Rotarians learn about Nepal school mission
The Rotary Club of East Kilbride had a very interesting talk from John Hoey.
John is a native of East Kilbride and he served for 30 years with the fire service.
Following his retirement he became involved with charity work, first of all with schools and then with the European Commission.
For the past five years he has served on the children’s panel.
John’s talk was about a visit to Nepal last year on a mission to help with the rebuilding of a school which had been destroyed in the devastating earthquake of 2015, when much of the area around Kathmandu was flattened.
Half of the population of the region are illiterate – so the provision of schooling is essential.
John was there for two weeks as part of a group of 10 who had not only paid for their own trip, but had raised a considerable sum of money to go towards the school.
The school, East Point Academy, was operating out of temporary accommodation consisting of corrugated iron panels supported on bamboo posts but the children were all smartly dressed in their uniforms and John showed a number of slides of them in the school.
The new building, which will cost £150,000 to build and will take a further £20,000 to fit out, is scheduled to be completed by June and John is hoping he may be able to revisit the area around that time.
After a lively Q&A session, a sincere vote of thanks was given by past president Bruce Gunn.