Located in South Africa’s Kwazulu-Natal province, the Lily of the Valley Children’s Village provides residence, health care, education and life skills for approximately 120 orphaned and vulnerable children who are cared for by about 30 resident staff. The Village’s structure and mandate is similar to the nearby iKhethelo Children’s Village, which has been long supported by the Rotary Club (RC) of Winnipeg in partnership with the RC of Hillcrest. Water supply for the Village is sporadic at best, which can jeopardize the health of the children and pressure the Village’s resources in seeking the water it requires. Owing to the relatively flat geography of the area, harvesting rainwater cannot ensure a sufficient supply, meaning that it would be necessary to take on the considerable expense of building a borehole.
To fund this worthy endeavour, a Global Grant was sought by a united network of Rotary Clubs. The RC of Winnipeg contributed USD $10,000, an amount matched by District 5550. In addition, RC Hillcrest contributed $3,000 (augmented with $5,000 from its District 9370), RC El Camino Real (Oceanside, California) provided $7,000 (with matching funds from its District 5340), while RC Minneapolis donated $10,000. The Rotary World Fund rounded out the funding with $37,000 to raise the total to $89,000 (over 1.4 million South African Rand). The Global Grant was approved in August 2020 and the project will soon be underway! It is anticipated to take 4 - 6 months to complete
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