 Program - LeAnn Mobley - The Rotary Foundation - District and Global Grants John Pennypacker introduced LeAnn Mobley. LeAnn has over 10 years of extensive experience training club and district leaders on all aspects of The Rotary Foundation, with special emphasis on grant programs. LeAnn has written four global grants and participated in twelve international projects since 2000 (Mexico, Uganda, The Dominican Republic, Philippines, Vietnam, and Thailand).She has additional experience writing grants for other non-profit organizations that resulted in approximately $1 million in funding since 2013. LeAnn has served in various Zone and District positions, including Assistant Regional Rotary Foundation Coordinator, GETS and GNATS faculty, PETS Curriculum Development Team, Grants Sub-committee Chair, and Fund Development Chair. LeAnn has an interesting and challenging background. She studied micro biology at Oregon State. She has been in Rotary 25 years. Her first experience in Rotary service outside the US was with a mobile vision clinic. She has been involved n projects to address food scarcity. With her club, she has been involved in implementation of the Dolly Parton Imagination Library in her own community. As a young woman, working in a hospital, LeAnn kept feeling something was missing. She would hear others in the medical staff come back excitedly talking about their experiences in projects like "Doctors Without Borders," and knew she wanted to be involved in something like that. She joined Rotary in the mid 90's. Two years later, her husband joined. In 2000, they had an opportunity to do a mobile vision clinic in Mexico and they jumped at the chance. They knew a need was there to be met. There were 12-14 on the team with no clue what they were doing. The first year, they saw 760 patients. They are now up to 2,000 patients each year. At the end of the day the first year, the team was recapping their day. A waitress handed LeAnn a napkin on which she had drawn the letter "I", a heart, and the Rotary Wheel. LeAnn still has - and cherishes - the napkin. That first year started LeAnn on her journey with international Rotary volunteer work. Circumstances have been such that LeAnn has become a resource for writing and implementing disaster relief grants. February 24 marks the 1st anniversary of the war in Ukraine. Rotary International responded very quickly with creating a disaster relief fund and received $15,000,000 in donations to support the needs there. Those funds were spent by December, 2022. Our Zone (LeAnn is in the same Rotary Zone as we are) has committed $1,000,000 for ongoing work there. She has made more connections in Ukraine, Poland, and Italy - with lines crossing. Meeting medical needs has become challenging - not just for war injuries, but for everyday emergency health care needs. As a result of productive meetings held via Zoom, they have come up some conclusions: - Healthcare system is destroyed where people are dying from small untreated injuries and infections.
- Medical treatment is done in dirty basements without medicaments and qualified doctors.
- There is no direct help to get in the war zones.
- No communication to medical care, people must search own help.
- Water is contaminated, no clean drinking water.
They were able to come up with a prototype of a mobile unit that could be replicated and deployed in multiple locations. A mobile unit deployed in the northeast corner is seeing 100 patients/day with problems ranging from dental, heart, COPD, diabetes. 85% of the needs can be provided in the mobile units. One lesson learned. The slick ramp on the first unit has been replaced with a grated ramp. With the nature of their soil and their weather, the unit might be in an area where the mud is 3" deep making the slick ramp nearly impossible to negotiate. The cost for each unit is $37,000 USD The total value is $1,125,000 30 Units are needed Goal is to complete in the first six months of 2023 To date 14 International sponsor districts and clubs have committed GRANT IN A BOX - SEEKING SPONSOR PARTNERS TEMPLATE - 15 minutes to copy and paste Host Club will be provided A Memorandum of Understanding with a regional hospital will be provided All support documents will be provided They are pre-vetted - the first one was approved in 15 days NEED Identify funding and three contacts Your Rotary logo (to be placed on the unit) When the war is over, the mobile clinics will become permanent neighborhood clinics. The stated cost is for a fully stocked unit. Training will occur to get. With global grants, communication with the host club can be difficult. The Rotarians in Ukraine are very capable and motivated. They are on top of things. Medical services are currently being provided free of charge. Many patients have never seen a dentist or doctor.
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2022 in review.
This is a REALLY big year for Mesa West.
Mesa West Rotary Foundation, Inc. is the funding and fundraising arm of our own Mesa West Rotary Club. It is a 501(c)(3) charity. We have had successful sponsorship campaigns the last few years enabling us to spend our energy on service rather than on holding fundraising events. Charitable grants that we get involved with are funded through our charitable foundation, Our signature Gift of Hearing Project in Guaymas Mexico is funded through this foundation. Scholarships are awarded annually to Westwood High School Students (the high school where Mesa West Rotary sponsors an Interact Club). Funds are used to support a variety of activities in four of the Rotary Avenues of Service:.png)
