GIFTS of education, health and life marked the Rotary Club of Cebu’s Rotary Year 2016-2017.
With age-related chronic diseases increasing the demand for blood, the club promoted voluntary blood donation and “came up with a customized mobile blood collection clinic” set for turnover this week, said William Chavez, Rotary Club of Cebu (RCC) 2016-2017 president, during the induction ceremony of the club’s 2017-2018 officers and directors at Casino Español de Cebu last Friday, June 30.
The $43,444 truck with equipment will go around collecting blood, he said in his report as outgoing president.
During his term, Chavez reported, the club also increased the number of beneficiaries under its Gift of Life program that funds the heart operations of indigent children with congenital heart defects, while under its Share a Smile Project with a partner Rotary Club in Japan, it conducted cleft lip and cleft palate surgery on 23 children.
“We raised P2.2 million this year for the Gift of Life children,” said triathlete Bernard Vonn Sia, the 2015-2016 president who led the Run for Gift of Life and the Rotary Corporate Triathlon events this year that raised funds for the program.
For education, the club provided 350 school chairs to the Inoburan Elementary School and another elementary school in Naga City, and 400 school chairs to Guba Elementary School in Cebu City; and committed to continue granting scholarships to send underprivileged youths to the Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise for technical training, Chavez said.
He also announced the turnover of the Jan Harris Library and two fully equipped technical vocational classrooms to the Paypay National High School in Daanbantayan, Cebu that had been severely damaged by typhoon Yolanda.
Angel Ruben “Bing” Martinez, RCC 2017-2018 president, said the rehabilitation of the Paypay National High School involved “the largest global grant ever in the Philippines.”
RCC conducts its various projects with the help of local and international partners.
Under RCC’s Water, Sanitation and Hygiene program, Chavez said Rotarians walked eight kilometers uphill to the Tapul Elementary School in Talisay City to turn over materials. The project involves connecting pipes to water sources for four kilometers and providing stainless water tanks to meet the water needs of the school’s more than 700 students.
To the Community Scouts Youth Guidance Center, the club donated mattresses, books and basketballs, and a submersible pump to ensure clean water, Chavez said.
“The Gift of Life will be our flagship project this year,” said Martinez, who promised continuity on the Paypay school rehabilitation, the Don Bosco Liloan upgrade, the blood collection project and the school chairs programs of the club.
Mary Anne Solomon, district governor of Rotary District 3860, said there would also be a continuation of the district fund-raising event “Tri to End Polio,” which debuted as a side event of the Cobra Ironman 70.3 Philippines Asia Pacific Championship last August.
The second oldest club in the country, RCC will celebrate 85 years in November. (CTL)