Change A Life Uganda - West Orange Rotary's New International Service Project

The Rotary Club of West Orange is one of over 31,600 clubs of Rotary International (RI) www.rotary.org worldwide that work to promote peace through understanding and friendship.

One of the requirements of an active Rotary Club is to financially support at least one new International Service Project every year.  In addition to all the local projects that we support, like annual high school scholarships and many local community service organizations, West Orange Rotary has supported many International Projects like Polio Plus, Gift of Life, Rotaplast, Help the Children Hear, Pure Water for the World, ShelterBox USA and many more.

Most of our international projects focus on children, education, health and wellness and clean water.

In 2011, our club donated $3500.00 to Change A Life Uganda, which is dedicated to improving the lives of orphaned and disadvantaged children and their families in Migyera and Nabbingo, Uganda through quality education, healthcare and income-generating programs.  But, more importantly, this is a pure water project.  Before 2012, the children of the St. Lawrence school in Mygera had to travel miles by foot to collect filthy water in jerry cans from a contaminated water source, carry the cans back and boil the water in order to consume it or wash themselves.  Much of Uganda and neighboring countries are in the middle of a horrendous drought.

The money we donated helped the school to dig a new well on a piece of property next to the school that had been purchased through other donations.  This year, the drilling was successful and they were able to find clean water for the school and the surrounding community. The total water project will cost in the neighborhood of $100,000.00, of which, Change A Life Uganda has already raised more than half of this through donations from other private donors, other Rotary Clubs as well as through their Quarters For Waters program which is supported primarily by U.S. school students who run donation programs in their own schools.

In America, we take our fresh drinking water for granted.  In fact, many of us have the money to purchase bottled drinking water in lieu of drinking perfectly clean tap water.  Countries like Uganda don't have this luxury and it is so much worse than you can imagine.  Most of the children suffer from diseases directly related to contaminated water and many of these children die.  When was the last time you heard of an American child dying from a waterborne disease?  Well, it happens every day in Africa. 

This is why many of Rotary's International Projects involve clean water projects like Change A Life Uganda.  Children cannot learn to read and write if they are afflicted with waterborne diseases that cause fever, diarrhea, vomiting, weight loss, malnutrition and in many cases, death.  Children will never grow up to be functioning members of their society if they are constantly suffering from gastrointestinal diseases. 

Once we solve their water problems, then we can focus on education.  Father Lawrence, the man who runs the St. Lawrence school in Mygera, said recently "Education is the greatest gift you can give to Africa."   St. Lawrence school is now the best in the district with good teachers, strong academics, arts, dance and sports programs.  The graduates attend secondary school because of help from their U.S.A. sponsors.

Our involvement with Change A Life Uganda is far from done.  This year, we will donate more money to the project using funds that we raised from our hugely successful 8th Annual Taste of the World event held in February as well as our popular Super Golf Raffle. 

If you would like to learn more about Change A Life Uganda, you can visit www.changealifeuganda.org or you can contact us at info@westorangerotary.org

Donations to Change A Life Uganda can be made by mailing a check made out to:

The Rotary Club of West Orange Foundation

c/o Prospect Ridge Veterinary Hospital

492 Prospect Avenue

West Orange, NJ  07052

Write "Change A Life Uganda" in the memo section. We are a 501c3 charitable organization so your donation is tax deductible.   

You can also purchase golf raffle tickets by contacting us at info@westorangerotary.org  

100% of the proceeds will be donated to charity.                                            

Check us out at www.westorangerotary.org to see all of the other projects our club is involved in.