SPEAKER: Steve Rutledge-Adopt A Village In Laos
Dave Andrews introduced Steve, the President of Adopt A Village In Laos (AAVIL). Steve grew up in Georgetown, Ontario, and after a rewarding career in computer tech, Steve retired and focused on community and international service. Steve served on several boards and committees in Port Hope and received two civic awards, including one for his philanthropy and two Paul Harris awards. Additional honours include the Spirit of Rotary award (2016) and the Family and Community Service Award from the RC of Courtice (2018). In 2020, District 7070 awarded Steve the Bob Scott Disease Prevention Award. A true Rotarian, Steve makes sure to support his neighbouring clubs. He always buys a ticket to our Revere Draw, helps with Kids Against Hunger and buys our hams and maple syrup. Steve is found most weekends in the summer working Ribfests across Ontario. Today, Steve updated us about the completed work and their plans for the future.
This past year, Laos experienced a 100-year storm that washed out bridges, water systems and levees. This added stress to projects already in place. But even with obstacles like this, AAVIL to date has connected over 67 villages with filtered water, serving over 80,000 rural villagers. They constructed 26 permanent water systems and repaired numerous others. In addition to water filtration, AAVIL built over 40 toilets and helped in school construction and repair. The plan for 2024-25 is to work on 3 water projects, repair one school’s roof, and distribute 875 water filters. To do these, he must raise money, and with government corruption, this can be difficult. Steve thanked us for our support and demonstrated how the personal filtration systems work. Each unit costs $125.00(CDN).
These units are made in Laos and are economical and durable gravity-fed purification filters. To sponsor a water filter family, we can contact Steve via email. Each sponsor will receive a photo of the filter and the family who received it. In addition, you connect with the filter family with a label attached to the unit that includes a country flag of the donor and the words “in Friendship and Respect” in Lao language. To get more information or to donate you can click here or click on the logo at the top of this article to go directly to the AAVIL website.
Ted Morrison thanked Steve, and many stayed after Tess rang the bell to get more information and ask questions. Pictures from Shauna Moore follow on Page 5