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Rotary Magazine April 2022 Flipbook PDF
Rotary Magazine April 2022
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Rotary in Ukraine page 38
Canadian partnership makes global impact
page 44
Love koalas? Join the club page 52
April 2022
WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE
Women are leading the charge to save South Africa’s rhinos page 26
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THE ROTARY FOUNDATION CREATES CHANNEL FOR
DIRECT HUMANITARIAN SUPPORT IN UKRAINE REGION
In response to the deepening humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, The Rotary Foundation has created an official channel for Rotary members around the world to contribute funds to support the relief efforts underway by Rotary districts and has designated its Disaster Response Fund as the main avenue for contributions: • Now through 30 June 2022, designated Rotary districts that border Ukraine and the Rotary district in Ukraine may apply for grants of up to $50,000 each from the Disaster Response Fund. These expedited disaster response grants can be used to provide relief to refugees or other victims of the crisis, including items such as water, food, shelter, medicine, and clothing. • Also through 30 June, other impacted Rotary districts that wish to offer support to refugees or other victims of the crisis in their district can apply for $25,000 grants from the Disaster Response Fund. • Now through 30 April 2022, Rotary districts can transfer unallocated District Designated Funds (DDF) to the Disaster Response Fund, directly supporting these Ukraine-specific humanitarian grants. • Contributions to the Disaster Relief Fund in support of Ukraine can be made at my.rotary.org/disasterresponse-fund. All funds need to be received into the Disaster Response Fund by 30 April 2022 in order to qualify for use in support of the Ukrainian relief efforts.
In addition to providing support through the Disaster Response Fund, the Foundation is coordinating with partners and regional leaders, exploring effective solutions to the increased humanitarian needs: • We are in contact with the International Rescue Committee and UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency, to prepare our response to the needs of those being displaced within Ukraine and to neighboring countries. • ShelterBox, our project partner for disaster response, is in communication with Rotary members in Central Europe to explore how it can offer assistance with temporary transitional housing and essential supplies. • The Rotary Action Group for Refugees, Forced Displacement, and Migration is also mobilizing its resources to assist in this crisis.
Visit My Rotary and follow Rotary on social media to stay updated on how clubs can get involved. For more information, please contact the Rotary Support Center at [email protected].
• Although the Disaster Response Fund will be the main avenue for Rotary Foundation support, Rotary and Rotaract clubs are also encouraged to create their own responses to the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine.
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Sephi Bergerson
F
riends, one of my mantras in Rotary has been do more, grow more. I am sure you are adopting this mantra. Do more, as in bigger and impactful service projects, and grow more, as in increasing our membership. There is so much excitement across the Rotary world about our Each One, Bring One effort. Everywhere I travel, club presidents, district governors, and Rotary members — both veteran and new — express appreciation that their membership efforts are inspiring the Rotary world. We are growing more, and I cannot wait to celebrate all of this success with you at the Rotary International Convention in Houston in June. There is still time to register and make your plans to join us. We are looking forward to a once-in-a-lifetime experience that will unite our members after far too much time apart. As we grow more, we will have so much more opportunity to do more. April is Maternal and Child Health Month, a great opportunity for your clubs to consider what you are doing to support the health of mothers and young children. Improving access to care and the quality of care for women and children worldwide is an important focus for us, and it also ties in very well with our Empowering Girls initiative. I appreciate the work being done by various clubs in this area of focus, and I would encourage you to think of ways to do more. It has been so exciting to see Rotary members come together at the presidential conferences to share ideas about using our areas of focus to bring about big, lasting change in the world. The past and upcoming
presidential conferences are looking at our new area of focus — the environment — and how our work to protect our planet must also support our efforts to grow local economies, especially in places with the greatest poverty. I also had the honor to speak at the 26th United Nations climate change conference, known as COP26, in Glasgow, Scotland. This important meeting brought together nearly 100 heads of state and government over a two-week period to set new targets for fossil fuel emission. My call to action was to restore mangroves, a crucial ecosystem that can mitigate the effects of climate change in coastal areas. Already, countries across the world are showing great enthusiasm for this plan. Our survival is at stake — the damage of environmental catastrophe is already upon us — and so, too, is our ability to lift the world’s most needy out of poverty and offer them hope. We must find ways to protect our planet while sustaining the economic growth necessary to achieve our highest humanitarian goals. This is a very exciting time in Rotary, a time when the world needs us most. As we Serve to Change Lives, remember that we are also changing ourselves. We are becoming the world’s great change-makers and peacebuilders. The world is ready for us. It’s time to rise to that call.
President, Rotary International APRIL 2022
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PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
greetings, dear change-makers of rotary,
ROTARY
1
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Photo by AFP via Getty Images
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WELCOME YOU ARE HERE: Temple of Bacchus, Baalbek, Lebanon LOCAL GREETING: Marhaba A BRIDGE TO THE PAST: Michel Jazzar, a member of the Rotary Club of Kesrouan, enjoys sharing the ancient city of Baalbek with his Rotary visitors. The ruins of Roman Empire temples to Venus, Bacchus, and Jupiter, Jazzar says, make you feel a part of thousands of years of history. “You imagine the people and their lives in a way that few other places allow you to do so vividly.” TOPS AMONG TEMPLES: The Temple of Bacchus (pictured here during a group wedding) and the nearby Temple of Jupiter are two of the biggest and best Roman temple ruins in the world, and the complex was named a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1984. Says Jazzar, “I feel pride that this gem is part of my country.” THE CLUBS: Near Baalbek, the Rotary Club of Zahle-Bekaa meets Mondays at 8 p.m. at the Grand Kadri Hotel, and the Rotary Club of ChtauraBekaa Gate meets Tuesdays at 8 p.m. at the Massabki Hotel. — paula m. bodah APRIL 2022 ROTARY 3
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ROTARY April 2022
GENERAL OFFICERS OF ROTARY INTERNATIONAL, 2021–22
TRUSTEES OF THE ROTARY FOUNDATION, 2021–22
PRESIDENT
CHAIR
Shekhar Mehta Calcutta-Mahanagar, India PRESIDENT-ELECT
EDITOR IN CHIEF
ART DIRECTOR
Jennifer E. Jones Windsor-Roseland, Ontario, Canada VICE PRESIDENT
Wen Huang
Dave Allen
SENIOR EDITOR
PRODUCTION MANAGER
Geoffrey Johnson
Marc Dukes
SENIOR STAFF WRITER
SENIOR EDITORIAL COORDINATOR
Diana Schoberg ASSOCIATE EDITOR
John M. Cunningham COPY EDITOR
Cynthia Edbrooke CIRCULATION MANAGER
Katie McCoy
Kristin Morris
Send ad inquiries and materials to: Marc Dukes, Rotary magazine, One Rotary Center, 1560 Sherman Ave., 14th floor, Evanston, IL 60201; phone 847-8663092; email [email protected]
Valarie K. Wafer CollingwoodSouth Georgian Bay, Ontario, Canada TREASURER
Virpi Honkala Raahe, Finland DIRECTORS
Jessie Harman Wendouree Breakfast, Australia Suzi (Susan C.) Howe Space Center (Houston), Texas, USA Won-Pyo Kim Gyeongju South, Korea
Media kit: rotary.org/mediakit
Urs Klemm Aarau, Switzerland
To contact us: Rotary magazine, One Rotary Center, 1560 Sherman Ave., Evanston, IL 60201; phone 847-866-3206; email [email protected]
Mahesh Kotbagi Pune Sports City, India
Website: rotary.org/magazines To submit an article: Send stories, queries, tips, and photographs by mail or email (high-resolution digital images only). We assume no responsibility for unsolicited materials. To subscribe: Twelve issues at US$12 a year (USA, Puerto Rico, and U.S. Virgin Islands); $16 a year (Canada); $24 a year (elsewhere). Contact the Circulation Department (phone 847-424-5217 or -5216; email [email protected]) for details and for airmail rates. Gift subscriptions available at the same rates. To send an address change: Enclose old address label, postal code, and Rotary club, and send to the Circulation Department or email [email protected]. Postmaster: Send all address changes to Circulation Department, Rotary magazine, One Rotary Center, 1560 Sherman Ave., Evanston, IL 60201. Call the Contact Center: USA, Canada, and Virgin Islands (toll-free) 866-976-8279. Elsewhere: 847-866-3000, ext. 8999. Unless otherwise noted: All images are copyright ©2022 by Rotary International or are used with permission. Published monthly by Rotary International, 1560 Sherman Ave., Evanston, IL 60201. Rotary® is a registered trademark of Rotary International. Copyright ©2022 by Rotary International. All rights reserved. Periodicals postage paid at Evanston, Illinois, USA, and additional mailing offices. Canada Publications Mail Agreement No. 1381644. Canadian return address: MSI, PO Box 2600, Mississauga, ON L4T 0A8. This is the April 2022 issue, volume 200, number 10, of Rotary. Publication number: USPS 548-810. ISSN 2694-443X (print); ISSN 2694-4448 (online).
Aikaterini KotsaliPapadimitriou Pendeli, Greece Peter R. Kyle Capitol Hill (Washington, D.C.), District of Columbia, USA Roger Lhors Pont-Audemer, France Chi-Tien Liu Yangmei, Taiwan Vicki Puliz Sparks, Nevada, USA
John F. Germ Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA CHAIR-ELECT
VICE CHAIR
Ian H.S. Riseley Sandringham, Australia Sangkoo Yun Sae Hanyang, Korea TRUSTEES
Jorge Aufranc Guatemala Sur, Guatemala Marcelo Demétrio Haick Santos-Praia, Brazil Per Høyen Aarup, Denmark Hsiu-Ming Lin Taipei Tungteh, Taiwan Larry A. Lunsford Kansas City-Plaza, Missouri, USA Mark Daniel Maloney Decatur, Alabama, USA Geeta K. Manek Muthaiga, Kenya Aziz Memon Karachi, Pakistan Akira Miki Himeji, Japan Barry Rassin East Nassau, Bahamas Dean Rohrs Langley Central, British Columbia, Canada Gulam A. Vahanvaty Bombay, India GENERAL SECRETARY
John Hewko Kyiv, Ukraine
Nicki Scott North Cotswolds, England Julio César A. Silva-Santisteban El Rímac, Peru Katsuhiko Tatsuno Tokyo-West, Japan Elizabeth Usovicz Kansas City-Plaza, Missouri, USA Ananthanarayanan S. “Venky” Venkatesh Chennai Mambalam, India GENERAL SECRETARY
John Hewko Kyiv, Ukraine
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PAUL HARRIS! 19 April marks the 154th anniversary of our founder’s birth. Celebrate with a gift to The Rotary Foundation today. GIVE TODAY: rotary.org/donate
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CONTENTS
April 2022 Vol. 200, No. 10
FEATURES
26
1 President’s message 2 Welcome
CONNECT
White rhinos and Black Mambas
Can an all-female anti-poaching unit stop wildlife crime in an African game preserve — without guns?
8 Staff corner 9 Letters to the editor 10 The specialist
By Nick Dall
A sports agent does way more than show you the money
Photography by Bobby Neptune
38
OUR WORLD
11 What would you do?
Strength in times of crisis
Past and current conflicts have had a significant impact on Rotary in Ukraine — which has only made members there more resolute By Rotary Magazin (Germany and Austria)
44
12 Support, not stigma
15 The eradicator
A partnership between The Rotary Foundation (Canada) and a branch of the Canadian government had an impact that spanned the globe By Paul Engleman
Former WHO polio chief looks to young members for last push
16 People of action around the globe 18 Set the stage
North star
Clubs seek to increase awareness and understanding of the autism spectrum
For better collaboration, create the right conditions
20 What it’s like to clear land mines 22 Less power to you
By surrendering some control, philanthropists can do even more good
OUR CLUBS
Illustrations by Jason Schneider
52 Virtual visit
Rotary Club of Koala Lovers, Queensland, Australia
54 Each one, bring one — or more
On the cover:
Illustration by Jason Schneider
Rhinos’ valuable horns make them a tempting target, but a female anti-
poaching group
in South Africa is working to protect wildlife. Photography by Manoj Shah/Getty
6 ROTARY APRIL 2022
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A new society recognizes top new-member sponsors
55 Calendar 56 Dispatches from our sister magazines 58 Rotary in the news 59 Trustee chair’s message 60 Common ground
Interest-based clubs inspire new members to dig in
62 In memoriam 63 2022 convention Crossword 64 Found Cliff Dochterman, 1925-2021
44
|
Rotarian has made quilt paintings for the past seven RI presidents
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26 2022-03-02 10:52
STAFF CORNER
ELIZABETH NG’ANG’A
Fund development specialist for Africa, The Rotary Foundation
■ Graduated from Daystar University with a bachelor’s degree in community development ■ In 2018, began work with The Rotary Foundation, where, as its sole staff member in Africa, she works closely with RI’s Europe/Africa office in Zurich ■ Speaks English, French, and Swahili
I grew up in Kiambu County, a rural region in central Kenya,
where our staple food was ugali, a cornmeal porridge, and where we had to walk about 15 kilometers [9 miles] each way to school. We were not well off, but we lived in a typical protective rural environment. The well-being of a child was the responsibility of every adult. If you played hooky or misbehaved, a neighbor or stranger would correct you. After school, we collected firewood, fetched drinking water from a community borehole, and helped feed the livestock.
