ts community commitment into the Southern Hemisphere.
The club is involved with the community throughout the year, but it also performs humanitarian work in other countries including India, Argentina, Ghana, Chile and lately in Bolivia.
The project in Bolivia was started with a visit in 2002 by Elyzabeth Perrier, a member of Rotary’s World Community Service Committee. Perrier personally toured and filmed the deplorable living conditions at an orphanage for boys called “Hogar Zelada” located in the highlands of Oruro at 14,000-foot elevation.
The orphanage houses 75 children ages 8 to 18, who live in a complex built in the 1800s. The building over the years has been neglected and is in desperate need of new sanitary facilities. The antiquated facilities force the children to use rainwater to perform their daily hygiene tasks.
The orphanage is government-funded but has been pushed to the bottom of the budgetary list. It operates on a few dollars per day, with no money for maintenance or capital improvements.
Morgan Hill Rotary started its quest to help the orphanage in August 2002 and during this process the boys of “Hogar Zelada” have found many friends in our community and elsewhere.
The project consists of rebuilding the sanitary facilities with 12 showers, 12 restroom stalls and an indoor laundry area. Currently the facility has six showers, of which only two are operational, housed in a building that has no electricity and no hot water. The children wash their clothes by hand with rainwater. After a study it was determined that the project will have a cost of $23,000.
The financial aspects of the project will be managed by the Morgan Hill Rotary Club directly. Logistics will be handled by a Bolivian representative acting on behalf of the local club and a representative of the local Rotary Club in the city of Oruro, which is also partnering in the project.
Recently, local building authorization was obtained to start construction putting the three year effort to get the project going on its way to become a tangible reality.
Students help out
Live Oak High School’s Interact Club, led by Charlene Wiltsee, has been a great partner to raise funds for many international projects including the Medical Clinic in India, wheelchairs shipped to third world countries, and recently, the orphans at “Hogar Zelada”.
However, Live Oak this time has gone more than a step further to help these children in Bolivia.
They’ve formed a “Pen-Pal project” that allows them to exchange letters the old-fashioned way and share their lives with each other. Currently they are in their third round to exchanging letters. During this past year the children of “Hogar Zelada” have sent handmade gifts to show their new friends how appreciative they are of the new friendship.
In return, the youth at Live Oak sent a photo album of their school and themselves to Hogar Zelada.
In November 2003, Paradise Elementary School, through Principal James Hamilton, expressed interest in joining the effort. Along with Live Oak, students Paradise students conducted a used clothing drive at Christmas. Several bags of clothing were donated by both schools, which today are keeping the children at Hogar Zelada warm.
Live Oak and Paradise Schools have continued its fundraising efforts and presented their donation to Morgan Hill Rotary on June 16.
Local Rotarians also have also stepped forward to help the orphanage. Arlene Greenberg of Pacific Financial has donated three computers and a server to facilitate communication between pen-pals.
In addition, Coast Range Technologies, a local networking provider owned by Russell Haynes, has offered to load the computers with the correct software to make the computers ready to be used.
Morgan Hill Rotary is part of a bigger family that supports each other in the efforts. As soon as the news came about Hogar Zelada, Gilroy, Hollister and San Juan Bautista Rotary Clubs pledged their help. The solidarity of Rotarians has reached even the north, having a Canadian Club, the Rotary Club of St. Catharines, Ontario, join the efforts.
To date the fundraising efforts have brought close to $13,000 in the account leaving $10,000 more to go. This amount will allow the first phase of the project to get underway – the construction of the restroom stalls.
Details or to make contributions, contact Elizabeth Perrier at 782-6756.
