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Published: March 2nd 2006
Villia Italia
View from the top of the Water TowerToday the group broke up to look at several projects around the Panama City area. Greg Peterson and Bob Green traveled to Piedra Ancha where they got out and walked for a long time up and down a mountain to find the village. John and Wanda Wilhite traveled to San Jorge y Tomas Arias.
Wes McCoy, Lois Kastner and I travled to Villa Italia and the to Colon.
Villa Italia was a special trip for me because this is the village that the Gardner and Atchison Rotary clubs started by partnering together to fund. This village is made up of 3,500 people that are some of the poorest in the area. For many years they received their water from a small river that ran close to their village. Several years ago the government came in and dug several wells and two large holding tanks. But then ran out of money. As a result, the children and women of the community had to walk a long way and carry back water to their homes. The money that Gardner and Atchison gave was matched by a District 5710 grant and they completed most of the project. With the price of pvc
pipe going up, the Overland Park club pitched in the extra to complete the project.
The village is about 10 km south of Colon off of the main highway. When we arrived we were greeted by two members of the community to show us around. Due to the hilly nature of the area, two very high water towers had been built. From the top you could see the Atlantic Ocean and a large part of the Canal. We then went to were a group of villagers were volunteering to dig a trench to bury a new part of the distribution line. It was about 95 degrees and the men were all using hand tools to dig a foot deep trench several hundred yards. As we were talking several children came over to see what we were doing and who we were. We went back to one woman´s house where we met her four children. They were so cute! We were lucky enough to be there when they finished a connection that would provide the water to the children´s house. When the water started coming out several kids came over and asked if they could have a drink. It was
Catch me Wes!
Wes and Lois ready to catch me in case I fall. such an honor to be there seeing first hand how clean drinking water was brought to children in Panama by the Kansas Rotary clubs!
We spent some time going over the new pump and chlorine system. The government takes readings from the tank and helps them calibrate the chemical system. We also walked down into the trees to see the small river where they used to get their drinking water.
After our trip to Villa Italia we met with the Colon Rotary Club. They showed us a school that they helped build that is right in the middle of the worse part of Colon. If you know anything about Colon you know that is saying quite a lot. It is next to a public housing development where there is a very large population of out of work, poor, angry young men. The school can only handle about 200 of the 600 possible students in the development. The Colon Rotary club hopes to build upon this school in the future to include all students in the area. The school also provides meals and a daycare for residents. It is a major project and is being done very well
Villa Italia Girl
Jodi, you sure I can not bring one home with me? at the same time that the club also does many other great projects. This is a club of 25 that do more than many clubs 10 times their size. We were all very impressed with them.
They took us to their lunch meeting where they happend to be celebrating their 85th anniversery.
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Jodi
non-member comment
Extra children
Hey honey, I know they are cute but if you bring one home, you will have to feed it and dress it and take care of it. That's a pretty big responsibility. Miss you and love you very much! :)