Colton Cagle is a student at Westwood High School in Mesa. He is also a RYLA alumni, and is the District Governor of the District 5495 Interact Council. Rotary has already had a huge impact on the character of this fine young man. That life-changing impact of Rotary will now expand exponentially. He and a team of ambassadors left on June 30, headed for Kenya to deliver the mobility devices gathered in the 2017-18 Interact Crutches for Africa project. CLICK HERE to see a facebook album of photos taken on the day they departed.Another Interact Ambassador on the trip, Madelynn MacDonald, kept a daily blog. One of her observations on their first morning of delivering devices was of a situation that she will likely never forget: "We saw a perfect example of being there at the right time. A girl had fallen and twisted her ankle horribly and was relying on her friend to get across a huge campus. We were able to get her a pair of crutches, with one request, 'pass it on when you don't need it.'" CLICK HERE to see a Facebook album of photos taken on day 1 and read Madelynn's blog post for that day.
Elizabeth Mahoney, who will be District Governor of our Rotary District in 2020-21, is enjoying the adventure with the Interact Ambassadors. She shared an impression from an interaction of a father of a 16-year-old girl who was left unable to walk from being stricken with menengitis at a very young age: "He shared that no one could ever truly understand the pain and suffering he has had all these years as a caregiver. Needing to carry her to and fro, while trying to work - while trying to make sure she was safe. In the same breath he shared that no one will ever understand the greatness of the gift he received today. He will no longer need to carry his daughter - she received her first wheelchair!" To see photos taken on day 2 and more of Elizabeth's remarks, CLICK HERE.
Elizabeth Mahoney, who will be District Governor of our Rotary District in 2020-21, is enjoying the adventure with the Interact Ambassadors. She shared an impression from an interaction of a father of a 16-year-old girl who was left unable to walk from being stricken with menengitis at a very young age: "He shared that no one could ever truly understand the pain and suffering he has had all these years as a caregiver. Needing to carry her to and fro, while trying to work - while trying to make sure she was safe. In the same breath he shared that no one will ever understand the greatness of the gift he received today. He will no longer need to carry his daughter - she received her first wheelchair!" To see photos taken on day 2 and more of Elizabeth's remarks, CLICK HERE.
In one community where the team delivered mobility devices, the ambassadors learned the normal toilet there was a pit latrine - a small hole in the ground, which is very difficult for anyone with disabilities to use. "We were able to give a bucket with a cutout that was a seat to a lady with mobility challenges - she would no longer have to do the nearly impossible task of bending her knees. She was extremely grateful.
Our District has had a Rotary Foundation Global Grant water project that has been delayed for several years, dealing with everything from a crooked local contractor to multiple other problems and delays. Elizabeth, who is our district's District Governor Nominee, and Kevin, who has been a leader among the Prescott Rotary Clubs that sponsored the project, took the day to go meet with the local leadership in the area where the well had been drilled, to check on that water project that had been designed to provide needed water to a school and 3,000 residents in the area. They were treated with a wonderful surprise — being able to witness the first flow of the long-awaited water.
In the meantime, the rest of the Ambassadors team was visiting and helping out at the 1,100 student Naivasha Girls School, where David (from Crutches for Africa) was the guest speaker for an Assembly. Later, they revisited a village where they had previously spotted an 80-year old lady with a disability whose tiny home was in serious need of some help. They saw a need, and they did what Rotarians, Rotaractors and Interactors do. They gathered what supplies they needed, and they went back to that village to help that woman. CLICK HERE to see photos of the water project, some taken at the girls school and others of the spontaneous mud hut repair project to help the elderly woman.
At one of the team's stops, they got a practical lesson in what it is like to be a caregiver of someone with mobility challenges. Even if the person they are caring for has a wheelchair, it is still very difficult as the roads are not flat and as Maddy described it, "you would have to lift the whole wheelchair to get it across a rock, multiple times There was also many stairs where you would have to turn the wheelchair around and carry them backward downstairs. It was equally terrifying for the 'caregiver' and the person in the wheelchair. The team pushing the wheelchair would have to put the wheelchair in a 180 degree angle and worry about dropping them down the steep stairs. The person in the chair was worried for almost all the same reasons except they were the one experiencing the terror of going down the steps. The one thing that was different than in real life is that we had five people helping, while normally there is just one."