MAY 2003 - Table Of Contents In this issue you will find: • • • •
Best european service project award Euco 2003 – report workshop 1 : making rotaract attractive Paul Harris comic book Step back for the culture
Best european service project award
In the February 2002 ERIC-meeting in Luxemburg, the idea came out to organize a contest for the best European service project 2002. The challenge for the clubs and districts was to organize an international service project and came up with some results by the end of 2002. The best project would delivered the organizing club or district a free participation at the EUCO 2003 in Amsterdam. So after setting up the rules for the contest the promotional tour could start for the ERIC-representatives. This resulted in candidates from all over Europe. The 12 following participants competed for the Best European Service Project Award: I will not present them right now. Therefore I suggest you to read the coming ERICnewsletters. There will be a presentation of each project. But know that they were all very competitive. It was very difficult to give them a rate. All projects were very good and of course they were all recognized by ERIC as an outstanding European service project. In order to make an evaluation, a rate was given on several points. Each project got points on: -
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the originality of the project;
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how international was the project;
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how many people were involved;
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and how active was the project.
Because the evaluation of these points was not enough to have a winner, clubs got bonuses on the cost of the project and if they used the official application form. This to show how close everything was. But finally a winner came out of the evaluation: STEP BACK FOR THE CULTURE of Rotaract Club Novi Sad. The projects GEGENFLUT of Rotaract Club DĂźsseldorf and BOOK DONATIONS of Rotaract Club Osijek ended respectively on the second and the third place. With this contest we tried to know what was going on in the Rotaract Clubs in Europe. By seeing all these beautiful projects means only that actually there were no losers at the contest. Congratulations to all the participants to keep the Rotaract ideas alive.
Arnaud De Schryver ERIC Project Division Manager
Euco 2003 – report workshop 1 : making rotaract attractive
Moderator: Arnaud De Schryver, Belgium The past few years more and more Rotaract Clubs are confronted with the problem that they have not enough members anymore to run the club normally. They become conscious that it is not easy to find new motivated young people who would like to join Rotaract. With this workshop, by sharing experience among the participants, we were trying to find several solutions on 2 topics: -
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how to find new members;
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how to retain existing club members.
Before thinking about possible answers, we first talked about what caused these problems.
Strategies and ways to find new members. Everybody knows it is difficult to recruit new members. Rotaract is not well-known or it is sometimes known as a club for snobs. But the problem of recruitment is also due to several
other facts. There are more and more different kinds of clubs (sport clubs, dancing clubs, music clubs, student clubs, etc.). Young people have a lot of possibilities to fill their free time. It is difficult to find lists of potential members. Schools, universities and youth clubs are not always willing to give the list of their students and members. Also the Rotary Clubs are not always taking their responsibility. A few years after creating a Rotaract Club they sometimes don’t care anymore, or even don’t remember they have a Rotaract Club. In order to find new members a lot of clubs have a website in the hope to reach potential members by the internet. Other clubs try to come in the newspapers or on TV by promoting their social projects. Another way is by distributing attractive folders, with in it the program of the club, pictures of activities, a little explanation of Rotaract and contacts. Some clubs are organizing activities, like barbecue parties or bowling evenings, for people who may be interested in Rotaract, so they can feel the sphere of the club. Rotaract Clubs have to keep in touch with their Rotary Club by doing at least one activity a year with them. By this way they can make Rotary Clubs aware of their problems and push them to look for potential members, arguing the Rotaractors of today can be the Rotarians of tomorrow.
Strategies and ways to retain existing club members. But recruiting is not enough. A lot of people leave Rotaract before the age of 30. Members need to be motivated to stay in the club. Clubs need members with experience to assure the follow-up. Also here we can say that there are to much different kinds of clubs. Young people subscribe themselves more and more in several clubs. Which means that they are not 100% involved and concerned anymore on what is going on in Rotaract. To keep their attention it is important to do lots of kinds of activities and to work on teambuilding. To get members more involved, each member need to have a job so that he feels important for the club. Committee meetings are very important. This assure the committee members to be prepared at the club meetings. By being prepared the club meeting can be shorten which gives the opportunity to have an activity after the meeting. So members can look forward to the meeting because their will be something afterwards as well. Another idea is at each meeting a member has to introduce him(her)self during 10 to 15 minutes. This can improve the relationship between the members by knowing each other much better. Also a logbook can be useful in order to give some ideas of activities.