“I began my undergraduate studies while I was a mother of three with a full-time day job. My proud parents attended my graduation from Daystar University in 2019,” Elizabeth Ng’ang’a recalls. “The COVID-19 pandemic took my father’s life last year, and my mother passed away soon after.”
8
ROTARY
I always knew I wanted to be a social worker. When I was 10, a schoolgirl from an impoverished family in my region was raped and became pregnant. When the local government intervened, the attacker’s wealthy parents offered US$20 as settlement. The girl’s parents were under pressure to take the money and settle the case. The girl would have dropped out of school and lived in disgrace. Fortunately, a social worker bravely stepped up and invited the girl to live with her and enrolled her in a special education program. She changed the girl’s life. Even though I had no idea what that woman’s profession was, I knew I wanted to be like her and make an impact on the lives of people around me. After high school, I applied for an au pair job in France, where I could travel, make money, and send it home to support my family. But the French embassy denied my visa. I located my childhood hero and told her that I wanted to follow in her footsteps and study to be a social worker. With her guidance, I used the money my parents had saved for my French visa application and enrolled in the Kenya Institute of Social Work and Community Development. A year and a half later, I received my diploma in social work and welfare. For seven years, I worked for an NGO that provided medical care and nutrition to prisoners and correction officers living
with HIV/AIDS. In the early 2000s, nearly 14 percent of Kenyan adults were living with HIV/AIDS. I worked with the Ministry of Home Affairs and established an AIDS Control Unit at the national prison headquarters to coordinate HIV/AIDS prevention and mitigation interventions in all prisons in Kenya. In 2008, while working for an organization that assisted grandparents who took care of
young orphans due to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, a grandmother reached out to me. She had sold her livestock to pay for her grandson’s high school education and had nothing left for his university tuition. I lost sleep over the boy’s situation. In the next week, I carried his high school transcript and walked from university to university in Nairobi seeking enrollment and financial assistance. Finally, I convinced a lecturer, who enrolled the boy in a university work-study program. He successfully finished his four-year college.
I became acquainted with the incredible work Rotary does while
working as a social worker at the Kibera informal settlement, where several Rotarian lawyers passionately represented impoverished people pro bono in court. They welcomed me, and I joined the Rotary Club of Nairobi Kilimani Alfajiri as an early member, and later moved to the Rotary Club of Nairobi Thika Road.
Elizabeth Ng’ang’a
■ Born in Kenya and based in Nairobi
APRIL 2022
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However, the accompanying picture is that of an osprey, not a kestrel. — William E. Zitek, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
FUTURE TENSE 4 ways to teach kids to give
page 20
The return of What It’s Like
page 28
January 2022
TH E
CROS SI N G
With help from Rotary, two refugees make new lives in new lands page 42
PIN PALS
I enjoyed the article “Stick with It” in the January issue. I have been active in Rotary for 54 years, and I am also a pin collector. I have given pins to Rotary Youth Exchange students, Rotaractors, new Rotary members (to start their collections), and veteran members (to keep them from being fined for not having a pin). One of the members of my club owns a jewelry store but rarely wears a Rotary pin. I gave him a calendar with 31 Rotary pins on it so he would not have any excuses. Collecting pins has been so much fun. As a district governor in 2003-04, I traveled to many places, both nationally and internationally. My wife, Annette, and I have been to more than 15 Rotary International Conventions. We have met Rotarians from all over the world, and it’s been great to make connections by trading pins. — Don Schiller, Prescott, Arizona
WING TIP
The project inspired by kestrels along the Gulf of Suez [Our World, “People of Action Around the Globe,” January] is interesting and laudable. I am very happy to hear of Georgina Cole’s efforts [to educate people about the region’s birds].
I did not feel that “The End of the World as We Know It?” by Frank Bures [December] contributed to our understanding of climate change as Rotary members. Young people are entitled to feel anxious about their futures because science tells us that we have a big problem that we are not yet addressing effectively, despite 30 years of warnings. It is patronizing for a generation of adults who have failed this test to tell their children that hope is a renewable resource. Please do not misunderstand me: I am not telling anyone to give up on climate change. On the contrary, I see the immense danger of climate change as a reason for all of us to redouble our efforts to enact solutions, not as a reason to give up. Giving up would tell our children that we don’t care about them.
Overheard on social media In January, we
— Chris Wiegard,
wrote about the
Chester, Virginia
efforts of the
CONNECT
Letters to the editor
PolioPlus program
DREAM TEAMS
in Pakistan to
I’d be interested in reading about how Rotary’s global network of polio vaccinators is tackling the crisis of COVID-19 in the developing world. The brave women and men who have trekked into harsh and often hostile environments to eradicate polio could make great inroads in places where COVID-19 vaccinations have been impeded. I hope that some action is already underway.
provide communi-
ties with access to clean water.
Kudos to Rotary for recognizing the importance of clean water and efficient sanitation to the
— Janet Ingram-Johnson,
overall health of a
Aldergrove, British Columbia
community — and the world. Proud
AN INSPIRATION
to be a part of an
I was saddened to hear of the passing of Past RI President Cliff Dochterman in November. In 1990, when I was a new Rotarian in California, I heard him give a Rotary talk. It was one of my first “wow” moments in Rotary. I would go on to hear him speak many times over the years. He was a great gift to Rotary and those we serve. — Tony Cerato, Glendale, Arizona
organization taking action. Rotary Club of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina via Facebook
Clean, sustainable water is a great thing. Good work, Rotary. Mark Smith
A tribute to Dochterman appears on page 62.
Follow us to get updates, share stories with your networks, and tell us what you think.
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Rotary.org [email protected]
@rotary
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@rotaryinternational Rotary magazine
One Rotary Center 1560 Sherman Ave. Evanston, IL 60201
The editors welcome comments on items published in the magazine but reserve the right to edit for style and length. Published letters do not necessarily reflect the views of the editors or Rotary International leadership, nor do the editors take responsibility for errors of fact that may be expressed by the writers.
APRIL 2022 ROTARY 9
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Esports (electronic sports) is kind of the wild, wild West. It has become a billion-dollar industry.
THE SPECIALIST
It’s where football and baseball were maybe back in the 1920s. There’s huge money coming in, but there are no collective bargaining agreements. There’s no standardization of contracts. At my university, we now have an esports team that gets scholarships. I’m convinced you’ll see esports in the Olympics in the next four to eight years.
Good sport A sports agent does way more than show you the money
B
eing a sports agent was never a grind.
There was never a dull moment. It’s a 24/7 job. I would spend at most 20 percent of my time negotiating contracts, which is the primary thing people think an agent does. Most of my time was spent making sure my clients were set up with financial advisers, keeping them out of trouble — and if they did get into trouble, getting them out of it.
One day you could be in the White House, meeting with a client and the president of the United States. The next day you could be driving on unpaved back roads in the Dominican Republic, meeting a baseball player in a two-room shack made of corrugated iron with a dirt floor. The juxtaposition was amazing.
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Now I teach students about name, image, and likeness (NIL) rights. This gives amateur players in col-
Chuck Berry Rotary Club of Rich-Mar (Valencia), Pennsylvania Former sports agent; lecturer at Point Park University
lege and even high school the right to compensation for the use of their name or image. Court cases have already been ruled in favor of the players, and many states have passed legislation allowing NIL. You don’t have to be a famous player or on a major team to sell NIL rights — if you’re charismatic. We’re seeing some very creative deals, including companies doing deals with entire teams. The movie Jerry Maguire is interesting because it was based in reality. Was the movie itself realistic? No. But you still have clients telling you, “Show me the money!” I think most agents learned to hate that phrase. — as told to dan jakes
Photography by Rob Larson
2022-03-02 11:02
CONNECT I would present the issue to the club’s board of directors, which would discuss tffhe pros and cons of the location change. The board would then vote, with the president abstaining due to conflict of interest. If the president opposes the board’s final decision, the Standard Rotary Club Constitution mandates an appeal to the club membership.
WHAT WOULD YOU DO?
Is it nice? Or is it nepotism?
Y
— Alex Johnson, Rotary Club of Plano West, Texas
our club’s president changes your usual meeting location to a restaurant owned by their brother-in-law. What would you do?
a decision might have — including the possibility of burning the club’s bridges with the restaurant where it had been meeting.
I would ask the club president if this move had been brought to the board. The board is the governing body of every Rotary club; the president should not be making this move without board approval, followed by a vote of the entire membership. While it is nice to support family members, leaders should carefully consider what impact such
I would call all the board members to an emergency meeting and tell them that the president does not have the authority to make that decision. Until the new restaurant is put before the club for a vote, members should continue to meet at their regular place.
Illustration by Martín Elfman
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— Alice Boucher, Rotary Club of Gilford, New Hampshire
— Jerry Erskine, Rotary Club of Lebanon, Indiana
Watch for more ethical dilemmas on the “Rotary Service in Action” blog at rotary serviceblog.org.
For all we know, the president made the change with good intentions. A next step could be to treat the experience as part of an assessment, comparing the new place with the previous location. The board members — and preferably all club members — would rate both venues for location, price, quality of food and service, and other factors. That process would restore some trust that the club president and the board may have lost among members. — Peter Roaf, Rotary Club of Ladner, British Columbia
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18 How to collaborate 20 What it's like to clear land mines 22 Power to the people
Support, not stigma Clubs seek to increase awareness and understanding of the autism spectrum
W
hen schools in Kenya reopened in January 2021 after a ninemonth closure due to COVID-19, Sylvia Mochabo was looking forward to her 11-year-old son, Andy, returning to the classroom. Their schedule, like those of millions of families around the world, had been disrupted by the pandemic, and for Andy, who was diagnosed with autism at age 3 and who struggles with adapting to changes in his routine, the closures and lockdowns were particularly challenging. But his first day back at school didn’t go as planned. “His school refused to take him back until he was wearing a mask, which Andy isn’t able to do because autism makes him sensitive to physical sensations. Without speech therapy, he began drooling more. He found the mask unbearable,” says Mochabo, a member of the Rotary Club of Muthaiga. Because he wasn’t in school, Andy also lost access to discounts on occupational therapy sessions, which are crucial to his development. Now, Mochabo has to pay the full price for home-based support. “I’ve had to reduce the number of sessions from thrice weekly to once; without the discount I can’t afford to do all three sessions, even though I know Andy needs them,” she says. “It’s heartbreaking.” Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) consist of a range of developmental disabilities that can make communication and social interaction difficult and can also cause behavioral challenges. People with autism may think, act, learn, and
communicate in ways that are different from most other people. According to the World Health Organization, 1 in 160 children globally has an autism spectrum disorder. In recent years, the reported prevalence of the disorder has been trending higher, and this is consistent across data sources from countries as diverse as Germany, Iran, and Japan, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is unclear how much of this increase is due to changes in clinical definitions of ASD or to better efforts to diagnose the condition. However, the CDC doesn’t rule out an absolute increase in the number of people with ASD, and researchers are looking into why this might be the case. For Rotary member Corina YatcoGuerrero, her child’s diagnosis came as a shock, even though she and her husband are medical practitioners — she’s a neuro-ophthalmologist and he’s a neurologist. It took them a while to accept their son’s diagnosis and find ways to support him with speech therapy, occupational therapy, and a special needs education. “For me, the most important thing that parents and families should know is that autism is not a life sentence, that children with autism have a right to life and proper special education that will make them better equipped to face the challenges that they will face,” says Yatco-Guerrero, a member of the Rotary Club of Sta. Ana (Davao), Philippines. “Parents must learn to accept and not dwell in their state of denial, and to love their children and give them the
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© Rotary International
OUR WORLD 15 The eradicator
WORLD AUTISM AWARENESS DAY
© Rotary International
best in life,” she says. “A child with autism is lovable, and they deserve our love, too.” Families of children with autism often have to grapple with the lack of social understanding about the condition, even in cosmopolitan cities. Many families experience social stigma, and in some countries the condition is frequently attributed to witchcraft or something that the parents did wrong. Early interventions, starting before age 5, have been shown to yield the best results for children with autism. “Children need to be assessed at young ages to determine gaps in development and allow for early intervention,” says Pooja Panesar, director and co-founder of
the Kaizora Centre for Neurodevelopmental Therapies, a Nairobi institution that uses a step-by-step approach to teach children crucial skills such as communication and toilet training, while reducing behaviors of concern. “Through this process, we have had great success, from children receiving early intervention who transition into mainstream education to adults who are now living independently and maintaining permanent employment,” Panesar says. There are several management styles for the condition, and one size does not fit all. Some children might need a lot of help in daily living, while others might be quite independent. “If a child is nonver-
A global grantsupported project of the Rotary Club of Chicagoland KoreanNorthbrook, Illinois, helps young people on the autism spectrum to become more comfortable in a social setting.
