|
|
|
|
Cholera is one of the biggest killers of children worldwide. It comes from drinking contaminated water. Estes Park Rotary member Bob Quick's son, Dr. Rob Quick, works for the CDC in Atlanta and he had a plan and he needed help. Looking to one of the countries hardest hit by the ravages of cholera, Bolivia, Dr. Quick believed he could help by providing the hardest hit communities with a system to inexpensively treat water to drink and cook by. This system would be a plastic water bottle and inexpensive chlorine tablets that people could easily obtain and use. But, being inexpensive overall required an initial expense that was a problem. Dr. Quick talked to his father who, in turn, talked to our club. Our initial entry was to raise enough money that could be matched by Rotary International in order to provide manufacturing molds so that the bottles could be made locally in Bolivia, a way that the tablets could also be made locally, and a way to distribute both so that the very poorest of the people could afford it. Our efforts succeeded, and the incidents of cholera in Bolivia has dropped dramatically. Meanwhile, countries in Africa became interested and our club again raised enough money that was matched again by Rotary International to bring safe water to Africa. The first country that showed interest was Zambia, and hence is known as our Zambia Project. Along the way, because of our initial efforts, many corporate and private organizations have come forward to help the CDC in its efforts to wipe out cholera. For information on this project, please visit the CDC safe water page (www.cdc.gov/safewater). |
|
This official Rotary web site is hosted gratis as a service to the Rotary Club of Estes Park by estes.on-line.com of Estes Park, Colorado. The Rotary name and logo are the exclusive property of Rotary International and are used here under Rotary International Guidelines for Club, District and Affiliated Publications. This web site was designed by Bjorn Sallarp (sonic web). |