Conclusion. As you can see there are a lot of possibilities to recruit new members and to maintain them. But of course each club has to find the best way for himself. Some of them will works, other not. These ideas are surely not the only strategies. Therefore it is important to have a followup and an update of this workshop. Lets continue to share our experience about these topics. The task of E.R.I.C. will be to collect all these ideas and to put them on their website in order these ideas can be consulted by any Rotaractor at any time.
Paul Harris comic book go to top of page
In France, comic books are wildly popular with adults as well as children. So, 33-year-old French portrait painter Laurent Dareau tapped into a potentially vast market when he wrote and illustrated the 77-page comic book Paul Harris, Pionnier d'un monde nouveau (Paul Harris, Pioneer of a New World), published in December 2002. "The extraordinary life of Rotary's founder is fabulous for an author," says Dareau. "Paul Harris's story lets me expand on humanitarian themes that go far beyond a single Rotarian." Dareau created the book at the request of his father, Michel, 2001-02 president of the Rotary Club of Clermont-Ferrand ChaĂŽne des Puys, who wanted a simple tool for spreading knowledge of Rotary history and ideals. Laurent Dareau based his work on Histoire et histoires du Rotary by Marc Levin, former editor of Le Rotarien, the official Rotary regional magazine for France. "I chose the title for the comic book to play on the idea of the New World, a term that French speakers associate with North America," Dareau explains.
Response by Rotarians, the general public, and bookstores to the Paul Harris comic book has been encouraging. "Bookstores are more interested in comic books than in Rotary," Dareau says. "By means of the comic book, we can reach people with no idea or the wrong idea of Rotary and help them discover what Rotary is really about." The hardcover book, which includes Rotary highlights beyond Paul Harris's life, can be ordered for €24 (including shipping) from Michel Dareau, 1 rue du Pérou, Puy-Cheny, 63360 Saint-Beauzire, France; fax: 04 73 33 96 53. (Contact Dareau also for information on orders outside the euro zone and availability of an English translation of the book.) Some of the proceeds will benefit The Rotary Foundation and service activities of the Clermont-Ferrand Chaîne des Puys Rotary club.
Step back for the culture – Rotaract Club Novi Sad
This international and multidistrict project is aiming at raising the level of cultural awareness, promoting the way that people address each other, and improve respect and self-respect of citizens in one of the most common situations in the public life- waiting in lines.
Activities include: 1. PLACING yellow floor tapes - restriction lines in waiting rooms, for clients- citizens ( between the customer that is being served and the one behind) in all public (and private) institutions - banks, municipality, university, bus and train stations, insurance institutions, on the locality of Novi Sad, Banja Luka and Skopje 2. PROMOTING the project and the idea over all media on disposal, and 3. FOLLOWING UP on the behaviour progress and spreading the idea geographically (within the region and Districts).
The project targeted in 2002. over 700000 people ( in Novi Sad and Banja Luka) directly in public waiting rooms and indirectly over media, as well as it will in 2003, around 500000 in Skopje. While promoting the project at the ! many other clubs from the District 2480 have expressed the will to take part in the project and expand the idea all over the District in 2003. The project lasted for 12 months in 2002, and will be prolonged in 2003.
“STEP BACK FOR THE CULTURE” was presented at the Rotaract District 2480 Assembly in Skopje (30.11. -01.12.2002.) (see Annex for Novi Sad documents at page No. 21). After the proposition of RTC Novi Sad member Mr. Nikola Martinovic and followed by the advice of Ass. Rotaract District Chairman Mr. T. Papageorgiu, it was decided that “STEP BACK FOR THE CULTURE” will be the joint project of all RTCs of Rotaract District 2480 in 2003.
