This Tuesday, May 17, 2022, at 7:45am, the Gloucester Rotary is hosting members on the Boneza community on a zoom call during our weekly meeting. Gloucester Rotarian Dave McKechnie -- who introduced us to Boneza and the Kivu Hills Academy -- is visiting Boneza and will be on the zoom call from Rwanda.
Since 2017, the Gloucester and Rockport Rotary Clubs have partnered and obtained grants to support the community of Boneza, Rwanda. This community is roughly the same population as the combined residency of Rockport and Gloucester. But, unlike those of us fortunate enough to live on Cape Ann, there is little infrastructure support in Boneza.
Our first grant in 2017 helped to build a kitchen in the first high school in the area. This kitchen now provides three meals a day to 250 students. In 2018, we were able to help support the installation of a well, which provides clean water to approximately 1,000 local residents. Most recently, in 2022, we participated in the purchase of a generator that provides a stable source of electricity to the high school -- ensuring that the pumps bringing water to the schoolwork, the computers that the student use are not damaged by interruptions to the power supply, and other requirements for a stable power supply are met.
Anyone interested in joining the zoom call or in person is welcome. The Gloucester Rotary meets in the downstairs hall at Cruiseport Gloucester, located at 6 Rowe Square in Gloucester, or contact Tracy Arabian at trixy546@hotmail.com to have the zoom link sent.