Funding
This page features information about funding sources and fundraising ideas.
Funding sources - read about Adopt-A-School (posted Fall, 2011)
Fundraising ideas - read about Rotary Walking for Water (posted December 4, 2011)
- read about the Global Soap Project (posted Nov. 16, 2011)
- read about the Carwash Program (posted April 4, 2012)
If you are interested in becoming a funding partner, we’d love to talk to you. Please contact us at your convenience: Click here to contact us.
Here are some opportunities that may interest you:
Wasrag is collaborating with Africare, Procter & Gamble, and H2O for Life to provide clean water, sanitation and hygiene education to 30 schools - 15 in Tanzania and 15 in Malawi.
Total program budget is $837,000. For each school in the program the budget is $27,900:
Africare – 45% Procter and Gamble – 17% H2O for Life – 19% Rotary Club(s) – 19%
For every dollar Rotary Clubs contribute, $4.26 will be contributed by our program partners.
Click here to download a brochure about this program, or here to download a list of schools. For more information contact the project manager,
Nancy Gilbert.
This story came to us via Rotarian Gary Cataldo, Past President of the Rotary Club of Austin Oak Hill (Texas).
The original project was the product of the fertile imagination of Derreck Kayongo. Derreck is a humanitarian relief expert whose own family fled Uganda at the onset of the Idi Amin era in 1979. During this tragic period, close to a million people lost their lives and many others, like Derreck, were displaced in refugee camps. Today millions of people around the world still live in compromised environments, with limited or no access to clean water and soap. Tragically more than 3.5 million children die every year of diarrhea and pneumonia - conditions effectively and economically prevented by handwashing with soap and water.
Derreck started thinking about all the soap that goes to waste in hotels around the world every day. In the USA alone, with approximately 4.6 million hotel rooms, some 2.6 million soap bars are discarded every day. Derreck teamed up with Vicki Gordon who has a long history of working in the hotel industry. She and Derreck put their heads together and the Soap Project was born. Hoteliers are now diverting tons of waste from landfill and bolstering environmental sustainability programs. The project is growing by leaps and bounds. On November 8th the Hilton Hotel Chain
announced its commitment to invest $1.3 million to the project. Funds will be used to upgrade and expand the processing facilities in Atlanta, Georgia where the used soap is processed.
Processing is relatively simple. Used soap bars (averaging 1-1/2 oz each) are collected, scraped and then reprocessed into 4 oz bars. The new bars are then shipped to where they are most needed. On September 14th some 2.5 tons of soap was shipped to the Republic of Southern Sudan. With an infant mortality rate of 135 per 1,000 births the world's newest state has a desperate need for improved hygiene.
Want to get involved? Gary Cataldo tells us that the Austin Oak Hill club is working with Radica Patel, a sophomore who, under the name of "Bubbles of Hope" has organized 14 local hotels to donate leftover soap which is then collected and shipped to Atlanta for processing. Your club might wish to approach hotels in your community and get them to donate soap. There is the possibility of opening new processing facilities in other parts of the country - and in other countries. You could find trucking companies and get them to donate their services to ship leftover soap to a processing facility. But you're Rotarians - you will have ideas of your own!
Incidentally, there has been some discussion of providing shaved soap that can be used in the Tippy Tap devices used for handwashing in developing countries. The shaved soap and water are simply put in the container and it dispenses pre-soaped water. The attached photo shows a typical toilet in Kenya with a tippy tap toilet.
The bottom line:The Global Handwashing Day website: www.globalhandwashingday.org reports: "Turning handwashing with soap before eating and after using the toilet into an ingrained habit could save more lives than any single vaccine or medical intervention, cutting deaths from diarrhea by almost half and deaths from acute respiratory infections by one-quarter."
For more information, contact Vicki Gordonor Gary Cataldoto learn more about his club's involvement in the project.
