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MAJOR ON-GOING PROJECTS One of the hallmarks of the Rotary Club of Makati is continuity, the assurance that a meritorious project initiated by one president is adopted and carried out by the next. It is this trait that has allowed the club to undertake and maintain a procession of long-term projects that have stood the test of time.
Providing good nutrition for young children, especially those belonging to financially challenged families, has been a concern of the Rotary Club of Makati since RY 1972-1973 when, as Club president, PRID Paing Hechanova led in setting up feeding centers in all the “barrios” (now called “barangays”) in Makati. The program was carried on, through RY 1978-1979, during the term of PP Bill Beck, when the project was given the name, “Mothercraft Project,” because it was expanded to include the education of mothers on nutrition, hygiene and sanitation, health, family planning, and related issues. Each year more than 8 million people (most of them in the developing world) are infected with tuberculosis, and about 3 million die, including about 100,000 children. A study done in 2007 ranked the Philippines fourth in the world for the number of cases of tuberculosis and tagged it as the country with the highest number of cases per head in Southeast Asia. The study said that almost two thirds of Filipinos had tuberculosis, and up to an additional five million people were infected yearly. It is a health problem that begs attention and the involvement of all sectors of society. Medical care is costly, surgical intervention even more so. It can sometimes be prohibitive even for the moneyed, so one can imagine how heavy a burden it can be for the poor. Fortunately for Filipinos, there are government health care facilities like the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) that are dedicated to making medical service accessible to indigent patients and non-government organizations like the Rotary Club of Makati (RCM) with help programs for the needy. On their own, PGH and RCM have achieved much, but their partnership has proved beneficial beyond words.
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The Bantay Bata (Child Watch) Committee was created by Frank Chavez in RY 1997-1998 when PDG Sid Garcia was club president. Originally a tie-up with ABS-CBN Foundation and the Makati Social Welfare Department, it ran on a donation of P250,000 from Pagcor (solicited by Frank Chavez) and later evolved into an exclusive partnership between the Club and MSWD. On its maiden year, the committee conducted a series of seminars on outreach techniques, counseling and values formation/promotion and sponsored a seminar on the provisions of the Anti Child Abuse Law for parents and children from two Makati barangays. In 2000-2001, the Club responded to the challenge of the ABS-CBN Foundation's Bantay Kalikasan to save the denuded La Mesa watershed through massive reforestation. As a project partner, the club has sponsored the planting of 45,000 trees on 76 hectares of the watershed's slopes. Bantay Kalikasan is committed to taking care of the trees, which now stand 4-6 feet tall. The project is funded by a US$68,500 matching grant from The Rotary Foundation.
Centennial Gawad Kalinga Project
In response to the call of the district for clubs to contribute to poverty alleviation initiatives, the club adopted as its centennial project the Gawad Kalinga site in Kaingin, Parañaque City. As its contribution to the community development effort in the project site, the club has underwritten the construction of 5 houses and a multi-purpose center and has completed a nutrition program for pre-school kids. Also part of the package are periodic medical missions, an Anti-TB project, and seminars on family planning and waste management, a training program for beauticians, and a small library. The project was one of those that merited a visit by RI Pres. Jonathan Majiyagbe during his trip to Manila in late January 2004.
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In December 2005, the club adopted Villa Paraiso, a slum in the Sun Valley area also in Parañaque, as a new GK mission area. The club has initiated a housing project in the area under which it has built 92 houses as of 30 June 2007 . Plans include building 100 houses or more to constitute a Rotary Village , including a day care center. The project is being supported by sister clubs RY Taoyuan and RC Itako.
Started in 1988-1989, BATS entails the sourcing of text and reference books from the United States and distributing them through Rotary Clubs to schools and libraries across the country. The club works with the Pittsburgh-based Brother's Brother Foundation, which provides and ships the books to the Philippines , and Allied Bank, which has made available a huge warehouse where books are sorted out and stamped prior to release. The project has given away over 10 million books to over 41,000 schools and libraries across the country, and has benefited some 25 million students. In RY 2004-2005, the project entered a new phase with the approval of a US$400,000 grant from the USAID for the distribution of 60 container loads of books over a period of 3 years to schools in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
Heather Kinross Center The Heather Kinross Center is the vocational training arm of the club. In partnership with Don Bosco Technical Institute in Makati , the Center offers a 6-month course on Information |
