By PDG Belinda Yeung, JP, Rotary Club of Hong Kong Harbour
March is Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Month
March is Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Month. Rotary’s focus on the life changing improvements that we can make through these international projects to provide a more readily available and healthy supply of water to all people.
Clean water, sanitation, and hygiene education are basic necessities for a healthy environment and a productive life.
When people have access to clean water and sanitation, waterborne diseases decrease, children stay healthier and attend school more regularly, and mothers can spend less time carrying water and more time helping their families.
How Rotary makes help happen?
Through water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) programs, Rotary’s people of action mobilize resources, form partnerships, and invest in infrastructure and training that yield long-term change.
Impact on Water, Sanitation and Hygiene
WASH Global Grant Projects:
Since 2013, The Rotary Foundation has invested in more than $130 million in over 2000 projects worldwide. Through this investment, the volunteers of action have improved access to safely managed and basic WASH services to communities, schools and healthcare facilities, while protecting and conserving water resources.
Rotary-USAID WASH Partnership:
Rotary and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) assist communities and governments to plan, finance and deliver safe water, sanitation and hygiene services, while sustainably managing water resources.
WASH in Schools Target Challenge:
Rotary challenges our members to develop sustainable projects that comprehensively address the most pressing water, sanitation, hygiene and education needs in Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, India, and Kenya.
Rotary Showcase
What Rotarians done to the world?
Rotary makes amazing things happen, like:
- Strengthen the ability of communities to develop, fund, and maintain sustainable water and sanitation systems.
- Provide equitable community access to safe water, improved sanitation, and hygiene.
- Support programs that enhance communities’ awareness of the benefits of safe water, sanitation, and hygiene.
- Support career-minded professionals’ studies related to water and sanitation.
- Create tools and resources that facilitate, measure, and enhance high-quality water and sanitation projects worldwide..
- 23 million people now have safe water because of Rotary
- 21 million people have access to sanitation and hygiene thanks to Rotary projects
- 2030 is the year Rotary hopes to finish providing everyone with safe water, sanitation, and hygiene
Meet with Our Major Donor
AG Phoebe Pang – Macau Central (MD level 1)
Collected by PP Maki Wan – RC Kowloon Golden Mile
“I was Rotaractor 1993 through the RYLA Camp, where I got a chance to make an exchange visit to District 9710, Australia. This gave me a golden opportunity to meet Rotarians. After I returned to Hong Kong, I became a Rotaractor and served the community for years. Later through a rotary event, I joined AIA as an agent in 1996. ”
I learnt a lot from my involvement with the Rotary Club. I could not return to Hong Kong before 2014, because I needed to establish my career first.
I decided to come back to Rotary because I harboured a dream to make a service project mainly related to mental health for years. This year, the RI President and DG promoted mental health and I was very lucky that DG granted me the opportunity to serve as the AG in Area 1. Everything seemed by chance to drive my dream on the road to reality.
What is the most rewarding aspect of being a Rotarian?
Since I became a Rotaractor long ago, I understand what it means to be a Rotarian. Rotarians serve the needy. This desire to serve has been deep within me since I was young. To me, this is a rewarding aspect of being a Rotarian.
Any message to potential major donors?
As a Rotarian, I believe we have a responsibility to serve, contribute, work and donate, so I think there is a need to act on it.
Meet with Our Major Donor
CP Kam Tim Tang – Rotary Club of Metropolitan HK (MD level 1)
“In February 1993 , as an amateur drummer, day school teacher and evening school operator, I was invited to join the Rotary Club of Hong Kong Sunrise by some band members of the club including CP Joseph Linn. I became club president and Paul Harris Fellow in 1996-97.”
At the Rotary Club of Hong Kong Sunrise, a breakfast club with weekly meetings which started around 7:30a.m., I met serveral prominent Rotarians including PP Stanely Mok，PP Vincent Ng ，PP C.P.Lo of the club and PDG Jason Yeung of RC of Kowloon West，who was then DGGR of our district.
In 2006, with the encouragement and support of DG Peter Wan, PDG Anthony Hung, PDG Albert Wong, PDG Dom Vessigault and many other district leaders, I chartered the Rotary Club of Metropolitan Hong Kong . I express my thanks to so many capable persons who have joined and greatly contributed to the club in the past 18 years, especially existing charter members including PP Henry Lam, PP Albert Li and PP Oliver Yau.
Having been charter-president for 18 years, this is the right moment to contribute a bit more to the Rotary foundation. It is also a support to our DG Andy and Foundation Chair PDG Belinda.
Some memories to share…
The first Rotary Club meeting was held in Hong Kong on 1/7/1997. Nearly 200 Rotarians attended the event held in Sheraton including the RI director. Please see PDG Moses, PDG Vincent, PDG YK, PP Haywood, PP Kay Lau.
A recent visit to Philippines and made this Rotary club a sister club (with past RI director Raffy Gracia, PDG of D3800, PP of RC of Pasig.
For the 12th consecutive year, we went to Hong Kong Metropolitan Rotary Club Deng Jintian Yingzhan Primary School (邓锦添应战小学) in Liuyang City, Changsha, Hunan Province to conduct student assistance activities
Trustee Chair Message
Barry Rassin
Foundation Trustee Chair 2023 – 24
The Groundwork for Peace
Following the news is challenging these days. Stories of war and violence are deeply discouraging.
Is there anything we can do about it? We certainly can’t turn away from the problem. I think in these times, we need to shift our focus from what we can’t change to what we can do.
Even though most of us aren’t diplomats at the negotiating table or peacebuilders working on active conflicts, in Rotary’s singular way, what we do works to promote peace and prevent conflict somewhere, every day.
When you support any of the areas of focus of The Rotary Foundation, you are contributing to peace. Foundation grants that address fundamental issues — such as a global grant focused on enhancing basic literacy in a community — will cultivate a better understanding of the world and lead to greater economic stability, laying the groundwork for peace.
Peace is and always has been interwoven into the fabric of Rotary beyond our projects, too. In 1999, when we established the Rotary Peace Centers through a visionary initiative of our Foundation, we rearmed this commitment. We are once again renewing that vision, with Bahçeşehir University in Istanbul, our host partner for the newest Rotary Peace Center, as it takes its first steps to prepare for the initial cohort of students arriving in early 2025.
All along the way, as Rotary has evolved into a global force for good, it has championed peace and understanding in countless ways, and our Foundation remains the great driving force behind that vision. It will be part of Rotary’s eternal legacy.
You can directly support it by visiting rotary.org/donate.
D3450 Rotary Figures (2023-2024)
Upcoming Events
Grant Management Seminar cum District Rotary Foundation Seminar (GMS & DRF)
– 4th May 2024 **
**Please note that the Grant Management Seminar and Foundation Seminar are combined into one seminar in this Rotary Year. And that the GMS is a must to attend event before a Rotary Club can be qualified to apply for District Grant and/or Global Grant in the following Rotary Year.
Language learning corner: Let’s speak Mongolian!!!
