Multi-Club,
Sustainable Village Program -
Missions to and Information about San José Villanueva, El Salvador
animated
flags courtesy of
http://www.crossed-flag-pins.com
After the
following introduction, you will find links to reports, photo collages and
videos about our missions to "SJV", which are in the order of
latest to earliest missions.
The
Multi-Club, Sustainable Village Program was started by the Rotary Club of
North Renfrew (Deep River) in 2010 to enable a large scale, humanitarian
program addressing poverty, literacy, water, health, housing, environment,
micro-finance, etc. The intent is to make a significant, sustainable
difference in a community or communities in a developing country.
The
objective of the program is to achieve a sustainable outcome through the
pooling of the resources and expertise of many groups and focusing them
over a long period of time on a limited geographic area. San José
Villanueva, El Salvador was chosen as the location for the program based
on five factors that will help to ensure a viable program:
- previous, although
limited, humanitarian experience in the community;
- the presence of
competent and knowledgeable on-the-ground resources;
- proven Salvadorian
Rotary Club partners;
- a location that
minimizes expenditures on travel costs and maximizes expenditures on
the humanitarian work, and;
- a location that
encourages broader Rotarian participation.
An essential, early step in implementing a viable program is to understand
the needs of the community as seen by the community
to avoid imposing a program based on an outsider's perception of needs,
which has been a fault of many humanitarian efforts.
In January
2011, a program to assess the needs in San José Villanueva started with
the help of a Master’s Student, Kailea MacGillivray, from the University
of Guelph. The needs analysis has continued with the assistance of a local
woman who has extensive knowledge of the community.
Prior to
completion of the needs analysis a limited series of projects was
initiated to address more urgent near term needs (health, housing,
nutrition) and to begin the process of building capacity (Micro-credit) in
the community. Starting in 2012, a larger program supported by a
comprehensive needs analysis will be initiated and will include:
-
a Healthy
Homes Project to provide Eco-friendly stoves and water filters
to a large number of homes;
-
additional funds to expand the very successful micro-credit
initiative;
-
support for the medical clinic and community health promoters;
-
expansion of initiatives to provide education and training, and;
-
the provision of a reliable source of water for each neighbourhood
-
work towards establishing a multi purpose community centre.
The
Multi-Club Sustainable Village Program has already benefited from partner
Clubs in both Canada (Rotary Clubs of Eganville, Renfrew, Pembroke,
Kemptville, Kingston, Hamilton Sunrise and Waterdown) and the USA
(Ogdensburg New York, El Paso Texas) as well as from private donors and
grants from Rotary International.
Trip
Report by Carey & Donna Beamesderfer from the
Rotary Club of West El Paso (District 5520) - posted Nov
24, 2011
10 megabyte
PDF file compatible with Acrobat Reader ver 7 or later
October 2011
CLICK
HERE for the Rotarian Action Group for Microcredit posting news
article about Microcredit in El Salvador
November 2010
Thank
you note from Roxana (Roxana and
her family had their new house built during the November mission. Her
thank you notes, one to every member of our team, was all the reward we
needed. It warmed our hearts. The link shows the thank you note to Greg).
Trip
Report by Carey & Donna Beamesderfer from the
Rotary Club of West El Paso (District 5520) (2.5 megabyte PDF)
On this mission, our group prepared the sites and assembled the
materials that were used to construct seven houses. Construction was
carried out by the Rotary Club of Keene, New Hampshire, USA (http://keenerotary.org/default.asp).
