We are now far enough along in the global grant (Water & Sanitation Global Grant #2233068) application process to give our readers a preview of what we at CMIRC planning to undertake. Last year our Rotary colleagues at the Rotary Club Fig Garden (Fresno, California, USA) contacted us to ask for assistance in a Water and Sanitation Global Grant they were preparing focused on remote hill tribe mountain villages in Northern Thailand. They explained that they would be working with the Chiang Mai-based Integrated Tribal Development Foundation (ITDF). ITDF has decades of experience installing safe water systems and toilets in over 260 remote mountain villages in northern Thailand. For the global grant to move forward, our international partner, the RC Fig Garden, needed a local host club.
After careful review, the CMIRC Board of Directors approved our participation as the local host club, and I was appointed the Host Club Primary Contact joined by P Viki Thomason and PE Nancy Lindley as Host Club Secondary Contacts. So CMIRC is onboard as the club that will monitor the progress of the Water and Sanitation Global Grant once it is approved by Rotary International.
So, what we will be doing, I have to admit this still boggles my mind, over the next three years beginning in the fall, the ITDF working with CMIRC, and the RC Fig Garden is to install gravity-driven clean water systems and toilets for all village households in 21 very remote hilltribe mountain villages which currently have no running water, no sanitary toilets, no electricity, and no year-round passable roads. At least 2,000 villagers will directly benefit from these water and sanitation improvements. Lives will be saved, especially infant and children’s lives as they have access to clean water and sanitation for the first time, thus reducing often fatal infectious diseases.
How will we fund this project? The total budget is US$330,000 or 11,880,000 Baht!! Our international partner has taken the lead on this fundraising aspect of the global grant process. They needed to raise over $150,000 in order to seek a Rotary International match and to ensure the success of the proposal. They have already raised the money!! Congratulations International Partners RC Fig Garden! So, once all the local details about the villages to be served are completed, we are ready to apply to RI for matching funds and final grant approval. We will then begin working with ITDF to positively change thousands of people’s lives. As ITDF says, when it comes to hilltribe community development, it all starts with clean water. Watch this space for exciting news as CMIRC guides the largest project (so far) in its history!