Jim Firmin addresses Franklin Rotary Club

Jim Firmin with the Morgan City Rotary Club spoke to Franklin Rotarians Tuesday at the Forest Restaurant in Franklin.
Firmin’s presentation was about an international project between rotary clubs, called: China Education Project.
The project utilizes funds and efforts between US Rotary Clubs, coordinated by the Morgan City Rotary, and in partnership with Chinese Rotary Clubs.
CEP focuses on rural and impoverished areas 30 to 45 miles outside of Beijing. Those areas of focus are Gubeikou, Dachgenzi, Taishitun, Bulaotun and Bakeshiying.
According to Firmin, the program has been going on, in one form or another, for decades.
He shared stories and photographs of youngsters for whom he has helped secure education over those decades, some of which now have their own children.
Firmin said the Rotary delegation will be making their annual trip again in a few weeks to “continue to assist extremely low income families in rural China meet part of the educational costs for their children,” as stated in a slide from Firmin’s presentation.
The slide went on to say that the Beijing Rotary Club, through whom much facilitation in past years had been focused, had pulled out of the project.
Firmin explained that the partnership had been forced to terminate due to new governmental standards of re-qualification for engagement in such partnerships, and that the project now partners with various other Chinese Rotary Clubs, as well as other countries’ clubs, to facilitate CPE.
Firmin’s slide also noted that most of the project’s funds go toward “room and board for students who must leave the village to attend high school in a remote location, or to assist with food expenses for a number of college students from lower income families of the region.”
Firmin provided several stories of the places he had gone in China and the people he had helped over the years.
In one story, he told of a young man who had a particular hereditary medical condition which had left the members of his household’s legs deformed, including his own.
He explained that he had assisted in securing the funding for the young man to attend school. After the delegation’s visit to the young man’s house, the young man and his mother, despite their various difficulties walking due to their conditions, had traversed the long and winding pathway to the street, just to show their respect for the work being done for the young man’s education.
The funds for the project reportedly come from the Morgan City and Donaldsonville Rotary Clubs, individual Rotarians and individual Non-Rotarians.
Last year’s project’s cost reportedly came to $5,450.