Great news!!! The Barrington Breakfast Rotary Club has been awarded a new type of Rotary Foundation competitive challenge grant. The Rotary Foundation has awarded $552,500 to the team of Club Rotario Guatemala Sur, Rotary Club of Antigua and Barrington Breakfast Rotary Club for a grant addressing Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, WASH* in Schools (WinS).
*WASH - Water, Sanitation and Hygiene
*WASH - Water, Sanitation and Hygiene
The competition was held between all Rotary clubs within five countries: Belize, Guatemala, India, Kenya and Honduras in two phases. During phase I, 46 clubs applied and 13 of them moved to the next phase. In phase II, 13 clubs applied, and four clubs were awarded grants. We are privileged to be one of the four winners.
The grant integrates two Areas of Focus: Water and Sanitation, Basic Education and Literacy. Rotary International has issued a global challenge to improve education quality and access – particularly for girls – by working with communities to provide improved WASH services, teacher training, and curriculum enhancement. It is important to leverage off from water and sanitation related efforts and connect them with health, hygiene and education. Further details are available at this link:
The project outcome will transform and positively impact lives for children!!!
Specific goals are:
- clean filtered water and WASH stations for 16,000 - 20,000 children in about 48 schools in Sacatepéquez Department in Guatemala
- access to gender segregated sanitary facilities with flush toilets and septic at each school
- facilities for girls designed particularly to respond to their needs during the menstrual cycle
- effective hygiene educational program to encourage habit formation and to promote behavioral changes
- a menstrual hygiene management program focused on the biology of the menstruation cycle and safe practices
- extensive training for menstrual hygiene – goal is to have girls stay in school
Total Project Funding - $552,500
Thanks to The Rotary Foundation who contributed $425,000 (77%) of project funding.
We are grateful to our following partners who contributed the remaining funds.
Rotary Districts contributed $58,500 in District Designated Funds (DDF)
6440, 7820, 4250, 6420, 6060, 5830, 7080, 7170
These Rotary Clubs and other entities contributed $69,000 in cash
The dollar value of the award, $552,500, is the largest for a grant ever for our District 6440, and possibly for Zones 28 and 29.
The award of this grant now presents an opportunity to begin putting all our plans into action to help children, with emphasis on improving education for girls. In addition to active engagement by the host and international Rotary clubs, we have created alliances with municipal governments, school authorities and local community of the Sacatepéquez Department in Guatemala. We have a big challenge in front of us and we are up to it. Working together as a team, we will achieve our project goals.