Rotary Foundation Minute
Posted by Bob Ruehl
on Mar 27, 2014
Rotary Foundation Minute...
Eradicating extreme poverty and hunger is one of the major goals of Rotary. Children are usually the most affected. With poverty comes abuse, abandonment and starvation. Often parents leave their children behind as they search for a better future. This happened in one of the poorest states in Chaipas, Mexico, where children can be found starving in the streets.
Maria Victoria, in her mid-fifties and a native of Mexico, City, decided to help these orphans and founded an orphanage in Tapachula, Mexico for street kids. She sold her home and her land in Mexico City and started the orphanage in a small rented house on the outskirts of the city in a poor often-dangerous neighborhood. Taking in eleven abused and abandoned children, she and a group of volunteers clothed and fed them.
Four years later she cares for 60 children and has helped hundreds more who have stayed with her while waiting for homes. Recently a private donor raised money to purchase a larger home for the orphans, but this new home needed beds, mattresses, chairs to sit on, tables to eat on, a refrigerator and a stove. In comes Rotary and District 7170.
Through the networking of Dr. Bob Ross, District 7170’s Grant Committee Chair, these needs were recently met. Through the generosity of the Rotary Clubs of Binghamton, Cooperstown, Dryden, and Tapachula, plus Rotary Districts 7170 and 4200 and Rotary International, the orphanage now has what it needs. The grant even supplied a bread oven, where the children can bake bread for sale resulting in some income.
Your contribution to The Rotary Foundation helped make this happen. Thank you.
Maria Victoria, in her mid-fifties and a native of Mexico, City, decided to help these orphans and founded an orphanage in Tapachula, Mexico for street kids. She sold her home and her land in Mexico City and started the orphanage in a small rented house on the outskirts of the city in a poor often-dangerous neighborhood. Taking in eleven abused and abandoned children, she and a group of volunteers clothed and fed them.
Four years later she cares for 60 children and has helped hundreds more who have stayed with her while waiting for homes. Recently a private donor raised money to purchase a larger home for the orphans, but this new home needed beds, mattresses, chairs to sit on, tables to eat on, a refrigerator and a stove. In comes Rotary and District 7170.
Through the networking of Dr. Bob Ross, District 7170’s Grant Committee Chair, these needs were recently met. Through the generosity of the Rotary Clubs of Binghamton, Cooperstown, Dryden, and Tapachula, plus Rotary Districts 7170 and 4200 and Rotary International, the orphanage now has what it needs. The grant even supplied a bread oven, where the children can bake bread for sale resulting in some income.
Your contribution to The Rotary Foundation helped make this happen. Thank you.