22 March 2012 is UN World Water Day. Rotary clubs in NL & UK organizing Walking for Water seeking partners.
“Water and Sanitation” is now 1 of the 6 Future Vision Areas of Focus for Rotary, and more clubs than ever are involved in water and sanitation projects in great part to the efforts of WASRAG (The Water and Sanitation Rotarian Action Group) and The Rotary Foundation. Many clubs this year for the first time. Ask any experienced Water club and you often find lots of enthusiasm, and even multi-year themes around water, having supported multiple projects. In short, clubs that get started with water, get so hooked they stay involved.
Rotary clubs in the Netherlands and UK are rallying around World Water Day, and organizing Walking for Water on 23 March 2012 and would like to virtually link up with clubs around the world who do the same. We think “Walking for Water” is the perfect way for clubs to get started with water. It’s a fundraising event where children aged 10+ walk 6 km carrying 6 liters of water (in a backpack), showing solidarity with millions of children in developing countries that must make this trip daily. The name we are giving to this is Rotary Walking for Water International, or #RWWI for short. We think this could be a great promotional moment for Rotary. This event should raise awareness of Rotary in the international media and in each of the towns and cities of participating clubs.
Our mission: Now that “Water and Sanitation” is 1 of the 6 Rotary areas of focus, we want it to be first. Because water is the key to the other 5: Health, Hunger, Poverty Reduction, Education, Conflict resolution, Economic and community Development are all significantly improved and enabled when there is safe and reliable water and sanitation. That’s why we have adopted the Wasrag theme “Start with Water” as our rallying cry, and we think Rotary International will listen if many clubs adopt this mission with us.
Start with Water. Start Walking for Water.
Social media proposition: The timing is perfect to make this a Social Media empowered event, but this is by no means required. After all, we have never used it before either. But luckily we now have the Rotarians On Social Networks Fellowship (ROSNF) that is willing to help out and support clubs that are just getting started with Facebook, Twitter and the like. We are going to use Facebook to communicate and support clubs that join us, and for promotion. But we also want to encourage participating clubs to use their Facebook, Twitter and other social media to engage local schools. Seperately, Facebook pages can be set up for each local event by the participating schools and studens, who can all “Like” a kid-friendly facebook page they create themselves, and use their Facebook to tell their friends and family about their involvement. LinkedIn can be used by Rotarians to engage local businesses to take part in their own walk, just after or before the school childrens’ walk. Twitter will be one of the primary means of promoting the event and binding Rotary clubs. Participating Rotarians can use the hashtag #RWWI to communicate their messages locally, and at the same time to every participating club around the world.
If you are interested in learning more, please visit our Website, like our Facebook page, follow @RotaryWWI on Twitter, or include #RWWI in any tweet, or an email to RotaryWWI@gmail.com
Disclaimer. This initiative is not part of Wasrag or ROSNF, but we support both missions and encourage all clubs to become members.
In July 2011 several independent carwash operators in the Atlanta area joined together to provide clean drinking water to those in need throughout the world. Their goal was to provide one day of clean water to one thirsty person for every carwash provided. Some nine months later the program has grown. Carwash operators in 16 US states and one Canadian province are enthusiastically generating revenue for Rotary's water, sanitation and hygiene projects.
The formula is simple. For each carwash the operator donates one cent to Wasrag's WASH projects. Doesn't sound like much - but it adds up fast. As of April 1st, 2012 the program has raised over $20,000.
The carwash operators have created a website: WashAwayThirst to promote the program. And, they are delighted to announce their Spring 2012 fundraising program. It's very easy. Rotary clubs wishing to join the program simply sell books of carwash tickets. The tickets are $10 each. $5.00 goes to the operator, $2.50 is retained by the local Rotary club for its own programs and $2.50 goes to Wasrag. It's a great WIN-WIN opportunity!
The attached flyer gives more information.
Clubs interested in getting involved should contact Wasrag's Fundraising Team Leader Ellsworth Havens at ellsworth.havens@msn.com.