|
PP Ron had the pleasure of introducing our speaker Steve Rutledge. Steve has spoken to the club before, in regards to his 'Adopt A Village In Laos' campaign. A member of the Whitby Sunrise Club, Steve has spearheaded the purchase installation of over 6,300 water filters, serving almost 32,000 rural villagers. His group has also created a permanent water supply to 21 villages, 40 banks fo toilets and has overseen 12 school construction projects, in addition to providing educational support for students who could not afford to go to school In his spare time Steve also was the spearhead for the fundraising efforts towards the Global Grant to help with the reconstruction/replacement of the paediatric ward of Beirut's Karantina hospital after the deadly explosion last year. Steve told us about the many projects that his leadership has helped achieve and reminded us that during the Vietnam War, Laos was the most heavily bombed country on earth. He had a stat about how many bombs were dropped per minute with the resulting problem that many of them did not detonate and are still in the ground. They pose a risk to farmers working their fields and everyday citizens just moving around, especially children. He projects it will be many years before the situation is resolved. Steve once again showed us his family water filter. It is basically a clay pot within a plastic framework. Extremely simple but very effective. The water simply passes through the clay and the properties in the clay take all of the bacteria out, allowing clean drinking water to pass through. The first time the system is used it could take many hours to have the water pass through but as the pores in the clay open the process speeds up. The units cost about $125 each and are live savers for their many users. They last about 11 years before the clay loses the ability to filter out the bad stuff. They also were involved in assisting a Boarding School with the addition of 8 new toilets. Prior to their help there were 12 toilets serving 600 students and 39 teachers daily. Looking ahead Steve plans on building 6 more permanent water supplies, each with a price tag of $40K Steve gave us a recap of the Karantina Global Grant. It took 4 months (very fast) and involved 7 countries, 150 clubs (60 of which were Canadian). He praised the 7010 District for their support and gave a special mention to Dawn Straka for helping spearhead. The Beirut government is basically bankrupt with inflation rampant and their currency devalued by 95% since the explosion. Electricity in the city is limited to 1 hour per day. Imaging the impact on food preservation and social health services. Hopefully the Global Grant money can start the healing process. In thanking Steve for his dedication and hard work Pres Mary gave Steve a cheque for $1,000 to assist in his valuable work
|
.png)
