Installing solar panels on the Administration building roof.

By Ron Smith, Zone 32 Rotary Regional Foundation Coordinator
 
On the morning of March 22, a Global Grant travel team of six people were on their way home from Sierra Leone, West Africa, and found themselves in Brussels airport when the terrorist attacks occurred.
 
“We were in the secure area of the airport, and the attacks occurred in the unsecured area, so we didn’t hear the explosions,” noted Herb Klotz, team leader from Allentown West Rotary club in District 7430. “We were ushered to the end of the terminal and out onto the tarmac. Eventually, we were bussed to a nearby train terminal, had to make hotel arrangements on the fly and figure out how to get a flight home.” More on Brussels later.
 
The more lasting story is about the work being done by Rotary and Engineers without Borders (EWB) with the local community and school alumni at the Centennial Secondary School in Mattru Jong, Sierra Leone. The school’s infrastructure was destroyed during the civil war that occurred in Sierra Leone during the 1990s. For two years during the war, rebels used the school as a local base of operations. Before the war, Centennial was one of the best secondary schools in the south of Sierra Leone. The school currently has about 1200 students in grades 6-12.
 
In 2009, the school alumni submitted an application to EWB asking to rebuild the school’s infrastructure (water, electricity, sanitation, buildings). The Lehigh Valley Professionals EWB chapter (EWB-LVP) accepted their application and began work in 2010. In 2011, District 7430 partnered with EWB-LVP and the Free-town Rotary club to obtain a $50,000 Future Vision Grant for water and electricity for the school. This was a game-changer for the project.
 
Since that time, EWB-LVP and Rotary have gone on eight trips to Centennial school to install solar-powered running water throughout the campus, solar-powered lighting in classrooms and the administration building (there is no electric grid), toilets in the boy’s and girl’s bathrooms and a new roof on a classroom building.
 
Both EWB and Rotary emphasize the importance of sustainability on all projects. In 2012, the school implemented a development fee, which is a small student fee collected each term to pay for maintenance and operation of all the infrastructure, including the salary of a maintenance technician. All infrastructure that has been installed in the last six years is in good working order, and that is a major accomplishment in Sierra Leone.
 
With improved infrastructure, the next step was education. In 2014, the Allentown West (D-7430) and Bo City (D-9101) Rotary clubs partnered on a $30,000 Global Grant with area of focus in Literacy. This grant supplied teacher training, library books, computers, printers and solar power equipment for the library.
 
The grant has already had a positive impact on the school. For example, the students’ test scores have improved dramatically during the past few years. From 2011 to 2015, the percentage of students passing the BECE test to enter 9th grade increased from 14 percent to 91 percent! Thanks to Rotary and Engineers Without Borders, the school is on its way back to being one of the best schools in Sierra Leone.
 
As promised, let’s go back to Belgium. After they were evacuated from the airport, the travel team made its way to the Belgian town of Leuven where they booked into a hotel and proceeded to “wait it out.” Cindy Hornaman (Governor Nominee Designate of District 7430 and spouse of Chris who was on the travel team), found the Leuven Rotary Club on the Internet and phoned the contact listed: Frank Op 't Eynde. Frank’s first words were: “Can you give me 10 minutes to get to the hotel?”
 
The Belgian Rotarian immediately stopped whatever he was doing, contacted his club President, and in less than an hour, the Leuven Rotarians and the Pennsylvania team were in a pub having lunch and planning the trip home. Frank made sure the team had whatever they needed. And the help from the Leuven Rotary Club didn’t end with their departure: The club continued to help two of the team get their carry-on luggage — left at the airport terminal during the attack — safely returned to them.
 
What remarkable examples of “Service above Self!”