At the same Assembly RTC Novi Sad was awarded by the DDR Ms. Irina Panovska, for outstanding service to the ROTARIAN IDEA for the Rotarian year 2001/2002. (see Annex for Novi Sad documents at page No. 21)
The population of more than 1000000 people from three countries i.e. Novi Sad, Banja Luka and Skopje have improved own habits, while performing one typical activities in the society (banks, bus and train stations, municipality waiting rooms, university, hospitals, ambulances, pharmacies)
In that respect, mentioned population has: Improved self-respect and respect of each other while appreciating privacy, Improved conditions for work of the waiting rooms workers – staff, and additionally learned more about Rotary and Rotaract activities and clubs.
GEGENFLUT – Rotaract Club Düsseldorf
The century flood in Germany has caused 10 of billions EUR of damages. It has been the worst catastrophe since centuries.
While still whole cities in Eastern Germany were
completely covered by water an many young people spent their weekends on travelling east to help with their own hands, we decided to raise money to ease the damages and show a sign of solidarity from home. At the 1st September, we organised a benefit concert which took place on the main market place in Düsseldorf. Local and regional bands played for 10 hours. Over 10.000 people
came, drank and enjoyed the party for the whole family all to the benefit of the victims of the flood.
As a sign of solidarity – all pub-owners participating in that event donated their turnover of that day. The artists and the musicians played, danced and entertained free of charge. 120 Rotaract members sold merchandises like “gegenflut”-T-shirts, buttons and roses.
At the end of the action we raised 42.000 Euros, which will be forwarded to a dedicated school in Raguhn/Bitterfeld. As beneficiary for the raised money we have chosen a school, that was not in the main focus of the media and therefore did not receive much money as for example the city of Dresden did. With the collected money the school will be able to repair the main damages on their tumble-down building. Our help is faster than the official public spending and thus the school can insure that heating and main school books will be replaced before the winter starts.
Bitterfeld/Raguhn is one of the areas hit most by the flood.
Since it is an relatively
underdeveloped area with a small population density it did not receive a huge media coverage. With help from professional organisations like the “Johanniter Unfallhilfe” we selected the region and the school. The flood had destroyed the building with all its contents. No books, no material and simply no school was available.
To help fast and without bureaucracy we spoke directly with the director of the school and raised the money for the kids.
We completely achieved our goal: show a sign of solidarity with the flood victims. In 17 news articles and several live coverage we showed that even Germans far away from the main area of disaster can and will help. With the raised 40.000 Euros the school can buy the heating for the winter on time and books for the ongoing school year.
No one of us had ever organised anything like it. Getting all insurances and legal issues in place was as challenging as handling celebrities or all infrastructure issues. Our action GEGENFLUT offered a unique possibility of exchange between the generations and between the Rotarian family and public as well. Since we mixed all different genres of music from Samba over Rock, Hip Hop to Rap, and since we offered “Alt-beer” – a beer drunk normally only from a traditional minded crowd – we had a very diverse group of people dancing and partying together. There was the Rap-singer dancing Samba next to the 70 years old grandma rocking to Hip Hop.
