Pat Golden and I (Katherine Filice) traveled to West Africa to participate in National Polio Eradication Day. We traveled about 20 hours by plane to reach our destination of Cotonou, Benin. This is a coastal city of about 5.5 million residents. We stayed in West Africa about eight days and spent our time learning about the needs of the local and regional communities.
Pat Golden and I (Katherine Filice) traveled to West Africa to participate in National Polio Eradication Day. We traveled about 20 hours by plane to reach our destination of Cotonou, Benin. This is a coastal city of about 5.5 million residents. We stayed in West Africa about eight days and spent our time learning about the needs of the local and regional communities. The needs are great – in many areas they lack running water, medical care, and other basic health and education services. Gilroy Rotary sponsored our participation in this event which included approximately 50 other Americans from across the U.S.
For the polio eradication event, we traveled several hours by bus, into rural villages in the Kmpasse Region, to give the immunizations to children under 5 years old. We collectively immunized 3,313 children. We had two medical workers partnered with two Rotarians for roughly a team of 100. The immunizations were carried in coolers and we hiked into the villages, on foot, for most of the day. The heat and humidity were a tricky challenge for us Californians. Our medical workers only spoke French – the national language – so it was a challenge to communicate, but we figured it out. Pat and I also eventually jumped onto the back of motorcycles (the preferred mode of travel in the region) to get to the farther villages. No helmets and dirt roads made this an “exciting” part of the day.
We also spent time with local Rotarians to observe projects and went to a public school to hand out mosquito nets. It was really wonderful to meet the children and Pat enjoyed dancing with them while I taught them how to “high five.” Driving through the city was a fairly scary event as there are few traffic laws – it’s pretty much a game of cooperative chicken.
One of the critical reasons for the trip to Benin was to attend the 5th West Africa Project Fair. For the two days we spent meeting Rotarians from 46 clubs representing Nigeria, Benin, Cote’d Ivoire, Togo and Ghana, we were overwhelmed by the great needs, and not only in West Africa. We were struck by the knowledge that solutions to their problems could affect the entire world. We spent hours going over the various projects and returned with bundles of pamphlets, CDs, pictures and notes.
It was a great adventure and we learned so much about our African counterparts. They have big hearts and are working hard to create a better life for future generations. It’s amazing how far a few dollars can go toward creating a better world for the children in Africa. It’s exciting to have new friends from around the globe – we even have friended many of them on Facebook.
It was also a way to understand the impact we have as Rotarians at a global level. We directly support creating better lives for children in a far away country through our local efforts; this trip was a way to connect that at a personal level.
Upon returning to Gilroy, Pat met with the World Community Service committee, which consists of Rotarians from Morgan Hill, Sunrise Gilroy, Gilroy, San Juan Bautista and Hollister. Our local WCS, along with Rotary International, selects a recommended project to address. With the knowledge of a child dying every minute from malaria and other water borne diseases, like river blindness and Guinea worm, we are interested in the Well Water Project submitted by a club in Nigeria. Our local WCS group is quite passionate and has a lot of energy. How good it would be if our involvement with the Gbagada Water Well Project could transcend to an international solution to an ongoing problem. The Gates Foundation, along with Rotary International, has been most helpful with the eradication of polio; and that started with a dream!
