On June 21, 2016, Rotarian Kelly McDonald talked to the club about getting involved with Rotary Action Groups that she learned about about while attending the 2016 International Rotary Conference in Seoul, South Korea. Pictured above is Kelly McDonald.
 
Kelly told the group about Rotary Action Groups (RAGs) that she learned about at the Rotary International Convention and provided handouts that gave the name and URL of at least 26 RAGs. She pointed out that the people who attended the convention with her were interested in RAGs for Water and Sanation (WASRAG), Child Slavery (RACSRAG), and Microfinance and Community Development (RAGM). Kelly asked Frank Parker to talk a little about the Water and Sanitation RAG. 
 
Frank told everyone in attendance that he learned that access to clean water is a problem in many countries around the world but trying to send bottled water to help these countries is expensive due to the weight of the water and the fact that it is not a real solution as the water quickly gets used. However, using technology initially developed for filtering blood, a new economical light weight water filtration system that can provide enough water for a home has been created. As a result, the future to solving the access to clean water problems is both in new water wells and in these newly developed water filtration systems. Frank pointed out that our club has already been involved in new water well systems in Nicaragua but he would like to see if we can find a local water project near Magnolia, Texas this year.
 
For general information about Rotarian Action Groups, see: https://www.rotary.org/myrotary/en/take-action/empower-leaders/join-rotarian-action-group.
 
A list of the 26 RAGs are listed here:
 
  1. Addition Prevention                          www.rag-ap.org
  2. AIDS and Family Health                    www.rfha.org
  3. Alzheimer's and Dementia                http://adrag.org
  4. Blindness Prevention                        www.rag4bp.org
  5. Blood Donations                               http://ourblooddrive.org
  6. Child Slavery                                    www.racsrag.org
  7. Clubfoot                                           www.rag4clubfoot.org
  8. Dentistry                                         www.ragdv.com
  9. Diabetes                                          www.ragdiabetes.org
10. Disaster Assistance                          www.dna-rag.com
11. Endangered Species                         www.endangeredrag.org
12. Environmental Sustainability            www.esrag.org
13. Food Plant Solutions                         http://foodplantsolutions.org
14. Health Education and Wellness         www.hewrag.org
15. Hearing                                           www.ifrahl.org
16. Hunger and Malnutrition                  www.alleviatehunger.org
17. Literacy                                           www.litrag.org
18. Malaria                                            www.remarag.org
19. Mental Health                                  http://ragonmentalhealth.org
20. Microfinance & Community Dev.       http://ragm.org
21. Multiple Sclerosis                             www.rotary-rfmsa.org
22. Peace                                              www.rotarianactiongroupforpeace.org
23. Polio Survivors & Associates             www.rotarypoliosurvivors.com
24. Population and Development            www.rifpd.org
25. Preconception Care                          www.raghphc.org
26. Water and Sanitation                       www.wasrag.org
 
 
A photo of Frank Parker speaking about water projects can be seen below:
 
 
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