The plans for the Rotary trip to Ghana that begins tomorrow began to take shape over a year ago and there are a great many people who have pitched in since then to make it possible. The trip is the latest in an effort launched by the Crossville (TN) Rotary Club a half dozen years ago to build water wells in Western Ghana, in and around the village of Ateiku. Clean water for the people there is a game-changer, as you can see from the stories and videos on the RotaryGhanaProject.com web site.
In October 2009 the Cookeville Breakfast Rotary Club became involved in the hands on effort by joining in a trip to Ateiku for follow up in the water well project in addition to sponsoring a health fair and school literacy work — again, as documented in this site’s videos.
The June 2011 trip is the realization of plans that originally intended for a team to go in October 2010. The timing didn’t work out for the medical doctors we were hoping to bring but now we’re ready to go.
This team includes Scot Shanks, Dr. Kim Johnson, Kayde Johnson, of Crossville; Dr. Chuck Womack, Colleen Ryan and Pat Ryan, of Cookeville, and Rodney and Kelly French of Nashville. The mission is to help launch the operation of the new water drilling rig, to organize health fairs and to support the schools in the area around Ateiku.
A few thank yous are in order on the eve of the trip.
First, there was the $53,000 raised to finance a new water well drilling rig and support vehicle. This part of the project is a loan to our partners and friends in Ateiku to develop a self sustaining enterprise within their non-profit group that will enable them to get the urgently needed wells drilled in the area, under contract from the Government of Ghana, other non-governmental organizations and individuals. The plan is to create the capability for a self-sustaining water drilling capacity. Hats off to Scot Shanks who drove to Phenix City, Alabama to train on the drilling rig at the factory to help make sure the team in Ghana is properly prepared to get to work. These clubs helped make it possible:
Cookeville Breakfast Rotary Club – $7,500
Crossville Rotary Club – $7,000
Rotary Club of Knoxville – $5,000
Dayton Rotary Club – $3,000
Hartsville Rotary Club – $1,250
Carthage Rotary Club – $1,250
These clubs joined the efforts of the Enterprise Christian Ministry of Texas in making the new water drilling rig effort possible. More info is on the site at this link. (Special thanks to Rotary District 6780′s new governor Frank Rothermel for his support of this effort.)
Colleen Ryan helped get medicines, soccer balls and other supplies ready for the trip to Ghana.
Second, the medical clinics set for the June visit to Ateiku required medicines, equipment and support from medical professionals in Ghana. To make this possible about $7000 was raised. About $4000 of that went directly to buy pharmaceuticals in connection with our partner St. Michael’s Episcopal Church in Cookeville and the materials were ordered through Blessings International. About $26,000 worth of medicines, if purchased on the wholesale market, are being taken to Western Ghana for the medical fairs, along with our two Tennessee MDs and team of volunteers.
Lastly, a portion of the money raised will be used for school support — purchase of school supplies once we’re in Ghana and bringing soccer balls to go along with school supply deliveries. You can see how well this type of effort was received in the videos on the web site. There are many people to thank but special acknowledgement goes to the Cookeville Breakfast Rotary Club. Through the International Night event in January and other fund raising, $2500 was put up toward a matching DIstrict Simplified Grant, with the CBR funding the match portion, pending reimbursement from the District. Generous support from the Jamestown and Smithville Rotary clubs helped to fund the effort. We also want to thank Bob Gunter and Johnny Hall of the CBR for the individual support, and to CBR International Service Director Corinne Darvennes. Special thanks to the Cookeville High School Interact Club, and the leadership of Ms. Nadine Jones, for their generosity in the school materials support department — that’s a lot of cars washed to buy school supplies in Ghana – Thanks guys. We can’t forget to thank everyone who came out to sort pills at St. Michael’s in preparation for the trip and to the Reverend Joe Weatherly, St. Mike’s Rector, for his support at every step.
I hope we haven’t left anyone out. We’ll make it up in future journal entries here.
But for now, thanks to everyone who made this service work possible and thanks to Rotary for making this a better world through service opportunities.