BOOK DONATIONS – Rotaract Club Osijek
The main idea of the project is donation of more than 150 books of poetry, short stories and professional literature in the Croatian language to the Town library of Subotica (Vojvodina, Yugoslavia), its Ethnic Minorities Department by Rotaract Club of Osijek, Croatia. The members of the Rotaract Club of Novi Sad (District 2480, Vojvodina, Yugoslavia) have provided technical and operational assistance. The goal of this typical, international and multi-district project is to revive co-operation, friendship and tolerance and to understand current problems of multiculturalism among the Croatian citizens, Croatian minority group in Vojvodina and the population living there (people that belong to other ethnic minorities and the prevailing Serbian population). By donating these books to the Ethnic Minorities Department by the Town library, and not to a local Croatian cultural club, the books are available not only to the Croats living there, but also to all inhabitants in the region. There is a practical value of this project especially due to the fact that on one hand a significant number of people of Croatian origin live in Vojvodina and on the other hand a significant number of people of Serbian origin live in Croatia, and in this way we could strengthen the ties between these two ethnic groups, too. Because of the strained political relations, war operations and conflicts in the recent history, the dialogue, mutual communication and cultural ties between Croatia and Yugoslavia are still rather disturbed. For that reason, the Library in Subotica has only a limited number of books in Croatian, although many Croats live in that region. This weakens not only the ties of the people living in Vojvodina with their mother country but also does not allow other ethnic groups living in Vojvodina to get acquainted with literature, tradition, art and culture of their neighbouring country - Croatia. The Rotaract Club of Osijek (District 1910, Croatia) have collected different types of literature (poetry, prose, children's books, books on art, culture, traditional customs) in the Croatian language and also classified, packed and transported them to Vojvodina (Yugoslavia). The members of the Rotaract Club of Novi Sad (District 2480, Vojvodina, Yugoslavia) in Vojvodina have provided technical assistance, e.g. they have organized further transport and delivered the books to Subotica. This is a long-term project. Our goal is to encourage the Rotaract Clubs from Vojvodina to do the same with the literature in the Serbian language, which would then be donated to Croatia
as there are many people of Serbian origin living in Croatia. At the moment, we are collecting books in the Hungarian language, which will be donated to the same institution in Vojvodina since there are people of Hungarian origin living both in Vojvodina and in Croatia. Following this idea we are also trying to encourage Hungarian Clubs to donate books in Hungarian to
ONE STONE FOR FUKUCHANI – Rotaract Club Harz Halberstadt
A whole day dedicated to the life on the East-African island of Zanzibar will be organized in some of the larger cities of District 1800 (Goettingen, Magdeburg, Lueneburg etc.). The aim is to provide close and current information on the living conditions in a so-called “development country” as well as acquiring money for a meeting and development project on Zanzibar. That project is run by 16 young German students who will go to Zanzibar in the summer of 2003 and build a school in the village of Fukuchani. The preparation including workshops on religion, globalisation, tourism, development aid and sustainable development as well as an intensive language training (Swahili) had begun in July of 2002.
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successfully run the project, that means going to Zanzibar and building six classrooms, a computer cabinet and a labour, a remaining amount of 10.000 Euros is needed. We want to support these young people engaging for aims Rotaract similarly has. On our “Zanzibar Days”, we’ll provide information, meals, drinks, Taarab music, drumming sessions, theatre scenes, Kanga clothes, and much more. Creating awareness for the project and contributing money to the project – that is what we try to reach. The preparations for the days have already passed certain milestones, that means organisation is nearly complete.
Mostly presentation and advertisement opportunities are needed to make the “Zanzibar Days” known to many people of the desired target groups. Additionally, copying and printing opportunities to duplicate project information and event advertisement are desired. Nonetheless, money and transport vehicles are needs to successfully organise these days.
The target group are especially younger people aged 16 to 32 (Rotaract age) living in the 1800 District. The reason is that these people are easier to contact since they are of the same
age as we are. Furthermore, those young Germans are the forthcoming base of our society who shapes its ideals and values, including tolerance and understanding.
We expect to sharpen the peoples minds to global problems, to the difficulties that could be seen at the UN summit in Johannesburg and how local activities can help to contribute to world development, fairness and people understanding.
HELPING HAND – Rotaract Club Westland
Rotaract club ‘t Westland has combined two projects, named ‘Helping Hand’. The first project is South Africa. One of our club members lived in South Africa during this season. While living in Johannesburg for half a year she became a club member of Rotaract club Benoni-Aurora. This gave ‘t Westland the opportunity to join an international co-operation project and to use the strength of the Euro in a country where so much help is needed. A project has been set up to replace mattresses in children homes and at a home of Salvation Army in Benoni. Next to this mattress project ‘t Westland has participated in the building of a school in township Tembisa at the northern part of Johannesburg. Bertharry’school is a private school with 650 children which does not receive funds from the government. Currently they are renting rooms in churches while they are building classrooms unfortunately with few progress. Six rooms were already in use but ceilings were missing which caused a lot of noise in each classroom which disturbed teaching. With the money collected by Rotaract club ‘t Westland it is possible to close these ceilings and therewith to increase the quality of the learning environment of the children.
