January 9, 2025 – MW Rotary
Monroe Woodbury Rotary club is fundraising for a school project in rural Mozambique, Africa in partnership with United 2 Help Inc. (https://www.united2help.org/). Funds raised will be used to provide furniture and electrical and water utilities for a vacant school building ready to be used for students desperately in need of a school.
The Monroe-Woodbury Rotary Club is part of Rotary District 7210, which includes most of the Hudson Valley, NY.
United 2 Help is a 501c3 organization in Central Valley NY that designed a school campus to serve the rural highlands of Mutua after Cyclone Idai drove hundreds of thousands of people away from the coast.
The first two Mutua School classrooms are ready for use but need utilities and furniture to function. There are many hundreds of children without school access eagerly awaiting the school opening.
The urgency of completing this project as quickly as possible cannot be understated. In this part of the world, existing classrooms are extremely rudimentary and are often comprised of simple thatched roof canopies and tent structures, many without walls, and too often without bathrooms providing little protection against flooding.
Instead of chairs and desks, children may sit on logs or other makeshift seating. Even more robust stick walls and ceilings offer insufficient protection from the elements and during heavy rain events classes will be held while children sit in flood waters.
The Mutua School buildings are constructed with cement blocks with metal roofing and wood doors, which are basic but sturdy and able to withstand local weather. Cement block buildings is considered high quality construction in this part of the world.
United 2 Help completed its first building (above) with 2 classrooms. Even without the furniture needed to be operational it has been used in recent storm event to house families fleeing flood waters, as it was one of the only dry buildings in the entire area during major storms. These school buildings will also act as a central meeting area and provide general meeting and community infrastructure needed for the area.
The first Mutua school was fully funded and built by United 2 Help and phase 1 completed in 2023 with help from Dondo Rotary leaders. Bathrooms were added in Phase 2 in 2024. Now in 2025 Rotary will help to furnish the buildings and make them operational.
PLEASE DONATE TO PUT THIS SCHOOL INTO OPERATION.
Our goal is to offer two half day classes in each of the 3 elementary classrooms-built servicing grades 1-6. Each classroom is designed for 20 desks with 2 students each totaling 40 students per classroom per shift. When the 3rd classroom is complete, the school will support 120 students per half day/240 students per day.
The school campus concept includes:
• 3 classrooms for basic primary education (240 6-12 years old students/day)
• 3 vocational training classrooms for older students ages 13-17 teaching sewing, cooking, and carpentry.
• 3 latrines for boys, girls, and teachers;
Each vocational class will support 10 students per class per trimester which will be a total of 120 students ready for work a year.
• an administrative office.
• basic power, water, and sewer infrastructure; and,
• daily operations of the school will be overseen by Associação United 2 Help in Mozambique under the guidance of with the Ministry of Education in Mozambique.
YOUR DONATIONS WILL BE MATCH BY ROTARY INTERNATIONAL https://gofund.me/46f8266c
The Monroe Woodbury Rotary is fundraising to furnish the classrooms and make them operational. We need your financial support to make a big and ongoing difference in this desperate part of the world.
Please help us raise funds which will matched by international Rotary grants. Every dollar you donate can be multiply 500% so please help today.
