Virginia Peninsula Rotary - Club Projects

SCHOOL: Escuela Carmen Lyra educates about 900 children in the town of Alajuelita, near San Jose. The children's ages are from kindergarten into what we would call middle school.

ENVIRONMENT: The town of Alajuelita and its inhabitants are quite poor. Many, in fact, are "undocumented" immigrants from Nicaragua, just north of Costa Rica. Although the children we saw in the school were clean and smiling, the environment around them is urban, dirty, and grim.

NEEDS: The school's needs are many and serious. They range from relatively small items such as the lack of a toilet in the kindergarten area, to larger issues such as the dangerous walkways that the children are constantly using.

BIGGEST NEED: The sewage from the entire school presently is piped untreated into a nearby stream. That stream in turn is part of the water supply for the town. The danger of disease resulting from this situation is clear.

WHO IS RESPONSIBLE? The national government of Costa Rica provides very little financial help for schools. It is the local municipality that is responsible for the support of schools, and in this case the local government does not have the funds to help much.

HOW DID WE FIND OUT ABOUT THIS? Our "partner" Rotary club, the club of Escazu in Costa Rica, identified Carmen Lyra as an organization that needs help, and during the Peninsula Club's visit to Costa Rica last August the Escazu Club took us to see the school.

CONCEPT: The Rotary Foundation encourages international cooperation and understanding by providing grants when Rotary Clubs in two different countries work together on a project.

OUR PROJECT: The Peninsula Rotary Club, in consultation with the Escazu Rotary Club, has decided to take on Carmen Lyra's sewage treatment as a project. This is not only the most important of their needs, but in timing it needs to come before other projects could logically start. The Escazu Club has determined that $35,000 is needed for proper treatment.

FUNDING: If the project is approved and funds are available, our Club's money will be multiplied by the Matching Grants system of The Rotary Foundation. We will put in $10,000. District 7600 will match this, and then The Rotary Foundation will match all of the District's money and half of our money. Thus our $10,000 will become $35,000 available for the project.

WHAT WILL THE ESCAZU CLUB'S ROLE BE? They will organize and administer the project and do the bookkeeping and reporting to The Rotary Foundation. In addition, the Escazu Club has solved many of the smaller problems. They have installed safety railings and ramps, provided a kindergarten toilet, and corrected serious drainage problems. The work, funded with their own money and through contributions they have raised in the community, amounts to about $20,000.