AMANDA HELWIG - ROTARY CLUB OF SPRINGFIELD TOWNSHIP
Last Thursday our Club was visited by AMANDA HELWG, a member of the Springfield Rotary Club, who presented the very interesting story of her 16 year adventure in obtaining an Global Grant for a project in Rwanda centered around expanding the food serving capacities of the Bright School in Muhanga Rwanda. The school is part of a project called TEACH RWAMDA which works to elevate the educational practices of the country. Mandy had noticed how much hunger can hinder a student's ability to succeed in an educational system. She got interested and involved with the project in Rwanda and saw the possibility of getting Rotary support to increase the school's ability to feed the students. At the beginning of the project, the school could only deliver 300 meals a day while trying to educate around 600 kids.The kitchen was simple inadequate.
Amanda started the project by seeking a local Rotary club in Rwanda to partner with, which is mandatory for a Global Grant. Once that was accomplished , they worked together to create a proposal the included not only building updates, but a new, larger kitchen so that skills could be taught and the Bright School could become more self sustaining with the sales.
She got deeply involved the procuring the various Rotary grants in 2020, which involved first obtaining a District grant for part of the project , raising funds, and then working with the partner club to get a Global Grant which delivers another 80% matching amount. Finally , 6 years after starting the project, she received the grant and the work began. A sudden and unexpected obstacle came up when they were informed the Rotary no longer funded the construction of new buildings. But a solution was worked out with the partners and the project is now well under way, and should be completed next year.
She gave us some important tips on creating grants and stressed that her main point is that "You can do big projects" . Just get involved, and be passionate about it.
Amanda surly embodies all of that.
Thanks, Mandy for the talk.