bal, then having a speech therapist would help. If a child has sensory integration problems, an occupational therapist can help,” says Yatco-Guerrero. Mochabo, a single mother of three, has found support and encouragement from her Rotary club, and with the help of fellow members, she has started to do more to spread awareness and advocate on behalf of children with special needs. Every year, in partnership with other clubs in Kenya, the Rotary clubs of Machakos, Nairobi, and Thika host the Sunshine Rally, a day of fun, games, and entertainment for children with disabilities. “I attended a Sunshine Rally and realized that I wasn’t alone in APRIL 2022 ROTARY 13
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OUR WORLD
this journey, and being a Rotarian gave me the desire to do more and to be of service to other families like mine,” says Mochabo. Inspired by the rally, Mochabo founded an organization called Andy Speaks for Special Needs Persons, named for her son, to advocate on behalf of people with special needs and for an end to the stigma they face. “We can support each other all year round,” she says. Yatco-Guerrero is also involved in creating awareness of autism, in her case through a nationwide organization called Autism Society of the Philippines (ASP). This group advocates for acceptance and integration of people with special needs into society. “Our Rotary District 3860 has been actively advocating for awareness and acceptance,” Yatco-Guerrero says, “by joining ASP’s annual Angels Walk, a one-day march of persons with autism and their families and teachers. It draws thousands of people by the year, thus earning a spot in the news, which in turn helps disseminate autism awareness throughout the country.” Other clubs around the world also have organized projects related to autism. The Rotaract Club of Çekirge, Turkey, put together a series of monthly art workshops for autistic artists working with mosaic and painting, and they plan to organize an exhibition of the artworks to raise awareness about autism. In Malaysia, a global grant funded a series of workshops, hosted by more than a dozen clubs, that provided early-intervention training for teachers and primary caregivers of children with autism. The Interact Club of Rio Claro-Cidade Azul, Brazil, with support from its sponsor Rotary club and District 4590, created the Inclusion Symphony, a music therapy room for children with autism, to provide a differentiated therapeutic space and to stimulate and expand the interaction and communication capacity of people with autism. And the Rotary Club of Chicagoland Korean-Northbrook, Illinois, organized a global grant-supported vocational training program for youth on the spectrum. For Yatco-Guerrero, ultimately the home is ground zero for any kind of autism intervention. “Having a special-needs child means the whole family must get involved to make things work and make life bearable for all,” she says. “It is a labor of love because it is not easy, and it will test your patience to the fullest. But it is your own child who needs your help, and help you will definitely give. It involves a lot of sacrifice, a lot of patience and understanding.” — christine mungai Christine Mungai is a writer and journalist based in Nairobi, Kenya. Her work has been published in the Africa Report, Washington Post, Boston Globe, and Al Jazeera English. Mungai is the curator for Baraza Media Lab in Nairobi, a co-creation space for public-interest storytelling.
Short takes
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By the numbers
40% Portion of people with autism who are nonverbal
2 in 3 Children ages 6-15 with autism who have been bullied
World Autism Awareness Day is 2 April. Help support autismrelated projects through The Rotary Foundation. Make your gift at rotary. org/donate.
The Council on Legislation meets 10-14 April to review and vote on nearly 100 proposed changes to the legislation that governs Rotary. To learn more, search for Councils at my.rotary.org.
$268 billion Cost of caring for Americans with autism in 2015
Source: Autism Speaks
Beginning 29 April, a three-day RI presidential conference in Hyderabad, India, will explore Rotary’s seven areas of focus.
Illustrations by Miguel Porlan
2022-03-02 11:10
W
PROFILE
The eradicator Former WHO polio chief looks to young members for last push
On Giving Tuesday, 1 December, The Rotary Foundation raised more than $1 million.
Rotary partner ShelterBox provided emergency shelter last year to more than 143,000 people in nine countries.
Photography by Bénédicte Desrus
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Michel Zaffran Rotary Club of Gex-Divonne (Pays de Gex), France
hen Michel Zaffran became director of polio eradication at the World Health Organization in 2016, the forecast for crossing the finish line on a threedecade-long mission was optimistic. “We thought that Africa was out of the woods,” he says, “and we would just be focusing on Pakistan and Afghanistan.” Then, a storm of setbacks: outbreaks in multiple WHO regions, a new proliferation of vaccine misinformation, a rogue vaccinederived strain, and the COVID-19 pandemic, which temporarily halted vital door-to-door immunizations. And yet during Zaffran’s tenure, remarkable progress was achieved: The worldwide eradication of type 3 poliovirus. The certification of wild polio eradication in WHO’s African region. A brighter outlook for Afghanistan and Pakistan. And the onboarding of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, as a full partner in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative — a major development in financing the inactivated polio vaccine (IPV). Inspired by his work with Rotary, Zaffran joined the Rotary Club of Gex-Divonne (Pays de Gex), France, in 2017, and shortly after his retirement from WHO in 2021, he was appointed as an End Polio Now coordinator. “The force of Rotarians, clubs all over the world, and The Rotary Foundation — these are extraordinary tools,” he says, “that can be used to serve humanity beyond what we’ve done with polio.” Zaffran sees the youngest Rotary members taking some of the strongest ownership of the mission. “They are fascinated,” he says, “that we are about to eradicate a human disease on earth for only the second time.” — dan jakes
Rotary will join the World Health Organization in celebrating World Immunization Week, 24-30 April, to promote vaccine use and highlight the collective action needed to protect people against disease.
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People of action around the globe By BRAD WEBBER
Canada In recent years, Rotary clubs in Grande Prairie, Alberta, have teamed with Rotaractors to hold semiannual collection drives, netting basic clothing items for the needy. In late October, the Rotary Club of Grande Prairie joined with fellow Grande Prairie clubs — Swan City, Sunrise, and After Five — and the Rotaract Club of Grande Prairie to recruit a local junior-league hockey team to host a “Tighty-Whitey Toss.” A few minutes into the Grande Prairie Storm’s game against the Blackfalds Bulldogs, fans showered the rink with packages of new socks and underwear to celebrate the Storm’s first goal. Local organizations that serve homeless people distributed the articles a few days later. “We collected over 160 gallons of socks and underwear from this event alone,” for a total of 12,000 pieces this month, says Carrie Sandboe, a member of the of Club ofClubs Fpo fpo Rotary Club of Grande Prairie. Grande Prairie “They are the most-needed staple clothing but the leastClub of Fpo fpo Clubfpo of Grande Prairie donated items to centers.”
607,951
REGISTERED ICE HOCKEY PLAYERS IN CANADA
Mexico After flooding in July triggered landslides that inundated the mountainside community of El Colli, the Rotary Club of Zapopan rushed to give clothing and other goods to more than 100 families displaced by the disaster. “We provided pantry items, about 50 bags of clothes, and also soap, antibacterial gel, and other items for each family,” says Ramón Díaz Mendoza, the club’s president. The effort, mobilized by seven club members within a week of the deluge, was assisted by individuals from the local community. They delivered the items to El Colli, which lies on the outskirts of Guadalajara, nearby the club’s base. The response was one of 13 initiatives tackled by the 17-member club in 2021. Predominantly centered on helping the Indigenous Wixárika people, the club’s ambitious lineup included making regular donations of food to Wixárika villagers, providing a dozen computers to two schools that serve the children of farm laborers, and continuing their program to feed homeless people. Club ClubofofZapopan Fpo fpo
7 million
PEOPLE INTERNALLY DISPLACED BY NATURAL DISASTERS WORLDWIDE AT THE END OF 2020
16
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47%
Portugal Making the best of a pandemic lockdown, six members of the Rotary Club of Estoi Palace International gathered fabric, thread, and needles to crochet or knit 120 teddy bears. In December, the club distributed the handiwork to a children’s home and a center for people with disabilities. “COVID has inspired us to find different ways to raise much-needed funds,” notes Club President Shirley Dunne, “so our members came up with the idea of crocheting ‘Happy Bears.’” About $1,900 also was collected to help fulfill the wish lists of the two local beneficiaries.
ClubClub of Estoi Palace of Fpo fpo International
16th century
OF CAMBODIANS ARE AGES 24 AND YOUNGER
MODERN CROCHETING TECHNIQUE DEVELOPED
Tunisia In late November, the Rotaract Club of Tanit Carthage reprised its hit 2019 fashion show that spotlighted young cancer patients. It expanded the production to also embrace young women and girls with medical conditions such as amputations, skin conditions, and burn scars. A dozen participants, outfitted in custom-made garments, strutted the catwalk during “Rac Mahlek,” or “You Are So Beautiful,” in front of an audience of roughly 150 in the ornate Ennejma Ezzahra Palace in Sidi Bou Said. “The purpose of this project is to make these women feel that they are beautiful despite their differences, and that they are capable of doing anything they wish for,” says Aziz Jouini, president of the 24-member club. The event’s organizers overlooked no detail, Jouini says, from selecting participants to decorating the ballroom to hiring hair stylists, makeup artists, musicians, and photographers. The program was funded with proceeds raised at a gala. “A parent of one of the participants who has cancer did not hesitate to thank us for making her daughter’s dream of walking the red carpet come true,” Jouini says.
CIRCA 1900 FIRST CATWALK-STYLE FASHION SHOWS HELD
Cambodia Pan-Asian partnerships have boosted the Rotary Club of Phnom Penh Metro’s work, heightening educational opportunities for young Cambodians. With $4,000 donated by the Rotary Clubs of Osaka Central, Japan, and Taipei Yuanshan, Taiwan, the Phnom Penh Metro club collaborated with local crews from the Japan International Volunteer Center, a nongovernmental organization, to improve classroom space at the Osamaki Primary School in Siem Reap province. The 16-teacher facility, which serves 405 pupils, “had been suffering with a limited number of classrooms” that did not keep pace with its growing enrollment, says club member Michie Nishiguchi. Before the transformation, which converted one large room into two classrooms and upgraded the electrical wiring, walls, and flooring, the school had used a hut on the grounds for instruction — a “disastrous situation during heavy rains,” Nishiguchi says. Club of Phnom Metro ClubPenh of Fpo fpo
Club FpoCarthage fpo fpo Club of of Tanit
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17
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BIG PICTURE
Set the stage For better collaboration, create the right conditions
T
hink about the last time you worked with other people. Maybe it was a project at your job, or service in your community. How did it go? Did everyone do their share? Would they want to work together again? As you ask yourself these questions, you may be thinking about each team member’s strengths and capabilities. Not a bad thing to consider. But what if there were another way to think about working together? What if in addition to “Have we assembled the right people?” we were to ask, “Have we set the right conditions for a successful collaboration?” According to Gilbert Steil, a strategic planning consultant and the author of The Collaboration Response, “our species is capable of making a deep commitment to work with others — so deep that we are willing to give up self-interest for the greater good.” In his work with NGOs, governments, schools, communities, and businesses for more than a quarter century, Steil has come to see collaboration as a natural response: “Our huntergatherer ancestors survived due to their ability to collaborate.” Collaboration, he says, is natural and instinctive, just like our fight-or-flight response. When we’re frightened or threatened, our body and brain react automatically, either for battle or retreat. Similarly, certain conditions can compel us to bond with one another. What are those conditions? Steil offers eight maxims. — louis greenstein 18 ROTARY APRIL 2022
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86%
of employees and executives attribute workplace failures to a lack of collaboration or ineffective communication. About
75%
of employers rate teamwork and collaboration as “very important,” but only 18 percent of employees are evaluated on their communication skills at performance reviews.
39%
of employees say there is not enough collaboration in their organizations. Source: bit.ai
EIGHT MAXIMS FOR COLLABORATION Get the whole social system in the room. Everyone involved should know the project’s full scope, not just their own piece of the puzzle.
In his experience, four hours is what’s needed. Get everyone actively engaged and require them to speak. This is
Explore the historical and cur-
different from a team of executives
rent context. When Steil and his
working with consultants and then
associates start a new project,
running around trying to get buy-in.
they bring the participants togeth-
In a successful collaboration, every
er and spend four hours looking at
stakeholder must be involved.
the context, describing the issues,
Encourage self-management.
and discussing the impact on the
Steil breaks down the participants
system. Not three hours, not five.
into groups of no more than eight.
