The World Community Service Committee is planning several projects, which will be summarized here when details are available.

Completed International Service Projects

200 cataract surgeries funded for Jalna, India

In conjunction with the Rotary Club of Boulder, Colorado and the Rotary Club of Jalna-Central, India, our club helped obtain a Rotary Foundation matching grant to provide 200 cataract surgeries for patients from villages near Jalna, India. Click here for a poster describing the project (PDF format). Click here for a photograph page showing a cataract-screening camp conducted in March 2010 and containing more information about the project.

Student desks provided for schools in Belgaum, India

In early 2009 the club's Board of Directors approved a club contribution of $2,500 for a project proposed by the World Community Service Committee, presented by Anne Deaton, to provide student desks for two schools in Belgaum, India in cooperation with the Rotary Club of Belgaum-Midtown. That money, together with additional funds raised for the project, was used to provide training for workers who built the desks and to purchase the necessary materials. Not only did the project provide much needed student desks for two schools where most students sit on the floor, but also it provided greatly needed carpentry and welding training to about 20 residents of Belgaum. Click here for a photo of a prototype of the desks. Click here for a page of photographs showing the schools to receive the desks before the desks were built. Click here for a page of photographs showing the finished desks, presented to the schools on November 14, 2009. Each of the desks bears a plate indicating it was a gift of our club and the Belgaum club.

Water treatment plant provided to tribal village in India

The Columbia Rotary Club joined with three other local clubs, Columbia-Northwest, Columbia-South and Columbia-Metro, to help fund a water treatment plant for the Village of Chandanwadi, India. Representatives of the Rotary Club of Pune-East, India, handed over control of the new plant to Village of Chandanwadi in ceremony in January 2009. The four Columbia clubs were assisted by Rotary District 6080 and a grant from the Rotary Foundation.

The need for the project was identified in 2004, when Dr. Raymond Plue of Columbia led a Rotary Group Study Exchange team to Maharashtra, India and visited the tribal village of Chandanwadi nearby. Plue, a member of the Columbia-South Rotary Club, witnessed people in the small village suffering hardships and disease due to a lack of potable water. At the time, the women of the village carried water 2 kilometers from a well that was only functional from July through February. During the summer months, water was even more difficult to find for the 500 people of the village.

The Columbia clubs worked with the Pune-East Rotary Club in India to complete the project, which was completed in December 2008. "Lives will be saved since clean, potable water is now available. I feel grateful that we are able to make their lives better," said Plue.

Tom O'Connor, a Columbia-Metro Rotarian who accompanied Plue, was appreciative of the process Rotary International follows to make projects like these possible. "Rotary International magnifies the efforts of individual Rotarians such that anyone with the desire can easily accomplish some pretty amazing things."

Click here to go to a page of photographs showing the water treatment plant and the dedication ceremony.

Twin club relationship with the Rotary Club of
Cuernavaca Oriente, Mexico spawns five major projects

In January 2002 the Columbia Rotary Club invited the Rotary Club of Cuernavaca Oriente, Mexico to join in a "twin/fraternal club" relationship. The invitation was accepted, and over the years since the relationship has spawned many visits back and forth and a number of projects to assist people in the area of Cuernavaca. The projects were as follows:

• January 2005 – With the assistance of the Rotary Foundation (Matching Grant #54738), $10,000 was raised to provide colposcopes and electrosurgical units for rural hospitals to help combat the greatest cause of death in women in the State of Morelos – cervical uterine cancer.

• October 2006 – Again with the assistance of the Rotary Foundation (Matching Grant #61078), $28,000 was raised to provide equipment for municipal composting centers.

• February 2006 – Construction of a house for Down's Syndrome children. The club raised funds by selling silver "paw bracelets" made in Mexico.

• May 2007 – The Columbia Fire Department, through the auspices of Fire Chief Bill Markgraf, a club member, donated 14 defibrillators. The club made arrangements for delivery of the defibrillators for use in Cuernavaca.

• April 2008 – The Columbia Rotary Club partnered with the other Columbia Rotary clubs, the Columbia Rotaract Club, the Rotary Foundation (Matching Grant #6143) and the Columbia-based PET Project to raise $20,050 and provide 80 Personal Energy Transportation (PET) to people unable to walk. Click here for a photograph page showing the dedication and presentation of the PET units in Cuernavaca.

The PET Project places the gift plate pictured above
on PET vehicles donated by the club.

• In 2009 and 2010, Judy Elliott obtained donations of Spanish-language children's books which were given to children in Cuernavaca. Click here for more information about and photographs of the 2010 book donation.

Club member Judy Elliott, a Spanish teacher, has spearheaded the club's Cuernavaca projects. She put together a Powerpoint presentation on the projects for the Rotary District 6080 Conference in 2008. The presentation includes a number of photographs. Click here to download/view the presentation in PDF format. Warning: The PDF file is 5.44 MB, so it will take some time to load.

Other past international service projects of the club have included the following:

• A project directed by Past President Russell Thompson, former Columbia Superintendent of Schools, sent school books to Africa in 1986-87. Dr. Thompson was able to get the books included in a shipment funded by another organization – otherwise, the shipping cost would have greatly exceeded the value of the books.

• The club participated in the Thorn Tree School Project, which involved a matching grant to build a school in South Africa. The Warrensburg Rotary Club led this project.

• The club was the lead club in a matching grant project in the 1990s to provide furnishings for the Lesotho School in a very isolated area of northeast South Africa. The project was developed by a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar sponsored by the club who studied for a year in South Africa.

• The club participated in Rotary Foundation matching grant project to furnish equipment for a new hospital in Venezuela.

• The club was a major participant in 1998-99 "The Wings of Hope" project to rebuild a crashed airplane to be used for humanitarian service in Central America.

Individual members of the club have also rendered significant international service, including the following:

• Club member Dick Heimburger initiated and spearheaded a multi-year $40,000 Foundation matching grant project to equip a burn unit in a children's hospital in India. This project took eight or nine years and participation by a number of clubs to bring to fruition.

• In January 2006 then-serving Club President Darcy Wells went to India to help administer polio vaccine as part of the Rotary Foundation's PolioPlus program. Click here to see a description of her visit and some photographs.