SE PA Member Receives Rotary’s Highest Honor
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Carrie Martin, Recipient of Rotary’s Service Above Self Award.
Members of the Rotary Club of Northeast Philadelphia Cheltenham-Rockledge proudly shared the news that Carrie Martin has received a Service Above Self award this year from Rotary International.
The Service Above Self Award is considered the highest honor that Rotary International can bestow on a member. It recognizes up to 150 of the 1.4 million members world-wide each year whose service activities make a significant impact on humanity.
Martin has been involved in humanitarian and service initiatives her entire life since leaving college. These projects have taken her to Hawaii , the Fiji Islands and out west to work with Native Americans.
“Carrie truly does exemplify Service above Self,” said Janice Biros, SE PA Rotary’s District Governor. “Some of us find time to do community service. Carrie has made it her life's work.”
In 2023, Martin joined the Rotary Club of Northeast Philadelphia Cheltenham-Rockledge and has been working on several projects. She arranged for a Rotary district grant to support the program in Ukraine.
MAMA Project’s medical brigades.
At present, she works with the MAMA Project, assisting refugee and internally displaced persons in camps in South Sudan along the border of Sudan. Projects include digging wells, food security, and maternal and child health. She traveled to South Sudan to meet with their South Sudan partners and visited 12 of the refugee camps.
The crisis in South Sudan escalated on April 15, 2023, when violent clashes erupted between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in Sudan, resulting in the displacement of nearly 13 million people, including internally displaced people, asylum seekers, and refugees. This conflict exacerbated many of Sudan’s existing challenges, including ongoing conflicts, disease outbreaks, economic and political instability and climate emergencies.
According to The UN Refugee Agency, half of Sudan’s population – some 25 million people – need humanitarian assistance and protection. The country is facing extreme shortages of food, water, medicine and fuel and more than half the population are facing acute food insecurity, including 8.5 million of them at emergency levels.
Martin also arranged for a Rotary Foundation grant for the WASH project and raised $50,000 with the great support of club members, which makes it the largest project in club history. The WASH Rotary Action Group supports and ensures sustainable long-lasting clean water, sanitation, and hygiene programs to communities in need.
The MAMA Project also partners with several NGO’s. Currently, they are working with Project CURE to bring a forty-foot container with medical supplies to the Mother Theresa Hospital in South Sudan.
Martin is also working on a project called Voices for Peace and Solidarity involving Rotary members in the US, South Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as students at Alberta University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Juba University in South Sudan.