Jay Wright, new generations chair for the Rotary Club of Goleta, introduced San Marcos High School Interact Club representatives Laurel Mead and Krista Bowdle to the Rotary Club on Tuesday night.
Their current project is to provide kits for safe pregnancy and childbirth care in Third World countries.
Mead and Bowdle explained how pregnancy and childbirth are the leading causes of death and disability among women of childbearing age in developing countries. The Interact Club of San Marcos High School has partnered with Direct Relief to provide midwife kits to countries in need. Each kit is only $25.
» Each kit has supplies to assist with 50 clean, safe births, saving the lives of the mother and her child.
» That means $25 saves 100 lives.
» The drive starts Monday, May 20 and runs until Friday, May 31.
» Birth kits are being distributed to Sierra Leone, Uganda, Somaliland, Zimbabwe, Nepal and Mexico.
The Rotary Club of Goleta contributed nearly $500 to the project.
For more information about the Project for Midwife Kits through Direct Relief, email Mead at laurel.mead06@gmail.com.
“Giving birth without basic equipment can be a matter of life or death for women and their newborn infants,” UNFPA Executive Director Thoraya Obaid said in 2006.
The Rotary Club of Goleta meets at 6:30 p.m. on the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month at the Elephant Bar Restaurant, 521 Firestone Road in Goleta. If you would like to become more involved in your community and meet some really nice men and women, we invite you to visit our bimonthly meetings to enjoy camaraderie, good food and interesting meetings.
For more information, contact club president Paul Clayton at paul.clayton@flir.com or Frances Gilliland at franeg@msn.com.
— Lynn Cederquist is publicity chairwoman of the Rotary Club of Goleta.