International Service

We use our knowledge of local issues to identify areas of need and then apply our expertise and diverse perspectives to find solutions. We often partner with other Rotary Clubs and third parties to maximize our dollars. Our members contribute hundreds of volunteer hours and dollars toward improving communities and providing lasting solutions.

Some of the projects we have undertaken are:

  • Provide computers and software for remote schools in Guatemala, Peru and the Philippines
  • Provide scholarships for education to students in Guatemala and the Philippines
  • Built clean water projects in Guatemala and Peru
  • Provided Polio vaccines
  • Provided for Cleft Palate operations in the Philippines

COMPUTERS TO THE PHILIPPINES

Education is the most valuable tool to help those in need emerge from poverty. We further that goal by providing computers and solar panels to the schools in remote villages of the Philippines. Donated computers are refurbished, loaded with education programs, packed, and shipped to our partners in the Philippines.
Our partners then distribute, set up, and provide training.

POTABLE WATER PROJECTS

With the Camana Rotary Club and the contributions of money and labor of the communities themselves, we constructed numerous water and sewage systems in poor communities near the coastal city of Camana, Peru.

Constructed community water systems in Guatemala – Ixil Maya communities. With contributions from the 3 Gig Harbor Rotary clubs, Rotary District 5020, and the Olson Foundation, we built a water system for the community of Chel and five other communities in the western highlands, providing clean drinking water for the first time for some 7000 people!

HOSPITAL IN LATVIA

In the 1990s, several Rotary Club of Gig Harbor members traveled to Latvia. They provided expertise and labor to construct a much-needed hospital in this newly independent nation.

CLEFT PALATE OPERATIONS IN THE PHILIPPINES

Cleft lip and cleft palate are facial and oral malformations that occur very early in pregnancy while the baby is developing inside the mother.

There is hope. Surgeons can successfully treat cleft lip or palate. Treatment is often done in the first few months of life for cleft lip and before eighteen months for cleft palate. The patients may also need speech therapy and dental care. With appropriate treatment, outcomes are good.

Through the partnership with the Philippine Rotary Club of Parañaque, and private citizens, we provide for those surgeries and treatments. These surgeries provide hope and are a life-changing operation for victims and their families.