HOULTON, Maine — The Houlton Rotary Club met for its regular luncheon meeting Nov. 13, and welcomed Woodstock Rotarian Gary Stewart.
Stewart spoke about the 7810 District Grant Initiative “Project Give”. The Guatemala Infrastructure Improvement Effort is a shared project of thirteen Rotary clubs including the Woodstock and Houlton Rotary Clubs.
This involves improvements in water filtration, cooking stoves and toilets. Stewart worked in three villages in Guatemala and installed 125 eco-stoves, 125 water filters and 40 eco-toilets. The toilets cost $650 each and the stoves and filters are each $70. The eco-toilets are important since the water table is just 3 feet under the surface of the ground. These are built in raised structures with steps to each unit.
To save communities the cost of bottled water, the eco-water filters provide 4 gallons of clean water per day through a bio-sand water system. Molds are used to make concrete casts. The concrete is mixed by hand and the finished concrete base can be delivered to each village. These are filled with the sand filtration system.
Eco-stoves reduce the carbon dioxide emissions that the historically used cooking stoves have yielded. The new stoves are shaped like a short staircase but are made of brick and are referred to as “rocket stoves”. David Alverez hosts the Rotarian groups for the Centro Cristiano Cultural de Guatemala, a church that preaches to give but not to take. Stewart was assisted in the work by a Guatemalan named Ramero who is 19 and builds the stoves. Alverez has many projects going such as running a medical clinic. Woodstock Rotarians Stewart and John Slipp raised twenty two hundred dollars to help fund the clinic.
Other projects include clothing donations for the children and adults. Stewart is hoping to recruit other Rotarians to go on this journey with him. Eight to nine days should cost around 15 hundred dollars. Stewart described this as a life changing experience and the work is definitely “service above self”. He said that the hosts take good care of the volunteers since they rely on the service and the more that Rotarians can do to help, the better the lives of the Guatemalans will be. Stewart can be reached at gary.stewart@mobileadvisors.ca.
In other business, Chris Carmichael was inducted into the club by Cummings. Carmichael was sponsored by Rotarian Meg York.
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- (Courtesy/Nate Bodenstab)