Illustration by Zulema Williams
2022-03-02 11:05
CREATIVE COLLABORATION Adrienne
Campbell-Holt
is
the
founder and artistic director of Colt Coeur, an off-Broadway company that creates world premieres from scratch. Unlike Gilbert Steil, she gets to select her collaborators from a roster of trained artists. When trying to create the conditions that trigger collaboration, her methods are often — but not always — similar to Steil’s. Understand the vision. Before rehearsals begin, Campbell-Holt shares
music,
documentaries,
and books with the group in order to “tweak people’s inspiration and understanding in as many ways as possible.” She asks that cast members do the same. Schedule enough time. When creative collaborators are balancing multiple projects, their day jobs, and personal obligations, they can be pulled in too many directions. Campbell-Holt says participants must devote enough time to the work. Steil’s four hours? “It depends on the size of the group and how many are new to each other,” CampThere’s no need for executives to facilitate
After that, the CEO is just another collabo-
bell-Holt says. “But four is a great
discussions. Instead, a discussion leader is
rator, expected to speak no more or less
number!”
chosen by the group, the way a jury selects
than anyone else. Acknowledge the organization’s issues
Get playful and remain playful.
State the purpose. Keep it simple, says
and problems. Steil helps clients create a
Creative collaboration is trig-
Steil. Aim for “a tangible purpose that is nar-
vision of “a desirable future” and then work
gered in an environment where
row and transparent — no broader than it
backward. “In order to achieve this future,
collaborators feel relaxed, con-
needs to be.” It’s critical for collaborators
what steps must we take?”
fident, and safe to take risks. To
a foreperson.
to make sure there is just one issue before
Look for common ground. Once the
ensure that, Campbell-Holt says,
them. The discussion leader may need to
group articulates the desirable future, “we
“we play games like charades
rein in conversations that veer off-topic.
ask them for some elements of the future,
and celebrity, we encourage vul-
Give everyone equal standing. Steil says
then we ask which elements are things that
nerability and fearlessness, and
that at the beginning of the meeting, CEOs
everybody can support,” says Steil. “That
we try to foster a sense of play
can make a statement about the purpose.
becomes common ground.”
and laughter.”
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OUR WORLD WHAT IT’S LIKE TO...
Clear land mines by Hansjörg Eberle, Rotary Club of Genève International, Switzerland
I
worked with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) for 12 years,
often in war-stricken countries such as Afghanistan and Pakistan. I lodged with the surgeons, and typically we would be alerted at 3 in the morning that there was a truckload with 10 or 15 wounded, often from land mines. What we saw was often horrible — bodies and body parts. The surgeons would have to do triage to see who could be saved.
Very often these were women and children and old people who were not participating in the fight-
ing, but were actually running away. This was usually happening at night, a family with children fleeing for their lives — you can imagine the terror. The ICRC spent a tremendous amount of time trying to save these people. But of course, the problem was much deeper. A farmer who loses his leg can’t support his family. People cannot use areas where they believe mines to be. They cannot farm that land or use the roads to get to school or to market. Mines are really like a weapon of terror. The Red Cross helped lobby governments to pass the Ottawa Convention, the international ban on anti-personnel land mines, in 1997. My concern was that no one, to my knowledge, was clearing them. So I set up an association with some friends and colleagues, the Fondation Suisse de Déminage, or the Swiss Foundation for Mine Action (FSD).
staff who do the actual demining. We recruit them preferably from the affected region. They might be former soldiers or combatants, but they might also have civilian backgrounds, such as teachers, lawyers, or farmers. Both men and women may become deminers, even in Muslim countries, such as Iraq. A basic deminer course takes three or four weeks. In humanitarian demining (as opposed to mili-
tary demining), deminers wear only light protection consisting of a demining vest (similar to a bulletproof vest) and a visor. This should ensure their survival if an anti-personnel mine explodes, but it does not protect their arms and legs. The reason for this light protection is that humanitarian deminers work all day long, often in extremely hot or difficult environments. They can’t do that while wearing full body armor, such as the military do. Accidents happen, unfortunately, despite the
numerous precautions we take. One of our American supervisors was killed in Iraq in 2019 when he tried to defuse an improvised explosive device. Demining accidents, however, are relatively rare. All our staff are insured against accidents. In case of fatal accidents, this helps the family make it through the next four or five years. An army might breach a minefield with a big
teams do what is called a nontechnical survey, which means they spend weeks interviewing people in the region, looking at the topography, the movement of troops during the conflict, what munitions were used. Using this forensic approach, it’s possible to reduce the dangerous area by 90 percent without doing any demining. We are also hoping to use drone technology, which can identify shapes under the soil.
tank and set off the bombs. If there’s a mine or two left, no big deal. But for humanitarian demining, we have to find every needle in the haystack, or the local population won’t feel safe. I leave the actual demining to the experts, but it is still frightening. I remember visiting one of our demining teams in South Sudan, along the heavily mined front with Sudan. The supervisor and I walked for about 20 minutes across a no-man’s land with visible land mines and other unexploded ordnance. I would never walk in such an area on my own. I more or less walk in the footsteps of the surveyors. They have better eyes than I do. I feel tense but focused during such visits, and mostly grateful upon my return.
But I’m sorry to say that the techniques for demining have not evolved much over the past 20 years. There is no replacement for a human being with a metal detector. It’s painstakingly slow and costs a lot of money. Our experts, who are typically former military special forces, recruit and train the
We’ve had a lot of success. We recently cleared another village in Iraq of improvised explosive devices, and we were very happy to see people return to rebuild their houses and farm the land and start their lives again. — as told to steve almond
So how do we get rid of the mines? First, our
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Illustration by Richard Mia
2022-03-02 11:04
SHARE YOUR STORY If you’re a member of Rotary with a unique experience like this — or if you know someone connected with Rotary who’s got this type of tale to tell — we want to hear it. You can share your story by emailing us at magazine@ rotary.org. Please include “What It’s Like” in the subject line of your email.
OCTOBER APRIL 2020 2022 ROTARY 21 51
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OUR WORLD GOODWILL
Less power to you By surrendering some control, philanthropists can do even more good
W
hen the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves launched in 2010, it attracted the attention of deep-pocketed donors due to its audacious, headline-grabbing goal of distributing 100 million cleanburning cookstoves to underprivileged households and rural villages around the globe. The New Yorker called the movement to design such appliances “the quest for a stove that can save the world.” But after 8 years and $75 million, it had become apparent that the alliance had fallen well short of its goals. It had built and distributed the stoves on schedule, but there was an unexpected hitch: People didn’t want to use them. One woman told a journalist that the “clean” stove simply didn’t cook food as she wanted it to; another thought it cooked too slowly. This is an all-too-common story in philanthropy. An ambitious, wellmeaning plan has one fatal flaw: The people at the center of the problem were not sufficiently consulted. However, a growing number of philanthropists are starting to do things differently, using a model called participatory grantmaking. Participatory grantmaking is the process of shifting decision-making power over grantmaking to the very communities most affected by the grants. It’s a structural fix to the broken power dynamics in traditional funding — a way to change philanthropy from closed, opaque, and expert-driven to open, transparent, and community-driven. Putting participation into practice
The key element behind any participatory grantmaking process is that the funder gives a voice to people who don’t usually get a say in the decision. Any grantmaking process, at its most basic, has three broad decision points: creating an overarching theory of change, building a pipeline of ideas, and deciding which of those ideas should get
fresh by connecting the activists in their region who apply. Applicants are invited to vote on the other applications, generating insights that allow FRIDA to more intentionally source future grant applications. In other words, its process honors the expertise that other grantees have on their own community.
funded. Participatory grantmaking boils down to a series of choices that funders can make at each of those decision points to systematically incorporate community voices.
Inviting community members to decide which ideas should get funded is considered by some to be the “purest” form of participatory grantmaking. Community members can take part in the entire Creating an overarching theory of process, up to and including the final change, whether for a single grantmakvote, or some of its components, such as ing program or an entire institution, must the application review process to generstart with the needs of the community. ate a recommended final slate. Rotary’s needs assessment tools include The Disability Rights Fund (DRF) many best practices for empowering is one useful example. Like Rotary, its communities to define their priorities. community is diverse. DRF operates in Clear communication about how a per- 38 countries and “disability” can refer son’s or group’s involvement will mean- to hundreds of different challenges. And ingfully affect the assessment is essential that’s before we get into the intersecting to building the trust required for any par- identities of race/ethnicity, class, gender, ticipatory practice to be successful. religion, and more. Brooklyn Community Foundation ofTo ensure representation, half of fers another example. Representatives DRF’s grantmaking committee is made literally went door-to-door in every neigh- up of disability rights activists who borhood in the New York City borough, serve fixed terms before rotating out. asking residents what they wanted the The remaining 50 percent are funders fund to focus on. Then, they presented and DRF staff. To select the activists, what they heard at a series of DRF partners with an interevents and invited debate and national membership orgadiscussion, ultimately leading to nization for disability rights a vote by community members. groups. DRF is quick to acknowledge that it’s an iteraThe next decision point: buildtive process; the organization ing a pipeline of ideas. Grant is constantly tweaking things funding disproportionately to maximize participation Meg Massey goes to nonprofits with the from its members. But with and Ben Wrobel staff and resources to woo poparticipation, the process is are the authors tential funders, while criteria the point. of the book often reflect the institution inWhat would it take to reach Letting Go: How stead of the community. We’ve the point where 10 percent of Philanthropists and Impact seen funders successfully shift philanthropic dollars are alInvestors Can power to communities at this located by activists, nonprofit Do More Good stage by inviting community leaders, and community memby Giving Up members to develop the criteria bers, rather than philanthropy Control. Find used to determine grant fundprofessionals? out more at ing and deputizing community lettinggobook. It starts with making an eforg. members to source applicafort to “let go.” Above all, it retions from smaller or newer orquires a deep dose of humility Find Rotary’s ganizations. — an acknowledgment by the community FRIDA: The Young Feminist funder that it does not have all assessment Fund, which supports feminist the answers. tools at activism by young people in the — meg massey on.rotary. org/3IPdE3v. Global South, keeps its pipeline and ben wrobel
22 ROTARY APRIL 2022
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The ROTARY ACTION PLAN
TAKING ACTION FOR CHANGE
IMPACT
REACH
We want to put our resources behind programs that will have the greatest impact and that align with our areas of focus.
We’re committed to exemplifying and embracing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in everything we do.
We’re creating tools and guidelines for tracking and sharing our efforts. We’re also developing an evaluation process that will help us make objective recommendations about what is working and what we should continue, start, or stop doing.
We’re testing new products and alternative models that will allow more people to connect and take action with us in ways that work best for them.
We are at a defining moment in Rotary’s history. We’re implementing our Action Plan, a strategic road map that will help us better connect with each other, grow as an organization, and more effectively share our stories of how we are making a difference in communities.
At every level of Rotary, we have embraced opportunities to work together to achieve our goals. Over the coming four issues, you’ll hear from Rotary members around the world who will offer their inspiration, encouragement, and guidance as we carry out the four priorities of the Action Plan.
ENGAGE
ADAPT
We’re tearing down the walls between “us” and “them” and focusing on participants.
We’re streamlining operations so we can be more agile and responsive.
We’re asking people how they want to participate, finding ways to meet them where they are, and making sure they know we value them.
We’re simplifying the way we do things and helping members manage change so that our clubs, districts, and zones can more effectively communicate and work together.
Learn what your club can do at rotary.org/actionplan.
WHITE RHINOS AND BLACK MAMBAS
Can an all-female anti-poaching unit stop wildlife crime in an African game preserve — without guns?
D
ressed in a baggy green camouflage uniform and black work boots, long ponytail swinging against her back, Tsakane Nxumalo, 26, and her partner Naledi Malungane, 21, stride alongside an elephantproof electric fence that is 7 feet high and nearly 100 miles long. The potent, honey-like odor of purple-pod cluster-leaf trees hangs heavy in the humid summer air, while overhead a yellow-billed hornbill swoops to perch on the skeleton of a dead leadwood tree. Nxumalo and Malungane are members of the Black Mambas Anti-Poaching Unit. Named after a snake that is native to the region and long, fast, and highly venomous, the Mambas strive to protect the animals of the Balule Nature Reserve within Greater Kruger National Park, a South African wilderness that is about the size of Israel. Nxumalo and Malungane, who both grew up near the unit’s headquarters but only got to know each other since they became Mambas, are checking, as they do every day of their 21-day shift, for breaches in the fence. Mostly this entails collecting rocks to shore up the places where animals such as warthogs and leopards have tried to burrow their way under, but periodically they come across a spot where humans have cut the fence to hunt animals for bushmeat or, worse, poach rhinos for their horns.
by Nick Dall Photography by Bobby Neptune 26 ROTARY APRIL 2022
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2022-03-04 17:40
Judy Malatjie, Naledi Malungane, and Tsakane Nxumalo on patrol.
