DOWAGIAC —Rotary District 6360 Foundation is expanding its mission to bring clean and safe water to Dominican families.

Ed Schaadt, the Rotary District 6360 Foundation secretary and a member of Gull Lake Area Rotary Club, presented to the Dowagiac Rotary Club about the WASH Program, which stands for water, sanitation and hygiene.

For years, Rotary District 6360 ran a bio sand filter project, but in 2015. It received a name change due to an expansion of its mission. A Rotary club in Hastings, which included Schaadt’s Gull Lake Area Rotary Club, along with several other clubs, took over the program, rewrote bylaws and reorganized.

“We had to search for our own identity,” Schaadt said. “We decided by accident that we would expand the mission.”

Multiple Rotarians from different clubs around the district have joined forces to help the WASH program excel.

WASH raises money for water filters and storage, latrine construction, handwashing education and has received proposals for aqueducts.

A group, including Schaadt, traveled to the Dominican Republic in 2017 to get aquatinted with local Rotary Clubs. All rotary clubs in the Dominican Republic are part of District 4060, which includes about 54 clubs, Schaadt said.

“The way Rotary works is you have to work with a club in the Dominican,” he said.

The group worked with the Santiago Rodriguez Rotary Club and received a Rotarian welcome, a place to stay and interacted with locals.

A women’s center made contact with people who were interested in having a water filter. To sign up for a water filter, people had to put their name down, ages of their children and who would be responsible for the water filters.

During his time in the Dominican Republic, Schaadt was invited into a family’s home who had a water filter.

“They said, ‘the nice part about having a water filter in our house is that all of our kids are healthy now,’” Schaadt said.

While Schaadt’s group was in the Dominican Republic, they got a request for an improved sanitation system. The goal was to build 50 latrines for 50 families. Schaadt described the latrines as the old version of an outhouse, but well-constructed and safer.

The cost of the project was about $32,500, Schaadt said, which the group did not have. The request inspired the group to create the expanded program, WASH.

The group took the project on and paid $18,235 for all of the materials needed for the latrines.

As they began doing presentations to promote the project, the community in the Dominican Republic dug holes, the municipality paid for sand and the Santiago Rodriguez Rotary Club completed training on how to maintain water filters.

The group is now in the process of completing all of the latrines.

Today, Rotary District 6360 Foundation is looking at new projects to help expand its mission of providing clean and safe water to even more families in the Dominican Republic and is seeking the Dowagiac Rotary Club’s help in its mission.