By: Bill Dunn, Member, District International Service Committee, Yarmouth RC
On November 4th almost 50 Rotarians from the District and around the world attended the 18th International Café, and the first devoted to Project Fairs. Project Fairs are a good way for District Rotarians to learn about local District and Global Grant projects in other countries, as well as experience the local environment in those countries. Chronologically, next year District Rotarians can attend these fairs:
February 1-3, 2024: District 4281 Project Fair in Armenia, Colombia. This will be Colombia’s 9th Project Fair and Birt Rossi indicated they have about 50 projects lined up. She also noted that Armenia is in the heart of the Colombia coffee region.
March 15-16, 2024: District #4465 Project Fair in Trujillo, Peru. Juan Simon indicated that this will be Peru’s first Project Fair. He noted that District #4465 has 70 Clubs and Trujillo is close to the border of District #4455, which has another 100 clubs and includes Lima.
April 24-28, 2024: District #2120 Project Fair in Bari, Italy. Achille Cusani indicated that Bari is in the Puglia region of Italy, at the heel of the boot. He said that the focus will be on Global Grants. Their website was scheduled to go live in November 2024.
May 1-4, 2024: District #9210 Project Fair in Kariba, Zimbabwe. Connie Kruku, speaking for LeeAnne Singh who attended but had laryngitis, indicated that this will be District #9210’s 4th Project Fair. She noted that Kariba is on the shore of Lake Kariba and close to the border with Zambia. District #9210 includes Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi and the northern part of Mozambique. Connie indicated that approximately 60 projects need funding and the details are still being developed. The Malaria-Free Zambia project is scheduled to end in February 2024 and the Rotary Healthy Committee Challenge has allocated $30 million to be shared by Zambia, Mozambique, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
A video of the Café and contact information for all 4 speakers and Project Fairs was distributed to all District Rotarians by Emma Bodwell in November. For more information or the link to the video, contact Jeremy Gould at jeremygould15@yahoo.com. Carolyn Johnson noted that information on all Rotary Project Fairs is available at https://my.rotary.org/en/exchange-ideas/project-fairs
The next International Café is Saturday, December 9. Watch for the Zoom link. See you there.