One positive result was that, seeing this situation, donors got together and donated many coats to the school, which were delivered to great excitement.
Toilets were planned for one school but as there had been no time for a site visit when they arrived it was obvious there was no room on the school property to put them. The results was the construction of an expensive barrier wall over a river bank that allowed the toilets to be built.
Two tribes sharing the same village had differing ideas about the need for a water supply system. One group did not co-operate in the project but as construction neared the end they diverted most of the flow to their village. Steve indicated diplomacy and the power of Rotary helped top avoid an internal village battle.
Successes included the delivery of many feminine hygiene kits to local school girls and the continued distribution of water filters. Hundred of filters were delivered to a number of villages during the trip. These filters last for 5-6 years and the teams replace existing filters as they expire. For only $125 you can provide a filter to a local village and if you want have your name or the name of a loved one inscribed on the filter. Visit https://aavil.org/projects/
Steve was thanked for once again updating us on his important work and the club presented him with a cheque for $1,000 to continue to do his good deeds.
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