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In 2013, when the first Mambas began patrolling the reserve, they quickly discovered that rhino poaching was only part of the problem. The park was also losing hundreds of animals of all species to snares every year. “It was embarrassing,” recalls Craig Spencer, 48, as he sits by a bushveld braai (barbecue) and talks over the calls of a nearby hyena. A maverick South African conservationist, he was head warden of Balule, a private animal preserve. “I should have known what was happening under my nose. It took the Mambas to show me what was going on.” White rhinos have been hunted almost to extinction in Africa. Of the continent’s 18,000 remaining white rhinos, nearly 90 percent are in South Africa, the species’ last best hope. Kruger is home to by far the biggest white rhino population, as well as about 300 of the world’s 5,600 remaining black rhinos. The rhinoceros horn is prized in some countries, used as a traditional medicine and a status symbol. According to the Wildlife Justice Commission, a horn fetches an average of $4,000 per pound in Africa, and as much as $8,000 per pound in Asia; given that a set of white rhino horns typically weighs 11 pounds, it’s worth between $44,000 and $88,000. South Africa’s per capita income is about $5,000 per year and its pre-COVID-19 unemployment rate was about 29 percent. Therefore, a rhino, sadly, is a tempting target. In 2017, poachers killed more than 500 rhinos in Greater Kruger National Park, including 17 in Balule. “Poachers make me angry,” Nxumalo says, because they are killing the animals that all South Africans should be
PhD by researching the influence of cognitive dissonance on the consumption of natural resources and ecosystem degradation. In addition, Tochterman was a founding member of the Rotary Action Group for Endangered Species (RAGES), which has the goal of improving the lives of people by improving the habitats and lives of endangered animals of all types. He welcomes the recent addition of protecting the environment to Rotary International’s areas of focus. “We firmly believe that healthy landscapes contribute to healthy communities,” he says, adding that “the Mambas have shown that the reverse is also true.” In 2010, Tochterman was at a bush camp, sitting around a campfire with Spencer, the former game warden who is now his close friend and partner, drinking rum-and-cokes and talking long into the night, when they lit a spark that would grow to become the Mambas. “Across Africa, the default response to poaching has been to bring in more men with more guns,” Tochterman says. “And it hasn’t worked anywhere.” It dawned on them that the only way to change the narrative was to shape the minds of the next generation, and that the best way to reach the children was through their mothers. Tochterman and Spencer eventually learned about a government program to employ women as environmental monitors in conventional agriculture; they thought they could maybe stretch the job description to include “game ranger,” but senior management at South African National Parks questioned the concept of unarmed women operating in areas where lions, leopards, rhinos, elephants, and buffalo roam free. Tochterman was told on more than one occasion that this was a “stupid, dumb idea” that “could only have come from America.” When the two men were finally given a chance to put their theory into action, the candidates shortlisted by bureaucrats in the government program were told what the job would entail — and they all quit. So Spencer and Tochterman got permission from the local chiefs to go into communities near the park and look for the right kind of people. The Black Mambas name was chosen by the first group, says Tochterman, symbolizing “how seriously they took their opportunity to enter an industry that had previously been off-limits to women. They wanted to make a statement that they were not window dressing.” Word quickly spread, and within months the Mambas were receiving unsolicited applications from local women almost every day. Since the beginning, the dayto-day operations of the Mambas have been managed by Spencer’s nonprofit, Transfrontier Africa. Tochterman was key in building and financing the Mambas’ operations hub as well as the separate compound where the women stay during their shifts. He had also spent six years in the military police, so he was able to provide training in skills such as handcuffing a person. Tochterman’s Rhino Mercy nonprofit acts as the Mambas’ international fundraising
preserving for future generations. While Nxumalo is fully aware that some people poach only out of a desperation to feed their families, her commitment to the cause is unwavering. She points out that it would be devastating for both tourism and conservation to lose a member of what’s called the “Big Five,” an old hunting term that refers to the five most sought-after animals in Africa: lions, leopards, elephants, buffalo, and rhinos. Rhinos, along with elephants, are keystone megaherbivores that shape the landscape in ways that benefit other species. And the big animals in any ecosystem are usually the canaries in the coal mine, to abuse the phrase. “If we can’t prevent keystone species from going extinct,” says Tom Tochterman, “other species are also doomed.” Since 2009, when he had an “aha!” moment during his first photo safari in South Africa, Tochterman, 60, has been a passionate supporter of this nature reserve. A retired real estate developer and a member of the Rotary Club of Chelan, Washington, he has since founded a nonprofit called Rhino Mercy, which strives to fight rhino poaching, and developed a luxury photo-safari program that helps to fund conservation work. He also earned a
GETTY IMAGES (RHINO)
The black mambas name symbolizes how seriously they took their opportunity to enter an industry that had previously been off-limits to women.
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GETTY IMAGES (RHINO)
Animals in the Black Mambas’ patrol area include giraffes, zebras, and rhinos; Naledi Malungane trains on an obstacle course.
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The Olifants River flows through the Black Mambas’ patrol area.
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arm, and it has brought them financial security. The government recently stopped funding the women’s basic salaries (around $450 per month), which was a small fraction of the total cost of the program. Tochterman says that all told, employing one Mamba costs upwards of $50,000 per year.
N
kateko Mzimba, who was part of the Mambas’ second cohort in 2014, remembers many men in her hometown teasing her about the job and belittling her chances of survival in what they deemed to be a man’s world. Their predictions very nearly came true when, during her first few months with the Mambas, she and two colleagues were repeatedly charged by a pride of lions and had to be rescued from a tree by a passing vehicle. “I tried to quit,” she remembers. “But after counseling I decided to stay and prove the doubters wrong.” Looking back, Mzimba, now a sergeant who will soon qualify as a professional field guide, realizes that the whole situation could have been avoided if she had better read the lions’ behavior. Mzimba now ensures that every patrol includes a veteran Mamba and that armed response is always on standby. (The Mambas’ every move is tracked from a central operations room.) In their first year, it was not uncommon for the Mambas to find 70 snares in a day. They also came across several “bushmeat kitchens,” large operations for butchering and drying meat, within the reserve itself.
that has plagued the conservation movement in South Africa since its inception. While nature conservation is often depicted as noble protectors of the environment doing battle with evil poachers and exploiters, this ignores more complex social, political, and economic realities. Shortly after the land that would become the Kruger National Park was set aside and protected in 1898, some 3,000 people belonging to the Tsonga ethnic group were forcibly removed from the land. Fences were erected, national borders that had previously been recognized only on maps were enforced, and people were fined or imprisoned for “trespassing” on the land they had always lived on and hunting the animals they had always eaten. During apartheid, the fences became more impenetrable and the sentences harsher. This history is vital to understanding how rangers and poachers can come from the same communities — or families. And it’s why many of the people who have lived their entire lives on the fringes of one of the world’s most iconic national parks know almost nothing about it. Nxumalo had been to Kruger a few times, but had no real affinity with the bush. After passing a panel interview and a fitness test with flying colors, she and eight other recruits, including Malungane, began their basic training. Training was hard, she says, involving exercises such as “running the whole day in the sun with only a small bottle of water.” Now she looks back on that time with appreciation: “Training gave me that go-ahead, that I can be more and do more.” After racking up thousands of kilometers of foot patrols in Big Five areas, Nxumalo loves the bush and remains devoted to the cause. She’s not alone — all of the women from her cohort are still Mambas. And they’re proud to pass on what they’ve learned. “We won’t only teach our own kids; we will tell other girls that they can do anything,” Nxumalo says. “We are telling every lady out there that you can do more, you can be more.” While they never go home in their uniforms (a poacher could steal one from a clothesline and use it to infiltrate the park), Nxumalo makes no attempt to hide what she does. “You have to be proud of what you do,” she explains. “This inspires others to walk tall. I’ve always known I could do a lot. But the Mambas really brought it out of me.” The Mambas’ salary is considered quite good for the area, so in addition to using her income to support her mother and her sister, Nxumalo has been paying her own university fees. She recently completed the first year of a teaching degree online. Mzimba uses her income to fund and run a food pantry for hungry neighbors — which further aids in reducing poaching. A typical day for the Mambas involves rising at dawn for a fence patrol or snare sweep (both on foot) and conducting nightly observations from a blind or vehicle. Gunshots, torchlight, and the smell of tobacco smoke are all telltale signs of poacher activity, but these days Nxumalo says the Mambas are more likely to be
To this Day, many in the conservation industry in south africa still feel that women have no place in the anti-poaching arena. One full-moon night in 2015, a patrol of Mambas responded to the sound of gunfire and startled a group of poachers who had just killed a rhino. After briefly giving chase in their vehicle, the Mambas returned to the scene to find two rhinos dead and a third one wounded. Despite the best efforts of emergency veterinarians, the third, too, succumbed. The only small mercy of this grisly episode was that the poachers didn’t get their prize. Knowing that the Mambas have played a part in reducing poaching feels “really amazing,” says Nxumalo, more so because it’s a job that she says she grew up thinking was “supposed to be done by men.” To this day, many in the conservation industry in South Africa still feel that women have no place in the anti-poaching arena and that conducting unarmed patrols in Big Five areas is foolhardy. “I don’t think men would want to work unarmed in a Big Five area,” says Nxumalo with a laugh. “A man would come up with so many reasons why he needs a gun. But for us it’s more about reading the animals’ behavior. We understand that it’s not really about guns.” Through their community connections, the Mambas are also helping to change the cops-and-robbers narrative 32 ROTARY APRIL 2022
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Tsakane Nxumalo scans the horizon at sunset.
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interrupted by a leopard or a herd of elephants. “They are so peaceful at night,” she says. “Sometimes they block the way, but we never rush them.” Weekly tasks for the Mambas include searching the compounds where reserve staff and contractors live, conducting roadblocks, and speaking to tourists and local communities about the importance of wildlife conservation. “If nothing happens on a patrol, that is a big success,” Nxumalo says. “If I don’t find any snares, that is a bonus because it means that no one has come in to plant a new snare and no one has cut the fence since I last checked it. It’s a huge relief.” The Mambas program got a boost in 2015 with the arrival of Lewyn Maefala, an energetic nature conservation student with an infectious laugh. Maefala did a yearlong practicum with Spencer’s nonprofit for her coursework at the Tshwane University of Technology and hasn’t left since. She noticed that although the Mambas were patrolling fences and protecting the animals from poachers, they weren’t doing much prevention work in the communities the poachers came from. Within a few months, Maefala received permission to teach an environmental education program for students at four local primary schools. Calling her program the Bush Babies, Maefala focused on using animals that the students were likely to come across in the field as a way to teach about ecosystems conservation. “We talk about the animals and how they fit into the local culture,” she says, giving the example of the Shai people in Ghana, who love “dancing to elephants,” their totem animal.
program also reaches adolescents. Last year over 1,500 teens attended Scout meetings at the Bush Babies Environmental Education Centre. Says Spencer appreciatively, “Lewyn has taken the Bush Babies to the moon.” By the time Nxumalo joined the Mambas in 2019, the program was at full capacity (36 Mambas including the Bush Babies team), and community attitudes about female rangers had softened considerably. “When I go home to my village, the other women ask me if there are any vacancies at the Mambas,” she says. “It feels really good to change mindsets, to show people that women can make a real difference in the fight against poaching.” Aided by a combination of COVID-19-related travel restrictions, which have made it harder to move rhino horns across borders, an apparent reduction in demand for the horns in Southeast Asia, and the fact that there are fewer rhinos left to kill, there is evidence that rhino poaching has slowed. In the first half of 2021, poachers killed 249 rhinos in South Africa — a considerable decline from 2013 to 2017, when they killed more than 1,000 per year. And within the Mambas’ territory, poachers have killed just one rhino since the beginning of 2020. The Mambas now plan to implement a formal high school and/or vocational training program in the near future, and to expand across South Africa and beyond, in places where the demand has been strong not only to protect land but to involve more women. The only thing holding them back has been the lack of funding to make it happen. “We will continue to strengthen our programs despite the complications brought on by the global pandemic to ecotourism and conservation initiatives in general,” Tochterman says. Maefala’s Bush Babies program has inspired two members of its first graduating class to pursue nature conservation degrees. She would love to see every school in the province implement her program, and she also has her eye on a 100-seat bus (“Imagine taking 100 kids to see the Kruger Park!”) and a “really big” Bush Babies resource center with a library and internet access. “Finding the people to run the program isn’t a problem,” she says. “I could find a hundred people tomorrow, but we barely have enough money to run the program in 10 schools.” This, says Nxumalo, is just one more obstacle that must be overcome. “We need to have Mambas working across the park,” she says. “If the rhinos go extinct, the poachers will move on to the elephants, the pangolins, the lion-bone trade. We need the elephants to trample over trees so the impalas can eat. The lions need the impalas to survive. Conservation is about saving all the animals. This is why the work we are doing is so important.” ■
"If the rhinos go extinct, the poachers will move on to the elephants, the pangolins, the lion-bone trade. Conservation is about saving all the animals." But the Bush Babies also learn why animals need clean water and healthy trees to survive. And they are taught to unlearn the belief, passed down from their elders, that snakes and scorpions should be killed. “Just the other day, some of my Bush Babies found a puff adder,” Maefala says. “Together we released it into the wild, far away from the community. That would never have happened a few years ago.” By 2017, Maefala had expanded the program to include 10 schools, two grade levels, and more than 1,000 students. She also took advantage of the same government-funded environmental monitors initiative to hire several young men and women to teach the Bush Babies. Never one to sit still, Maefala has integrated the program with the school curriculum (math students, for example, might record the species, age, and sex of all the animals they see on a game drive and use that data to create a mini-census) and started a vegetable-gardening project where children oversee the entire process, from mulching the soil to cooking the produce. She has also initiated a Bush Grannies program, which taps into local grandmothers’ deep wells of knowledge, and teamed up with a local organization affiliated with Scouts South Africa to ensure that her
Nick Dall is a freelance writer based in Cape Town, South Africa. His journalism explores the intersection of culture and the environment. He has written two books on South African history: Rogues’ Gallery and Spoilt Ballots.
