Eighteen months ago, none of us had heard of Covid -19.  When Covid suddenly appeared in February / March 2020, it was an unknown. Within a few weeks, we learned that it was spreading around the world rapidly. Because of Rotary’s immense global reach, it was a natural reaction that Rotary International would take action to help support communities around the globe. I know Covid impacted each of us personally and our Club’s in many ways. In this article, I want to share how our District supported several Covid related projects through the past 16 months with different financial contributions and efforts.

In the spring of 2020, The Rotary Foundation funded a Covid Disaster Relief grant fund with $1 million.
Our Executive Council pledged to contribute $25,000 to the fund that was established specifically to fund Covid – 19 recovery efforts.
We also made the decision to contribute $11,500 to District 4060 in the Dominican Republic through a Global Grant to help purchase ventilators for their hospitals. Just a few months before, we built new relationships and made new international friends when our District had a GSE exchange between our two Districts. We also connected them with the manufacture of ventilators in Missouri that could provide them at less cost than they had been quoted, so they were able to purchase more equipment.
 
An additional Global Grant was used to provide $10,000 to District 9210 in southern Africa to support purchasing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for healthcare workers in Malawi. Over the last 10 years, our District has been involved in several global grants with Malawi. A GSE exchange with 9210 had been planned for the summer and fall 2020. Due to the Covid restrictions, the trip was postponed. It will take place in October and November 2021.
$2000 was also donated to Truman Medical Center to provide fresh food for the first responders at the hospital in the spring of 2020.
 
As contributions continued to come in, the TRF fund grew to $3 million. At that point we applied for a $25,000 grant, which we donated to the three large Food Banks that serve our District. The last $2445 of this money was contributed this past June to Feed Northland Kids, who is using the funds to fight hunger in the school systems. Several of our Clubs support Feed Northland Kids.
 
As difficult as Covid has been for our members and clubs, we are fortunate to have access to good medical facilities and treatment in the District. In many places around the world that isn’t the case. Last fall, we learned through a relationship established through another global grant six years ago with clubs in Honduras, that there was a severe shortage of PPE equipment for their frontline healthcare workers. Honduras established 26 Covid clinics around the country to manage Covid cases. Despite cases increasing, they were unable to obtain enough PPE equipment and supplies to support their most venerable frontline workers. A decision was made to put together a Global Grant to supply six months of PPE equipment to these 26 clinics. On December 1, our goal of $169,000 was reached to fund the grant. It was unique, with $64,000 coming from District 6040, with a match from the World Fund. We also got support from 23 clubs and individuals in the District, as well as some help from six other Districts. This was an amazing cooperative effort.
 
In total, our District and Clubs have contributed more than $250,000 to these Covid relief efforts. Your generous donations to the Rotary Foundation’s Annual Fund made this possible. Thank you for being People of Action who live out our motto of “Service Above Self” everyday!
 
PDG Don Gladhart