Hop on a Bus

Meg was a good friend of some of our members while she was studying at St Andrews University.

Now as an active member of Harrisburg Keystone Rotary Club she has an interesting project to share with her St Andrews friends.

Subsequent to her presentation our Council agreed a donation of £1000 to this project which will attract a matching grant from Meg's Rotary District.  This will make a worthwhile contribution towards the purchase of the bus.

Meg Ramey spoke to the Club by Zoom from America. She is well known to many of the members as she was a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar here in 2005 and stayed on to take a PhD in Biblical Studies. Meg shared photographs and memories of the wonderful time she spent in St Andrews and the lasting friendships she made. She returned two years ago, to be married here in St Andrews Episcopal Church.

Meg’s career in academia in America, and her special involvement with educational projects abroad, led her to join the Board of YESLiberia, a non-profit organisation that seeks to empower young people through meaningful service learning opportunities in health care and technology. Meg is also a member of her local Rotary Club and she told us about the ‘Hop on a Bus’ project that YESLiberia is now running with the help of Rotary. It is not unusual for Liberian pupils to have to walk for 90 minutes to get to school. Many drop out because they need to be spending this time helping their families. Moreover, road traffic injury is the leading cause of death for children over five in Africa and girls face additional danger in unsafe areas. Hop on a Bus provides safe, affordable, stress-free school bus journeys for children in Liberia as well as transport for students to attend leadership conferences and self-esteem and social development workshops across major cities in the country.

Alan Constable was Meg’s adopted Rotary father when she was here and was delighted to give the vote of thanks. He said that for all the time he had known Meg she had always had a strong conviction to help others and this was very evident from her ‘Hop on a Bus’ project.