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Nkateko Mzimba distributes food; Tom Tochterman and Craig Spencer co-founded the unit.
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On the wild side
The Rotary Action Group for Endangered Species (RAGES) helps clubs and districts design environmental projects. The group launched in 2015 with the support of famed conservationist Jane Goodall, and boasts nearly 1,000 members across 71 countries. “Healthy landscapes lead to healthy communities,” says Tom Tochterman, who chairs the action group. “Rotary is all
about healthy, safe, and prosperous communities. Without a healthy landscape, the cards are stacked against you.” Put your club’s project on the map; visit rag4es.org to submit the details.
Mountain gorillas WHAT
Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, and Uganda WHERE
THE ISSUE
Only about 1,000 mountain gorillas remain in the world, although the numbers are slowly increasing due to conservation efforts. Mountain gorillas have thicker fur than other great apes to help them survive the colder weather at higher elevations. Their biggest threats are habitat loss, political instability, and human encroachment; because mountain gorillas share more than 98 percent of their DNA with humans, they are susceptible to human diseases such as the flu and pneumonia. THE PROJECT
The Mountain Gorilla Conservation Society of Canada, led by Rotarian Raemonde Bezenar, is working to increase the number of wildlife veterinarians through scholarships in wildlife health and management at universities in Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, and Uganda. The Rotary clubs of Edmonton Riverview, Alberta, and Kampala Munyonyo, Uganda, worked with RAGES to secure three global grant scholarships for the wildlife health program.
Great apes WHAT
Pollinators WHAT
WHERE
Guatemala
THE ISSUE More than 75 percent of the world’s leading food crops rely on pollinators, whether bees, birds, butterflies, beetles, or bats. Pollinators are also responsible for much of the world’s oils, fibers, and raw materials. But habitat loss, climate variability, and pesticides are hastening the decline of these species. THE PROJECT The Rotary Club of Carpinteria Morning launched the Save Me Peace Project in the Lake Atitlán basin, where a number of hummingbird species are threatened. Through the citizen-science initiative, club members taught schoolchildren about the importance of pollinators and their habitats. The club partnered with RAGES to host a virtual symposium on pollinators at the Universidad del Valle de Guatemala.
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WHERE
Cameroon THE ISSUE Habitat destruction threatens Africa’s great apes — gorillas, chimpanzees, and bonobos — due to logging for tropical hardwood and the illegal commercial bushmeat trade. Subsistence hunters have killed wild animals to provide food for their families for thousands of years, but today, commercial hunters kill entire primate families, putting the long-term prospects of these animals at risk. THE PROJECT Ape Action Africa, sponsored by the Rotary Club of Pickering, Ontario, rescues orphaned great apes, and local community members are among the caregivers for the young animals in Cameroon’s Mefou primate sanctuary. The organization also educates local schoolchildren about bushmeat, logging, conservation, and other environmental issues, and is working to identify areas to protect as habitat so that the animals can be released back into the wild.
Illustrations by Kara Fellows
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Orangutans and pygmy elephants WHAT
WHERE
Indonesia and Malaysia
THE ISSUE Orangutans used to live across Southeast Asia, but today they exist only in fragmented forest patches on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra. The animals’ preferred habitat has given way to plantations of acacia, rubber, and palm: Indonesia and Malaysia produce 90 percent of the world’s palm oil, which is found in half of the world’s supermarket products. Habitat destruction has similarly affected the Bornean pygmy elephant, an Asian elephant subspecies which is found only on Borneo and has an estimated population of fewer than 1,500. THE PROJECT Orangutan Appeal UK works with the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre in Malaysian Borneo to care for orphaned animals. The organization, founded by Susan Sheward of the Rotary Club of Bookham & Horsley, England, funds staff at the center and supports a wildlife rescue unit, reforestation efforts, and habitat protection.
Rhinos WHAT
WHERE
South Africa THE ISSUE Every 22 hours a rhino is killed for its horns in South Africa, home to the majority of the world’s rhinos. Poachers killed more than 1,000 rhinos each year between 2013 and 2017. Rhino horns are used in traditional Chinese medicine and, increasingly, as a status symbol; sophisticated international criminal gangs are often behind the poaching. THE PROJECT The Chipembere Rhino Foundation (chipembere means “rhinoceros” in Shona, an African language) supports anti-poaching efforts by providing specially trained tracking and apprehension dogs, technology for monitoring rhinos, and ranger equipment. The Rotary Club of Kenton on Sea, South Africa, is a longtime supporter of the organization. Rhino Mercy, which Tochterman founded, co-developed the Black Mambas anti-poaching unit, the first all-female group of its kind in South Africa, and supports environmental education and scientific research.
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Strength in times of crisis Past and current conflicts have had a significant impact on Rotary in Ukraine — which has only made members there more resolute
U
kraine is an agricultural powerhouse and a country of significant technological and strategic importance, but it has had a turbulent history. The buildup to the RussiaUkraine war that began in February preoccupied many members of Rotary around the world, who worried
about the future of Rotary within Europe’s second-largest country. Yet amid this turmoil, Rotary members in Ukraine continue to
demonstrate resilience and an unwavering commitment to peace. To learn more about Rotary’s circuitous journey in Ukraine over the past decade, Rotary Magazin for Germany and Austria compiled this report. (From Rotary International’s headquarters in the United States, Rotary magazine has reached out to Rotary and Rotaract clubs in Russia and will feature reports from them in a future issue.)
The city of Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, basks in the warmth of a sunny and peaceful day.
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A look back — and toward the future
A virtual club
Let Rotariets provide our readers some background information about Rotary in Ukraine. The first Rotary clubs within the current borders of Ukraine were chartered in the 1930s in the cities of Uzhgorod, Chernivtsi, and Lviv. During World War II, Rotary clubs disbanded in territories under conflict, and clubs were forcibly dissolved during the Cold War in countries under Communist rule. After the collapse of the USSR, several clubs in Europe and North America sought to reestablish Rotary’s presence in the former Soviet countries. Lubomyr “Lu” Hewko, the father of John Hewko, RI’s CEO and general secretary, played an important role. Lu’s family fled Ukraine during World War II, and years later, as president of the Rotary Club of Clarkston, Michigan, he organized several Rotary projects: delivering medical equipment to Ukrainian hospitals, assisting the victims of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, and recruiting doctors to perform eye surgeries for the needy. After Ukraine declared its independence in 1991, Lu helped to charter the first Rotary club in the capital, Kyiv. John Hewko is a charter member. In the early 1990s, Ukraine was part of District 1420, along with all the clubs in the former USSR, as well as some in Finland. Other district affiliations followed, until finally, in November 1999, RI decided to integrate Ukraine and Belarus with Poland in District 2230. This came to fruition on 1 July 2000. With the steady growth of Rotary in these three countries, the district was split into Districts 2231 (Poland) and 2232 (Ukraine, Belarus) in July 2016. Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the armed conflict in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions (collectively known as the Donbas) have hindered Rotary’s development in Ukraine. In 2013, there were seven Rotary clubs (with a combined total of about 110 members) in Crimea and the now-occupied areas of the Donbas. Only two clubs remain, and both are in Crimea: the Rotary Club of Simferopol and the Rotary Club of Alushta. They have a total of 14 members. In the rest of Ukraine, however, Rotary is undergoing robust growth on the strength of an influx of members who have joined since the beginning of that conflict. The national impulse to engage in humanitarian work and disaster assistance remains strong in Ukraine. Since 2014, Rotary has grown from 49 to 62 clubs, with an additional six satellite clubs. Membership has increased from 800 to 1,100 — and members of Rotary in Ukraine are very optimistic about the organization’s continued growth.
My history with Rotary began when I was a senior in high school. The newly formed Rotaract Club of Yalta ambitiously set out to establish an Interact club, and I was fortunate enough to be a part of it. I didn’t know much about Rotary, and the complex club organization befuddled me at first. But over several months, we visited Interact clubs in Kharkiv and Cherkasy, and I came to learn more about Rotary and gradually immersed myself in the ideas and values of this service organization. With strong convictions about the role I might play, I joined the Rotaract Club of Yalta, serving as president and treasurer, and set a goal to get to know Rotaract all over Europe. Until the annexation of Crimea, I had a very active and rewarding Rotaract career: I often traveled to Rotaract Europe Meetings (REM) across Europe, to Rotary Youth Leadership Awards events in Turkey, to Portugal in western Europe, and all over Ukraine, countless times, for conferences, for seminars, or just to visit Rotaract friends. We gladly and proudly hosted all-Ukrainian and district events in Yalta. Unfortunately, the annexation forced many Rotaractors and Rotarians to flee the turmoil and conflict on the peninsula, where it had become impossible to conduct our normal service duties. I moved to Lviv in western Ukraine, but the emotional trauma from the migration was such that it took me a long time to settle down and integrate into my new life. The good news was that a Rotary e-club had been established in Ukraine, enabling former Crimean residents and Rotarians from other occupied territories to continue to be part of Rotary. The mutual support was enormously helpful, especially in the early days. I later moved to the United States, first to New York City, where I studied biology, and then to Philadelphia to work in a research lab. Fortunately, the virtual club has allowed me to remain a Rotarian regardless of where I live, although accommodating members from the different time zones can be tough. I have lived in Italy, near Milan, since 2021, but continue to see my friends at club meetings. It is good that our club has enriched itself over the years with new members from all over Ukraine. Last year, I was elected club president for 2022-23. I am very grateful for the trust placed in me and look forward to presiding over our first meeting. I definitely want it to take place “virtually” against a backdrop image of the Yalta Mountains in Crimea, which is — and always will be — my home.
Rotariets, the regional Rotary magazine in Ukraine
The Ukraine crisis:
A BRIEF HISTORY
1922 After several turbulent years in which Ukraine struggles to secure independence, it becomes one of the founding members of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
Tetiana Godok, president-elect of the Rotary E-Club of Ukraine
1954 Moscow transfers Crimea to Ukraine; among other reasons, Nikita Khrushchev, recently recognized as the leader of the Soviet Union, hopes that the ostensibly generous gesture will win him support among the Ukrainian elite.
1991 After a failed coup in Moscow, Ukraine’s leaders declare their independence; in a national referendum, more than 90 percent of voters, including a majority in Crimea, endorse the change in Ukraine’s status.
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Clockwise from top left: Lubomyr “Lu” Hewko (left) participates in a 1993 service project in Ukraine; a father and son share a happy moment in Kyiv; St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery is the headquarters of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.
1992 Meeting with representatives from Crimea, Ukraine’s new leaders negotiate a framework that places the territory effectively under local control.
1994 After signing the Budapest Memorandum, an agreement that guarantees its security and sovereignty, Ukraine, until then the world’s third-largest nuclear power, begins to surrender its nuclear arsenal to Russia.
1996 The country’s new constitution defines Ukraine as a unitary state with 27 administrative units, including 24 oblasts (regions), two cities with special status — Kyiv and Sevastopol — and the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.
2004-05 The Orange Revolution — characterized by mass demonstrations that threaten to bring on civil war — erupts after the election of the proRussian Viktor Yanukovych as Ukraine’s president. After the Supreme Court declares the election invalid, Yanukovych is defeated in a new round of voting.
