Rochester Rotary International Project

The Mexico project all starts with Harvey Bernier.  Ironically, former Rochester mayor, Harvey Bernier, could never be persuaded to join Rotary until he became a “snowbird” and purchased a retirement home in Mexico.  There he met a woman, Moonyeen “Moonie” King, who belonged to the Ajijic Mexico Rotary Club and had opened the Tepehua Community Center to assist the locals from a neighboring and very poor barrio.  The Center was opened primarily to help the women of Tepehua with the belief that if the women could help themselves out of poverty the entire family would benefit.

 

The Tepehua Community Center started with humble beginnings about four years ago and has grown each year to expand its services which now include education, micro-enterprise, micro lending, a dental clinic, a housing rehabilitation program, soup kitchen, and a mobile maternal health program.  Much of the support for the various programs has been provided by the local Ajijic Rotary Club and also the former or current clubs of the various ex-patriots (from the U.S. and Canada) now spending the colder months in Mexico.

 

While the Community Center and the mobile maternal health van has made a huge impact on the lives of the local women, a lack of reasonable access to pre and post-natal care has resulted in a higher infant mortality rate than in the surrounding area and so the recent focus has been to add a maternal health clinic to the Community Center.  Moonie has been able to secure private financing for the actual building for the clinic and began approaching Rotary Clubs for the funding necessary to finish the interior of the building and provide the necessary equipment to operate the clinic.  Rochester Rotary pledged approximately $2500 which, combined with a generous donation from Harvey Bernier, will essentially finish two rooms in the Clinic.

 

If a picture is worth a thousand words, this video is worth a million!