Rotaract ‘t Westland collected the money for the project in South Africa with the profit of the ‘wine project’ (second project). This season the ‘wine project’ was started professionally with an internet site and an assortment of high quality wines (red and white). By working together in teams the project became a great success. The Rotarians and other service clubs, companies, friends and families bought 1325 bottles of wine. The next step was to distribute the wine. This was organised by another team which was responsible for the distribution and administration.
Helping Hand was a great success. Rotaract ‘t Westland learned a lot about working together, it gave us a good spirit and we built a relationship with Rotaract club Benoni-Aurora, Rotary clubs and other service clubs.
VIOLETS FOR TOULOUSE – Rotaract Club Toulouse
On 21st of September 2001, an enormous explosion in a chemical firm caused 30 death persons and a lot of wounded persons. 4 days later a assembly of 22 presidents of Rotary, Rotaract and Inner Wheel clubs decided to launch a project for fundraising: - for the clubs which take action in favour of the victims; - for the Rotaract Club of Toulouse which mission is to give information and communication about this project by using the Rotary and the media; The operation "Violets for Toulouse" comes from this mission. The main idea is the change of a symbol of the city with a gift of 1 EUR. The solidarity of hundreds of persons growth by wearing this symbol: the violet, the flower of Toulouse. This project contributes to a fruitful collaboration between Rotary an Rotaract, but also to a platform of information and communication through the media. Nearly 10 million spectators of the TF1 news were touched by this project. It reached 60 districts and moreover 400 clubs. The project was proposed at the ERICmeeting of Luxemburg on the 9th of February 2002 by Hervé Piglowski. The turnover of 2.800 EUR and the expenses of 2.000 EUR resulted provisionally in a gain of 800 EUR.
MIXED TRIATHLON – Rotaract Club Leuven
The non-profit union ‘Koning Albatros’ is an independent union of young volunteers who put their shoulders to the wheel for persons with a mental handicap. They organise several activities to stimulate the secret talents of these persons: art exhibitions, music contests, sporting events… With our financial support, they also organise a one week holiday.
The major goal of the project is to encourage mentally handicapped persons to tackle new challenges and to broaden their horizons. Mixed teams of a mentally handicapped person and either a RTC-member or another volunteer pass several physical tests, slightly adapted to the special athletes: a boat-race, a gocart race, football, athletics tests such as 200 m sprint, shot-put, long jump. The final part of the contest is a short knowledge and music quiz. Of course, the day is closed by the distribution of a medal to every athlete and of special prizes to the best athletes. We also offer them a dinner. We expect that it is a pleasant day for everybody, of course in the first place, for the special athletes. Our experience from the last years shows us that they enjoy the event and that they become acquainted with something new, our major goal. There’s a positive atmosphere and good relationships are built between the special athletes and the RTC-members.
KANNERSCHLASS – Rotaract Club Luxembourg
Kannerschlass is a non-profit organisation providing a home to children in social distress: orphans, child abuse victims, divorced parents, etc. The Rotaract Club of Luxembourg is aware of the need of care and leisure activities to children in social difficulty in our community. Therefore the club organised and financed 2 activities in 2002 for this project: a trip to Disneyland Paris and a Saint Nicolas visit to the kind children.
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Give an opportunity to travel abroad;
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Provide care through a dialogue with each child;
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Offer presents financed by our activities and some sponsors.
With this project we expect to provide happiness to children in distress in our community. We give them the pictures we took and keep in touch.
