One year since the covid-19 shut down!
On this beautiful, warm, sunny Monday, a cheerful and large turnout of almost 44 members was welcomed in to our meeting by greeter Malcolm Harrison. Before the meeting, we had four break-out rooms. Members could select one or go to any and all rooms to visit.
President Bill Fitzsimmons called the zoom meeting to order soon after 12 noon, welcomed us all and presented an agenda of how today’s meeting would run.
The introduction of guests was handled by greeter Malcolm. We had our Nketti Johnston-Taylor introduced us to her aunt Jennifer Penner-Thomas joining us from Sierra Leone. Also attending was Rob Rakochey, formerly with the North Club, who will be joining our club very soon.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
- Marlene Doherty thanked the 17 members that responded to Sharon’s work sheet. The findings will be the basis for tomorrow evening's strategic plan meeting.
- Robyn Braley announced that April 8th will be a green shirt day in honour of organ donations. Lona Bildfell, widow of our own the late Clare Bildfell, will talk to the group about the extreme hard work the Bildfells did to bring awareness of the importance of organ donations. Robyn encourages everyone to wear a green shirt for that evening event. More information to follow.
- Bill Quinney thanked the 15 participants to the Dohertys' Bingo and Blarney evening. Great fun was had by all. Several members of our club won prizes of wine.
Golden Stetson Award
President Bill presents this prestigious award to a member of this club for outstanding work in the Rotary year. Claude Massé, our International Services chair was the member of honour. He was recognized for his yeoman work in organizing our e-commerce website; his work with electronic trading to facilitate our club business has brought us into the new century of trading online for most of our fund raising ventures.
Today’s Program
Highlighting the international services projects we have been engaged in this year, Chairman Claude Massé listed the main projects on a set of overhead slides and announced that today they would feature three of the projects:
Awareness of cervical and breast cancer
Well Woman Clinic (WWC) in Sierra Leone (SL), West Africa, is championed by Nketti, who spoke to us along with her aunt (zooming from Freetown), who has spearheaded this massive and very important project. To create awareness, screens diagnoses and treat women with breast and cervical cancer in SL. She explained the lack of general awareness, the lack of assistance and/or facilities for a disease that kills many women globally. She mentioned that many young women are unaware of their condition until it reaches a critical stage due to a lack of information, money for health care, and the stigma attached to the disease. WWC is active and screens in excess of 3000 women currently, with their limited resources. Nketti emphasised the importance of sustainability and is hoping they will gain support from local corporations, the local Rotary clubs and the SL government. Our club, together with global grants and the assistance of other clubs, hopes to help this project provide greater and more successful outcomes. This is an admirable project. Well done, Nketti!
Assistance to people in rural South Sudan to create a sustainable agricultural program that can feed them and also perhaps develop cash crops.
Our member, John Bossuyt of Humanity’s Promise International, has been working in East Africa for over 12 years. He recognizes that 100% of the South Sudanese people live below the poverty line, and there is no real organized sustenance program for them. Most do not get more than one meal a day, yet the land is abundant and fertile enough to produce three or four cycles of crops per year. There is a good water supply and the weather patterns provide for moisture to sustain much of the crop development. In essence, the elements are favourable, but there is lack of organization and capital to harness food crops. This is where John has managed to find land, accessibility and organization to get the local people together to help them improve their condition. He showed us slides of the land, the clearing and the seeds he brought from South America and the results of the hard work. They produce fruit trees in addition to vegetables and staples. Fruits include papaya, mangoes, oranges, limes and lemons. Staples include groundnuts, maize beans, potatoes and green onions. John is optimistic that this is a massive project with endless possibilities, if only there is support and the finances to get the people mobilized to improve their human condition and, ultimately, their economy. This is another example of an outstanding project that can improve the human condition. Bravo, John!
Save Lake Atitlan, Guatemala, Phase III
Presented by our own member, (Gold Stetson) Claude Massé, the objective is to clean up this lovely lake which is currently a cess-pool due to the lack of sanitation and waste water management facilities in the communities surrounding the lake. This team is working to improve latrines, toilets, pit latrines, sewer systems and waste water catchment areas to prevent everything being dumped into the lake. The project starts with creating awareness and with the buy-in of all the surrounding communities. Rotary and this team have been working on this for a while now and Claude feels confident they are making major improvements to the whole area. This project is funded by the Lake Atitlan Rotary Club, local clubs in our District and other groups. This is another massive undertaking that needs a great vision and courage. Congratulations, Claude, for managing this project on our behalf.
In closing, Claude presented a quote: Rotary empowers people; and when you empower them, they find ways to do it on their own.
What a powerful vehicle we have, to improve the world condition, one project at a time. This is one of the secret tools we have in our magic Rotary tool chest; and only a true Rotarian knows how the world can be improved, and how to access the abundant empowerment that Rotary provides. Today’s three projects have demonstrated the passion and power of our own members, and just one (or several) Rotary club(s), in improving the human condition … one project at a time. Congratulations!
The meeting adjourned at 1:10pm.
