Jaidyn Kennedy
The Rotary Club of Werribee has helped deliver clean drinking water and sanitation to the children of Ibona Elementary School in the Philippines.
Through a partnership with the Rotary Club of Cabanatuan City, a new water bore and pump, a water tower, two additional toilets and a wash trough were installed at the school as part of the WASH Project.
After communicating and surveying the project, club members provided their counterparts in the Philippines with $15,000 for the construction work.
Werribee Rotary Club representative Michael Redding attended the opening ceremony on September 12.
“I have gotten to know all the members very well and what a wonderful group of people they are – friendly, optimistic, caring, enthusiastic, committed, talented”, he said.
“They have always been so appreciative that a Rotary club in distant Werribee has become so involved in the service work of their club.”
Rotary Club of Cabanatuan City president Ronald Garcia was one of the architects of the project and said “it means so much to us”, before going on to describe what the project means for more than 600 school children who can use the sanitation facilities.
“When you see the reactions of the students and teachers, truly, words are not enough to say how grateful and happy they are,” Mr Garcia said.
“Those future leaders have received something from our clubs that will last for generations.”
The WASH Project was not the first time the two Rotary clubs worked together on a philanthropic project and will not be the last.
In 2022, the two clubs delivered the Orphanage School Classroom Equipment Project which helped furnish a new school with all the requisite equipment students needed to learn.
Among the proposed projects is the establishment of a Rotary Community Corps at Nueva Ecija High School and the installation of a large water storage tank for vegetables and fruit trees to help the Dumagat tribal community during the dry season. Both clubs will assess these proposals across 2025 and 2026.
