Dear Rotary friends,

On November 3, 1910 the first Rotary club meeting in Canada was held in Winnipeg. Today is a great day to celebrate Canada's Rotary cent entail project.

Our Rotary Centennial School in Afghanistan was dedicated on Sunday September 26th, five months ahead of schedule and under budget.

Representing us again was Rotarian Fary Mohini of the Rotary Club of La Jolla Golden Triangle. Fary was in Jalalabad to among other things, inspect our school and make recommendations to upgrading the lavatories, install a drinking system for the students, obtain quotes to install a playing field, and convert a room into a nursery to attract more female teachers. The Dedication was attended by a number of government and school officials, many respected elders, and local Rotarians. The ceremony had considerable local media coverage.

 
In their speeches, the elders emphasized the importance of the education in Islam and equal opportunities for boys and girls. The expressed their gratitude, appreciation and 100% support to the Canadians for their generous gift and mentioned that their children will never forget they are sitting inside their class room instead of sitting under trees and rain. They asked that this message be conveyed to everyone responsible for funding the school and how grateful they are and that they need us to help them to educate their children to achieve a better and peaceful future.

I've attached three photos. The first is the school a few days before the dedication. Incidentally the colour was that chosen by the Nangarhar Department of Education. The other two pictures taken a couple of weeks ago show students in their classrooms.

While funding for the project is complete, any funds received past the project completion date are being targeted towards improving the school. We just passed $290,000.00. THANK YOU!

With the opening of this school, we begin to touch the future, as many, many lives will be enriched by what they will be taught there.

Could you please share this good news story with all of your club members. Please announce this at your next club meeting, put it in your club newsletter and on your club's website. We want all Canadian Rotarians to know about the success of "their" centennial project.

Incidentally we expect details of the Public Engagement component of this program to be made available to you shortly. This will be the opportunity for students in your community to connect with students in Afghanistan.

The story of the Canadian Rotary school in Afghanistan was reported in the October issue of Rotary Canada magazine. English



Thank you for what you do for Rotary!

Monty Audenart
Past RI Vice President
Canadian Rotary Centennial Committee