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In the spirit of peace
Yulia Zharikova, secretary of the Rotary Club of Kyiv Advance
The history of the Rotary Club of Kyiv Advance began at the end of 2013, when several like-minded people formed the Rotary Club of Donetsk Advance. We were united by the idea of community service and our passion for art and music. The club supported young talents and devoted its energies to the development of educational programs in the city. In 2014, after the outbreak of military conflict in eastern Ukraine, many members of our club fled to different parts of the country and even abroad. Subsequently, four club members who had moved to Kyiv decided to resume our club activities under the name Rotary Club of Donetsk Advance. Four other members who had ended up abroad or remained in Donetsk subsequently decided to keep their membership as well. So, we retained eight members. In 2020, our club officially changed its name to Rotary Club of Kyiv Advance in accordance with the policies of Rotary International. Since relocating to Kyiv, our club has attracted many new members and even received an award from the District 2232 governor for adding the most new members in the 2019-20 Rotary year. Given our experience from the conflict in eastern Ukraine, we have made peacebuilding and conflict prevention a main focus of our community projects. One such project, running since 2017, offers training to various groups to promote dialogue toward reconciliation at multiple levels of Ukrainian society. In addition, for the past five years, club members have been involved in a large international project for the psychological rehabilitation of children affected by war and military conflict in the east.
I was president of my club in 2013-14, but when the Crimean Peninsula was annexed during my term, we had to move to Odesa. To continue our Rotary activities, we established the Rotary E-Club of Ukraine. This type of club, which was fairly new then, helped us and other Rotarians from Crimea and the Donbas keep our Rotary ties and sustain our community. Our club brings together people scattered across thousands of miles. I was elected District 2232 governor for 2019-20 and
now serve as a Rotary public image coordinator at the zone level. Olga chaired the District Scholarship Subcommittee for two years, and the District Rotary Youth Exchange Committee since 2018. Together, we continue publishing Rotariets and providing virtual Rotary events in District 2232 and Zone 21.
Nobody is left alone
Rotary transcends borders
Mykola and Olga Stebljanko, the Rotary E-Club of Ukraine
Oleksiy Kuleshov and other Rotarians from the Rotary Club of Sloviansk
Our Rotary life began in 1996, when we joined what would become the first Rotaract club in Crimea: the Rotaract Club of Simferopol. Since then, Rotary has been an integral part of our lives. Our 10-year Rotaract past has become a classic example of young leadership development that creates the conditions for a natural transition into the ranks of Rotarians. In 2006, I, Mykola, joined the Rotary Club of Simferopol, which later sponsored the Rotary Club of Simferopol-Taurica, of which my wife, Olga, was the charter president. In 2007, I became the editor of the official Rotary publication, Rotariets, in Ukraine and Belarus. Since 2011, Olga has supported the production of the digital version.
The year 2014 became a time of testing for us, a test of endurance and humanity. On the positive side, Rotary brought us new strength, uniting a large number of people of different nationalities, faiths, and levels of prosperity with a common idea: to serve society. In Ukraine, Rotarians from Lviv, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Poltava, Kyiv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernivtsi, and the conflict areas of Donetsk — they were still holding on at that time — helped people who had fled the war, as did Rotarians from Moscow and Krasnodar in Russia. We reached out to those Ukrainians who had lost their livelihood and were left alone in misery. Some helpful Rotarians had sent groceries, baby food, and clothing; others
2013-14 Yanukovych, who was elected president in 2010, rejects an agreement for greater integration with the European Union. Protests topple the government, and Yanukovych flees to Russia.
February-March 2014 Russian troops enter Crimea, seizing the regional parliament and other government buildings. Russia ultimately annexes the peninsula.
April 2014 Pro-Russia separatist rebels begin seizing territory in eastern Ukraine. (In July, the rebels shoot down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, killing 298 people.) As fighting between the rebels and the Ukrainian military intensifies, the Russian army supports the rebels. As of late 2021, the Ukrainian government estimates that about 14,000 have been killed during the conflict.
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sent personal care products and medicine. We organized logistics to help refugee resettlement. We served meals, distributed gifts, books, and clothes to people in the disputed territories, and, in the evening, delivered grocery packages to large families. Together with the Rotary Club of Lviv, we also organized a mobile dental practice. In 2015, with the help of other Rotary clubs in Ukraine, we established a multimedia class at an art school in the city of Sloviansk, and, in 2016, the Rotary Club of Sloviansk endowed a choreography class for children. The project “Helpers of Saint Nicholas” gained momentum and became a separate major Rotary project in eastern Ukraine. Other club projects include replenishing libraries with modern literature, sponsoring sports teams, and supporting the “Believe in Yourself” project of the world-champion Paralympic swimmer Viktor Smyrnov. We also provided funding for kindergarten classes for children living with visual, mental, and musculoskeletal disorders. ■
Left: Olga and Mykola Stebljanko joined Rotary in 1996 when they helped form Crimea’s first Rotaract club; Mykola later joined the Rotary Club of Simferopol (below).
Projects for peace Many clubs in Ukraine have initiated their own projects to bring peace to the country. In the combat zone along the Russian border in eastern Ukraine, about 14,000 people, including more than 3,000 civilians, were killed, and at least 30,000 injured, between 2014 and 2021. During that same time period, more than 1.6 million people from Crimea and the Donbas fled their homes and became displaced within Ukraine, while some 3 million remained in the territories controlled by armed militia forces. Rotary clubs in Ukraine have provided medical and psychological assistance to victims of the conflict and have supported the large displaced population, while also delivering relief supplies to those who live in frontline territories. Rotary International has called for peaceful dialogue within divided communities and between the governments of Russia and Ukraine. Members are sponsoring efforts to locate and remove land mines in combat areas while also educating the public about minefield demarcation and identification. For the victims of landmine injuries, Rotary clubs have set up rehabilitation centers in frontline areas. As part of their efforts to help restore the Donbas region, Rotary members are planning and creating business opportunities that can promote restoration of communities for reintegration into the national economy.
24 February 2022 As the April issue of Rotary goes to press, Russia wages a full-out war on Ukraine.
(Above) Children in eastern Ukraine throng a mobile dental practice; (left) Piotr Wygnańczuk, then governor of District 2230, poses with Olga Stebljanko.
(Right) Members of the Rotary E-Club of Ukraine gather around a member of the Rotary Club of Kyiv (center, in white).
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A partnership between The Rotary Foundation (Canada) and a branch of the Canadian government had an impact that spanned the globe
“We were two old dames traveling up the Amazon River in a
little ferry boat,” says Dean Rohrs, recalling a voyage that she took in January 2020 with her friend Betty Screpnek. “The river was in full flood mode. It was an amazing experience.” “Grandes dames” is more like it. Rohrs, a Rotary Foundation trustee and former vice president of Rotary International, is the president of The Rotary Foundation (Canada), where Screpnek is a director and the chair of its grants committee. Their journey along the Amazon, just one leg of a two-week tour of Peru and Colombia, provided the Canadian septuagenarians with a vivid reminder of the impoverished conditions that afflict so many people globally. “We were savoring the beauty of this amazing place and the thrill of going through the jungle,” adds Screpnek. “But on a personal level, I felt almost guilty.” She describes the “heartbreak” that came from encountering “a pool of water that was absolutely black, with children swimming in it and women working on the edge of it washing vegetables.” But there were also occasions for hope: Near Ibagué, Colombia, she and Rohrs saw houses bearing blue water-droplet icons that signified the availability of clean water that could be shared, the result of a global grant project that supplies biosand water-filter systems to hundreds of families throughout the area.
by Paul Engleman |
ILLUSTRATIONS BY JASON SCHNEIDER
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“When villagers see that water droplet, they know that Rotary has been there,” says Screpnek. “And for us, when you have this kind of direct experience, you know exactly why you donate your time and money to Rotary.” For rohrs and screpnek, their prepandemic visit to South America was the culmination of nearly five years of intensive work implementing a historic partnership agreement signed in 2015 by The Rotary Foundation (Canada) and Global Affairs Canada (GAC), the agency that leads the Canadian government’s international development and humanitarian assistance efforts. The agreement called for GAC to match the seed funding of global grant projects initiated by Rotary clubs and districts in Canada. Under the terms of the partnership, GAC provided an annual funding match of CA$1.2 million over five years, for a total of CA$6 million. Screpnek says that, with contributions from individual clubs and districts and funding from The Rotary Foundation, the program ultimately enabled Rotary to administer more than US$15 million in global grants. Rohrs, a member of the Rotary Club of Langley Central, British Columbia, recalls an early meeting at Rotary headquarters in Evanston, Illinois, with representatives from GAC. “They looked at us from every angle and came away excited about the work Rotary was doing,” she says. “They felt that our stewardship was exactly what they were looking for.” In addition, she notes that GAC’s goals and funding requirements — which were devoted to improving health, education, and economic development — overlapped with five of Rotary’s areas of focus: supporting education; fighting disease; growing local economies; saving mothers and children; and providing clean water, sanitation, and hygiene. (At the partnership’s inception, protecting the environment was not yet an area of focus, and the area of focus devoted to promoting peace was not applicable under the agreement.) With a commitment from The Rotary Foundation (Canada) to advancing gender equality, Screpnek says that any approved
Dean Rohrs (left) and Betty Screpnek stand along the Amazon River during their January 2020 visit to projects in Colombia and Peru sponsored by the partnership between The Rotary Foundation (Canada) and Global Affairs Canada.
“It tugged at my heart to see how a s so much impact on raising a com projects needed to demonstrate a strong participation of women as decision-makers in shaping the development of their societies; in addition, the projects had to contribute to a reduction in inequality between women and men in both access to and control over resources. Also, each project had to show strong evidence of sustainability and limited negative environmental impact. “It took a while to gain traction and get the program off the ground,” says Rohrs, noting that aligning established procedures for global grants with GAC grant requirements presented a challenge. “We had to assemble a team of Canadian grant experts and Rotarians to assess and review the projects.” They also had to get the word out to Rotary clubs and districts in Canada about the program, a task that Screpnek and others did by conducting webinars and making in-person presentations about the application process. “We had a slow uptake because there was a huge learning
curve,” says Rohrs. “But once clubs realized the potential of matching funds, we were absolutely inundated.” By the time the agreement concluded — after a nine-month extension to ensure that all grants received their funding — the partnership had financed 131 projects across Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean. Early in 2020, to provide oversight and accountability beyond the reporting from local representatives of the international sponsoring clubs, Rohrs and Screpnek flew to Lima, Peru, to conduct site visits at four projects. “Every step of the way, I was reminded why I remain a committed Rotarian,” says Screpnek, a member of the Rotary Club of Edmonton-Glenora, Alberta. “I could see the impact we have and how hard Rotarians work to change lives.” In Arequipa, a town surrounded by snow-capped volcanoes,
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planting vegetables in raised gardens on stilts can protect them from flooding. In Colombia, Rohrs and Screpnek were joined by Emily Royal, a representative of GAC. Near the city of Ibagué, they reviewed a project sponsored by the Rotary Clubs of Calgary South, Alberta, and Nuevo Ibagué that combats illness by providing household-level water filters, as well as information on how to use and maintain them, to more than 1,000 families in the area. They accompanied two field representatives (one of them a Rotaractor) to a mountainous village, where they met a dozen grateful families whose lives have been dramatically improved by daily access to clean, drinkable water. “The field reps knew every member of every family,” marvels Rohrs. “They even knew the names of their cats and dogs!” Earlier in the trip, in the city of Medellín, the trio received a briefing on another project sponsored by the Rotary Club of Quebec-Charlesbourg, along with the Rotary Club of Medellín Occidente. In an area ravaged by gangs and drug trafficking, a global grant provided job counseling and training in health, nutrition, and prevention of AIDS and HPV to more than 300 parents and their children — and residents have since managed to drive out drug recruiters and reclaim their neighborhood. “It tugged at my heart to see how a small amount of money can have so much impact on raising a community’s standard of living,” says Screpnek. “Bringing clean water to families and showing people how to grow healthy vegetables and prevent disease. Encouraging peace in communities where gangs existed. Providing education for girls who would not have had the opportunity and seeing businesses partnering with Rotary projects. It brings home the realization that Rotary truly is a world family.” Rohrs views the partnership with the Canadian government as a model for other Rotary associate foundations to follow. But every facet of the Rotary world can learn from it. “We have had inquiries from within Rotary asking how we were able to do this,” she says. “Australian clubs and districts are already working toward getting government funding, and some in Europe are also very interested. Rotary is in the process
w a small amount of money can have community’s standard of living.” she and Rohrs reviewed an education-focused project sponsored by the Rotary Club of Quebec-Charlesbourg and the Rotary Club of Yanahuara-Arequipa at a private high school that serves girls and women from marginalized areas. The project provided funding for a state-of-the-art technology lab and training on computers and software to improve the information technology skills of 160 students. In northern Peru, they observed the progress of a nutritional education program in 12 villages, sponsored by the Rotary Club of Castlegar, British Columbia, and the Rotary Club of Iquitos Amazonas. In an area with a high rate of anemia among children, the program provides training for two volunteer health workers from each community in basic nutrition and health care, with a focus on child and maternal health, including midwifery and prenatal care. The workers learn how composting can improve the poor soil and how
of designing a new governance and administration model based around regional councils, which will support a focus on corporate and government relationships. Exactly what form it will take has not been set in stone, but it is critical that Rotary work hand in hand with corporations and governments — not only for funding but also because of the doors that it opens.” Screpnek is optimistic that the program may be renewed in the future. “I think we have proven to the government of Canada that we are a reliable partner, contributing financially to every matching dollar, and we have built a trusting relationship through timely reporting and collaboration,” she says. “I believe we will once again work in partnership after we have control of COVID in the world.” ■ A Chicago writer, Paul Engleman is a frequent contributor to Rotary and Rotary Canada. APRIL 2022 ROTARY 47
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The partnership’s projects: 5 examples Over the course of their partnership, The Rotary Foundation (Canada) and Global Affairs Canada sponsored 131 projects. Here are five examples of what that partnership accomplished. All funding figures are in U.S. dollars.
