Laura Edington | Daily Journal Rick Bacon, president of the Rockingham Rotary Club, David Wood, president-elect of the Rockingham Rotary Club and Martina Frycova hold up the check donated by the Rotary Club to help improve sanitary conditions in Afghanistan.

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Laura Edington | Daily Journal Martina Frycova talks about her Rail and Water Tour and how she is hoping to raise money to help provide clean drinking water to a school and a clinic in Jalalabad, Afghanistan.

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Laura Edington | Daily Journal Rick Bacon, president of the Rockingham Rotary Club, and Martina Frycova joke and laugh before the presentation.

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A woman from the Czech Republic is traveling across the United States informing Rotarians about the harsh sanitary conditions in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, and trying to raise money to bring clean drinking water and updated sanitary developments to the city.

Martina Frycova started the Rotary Rail and Water Tour by talking to the Rockingham Rotary Club at a meeting on Monday.

The tour is organized by Intelligentsia International, Inc., a non-profit educational organization that gives practical experience, through different types of programs, to students and young professionals, emphasizing technical content as well as orientation on democratic society values. Intelligentsia International, Inc. helps support and develop Rotary International humanitarian water and sanitation projects.

The tour supports Rotary International humanitarian water projects sponsored by The LaBelle Rotary Foundation, the Rotary Foundation, Rotary Club of LaBelle and other Rotary clubs around the world.

Frycova, the immediate past president of the Rotaract Club of Pilsen, Czech Republic, came to Florida about a year ago and spent months preparing for the journey with the Rotary Club of LaBelle.

She will be traveling by Amtrak to more than 20 different Rotary Clubs from now until April 23.

Frycova said that this tour will give her “real, lifetime experience,” and that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Rockingham Rotary Club donated $1,000 to the project, which will go towards doubling the number of bathrooms, from two to four and verifying the safety of the water well at the local clinic and raise funds for constructing a new well and improving sanitation of bathrooms at the local school.

“We’re blessed with good drinking water in Richmond County. We’re blessed with good sanitation. I’m pleased that the Rockingham Rotary Club could make a donation that will allow those less fortunate to have a safe water supply,” said Rick Bacon, President of the Rockingham Rotary Club.

— Staff Writer Laura Edington can be reached at 910-997-3111, ext. 18, or by email at ledington@civitasmedia.com.