Project: Providing 96 children with healthy, nutritious meals 6 days a week, at a cost of $1,200 USD per month. While this may not seem like much, for our small club, with limited fundraising opportunities, it is a struggle to sustain. For this reason, we are reaching out to other Rotary Clubs who may consider “Feeding the Future” as an ongoing international project.
The Rotary Club of Playa del Carmen Seaside is looking for international partners to help us maintain one of our most important ongoing projects, Seaside Rotary “Feeding the Future”. The pilot feeding program was initiated in 2017 in the village of Torres de la Paz, just outside the city of Playa del Carmen, Mexico.
Torres de la Paz is a settlement that has grown from a few desperate families living in tents, under the high-tension power lines, to a community of over 2,500 people. The majority of these families are desperately poor. The living conditions range from one-room cinder block homes to shelters pieced together out of scrap wood and old tarps. The situation is dire and most of the residents are just barely getting by, living hand to mouth.
There are no public schools in this area, but even if there were, the majority of the children would be unable to matriculate because they do not have the correct documentation nor the funds to purchase the required uniforms, books and supplies. In an attempt to address the needs of the children living in the settlement, a small community school was built. It is in this school that Seaside Rotary has set up a solar-powered clean water filtration system (jointly with Rotary Club of Cambridge Preston-Hespeler) and a small kitchen; and it is here where we run our ongoing “Feeding the Future” Program.
When we began our program, the school received support from various local organizations and businesses. Sadly, the economic devastation of the coronavirus pandemic ultimately caused these benefactors to pull out, leaving only Seaside Rotary to support the efforts of the school.
Currently, we are providing 96 children with healthy, nutritious meals 6 days a week, at a cost of $1,200 USD per month. While this may not seem like much, for our small club, with limited fundraising opportunities, it is a struggle to sustain. For this reason, we are reaching out to other Rotary Clubs who may consider “Feeding the Future” as an ongoing international project.
Attached please find additional information in a short video about Torres de la Paz.
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We are asking for a commitment of $1,200 USD to sponsor 96 children for one month. If this is a project your club would consider participating in, I would love to hear from you to discuss the feeding program and related logistics in more detail. I am available to answer any questions you may have and I look forward to your reply. Participating clubs will be recognized on a display at the school and the RC Playa del Carmen website.
Yours in service,
Teresa Sparks Cleaver Rajbir (Roger) S Mann
Rotary Club of Playa del Carmen Seaside Honorary member RC Playa del Carmen Seaside
President Rotary Club of Cambridge PH
http://www.PlayaSeasideRotary.org rotarymann@gmail.com 519 566 6869