News for Q4 2017

Mission 11 to Belize
January - February 2018

Through the efforts of Jerry Peacock, Rotary Club of Waterville Rotarian the Zion Lutheran Church of Waterville, Ohio awarded a $3500 grant towards conducting a future mission. The Rotary Club of Waterville agreed to sponsor a mission to Belize and with matching funds from a District Grant, Mission 11 to Belize will be conducted in early 2018. The cooperating club in Belize will be the Rotary Club of Punta Gorda.

This mission will almost mirror Mission 10 when 16 resource centers were opened in preschools in the Toledo District. In this upcoming mission we are planning to open 18 Resource Centers. The mission team will include Kent Iler, Rotary Club of Elyria and Mel Honig, Rotary Club of Sylvania. We still do not have a final word on our Belizean counterparts but Mario Bull and Elcedia Awe, both teachers in the Stann Creek District are asking for work leaves to join the mission. We would still like additional District 6600 Rotarians to join the team. If interested, or would like more information contact Mel Honig: melhonig.rci@gmail.com or phone 567 686 3406.

Jo Audinett, the RCI Project Coordinator of the Rotary Club of Punta Gorda, is already on the job arranging for the container arrival and lining up the schools to be selected for Resource Centers. Jo has already arranged for free storage of the product at the Belize Training Center... the same facility we used for Mission 10.

Uniendo America XXV Project Fair 2018

Each January the Uniendo America Project Fair is held in Central America. The purpose is to bring local Rotary Clubs together with potential global partners to help solve problems in Central America. To find out more about the event copy and paste onto your browser address box: https://uniendoamericaprojectfair2018.wordpress.com/about/.

This year the Project Fair is being held in Belize City, Belize from January 25 to the 28th. RCI will be there looking for local partners to continue the work of establishing resource centers in pre and primary schools in Belize. Please look for the MESA booth where we will have our display and also answer questions you may have.

Mexican Mission to Puruandiro, Michoacán

Last year's mission to Mexico never got completed. The Rotary Club of Puruandiro Purepecho, our partner in Mexico, was never able to have the container cleared through customs. Mexican customs subsequently labeled it abandoned and confiscated its contents. This is very much a sore point but there is no reason to go into detail at this point... except to say that several months of effort, including visits to the Mexican Embassy in Washington D.C., got us (MESA and our broker BKA) nowhere.

Global Grant to Belize

For the past two years RCI has been trying to put together a Rotary International Grant to open resource centers Belize. The grant covered three missions to set up 54 resource centers in pre and primary schools in the Toledo and Stann Creek Districts in Belize. The Foundation that provides the grants informed recently informed us that at this time the Foundation only approves Basic Education grants which provide a training aspect with no funds available for the purchase of supplies and equipment.
Until the Rotary International (RI) Foundation changes this policy concerning Basic Education Grants we will continue to obtain District Grants to help fund RCI missions to Belize and Jamaica. The basic difference between the two grants is that we have to raise significantly more money to fund a mission through the District Grant than a RI Grant.

Donations

Financial*

*RCI has dedicated account with MESA. This account was severely depleted by the failure of the Mexican Mission. Any financial contributions received now will be going towards future missions in Belize and Jamaica.

Product

Many donations of sports equipment, books, games, toys and computers were received over the past year. What we are in definite need of computers. This item is the only thing holding us back from undertaking more missions. We will accept laptops and towers but only ask that they are in operational condition. You can remove the hard drive... or wipe it yourselves. We also automatically wipe all hard drives before installing the educational programs we provide with each computer placed in a resource center. Once again, please contact melhonig.rci@gmail.com with any donations you have. All donations are tax deductible.

Our apologies for no pictures, but when we issue our next newsletter about Uniendo and our completed mission to Belize we will make up for it then.