The El Salvador water project was approved last year in principle by the PPRC Board, but did not move forward due to issues needing further definition by the El Salvador sponsors. As a result of meetings at last month’s Project Fair in Costa Rica, the PPRC representatives to the Fair — President Ivy Nelson, Myron Fehr, Phil Rothrock and Don Barney — told the Board on February 14 that the project appeared to be on track again. Fehr said he is working closely with the host San Miguel Ciudad Jardin Rotary Club and its representative, Miguel Fuentes, to obtain necessary information to complete a partnership application for its proposed potable water storage and distribution project to reach residents in the rural hills around San Miguel. Many of these residents currently have to send family members — often teenagers who would otherwise be in school — with jugs and other receptacles to draw water from a community well and then hand carry it home on a daily basis
Fehr has asked for a detailed budget to determine the level of participation by PPRC. Total cost of the project — for which PPRC might lead part or all — is estimated between $40,000 and $95,000. PPRC will seek added Rotary Club participants from the Oregon to participate in this project. He noted that the project speaks to the PPRC focus on health and youth issues.
The Costa Rica project would assist the Suri Educational Project, a private girls’ school in Pavas, a low-income suburb of San Jose (the capital city). The host Rotary Club of Belen, Costa Rica has submitted two proposals to outfit a new school building completed last year. The school teaches girls from primary through secondary schools. Uniquely it also teaches the girls’ mothers and grandmothers — many of whom are heads of household — earning skills in such areas as computer programs, handcrafts and culinary arts. Income derived from these skills allow these adults to keep their teenage daughters in school to complete courses rather than requiring them to leave school after ninth grade and help support the family.
Pearl Rotary will apply to lead grant efforts to support the second Belen proposal which would outfit the teaching kitchen to offer culinary arts training. Cost of this project is $67,000, for which the Belen club has submitted a detailed budget. PPRC is seeking other Rotary club participants from the Portland area to participate in this project. The Belen club’s first proposal to outfit the school library is being pursued by a group of Rotary Clubs in the Chicago area.
PPRC Rotarian Don Barney told the Board the Costa Rica project has strong potential for meaningful followup visits by Pearl Rotary members to the project site, and possible microbanking projects with women completing the adult education courses at the school. The Belen Club is prepared to commit $500 to the project and match it at its District level with another $1,000.
