50/50:  Bert Andrews and Dan Graham did not match cards;  $200 carried over.

 

Finemaster:  Duane Evans fined Darrel Ripley for forgetting the welcome song; Doug Sollows for aggressively pressing Spencer Mueller; Spencer Mueller for conducting business on his cell phone during the Rotary meeting; Bill Buckham for flattening the fauna outside the Faculty Club in an attempt to miss people walking to the Rotary meeting; in celebration of spring time anyone who had been in a warmer climate this winter; anyone that attended the Home & Garden Show or is planting seeds already.

 

Guest Speaker:  Darryll White talked about the trip to Cambodia to help marginalized people.  First picture was of a swing made from tree vines - no adults just kids.  Then showed bicycles given to kids to allow them easier transport to get to school.  The trip was to Pursat, the Drifting Bodhi Province in central Cambodi.  They were 174 km north of Phnom Penh in an area where the Khmer Rouge killed 10,000 people.  The volunteers on the trip were Darryll & Pat White, Fred Kraft, David & Karen Gibbens, Al & Karen Sanderson, Jody Nicholson plus Jocelyn Hrynew plus Dee Polichuck & Helen from Rotary Club of Vegreville.  The trip started  with work, then a visit to the ocean for play. 

 

A local NGO (non governmental organization) called Building Bridges for Children was created by the Rotary Club of Pursat to manage the local Rotary projects.  Poverty is high in this area as parents may move out of country to find work and leave children with grandmothers.  Remaining families are unable to fund the cost of school supplies and there is a high rate of school drop outs.  We fund sanitation, school supplies, bikes for transport of kids to school, plus assisting in paying living wage salaries to teachers.  Rural teacher salaries are too low and the people cannot afford to teach without subsidization.  Many move to urban areas to earn reasonable teacher salaries.  We provide $40 per month to each teacher.  Most people in this area make less than $2 per day.  Another problem is stunting (from poor nutrition, many children are very short).  46% of families have no running water and only 33% have some form of improved sanitation.  The average family has to walk 5.4 km to health centres, 4.2 km to school or work.  Because of trouble getting to school, many children need to repeat grades.

 

5 schools are managed by BBC (Building Bridges for Children) which covers 1500 students and/or teachers on a budget of $5969.  Training meetings are used to promote awareness to parents and low level authorities.  This trip we handed out school supplies to 170 students.    Another concern is building communication.  The area is now getting electricity  and the teachers, especially, need computer training and computers.  The federal government is building a road to the area.

 

5 schools get support for basic school instruction for early childhood care development.  This comprises of 90 hours for computer training and 150 hours for learning English.  The impact on long term improvement of education sustainability is hard to measure but 4 years ago there were 63 kids in school and now there are 200 (bikes to allow kids to get to school is a big factor).  Education is the main local concern; sanitation is ours.

 

Other items of note:  an irrigation system that is 5 years old is not being maintained, the canals are eroding and the system will disappear; we look after local concerns but we work with the local government for support.

 

At the end of the trip Fred wanted to see a floating garden in Phnom Penh which is a method of water retention and floating greenery is floating vegetables.

 

Other Albertan Rotary Clubs are now looking after other areas of Cambodia.  A future project is to work with training for pregnant women.  We plan to use lessons learned in our Belise program and maintain the educator contacts.  Water supply is a concern.  Our Cambodian area has a very low water table, thus we need water retention areas.  Rotary Club of Vegreville drilled a well last year.  Pat White's birthday present was another well.  We plan to work on handwash stations in future.  This year, Rotary Club of Vegreville and our volunteers built a latrine.  The local governor presented our Rotary Club with a certificate of appreciation. 

 

High impact projects are water wells, water retention sites, sanitation facilities (wash projects).  In future take sanitary supplies and money to buy bicycles for kids' transportation ($44 U S each).  Also fund education supplies, teacher skills training, leadership training and sports supplies.   Then partner with the right people.

 

Darryll was thanked by Darrel Ripley.