ABIO – Rotaract District 2100 “A child makes the world go round. Children’s eyes are our view over the future”
This is the motto of the 2001/2002 community service project that Rotaract district 2100 started last September. According to the guidelines proposed by the Italian DRR’s, during the current year district 2100 is committed to help hospitalised children in collaboration with A.B.I.O. (“Association of Italian hospitalised children”). The aim of ABIO is to help humanizing hospitals and to offer moral support to the children and to their families, in order to make their experience in the hospital less traumatic than what it usually is. In order to take positive action together with ABIO, many Rotaracters have attended to a training course which has enabled them to get a special license to be a voluntary worker in hospitals. Furthermore, about 100 Rotaracters have contributed in the organization in Christmas parties and Carnival parties with clowns and presents in all the hospitals which have paediatric wards in the territory of district 2100. Each club have contacted the local hospital to offer the organization of recreational activities for the children and the donation of equipment needed in the recreational centres. In case playrooms didn’t exist at all, the clubs have made the hospital managers aware of the need of a place for the children to play and have offered their support for the planning stage and for the purchase of furniture and equipment. These contacts have greatly improved the visibility of Rotaract in all the territory of our district, showing a concrete action which has been very much appreciated by the local administration, the hospital managers and the volunteers association who already work in hospitals. Apart from the local actions taken by single clubs, the district, supported by the funds and the efforts of all the clubs, has promoted the renovation, the furnishing and the purchase of equipment for two children’s recreational centres one in Cosenza hospital and the other in Santobono Hospital in Naples, which is the biggest and most important paediatric hospital in the south of Italy and which admits children from four regions. An architect who is also a RTC member has prepared a detailed plan for both the waiting room of the surgery ward and the recreational centre of Santobono Hospital, which is currently being executed (see attached file). The architect has thought about a playroom which a game itself: on the walls there are panels showing fairy tales which can be changed in order to describe different stories every day, which is important especially for cancer affected children who are forced to spend long
periods in the hospital. The room is also equipped with TV, video recorder and creative games. To raise funds all the clubs have sold mugs and t-shirts showing the symbols of ABIO and Rotaract and the logo of the project and organised parties. The clubs of Calabria have also sold little “panettoni” (typical Italian Christmas spiced brioche) and organized a lottery. The funds raised by Rotaract amount € 10.000,00 whilst Rotary district 2100 has given other € 10.000,00 to support the project.
VARNITA – Rotaract District 2100
The “Varnita” project is a joint service by Rotaract district 2100, including the regions of Campania and Calabria, Italy, and the clubs belonging to district 2241 of Rotary International including Romania and Moldova. It is a part of a major International Service projects which includes also the twinning of the two districts that has been celebrated on December 8th during the visit of a delegation of 8 Rotaracters from the Rotaract clubs of Bucharest, Timisoara and Bistrita in district 2100. During their visit 15 local clubs collaborated in order to show our guests the beauties of our country and to show them our hospitality. A delegation of Rotaracters from district 2100 is travelling to Romania for one week at Easter time in order to meet at least 8 of the 15 clubs present in that country. In the charter of the twinning a mutual yearly visit is planned from 2001 on. In order to strengthen the relationship between our countries and Rotaract districts, we have chosen a project to be run together. Varnita is the name of a little village 40 km away from Bucharest where stands and old and dilapidated school attended to by all the children aged from 5 to 14. The walls are extremely damp and one of the classrooms is completely abandoned because of its insalubrities, so that each class in turn is obliged to go to school in the afternoon due to the lack of another space where to study. At the beginning our aim was to pay for the renovation of the school, but in January the local administration, made aware of the situation by the Romanian Rotaracters, has decided to pay for it with public money. Our aim has become the purchase of all the new furnishing and equipment needed by the school, according to what we’ve been asked by the children and the teachers. We are buying goods for the amount of € 4.000,00. In order to make this expense, the clubs from district 2100 have organised parties, selling of desserts and many different activities for fundraising.
