The help comes from Armidale

Armidale Central Rotary Club President, Jeremy Smith (r)

Chris Ross-Smith (l)

Rotarian Chris Cole

Rotary Club of Armidale Central (D9650 Australia) is working to help a Down Syndrome School in  Londrina, Southern Brazil (APS Down School) and other projects as well. Club Members work hard throughout the year to organize a Book Fair.

The Book Fair has been running for 15 years and has raised in excess of $250,000. The community donate books by placeing them in a collection bin that is situated near the city swimming pool. Members empty the bin twice a week. They are taken back to a shed (donated by a member) and sorted and packed into boxes. The fair happens at the city race course. 

The 2012 Rotary Book Fair, which finished on Saturday 19 May, was a great success, with the largest return in the history of the book fair. A huge number of people patronised the fair on each of the eight days.

Armidale Central Rotary Club which runs the fair has been collecting books for 12 months. Approximately 60,000 books were collected and became part of the 2012 book fair.

Proceeds from the book fair will be used to support local, national and international Rotary projects. In the past year Armidale Central has supported the Autumn Lodge Retirement Village, the New England Conservatorium of Music, Armidale and New England Hospital, Anglicare and the St Vincent de Paul Society.


Each year the club also supports many Rotary youth projects. Earlier this month the club provided funds to support a Down Syndrome school in Brazil.

Rotary Alvorada Solidarity Lunch - Londrina Brazil - D.4710

On Sunday, 27th of May, there will be this Lunch meeting specially to raise funds to the Down Syndrome Kitchen Matching Grand Project. Thank you Armidale Central friends for believing in this dream. The translation is below just in case your Portuguese is not so fluent...

Rotary Club Londrina Alvorada and APS Down promote:

Solidarity Lunch

Day: 27^th May 2012 (Sunday) at 12:30h

Place: Graciosa Hobbie Farm & Events

(http://www.chacaragraciosa.com.br/)

Londrina - Brazil

  

Heavy rain wreaks havoc at APS Down

The heavy rain that occurred in the region of Londrina in the afternoon of October 15, 2011 caused flooding and havoc in the city, where 95 mm of rain felt over a period of 6 hours.

  

APS Down was flooded with lots of water and about 50 cm of mud.

The institution´s back wall could not stand the force of water and collapsed on the water main supplying water to the building.

Rainwater and the water from the broken water mains took all the mud into the school. 

These were the rooms for physiotherapy, speech therapy, art class and occupational therapy.

The computer room for the students with brand new computers, recent donation from HSBC Solidarity Institute - Roberto Ariozo´s project and initiative, he is a volunteer and student´s father.

Canteen and Secretariat

Staff, parents and many volunteers worked hard to clean the school.

One week later ...

   

  

  

Three weeks later...

The school was clean but still recovering from damage caused by rain and mud.

Materials, toys, books, food .. much has been lost.

The electrical wiring, wood floors, furniture, computers and freezers were damaged.

Pupils were about 3 weeks without classes.

The students and the staff were welcomed by the Institute of Blind People (ILITIC) and the classes and therapies continued in an adapted space for more than a month.

Without the backwall, the school remained open and subject to looting for weeks.

It was necessary to hire security personnel.

But with local help, slowly the school is still getting organized.

Association of  Parents and Friends of People with Down Syndrome. 

The institution - APS Down

APS Down - Parents´and Friends´ Down Syndrome People Association is a brazilian institution for Down Syndrome people and it is located in Londrina City, in the southern part of Brazil, South America.

Londrina: 500,000 people - 530km from Sao Paulo, 538km from Iguassu Falls.

Rotarian Ladies Association bought this building and opened up a creche for working moms. Years later, they offered the building to APS Down, but APS would have to help with the kids from the creche as well.

These include 130 Down Syndrome People. Babies, kids, teens and adults plus

60 kids from the creche

The government pays the staff salaries only, not the school expenses.

They depend mainly on assistence from volunteers events to raise funds and donations to keep the school and the creche operating.  

 

With hard work and donations they organized the school.

    

On 15th October  2011 heavy rains fell in the region of Londrina, that flooded the school with plenty of water and mud.  In 6 hours, the city received 95mm of rain. These pictures were taken before the flood.