Posted by Jennifer Bennerotte on Jul 18, 2018
The Edina Rotary Foundation recently awarded up to $21,000 in grants for four pending international service projects. The projects will take place in Guatemala, Palestine and South Africa. Our International Service Committee will partner with other local and international Rotary clubs, as well as other organizations, to fund the projects.
 
The Rotary Club of Edina and St. Patrick’s Church of is leading a water filtration project in Coban, Guatemala. St. Patrick’s is organizing a trip in May 2019 to distribute 560 water filtration units in the area. The Edina Rotary Foundation will provide up to $12,500 for the project. The Rotary Clubs of Edina Morningside, Minneapolis City of Lakes, Eden Prairie Noon and Rogers are also contributing funds for the project. If other money is raised, the Edina Rotary Foundation’s contribution will decrease.

The Foundation gave $1,000 for the Open Arms Home for Children’s “Suds of Hope” program in Komga, South Africa. On a family trip to South Africa, Rotarian Bob Solis from the Rotary Club of Sun City, Arizona, saw the devastation caused to families by the AIDS pandemic. He and his wife took their life savings to buy a 70-acre farm there on which Open Arms now sits and is home to 57 children. Open Arms has outgrown the two washing machines and one dryer to serve everyone there. “Suds of Hope” will provide funds for a new laundry building on the campus.

The projects in Coban, Gautemala, and Komga, South Africa, are pending additional grant approval from Rotary International District 5950.

The Foundation awarded $5,000 to construct Healthy Latrines for 200 families in Santa Eulalia, a community in northwestern Guatemala near the Mexican border. Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) education will also be performed throughout the community as part of the project, to be overseen by Water Missions and spearheaded by the Rotary Club of Lakewood Ranch, Florida.

To promote peace in the West Bank of Palestine, $2,500 was awarded to the Rotary Club of Minneapolis University for a project. Through the project, services at Hope Flower School in Bethlehem, which educates disadvantaged children in Palestine and those traumatized by conflict, would be upgraded. In addition, a new van would begin to bring services to women and children in hard-to-access remote communities in the southern West Bank, including the City of Hebron.
 
The Santa Eulalia, Guatemala, and Palestine projects are pending additional grant approval from Rotary International.
 
Money for grants awarded by the Edina Rotary Foundation is raised at an annual fall fundraiser and gala and donations made throughout the year.