Shortly after John Mulrooney retired as principal of Chase River Primary School, he and his wife, Mary, a nurse, spent a month working as volunteers on a rural school project in Zimbabwe - You may recall that I worked on the same project and wrote five columns from there.

Then, just a few months later, they were contacted by Rotary International and asked to volunteer on a water project in Ghana organized by Rotary Clubs in California and Nevada ... so off they went again.

These two experiences left them with the same "fire in the belly" I have after my experience. They are determined to do whatever they can to help the people they met over there.

The water project, eighty wells, is set up to be "guaranteed" sustainable. It is being supervised by local Rotary Clubs and also by CUSO and people are charged a minimal fee for the clean water they get ... a very minimal fee ... but enough to guarantee that if and when a part breaks down, they will have the money needed to repair it. Too often in Africa, aid project lie in rust after one small breakdown because they don't have the money or expertise required to do the required maintenance.

While in Ghana John visited a number of schools and noticed that most often, if they had text books at all, they were desperately outdated so one of his commitments is to collect a container full of good used text books to send to those schools.

To reach that goal, John needs his first Neighbourhood Hero, someone who can donate warehouse space for the year or so it will take him to collect these books.

If you have available storage or warehouse space or if you would like to volunteer to help in the collection and sorting of these books, please contact John at 245-4384.

And there are other opportunities too. Working with the same California and Nevada Rotary Clubs, John and Mary have four other projects they want to support ... and you might too.

The first is a Micro Enterprise Bank in five different villages.

These banks provide a small amount of money, just enough to help individuals begin a small business and as that money is paid back, it is recycled to other individuals and so on and so on and so on.

The second is a vocational training project in another village.

"This project is dear to our hearts," John says. Mary and I visited Tsaweno village with Joseph Achana, the president of Ghana Outlook a Non Governmental Organization. With the support of this group, Joseph has organized other similar long-term development projects.

It will begin with skills training for women in areas that will bring some new money into the family, which will help, pay for school fees, books and clothes for their children and improve the quality of family life in general. At a later stage, skill training will be provided for the men.

The third involves the development and manufacture of 500 family size solar ovens

In an area where wood is in short supply, these ovens would be a boon to the families as well as to the environment.

The forth, and final of John and Mary's projects ... at least for now ... will provide one more well that was not included in the original water project last fall.

Once again, if you have some available storage or warehouse space or if you would like to perhaps get involved in some other way, you can contact John and Mary at 245-4384.