Local Rotarians hear of group's relief efforts after massive quake

Rotary Clubs in the district which includes Bedford County are stepping up to provide assistance in Haiti, but should also take lessons that could help locally in the case of a disaster, according to a speaker at Thursday's meeting of the Shelbyville Noon Rotary Club.

Tom Kale Jr., a real estate agent from Chattanooga, is chairman of the disaster response committee for Rotary District 6780. He said he's been making the rounds since the Haiti earthquake speaking to his fellow Rotarians throughout the district, which includes portions of southern Middle Tennessee as well as East Tennessee.

"It's been almost a full-time job now for two weeks," said Kale.

The Shelbyville club has helped to support the Rotary Shelterbox program. A shelterbox is a plastic tub containing tents, sleeping mats, purification tablets, eating utensils, a trenching shovel, a cook stove and other equipment for 10 people living in a disaster area. It doesn't contain food or water. Contributions to the program allow Rotary to distribute the tubs in disaster areas.

Kale said Rotary's role is not to be the first response to a disaster, even if individual Rotarians fill that role through other organizations. But he said Rotary can play a key role in disaster relief, especially by helping Rotarians in the affected area, who can then play a leadership role among their neighbors.

"What do we do in Haiti after the crisis is gone?" he asked.

After Hurricane Katrina, he said, a club inland in Alabama made weekly visits to a club in Biloxi, Miss., which was meeting on the slab of its demolished meeting hall. Kale said restoring club meetings as soon as possible after a disaster helps bring a sense of normalcy.

"We're using that in Haiti," he said. The Tellico Lake Rotary Club had been involved with a Rotary Club in Carrefour, Haiti, while Kale's home club, the North River-Chattanooga Rotary Club, was in the process of launching a Rotary club in Léogâne, Haiti, before the earthquake.

The club may help fund a program to temporarily relocate the children of Rotarians in the earthquake-hit parts of Haiti to other parts of Haiti or the Dominican Republic.

Kale said that Rotarians should learn to prepare for disasters at home as well as responding to them abroad. He encouraged Rotarians to invite local emergency response and preparedness agencies to speak at club meetings.

The North River-Chattanooga club had been involved in a water well program in Léogâne before the earthquake, replacing wells that had been built by UNICEF in the 1970s but which the Haitians did not know how to maintain properly. Kale said the club has heard of one well which is still operational but three others that are not, which may mean that entirely new wells will need to be dug. An earthquake can damage a well's equipment or can even damage or shift the aquifer from which the water is being pumped.

Kale said early word is that the aid pouring into Port-au-Prince is not yet making its way into outlying cities like Léogâne or Carrefour.

"As far as we can tell, the aid is not getting there," he said.

Kale said Rotary International has established a Haiti Relief Fund to funnel contributions to appropriate use.