The Romanian Rotaracters are frequently going to Varnita to keep contact with the school manager and were there also on the 15th of December when they organised a Christmas party for the children. The local Rotaracters bought a Christmas tree and brought to all the children presents donated by the clubs of district 2100 (se pictures and articles). Apart from the service project, district 2100, which is an over 30 years old district, through its officers is helping the Romanian Rotaracters to build up their own district providing them its major experience.
HELP FOR THE GDANSK HOSPITAL – Rotaract Club Trojmiasto
Rotaract Club of Trójmiasto in the co-operation with Rotaract Graz (Austria) has given grants for the Psychiatric Ward of the Gdansk Hospital.
In May 2002 we invited our friends from Rotaract Club Graz to Gdansk to discuss the mutual project. Marek Stepowicz – our former member who attends RTC Graz for two years – was a person who enabled both clubs to contact each other. From the very beginning we concerned a ‘grant program’ for a community of Trójmiasto. We introduced our guests bad conditions of the hospitals that were placed in our region. Rotaracters from Graz decided that the Psychiatric Ward of the Gdansk Hospital was the one that really needed help. They started to collect the supplies that were listed and given us by the hospital. RTC Trójmiasto took a responsibility for preparing the project in Gdansk and collecting few things from the list. Unfortunately there appeared some problems in November. In the last minute we had to change our plans because of some inevitable restrictions on the border. It turned out that the tax for the grants would become too high for us to pay. Moreover, each gift had to be given to the person known of his name and surname! Within such a big project it was impossible to fulfil those conditions. Instead of it, RTC Graz decided to assemble sufficient amount of money (€ 7500) to buy the grants behind the border, in Poland. In the same time Rotaract Club of Trójmiasto had to fix some logistic problems such as: where to buy proper articles for an adequate price and how to transport them to the hospital. We shared the duties between our members and in a very short time we recognized the offer of each Mall in Trójmiasto. On the 5th of December, as soon as Rotaracters arrived to Gdansk we spent together the whole day driving from one Mall to another. All articles were bought within a day and the next
morning handed over the hospital. The whole project was described in a newspaper (“Gazeta Wyborcza” 6th of Dec.) and well received by a community. We had given articles such as: computer, printer, radios (5), video, microwave, water boilers (5), mattresses (40), bed-clothes (40), towels (160), dishes (complete of plates, knifes, forks and spoons for 120 persons), materials for the office (corkboards, staplers, punchers, reams of paper, markers, etc.)
VILLAGE MARIE DOMINIQUE – Rotaract Club Rome Campidoglio
The cooperation between the Rotaract Rome Campidoglio and Solid Africa gave birth to the common idea in which these two Associations are the protagonists because they engaged themselves to carry out an important and ambitious project: to collect money to do the maintenance of the Children and Young Mothers Home of the mission “Village Marie Dominique” of Abidjan in the Ivory Coast, mainly through the organization entertainment events, theatre performances and other similar events which will take place during the Rotaract Year 2002-2003. More than 50% of people are under 20 years old. Families are composed of 6 or 7 children and it is not unusual to see families with more than 15 children. Not everybody can go to school, above all young girls. We are here to pay attention to the needs and to the problems of the poorest girls to give them real answers, such as: •
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Giving them a theoretical and practical education for their future
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Promoting their self-confidence to plan their own future life with a positive attitude
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Stimulating their responsibility, creativeness and cooperation
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Becoming conscious of the importance of the role of inside family and African
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Helping them to give sense to their life
The direct beneficiaries of this project are young women who: live on the streets, lost their father because of AIDS or have a complicated familiar situation. They are between 9 and 15 old.
We take care of every girl in a particular way, according to her personality. That is why every girl’s experience in the village is different for type and duration. Every one of them follows their own educational and training program, in the Women Promotion Centre « Village Marie Dominique », or in the Youth Centre or in the schools in the area.
This service was brought to you by E.R.I.C., the European Rotaract Information Center. Please visit our website at http://www.rotaract-eric.org and especially the webpage about our sponsors at http://www.rotaract-eric.org/sponsors.