The Rotary Club of Makati McKinley (RCMMc) implemented in July two of its largest service projects since the club was chartered four years ago. With a combined cost of about P900,000, the Avoidable Blindness and the Meal and Gift from the Heart projects cut across several Rotary themes and priority thrusts, notably health and hunger, literacy, child mortality, youth service, international service, and even the development of club leaders beyond club level, through partnerships with other clubs in the District.
RCMMc hopes to implement in the future even larger humanitarian projects with multi-year implementation periods and more widespread impact. It is also orienting its membership recruitment, community organizing and international service programs towards this goal.
Among the 1,000 beneficiaries of the Meal and Gift from the Heart Project
AVOIDABLE BLINDNESS
The Avoidable Blindness (AB) is a Matching Grant Project (US$16,000.00) aimed at correcting or preventing eye defects and illnesses among primary schoolchildren. The beneficiaries are the 800 or so Grades I to IV students of Sucat Elementary School in Muntinlupa City for the school year 2008-2009.
The project consists of: (a) lecture on eye care and various eye diseases, and their prevention and cure; (b) training of volunteers – parents, teachers and members of RC Makati McKinley (RCMMc) and partner clubs – for the initial eye screening; (c) actual eye check up by ophthalmologists of the children recommended by the volunteers for further diagnosis; and (d) free eyeglasses to those who need them.
The lecture and training components – educating parents on various eye illnesses and how to prevent them, as well as training volunteers on eye screening – were held on July 18. This was followed by a weeklong initial eye screening and check-up by the ophthalmologists on July 21-25 (the activity spilled over to the first week of August). Students identified to require eyeglasses will then be fitted with one, which will be given free starting August 2008.
The Rotary Club of Bandar Seri Begawan (Brunei) RMMc’s International Partner Club who provided substantial financial assistance to the project. RC’s Paranaque Central and Makati Bel-Air are the local partners. Additional funding came from a Korean grant managed by District 3830. IPP Cherry Rosario developed and coordinated this Matching Grant Project during her term as Serving President, which finally became a reality in RY 2008-2009.
MEAL AND GIFT FROM THE HEART
The Meal and Gift from the Heart (MGH) Project provided free packed lunch and school supplies to about 1,000 schoolchildren aged 6 to 10 years old within the localities in the Parañaque-Muntinlupa area where the Miraculous Medal Family Center undertakes its charity missions. The sharing was held at the Miraculous Medal National Shrine on July 19, 2008.
RCMMc’s sister club, RC Bandar Seri Begawan, provided the grant for the project, while local project partners were RC’s Parañaque Metro, Parañaque Lakambini and Muntinlupa Central.
It was actually the second service project of its kind in the same community (the first was implemented in September 2007), but enhanced this time by the inclusion of school supplies and the three-fold increase in the number of beneficiaries. The project cost was P180,000.
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(This article is taken from http://3830rotary2008.org/project_080812_rcmmc_ab-mgh.htm)