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Roy Garrett with Somnuek and RCM past-president Frank O’Brien |
 An old Laotian school room | .jpeg) A new Laotian school room |
Roy with two uniformed Laotian teachers
Roy Garrett is a Rotary Central Melbourne stalwart getting results year after year thanks to his skills, contacts and persistence.
Roy’s work has created four brick and steel primary schools and one high school extension in remote hills of Laos. This has involved Roy taking parties of Rotarians and friends through Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, with a surcharge of $1,000 a head for the projects.
Each Laos primary school is a standard two rooms totaling 14m x 7m plus a 2m veranda, with a colorbond steel roof. Initially the job cost $15,000; today it is $25,000.
“Old-style schools were just bamboo shelters with no windows or doors, a dirt floor and insect intrusion,” he says. “In the wet season it was impossible for kids to keep books, paper and themselves dry and mud-free, so they often stayed home. They love their school now.”
Roy has also leveraged other’s expertise. The original scheme in 2012 was with a family foundation run by Rod Fraser, then principal of Ivanhoe Grammar, and his wife, Sandy, a golfing mate of Roy’s wife Annie. Through Rod Fraser, Roy teamed with a Laotian builder/entrepreneur Somnuek. “He’s 100% reliable,” Roy says. “At first I wondered if our money would survive. But Somnuek knows how to deal with officials there – teachers even wear military uniforms – and to get projects mostly in on time. The climate is the main enemy.”
In 2012 Roy’s party found a small boy Nonh crying on the step of his Ban Heu Yen home, with his disfigured face and nose. All the other kids had gone off to play. Our club raised $4000 at a single meeting. By working with Pnomh Penh Rotary, Cambodia, and medical volunteers, Roy arranged two operations for Nonh with good results.
“Our reward is knowing that education is Laos kids’ pass to the future,” Roy says.