Our club has partnered with many other clubs, along with other partners to support over 2,500 high school age girls to stay in school. The original $10,000 USD produced $67,000 USD in grants from the matching process. There was some excellent swift action and collaboration to apply for a Rotary Global Grant (GG2097864).
Partners: Rotary club of Kampala Nsambya, Zambia from Distrcit 9211 and 8 clubs from our District 5040, Candlelight Foundation in Uganda, and the Canadian Government.
Area of Focus: Water, Sanitation and Hygiene
Rotary Hygiene Sanitation Social Enterprise Limited is focused on sanitation, run by a board of directors including Rotarians and a high school representative. Using sewing machines, training and design, they create “Enviropads” that are reusable and washable. These menstrual pads can be used safely and cleanly, and are environmentally friendly. They keep the women using them confident and comfortable. The social enterprise are now also making and preparing face masks which we can purchase through their online shop.
In addition to creating the pads and masks, the employees of the social enterprise are becoming educators to help teach members of the public about sanitation and the importance of keeping girls in school. This educator position provides employment opportunities for girls once they graduate.
Candlelight Foundation provides sanitary pads, uniforms, education about sanitation and other fields that help keep girls in school. Candlelight high school was originally built with help from the Icelandic Government.
Other projects on the go: Uganda Sanitation for Health – in 21 districts in 3 clusters in Uganda in partnership with US Aid to provide menstrual products and education.
We are also, through Chris Loat and other great instigators, partnering with a new chapter of the social enterprise with the Rotary Club of Bulindo – currently this partnership has secured over $5000 with 100% matching from the district. The project is looking for more partners and more funding of any size.
We do best when we collaborate so that we can all chip in and share the wight. Every little bit makes a difference when we work together.
Chris Loat
Thank you so much to our presenters Rosette Nabuuma and Chris Loat for sharing the information and also for continuing leading the charge on these great initiatives.
To purchase masks online made by this amazing social enterprise: https://www.clf-canada.ca/
Book written by Rosette: The Ending of Tears
To learn more about the Social Enterprise: candlelightfoundation-ug.org
Rotary Club of Whistler Millennium 