The Rotary Koshish Garden Project:

 

Funding a sustainable fruit and vegetable garden at Koshish, Nepal 

 

Koshish is a new emergency mental health facility for women in Pharping, a semi-rural location near Kathmandu in Nepal, funded basically from foreign aid mainly from Japan.

Koshish receives very little financial support from the Nepal government. Rotary Rosebud Rye funded a grant of $3,000 for kitchen equipment in 2022.

The project is to use their 1,500 square metres of usable, gently undulating land inside and outside their gated compound to plant a sustainable fruit and vegetable garden, including 100 grafted fruit trees and vegetables. There is a good water supply, which is gravity-fed from a nearby stream.

 

Outcomes and Benefits:  The Rotary Koshish Garden Project will add value to the economic viability of the Centre and complement the psychological outcomes for the women patients.   

The project will

(a)   Reduce the food bill for the Centre, and help make the Centre sustainable in the longer term

(b)   Provide a future source of income once the trees are established

(c)   Improved mental health when working in nature and focusing on caring for the plants, having a purpose and being motivated and organized, thereby leading to higher self-esteem

 

(d)   Enable the patients to be trained in organic farming techniques and skills that they can take back to their villages – and thus become productive members of their community

'Teacher Scholarships in Cambodia - part of Rotary International's Focus on 'Basic Education and Literacy'

 

For some years, the Club has been working with Ptea Teuk Dong School in Cambodia, firstly with supporting the school in the building of a new toilet block, and over the past two years, providing scholarships to ensure that local teachers are supported, and they, in turn, support their students. 

 

Rotary International's End Polio Now campaign

 

The Club has continued to provide financial support for this successful project over many years. The project, run in conjunction with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and UN organisations, aims to rid the world of Polio.

 

We're almost at the finishing line!  'Wild Polio' only now exists in a handful of countries, including Afghanistan and Pakistan - and there is now a real push to end it for good!

Rotarians Against Malaria (RAM) 

 

In 2019, 67% of all malaria deaths were children under 5 - that's 274,000 children.

 

Our Club, particularly through our President Libby, is involved in the RAM program, and is supporting the program in Vanuatu with the provision of bed nets and indoor residual sprayers, which we use to protect vulnerable women and children from this deadly disease.

 

Pictured: A new bed net on its way to a new home.