Monteagle-Sewanee Rotary Club
INTERNATIONAL SERVICE
ABOUT OUR WORK Internationally
In the Five Avenues of Service, the fourth is International Service and is described: “International Service, the fourth Avenue of Service, comprises those activities that members do to advance international understanding, goodwill, and peace by fostering acquaintance with people of other countries, their cultures, customs, accomplishments, aspirations, and problems, through reading and correspondence and through cooperation in all club activities and projects designed to help people in other lands.” The Monteagle-Sewanee Rotary Club supports three International projects: The Haiti Project, Heart 2 Heart, and a scholarship for an International student for the Sewanee Summer Music Festival.
Our Work with
THE HAITI INITIATIVE
Beginning in 2006, Sewanee students and faculty have traveled to Cange, Haiti to learn how poverty, environmental degradation and poor health are interconnected, and to witness how organizations such as Partners in Health (Zamni Lasante) and Partners in Agriculture (Zamni Agrikol) are systematically improving public health and food security in the Central Plateau.
Following the devastating 2010 earthquake our team reoriented our perspective on what relief work should look like abroad. We asked ourselves: How could we treat not just the symptoms of social problems, but also the underlying problem itself? Beginning in 2012, a team that included Dr. D. McGrath, Keri Bryan, and Johnathan Salazar, entered into a partnership with our long term collaborators in Haiti, Zamni Agrikol (a sister organization of Partners in Health) to create opportunities for carbon reduction payments that would serve as an economic incentive and make local farming sustainable. The work of reforestation began with Coffee plants. The effort has now expanded to other forms of plants/trees. It is our hope that this partnership will allow Sewanee to begin offsetting its carbon footprint and at the same time allow for Haitian farmers to overcome the high cost of reforesting their land.
Our Work with
HEART 2 HEART
The Heart 2 Heart Program is a cooperative effort between Rotarians in the "Heart of America" (Zones 30 and 31), the "Heart of Mexico" (Districts 4170 and 4140), and The Rotary Foundation to provide humanitarian service, primarily through matching grant projects.
Heart 2 Heart offers three signature projects on a regular basis: Water tank systems for grade schools, the Holtz-Beahon Kidney transplant program, and the Vickie Blade Pacemaker program.
H2H’s current “100 in 100 Project” celebrates 100 years of Rotary service in Mexico with the anniversary of the chartering of the first Mexico City club. This project creates opportunities for Rotarians in both countries to participate in 100 projects with Rotary clubs in Mexico. For Mexico, it is a chance to spotlight Rotary all over Mexico and to engage more of their clubs and communities with the US. For the US partners, it is a chance to get more clubs directly involved on the club to club level.
In 2019 the Monteagle-Sewanee Rotary Club donated $2,500 to District 6780 for use by the H2H program (used toward building of a community center at a Toluca school). This year, as a result of the H2H trip to Mexico in November 2019 and in an effort to participate in the 100 in 100 project, our club (with the participation of the Franklin CountyAM Rotary Club), donated $3,600 to the PAZo a PAZito peace project led by two Rotaract Clubs in Mexico City.
Our Work with
SSMF INTERNATIONAL STUDENT
The Sewanee Summer Music Festival is one of the most respected summer music programs in the country, attracting a talented array of faculty, conductors, and students not only from this country but also from throughout the world. The Monteagle-Sewanee Rotary Club supports this great institution by contributing to a scholarship fund that sponsors an international student who normally would not be able to afford the travel and tuition to be able to do so.