Rotary Foundation awards $60,210 to Monarch Beach Sunrise Rotary and Patan South Rotary Clubs for Nepal water grant

Monarch Beach Sunrise Rotary Club (MSBR) just received a global grant from the Rotary Foundation for $60,210 to build a water well and sanitation station in the village of Kapuradhunga, outside Kathmandu in Nepal. This village is known as the Single Women’s Village since it is where many single women live. These women walk for two to three hours a day just to get enough water for themselves, their agriculture and farm animals. They are the lowest ranking in Nepal as they are either divorced, windowed or never married and socially are in the lowest rung. They have no running water and must carry gallons of water a day to their village for survival. This grant provides funding to repair the existing reservoir which was destroyed in the April 2015 earthquake and extend water distribution to the villagers’ homes. Additionally, money was raised to build a sanitation station in the village.

Dr. Jill Fabricant, the international service chair of the Monarch Beach Sunrise Rotary Club wrote the grant as the international partner. “We are so excited to have the grant funded and to be able to know that these women will once again have water in their village,” said Dr. Fabricant, who spent more than 18 months on Zoom working with engineers and fellow Rotarians from the Host Club, Patan South in Kathmandu. Gosai KC Bhandari, immediate past president of the Patan South Club initiated this project.

Rosalind Russell from the eClub of the West, who is the founder and executive director of R Star Foundation, a non-profit based in Laguna Beach, gave a presentation to the MSBR in 2020 on the work that she had done in Nepal. This presentation was focused on the living conditions of the women and her work giving the women goats for nutrition. After hearing about the living conditions at the Woman’s Village, MBSR decided to assist the women with writing a global grant for the village. Dr. LJ Cibelli, co-chair of the International Service Committee at MBSR assisted in choosing the subject for the global grant in Nepal. The grant is for $60,210 and it should take approximately 22 months to repair the reservoir and build the sanitation station.

In addition to the funds given by Monarch Beach Sunrise Rotary, Rotary Clubs from Newport Beach-Balboa, Irvine, Surf City-Huntington Beach, Mission Viejo, Metro-Washington, eClub of the West, Lake Arrowhead Mountain Sunrise, Lake Arrowhead and San Gregorio Pass (Banning) contributed financially. Rotary International and the district 5320 also contributed funds. Special thanks goes to Helen Maxwell for her support.

Contact www.danapointrotary.org for more information about the Monarch Beach Sunrise Rotary Club and the grant.