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On June 19^th, 2009, RC Lima Sunrise changed its Board of Directors. It was a nice party in the presence of the actual, incoming, proposed and elected governors and a number of Rotary Club presidents and

representatives of other RCs from District 4450.

Outgoing president Michael Betz recapitulated the ending Rotarian year (2008/2009), which brought some changes to the membership structure and internal organization; we have all required formal documents updated; could pay our expected contribution to The Rotary Foundation and continued with on-going projects: Health and Water Filters, and the construction of the Pisco Medical Center. This is located in the heart of the earthquake damaged area.

Incoming President Rafael Paz expressed his willingness to continue with the activities – he will have full support of the new Board of Directors, which counts on several experienced members active in earlier Boards.

San Juan de Lurigancho, one of Lima’s biggest and most populated districts, is situated to the north-east of the city and stretches into xeric valleys and onto hillsides. Many of these poorest people live in very bad conditions far off the main paved roads, with long and relatively costly trips to go to work, school, markets,

etc. The houses stand on small platforms caved out of the rocky hillsides; steep access paths lead to them. In rainy seasons, everything is muddy, slippery and dirty; conversely, in dry seasons, there is dust everywhere.

The houses are made of thin, la

minated fibers, consist frequently of only one small room for the whole family. There is no water, no toilet, hardly enough gas for cooking – but there are kids all around. There are some very tiny schools in different places with barely anything at all; one single room for all ages, and with extremely poor paid teachers , even by local standards.

The RC Lima Sunrise sponsored and coordinated together with 2 NGOs an event on the Peruvian Father’s

Day, the 21. of June. We paid for materials to build a special dry toilet as a demonstration unit in for one of the tiny schools; and we financed the medical campaign, in which doctors and nurses from a University hospital

offered services for free in General Medicine, Pediatrics and Dentistry. There was also a training group of young stylists to offer haircuts.

Most important for RC Lima Sunrise however was the hand-over of more than 100 ceramic water filters, sponsored by different donor groups around the world. Every recipient had to pay a small contribution to ensure that it will not just be considered as a gift without value. With the water filters, the frequent diseases especially prevalent in young children will be reduced dramatically. A follow-up is planned to see how the filters are working and how the water quality and health standards improve in this population over the time.

Fundraising for Construction & Equipping of Medical Center in Pisco;
Concert with Irish Rock & Step Dance by The Three Jacks

The Rotary Club Lima Sunrise hosted two concerts on May 15th and 16th, 2009 with The Three Jacks - a band from Miami with Celtic music, ballads and rock, along with Breffni Academy dancers and a famous Chinese violinist (more).

The group, led by Henk Milne, a lawyer, gave two impressive concerts of over 2 hours each - probably the first time in Lima to have any music of this genre and at that high level of performance. It was not only excellent music, but also a fabulous show, including all the musicians and the 3 young ladies who performed the Irish step dance.

Jorge Vera, a friend and former Club member, was the coordinator of the event. He did a tremendous job of finding and securing the venue, contacting people, coordinating with authorities, organizing many publications and advertisements, and ticket sales including many corporate sales, etc. Without such high quality professionalism, the event would not have resulted so smoothly and effectively.

The aim of the concert was to raise funds for the construction and equipping of a Polyclinic Medical Center in Pisco, which our Club is building in Pisco for the people affected by the earthquake of August 15th, 2007. Over U$ 45.000 has been raised by this benefit concert and will be used exclusively for this purpose.

Many sponsors made it possible for us to receive nearly all the income from ticket sales. The sponsors, mainly from the USA and Peru, financed all the costs for this event, from the air flights to the concert hall in the Santa Ursula College to the receptions for friends, participants and VIP supporters. Everything was done to support the people in Pisco and by trusting in the responsibility and seriousness of our Rotary Club Lima Sunrise.

On Saturday, March 14th 2009 we finally could get together to lay the First Brick for the Medical Center in the town of Pisco.
There had been different organizations present, like: RCs Pisco and Lima Sunrise, "Solidaridad en Marcha" as the future administrator, "Asociación Civil pro Salud Paul Harris de Pisco" and "Caminando Juntos" who channeled some bigger donations.
See the photos to participate with us at the event: http://picasaweb.google.com/michaelbetz1/Publication#