International Report

2020/21 International committee end of year report

Nepal

Covid-19 and District Grant

In the year 2019/2020 the club had already sent funds to help the poorest villagers in the cluster in Tanahun District that had fallen into (even greater) poverty due to the pandemic . In conjunction with Casterbridge and Poundbury along with the Okhle Village trust, this amounted to £800

Each needy household has been supplied with 20kg rice, 2kg Dhal, 1l oil, salt and soap. More provisions were needed and we achieved this with the help of a District Grant 2020/2021. (Application submitted 27 May 2020.)

We applied for £500 grant matched by us with £500.

Poundbury applied for £250 matched with a further £250 Covid-19 funds from District General Funds.

A total of £1703.00 has been spent on food with £347.00 left in reserve.

Samjur. (2019/2020 project)

Replace cracked and leaking tank for Samjur village

Joint project Portland RC Casterbridge RC & Okhle Village Trust

Also new water supply to school.

Build new toilet (funded by Cliff Elliott)

The lockdown in Nepal had prevented this from happening. As their lockdown eased work started but there was an outbreak of Covid-19 in the villages and work was halted. It restarted early 2021 and was completed in March 2021

Final reports have been sent to District on completion of both this project and the food programme.

Raipali Bhanyang

5000L tank in place ready to sink into ground and connect

The delay due to road construction (a dirt track carved into the hillside) is now finished so final work on sinking the tank can begin. Taps have been connected to houses. There will be  a short delay due to the lockdown due to the Indian Covid variant

Payaswora

The pump that was burnt out has been fixed without our intervention. Showing ownership and sustainability

Gahateri (For the future)

This village has a previous system installed by us in 2011. New road building (wide dirt tracks for motorcycles and 4WD buses) has resulted in three of their taps demolished by construction traffic. Plus, the supply is not enough in itself so a supply from a new water source is needed.

The cost will be approximately £3500. we have decided to defer this until 2022/2023 in favour of the Madkina project.

Madkina. Priority for this year 2021/2022

They share with a neighbouring village and it is feared that the supply from the spring will not be enough for this project.

There is another spring close by. This has been affected by a landslide.

So this Rotary year we have sent Bimal 50,000 NPR (£303)  to undertake a feasibility study by digging out the landslide and assessing the supply. We shall apply for a District Grant. This will be in conjunction with Casterbridge, Poundbury and the OVT.

The expected cost will be approximately £6500

More at Club Assembly

Nepal Visit

We cancelled our planned visit in November 2020 to the villages to review projects and undertake a trek.

Although we potentially could visit in November, and in fact those over 65 in the villages have been immunised there are no more supplies of vaccine at present for Nepal and we do not  wish to be carriers and cause an outbreak in the villages.

The current surge of B1 617 2 is devastating in Nepal with shortages of ventilators (only 600 in the country) and oxygen (some being flown in from China - empty cylinders, USA oxygen generation plants). People are dying from lack of oxygen alone. KTM can produce only 8000 cylinders per day. Hospitals are full and ill patients being turned away.

Dr Samir Kumar Adhikari, the chief of the government's Health Emergency Operation said "In Kathmandu valley, almost all of the intensive care beds and ventilators are full," he said. "Even in hospitals where beds are available, they cannot admit patients due to a lack of oxygen. We have also run out of vaccines."

The villages are in need of sanitisers, masks and PPE.

There is  a need for oxygen.

This would be small cylinders for vehicles/ambulances transporting people to hospital

There is a 15 bed isolation ward set up near Chandrawoti for all the villages in the area.

Bayapani has a health centre with 24h nurse cover but no doctor.

It is worth considering larger cylinders for those too unwell to be at home, but do not need ventilation, for oxygen treatment as an inpatient.

At the present time there is only one villager with active Covid who has come from KTM

Rotary walks

In between lockdowns we have had several walks for groups of up to six.

Surprisingly we managed nine over the last Rotary year. Last was Saturday 15 May with Richard and Rachel from Casterbridge.

Rotary International Fellowship Exchange Peru

As part of the RIFE we were due to host a group of 10 members from Peru for approximately 3 days in May 2021. the pandemic has resulted in this being delayed. Peru is suffering another wave. This is due to the Brazilian P1 variant with potential effect of reducing vaccine efficacy and measures being taken to avoid further cases arriving in the UK means we do not have any potential future date for this to happen.

Vire

Vire Biennial exchange visits. It was our turn to visit Vire September 2020. Obviously this is postponed. There are no plans for this year. I have recently spoken to Gisella but it did not seem appropriate to broach the subject as France was entering another lockdown.

Fund raising

We had hoped to reinstate the cancelled wine tasting but with a large group, this was not possible.

Janet has sold several items with the goods and furniture sale. Profits went to Foundation. There is still a piano available for purchase!

Some money was added to the Nepal fund form donations in lieu of aqua meals

Community Projects.

Janet organised a Guy Fawkes/scarecrow competition which was very successful.

Sign post at Wishing well - Not really got off the ground

Speakers

There were two evenings that International were responsible

September 2020 Website session on changes

May 2021 Hugh Deed on ShelterBox