The Rotary Club of Moose Jaw received a certificate of appreciation on Oct. 31 for their contributions to the Ripple Effect Program, which renovates school bathrooms and provides other educational supports in rural Guatemalan schools.
The Ripple Effect program was started by Gord and Deb LeMaistre of the Rotary Club of Kenora. They continue to provide leadership of the Canadian Ripple Effect Committee, now an official Rotary District 5550 program.
District 5550 includes both Moose Jaw clubs, Weyburn, and Estevan.
Rotary Club of Moose Jaw Wakamow members Glenn Hagel and Marian Kettlewell are members of the Ripple Effect Committee. They visited Guatemala in June 2022 and reported on the program’s progress.
“Guatemala has the lowest rate of secondary education in all of the Americas,” Hagel explained. “Public education in Guatemala, as supported by government funding, goes up to Grade six. About 22 to 23 per cent of the people of Guatemala have more than a Grade six education.”
The purpose of the Ripple Effect Program, Kettlewell said, is to reduce poverty and build peace in Guatemala. Providing educational supports to Guatemalan children creates a generational ripple effect that will hopefully prove to be the most effective long-term method of achieving that goal.
“We’re building classrooms, we’re building kitchens, we’re building washrooms, we provide scholarships for middle and high school students. Lots of students wouldn’t be able to go beyond grade six if it wasn’t for our scholarships,” Kettlewell said.
Scholarships are also provided for some students to go on to post-secondary education.
In 2020-21, the Ripple Effect Program invested over CAD $204,000 in Guatemalan education, directly benefitting at least 6,700 students, teachers, and parents.
One of the schools that has benefitted most from the efforts of Canadian Rotarians is called Chuchuca. Rotary donations have enabled Guatemalan Rotarians, parents and caretakers, local leaders, and educators to totally renovate Chuchuca School and change the lives of all the children who attend there.
“These are some of the projects to which your club has contributed,” Kettlewell said. “Classrooms, ventilation, desks, computers, and whiteboards… WASH, the water, sanitation, and hygiene project, is virtually complete.”
Hagel is most proud of how the project has changed things for Guatemalan girls at the affected schools.
“What they were finding in Guatemala, particularly, is that for girls reaching menstruation age, if there were not safe, secure, functional washrooms, they were just dropping out of school,” he explained. “The reality is, if you believe in gender parity in education, you’ve got to believe in washrooms. That sounds weird to say here in Canada, but in Guatemala, that’s the reality.”
Girls at Chuchuca School are now completing at least grade six at a far higher percentage than girls in surrounding communities who don’t have access to safe washrooms.
“You have helped make a difference,” Hagel told the Rotary Club of Moose Jaw.