Kyaithani Cluster Schools Development Project SPONSORS: ROTARY CLUBS OF SUNSHINE COAST-SECHELT, BRITISH COLUMBIA, AND MACHAKOS, KENYA The first global grant approved under the partnership, this four-year project focused on improving the academic performance of primary and secondary students in eight schools in a remote, famine-prone, and impoverished region of southern Kenya. The project provided basic solar-power systems and teaching equipment to the schools, along with internet-enabled computers. It also provided solar lights on a rent-to-own basis to enable students to study and teachers to prepare lessons. The project included a teacher-training component based on a primary teacher orientation program prepared by the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development. A total of 52 educational institutions benefited from the project, as 222 teachers were trained in new classroom technologies and 59 teachers were trained in professional development. More than 6,800 students, including 300 who were new to the school system, received solar lights. FUNDING Global Affairs Canada (GAC): $32,188 Rotary clubs and districts: $32,188 The Rotary Foundation (TRF): $37,188 Total project funding: $101,564
Guatemala Literacy Project — Quetzaltenango and Chimaltenango SPONSORS: ROTARY CLUBS OF SUDBURY, ONTARIO, AND GUATEMALA OESTE, GUATEMALA The goal of the 18-month project was to improve education for underserved students in the cities of Quetzaltenango and Chimaltenango, Guatemala, and strengthen both traditional and technological literacy. The endeavor was one part of the Guatemala Literacy Project, an ongoing collaboration between Rotary members and the Cooperative for Education, a nonprofit organization with a 25-year history of partnering with Rotary clubs and districts. The project combined four initiatives: offering professional development for teachers through an established online resource, called SparkReading, that enables them to become experts in reading instruction; providing access to high-quality textbooks; establishing a computer center to prepare middle school students to enter the workforce by providing hands-on technological instruction; and increasing educational access for girls through the Rise Youth Development Program, which works to reduce gender disparities in education. The SparkReading initiative provided benefits to 253 teachers and nearly 6,000 students; the textbook component benefited 16 teachers and 334 students in four schools; the computer education benefited 254 students; and the Rise program affected 776 students. FUNDING GAC: $106,256 Rotary clubs and districts: $290,275 TRF: $234,716 Total project funding: $631,247
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Cervical Cancer, Congenital Hip Dysplasia Training/Screening SPONSORS: ROTARY CLUBS OF PORT MOODY, BRITISH COLUMBIA, AND CUENCA-YANUNCAY, ECUADOR This 18-month project worked to improve the diagnosis
FUNDING
and treatment of cervical cancer and hip dysplasia in
GAC: $54,600
Cuenca, Ecuador, and the surrounding community by
Rotary clubs and districts: $58,600
providing vocational training for five gynecologists and
TRF: $64,380
five pediatricians enrolled in postgraduate studies at
Total project funding: $177,580
the University of Azuay. The training was conducted by volunteer medical professionals through the Canadian nongovernmental organization True North Missions Society. True North completed the training for the selected gynecologists and pediatricians through three separate consultations: an initial visit, then follow-up visits six and 12 months later, with frequent remote communication via videoconferencing. During each visit, True North offered presentations and discussions to local medical students and health care professionals to raise awareness and impart medical knowledge of cervical cancer and hip dysplasia. The newly trained doctors will in turn train medical students and health care professionals in the Cuenca area, and the medical faculty at the university will oversee the continuation of the project through its medical teaching program. In addition, more than 6,000 people benefited from the medical screenings that were conducted by the project.
Honduras Economic and Community Development Phase 5 — Expanding Microfinance Capacity SPONSORS: ROTARY CLUBS OF CALGARY WEST, ALBERTA, AND REAL DE MINAS-TEGUCIGALPA, HONDURAS This three-year phase of a long-running project expanded
FUNDING
badly needed microfinance services to the city of Puerto Cortés,
GAC: $93,122
Honduras. The project opened a new microfinance branch and
Rotary clubs and districts: $96,550
conducted two rounds of lending to 250 entrepreneurs in and
TRF: $110,836
around the city. In addition to disbursing the loans, the project
Total project funding: $300,508
provided extensive training in a wide range of topics related to financial literacy and business management, including budgeting, savings and investment, customer service, sales strategies and marketing, and conflict management. Of the 250 entrepreneurs trained, 159 were women. Additionally, 61 percent of the loans in the first cycle and 81 percent in the second were issued to women, many of whom are single mothers. The knowledge they gained and the capital they received will help them achieve a sense of economic stability and independence. As they expanded their businesses, the loan recipients hired 107 employees, reducing local unemployment.
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BY THE NUMBERS 73
Global grants that focused on health, totaling $7,109,037
41
Global grants that focused on education, totaling $5,907,991
17
Global grants that focused on economic development, totaling $2,216,395
72
Across those three categories, grants that focused on children
150,000
Approximate number of children who benefited from the grants
27%
Portion of health grants that focused on improving water sources and sanitation facilities
11
Countries that gained access to potable water and sanitation — improvements that affected 825,000 people
22
Grants that focused on prenatal care and maternal health; 14 of the projects were implemented in eight countries in Africa
2,600
Women who received training about loans that was aimed at expanding their skill sets, abilities, and economic statuses; projects, funded by 22 education and economic development grants, were implemented in 12 countries, with the most — nine — occurring in Honduras
Tolima Phase 4 Agua Segura-Nuevo Ibagué SPONSORS: ROTARY CLUB OF CALGARY AT STAMPEDE PARK, ALBERTA, AND NUEVO IBAGUÉ, COLOMBIA This two-year endeavor, one phase of an ongoing project aimed at disease prevention and improving overall community health, is supplying biosand water-filtration systems that produce clean, drinkable water to thousands of local residents. This phase of the project aims to supply filtration systems to 650 households (hundreds of other households received filtration systems in earlier phases). The project includes three home visits: the filter installation and two follow-up visits for filter inspection. The project also provides training on system maintenance, education related to good hygiene practices, and the administration of antiparasitic medications to participants when necessary. This three-tiered approach — filter installation, health and hygiene training, and medical intervention — should result in significantly fewer people suffering from the debilitating and often deadly impact of parasites. FUNDING GAC: $19,000 Rotary clubs and districts: $21,600 TRF: $29,050 Total project funding: $69,650
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REMEMBER ROTARY Every Rotarian has a legacy. Share yours today. Your actions have enhanced the power of Rotary. Your kindness, drive, and generous support have changed lives. It will take continued dedication like yours to keep Rotary effective for generations to come. When the time is right for you: • Explore options with a Rotary Gift Officer by emailing [email protected] or calling +1-847-866-3100 • Sign in to Freewill.com/TheRotaryFoundation to start your simple, no-cost will • Discuss your intention to remember Rotary with your professional legal adviser
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OUR CLUBS A NEW SOCIETY
ROTARY IN THE NEWS
VIRTUAL VISIT
Marsupial mission Rotary Club of Koala Lovers, Queensland, Australia Zachary Revere’s fervor for conserva-
tion dates to his childhood, when he was inspired by the legendary Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin. “When I was a young kid, he was all I’d watch on television,” says Revere. “He made me passionate about Australia’s beautiful wildlife.” Revere’s parents indulged him with annual cross-country birthday trips to Irwin’s Australia Zoo in Queensland, and in his late teens, Revere began work at Australia’s renowned Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary. “The first six months were just shoveling poo,” Revere recalls, but in the years that followed he moved on to handling snakes, lizards, crocodiles, dingoes, and birds of prey. “Your main job is to care for the animal,” he explains. “You’re capturing some beautiful natural behaviors so they can be on cue for the public.” Revere, who recently earned his law degree, also exhibited a deft touch with people: His campaign for a local council seat caught the attention of Andy Rajapakse, the 2020-21 governor of District 9640. “With Rotary International introducing the environment as our new area
INTEREST-BASED CLUBS
of focus, I conceptualized the Koala Lovers as a cause-based club to attract Generation Z,” says Rajapakse. “Zac was the first person I contacted and shared the idea with. He was surprised a 24-year-old could join a Rotary club.” “I, like many young people, thought Rotary was a place for retirees,” concedes Revere, who’s now 25. “After joining I found the complete opposite. It’s a place for young people to seek opportunity, to learn, and to give back.” Rajapakse and Revere recruited a near-equal measure of members — “Everybody absolutely loves koalas,” after all, Revere says — most of them under 40 and all but one new to Rotary. “Most of them have some tie to conservation,” he says. “Koalas are our cause, but it takes all sorts of people to shape the club, move the club, and make a dent in this cause.” The drive for members centered on the club’s “action-based” approach. Membership dues were initially earmarked for planting eucalyptus trees, whose leaves provide nourishment for koalas. “Even if you just paid the fee you were going to see action,” Revere notes. What’s more, he says, the club offers members more flexibility in paying dues — and Rotary’s flexibility with new forms of membership offered another advantage: A Queensland law firm and the Global Waters English School, which serves 400 students at two locations in Osaka, Japan, became involved through corporate memberships. “When I heard about the club, I thought it was an ideal educational opportunity for the children, not only to learn about the koalas but also to connect with children all over the world and start
STITCHES AND TIME
How to establish a club — and save a species Getting started: The Koala Lovers club began as a satellite club of the Rotary Club of Currumbin Beach, which is based in a Gold Coast suburb. Club founders put out a call to wildlife enthusiasts, and within a few months they had secured enough members to launch the club, which chartered on 18 August 2021 and includes members from Queensland and Japan. Education and advocacy: Preserving Australia’s fauna and flora is the club’s paramount mission. Its meeting speakers, who include representatives of the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary, support that endeavor, providing, among other things, updates on the vaccines to fight the chlamydia that is ravaging the koala population. Another club pillar is mobilizing members to lobby government leaders to better manage the animals’ habitats. A sense of urgency: The Australian Koala Foundation estimates that there are no more than 58,000 koalas left in the country — and the actual count could be far lower. “Without intervention, koalas are on track to become extinct in large areas of eastern Australia as early as 2050,” says Michael Pyne, senior veterinarian and general manager of the Currumbin Wildlife Hospital. Pyne reports that, of the approximately 500 koalas that the hospital treated and released in 2020, 60 percent were critically ill from chlamydia.
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© Rotary International. All Rights Reserved
a global project to save the koalas,” says Karen Waters, who operates the school and is a member of the Rotary Club of Burleigh Heads, a District 9640 club based in a Gold Coast suburb. Teachers from Mexico, Sri Lanka, Germany, and Russia attended an online information session that included a chat with Revere from the Currumbin sanctuary’s koala enclosure. The schoolchildren subsequently launched a fundraising project, creating artwork for a 2022 calendar, with proceeds from its sale going to the club — which then will disburse the money to the Currumbin sanctuary and its hospital for the animals’ care, including vaccines to treat the chlamydia that is rampant in the region’s koala population. “Disease is the No. 1 killer of koalas, so
“Without intervention, koalas are on track to become extinct in large areas of eastern Australia as early as 2050.”
if we can knock that off the list it puts us in good stead,” Revere says. A vaccine offers some hope, he adds, “but at this stage it’s very experimental and expensive,” with the treatment per animal starting at about US$5,000. “Many koala populations in Australia are facing an increased likelihood of extinction that can be attributed to habitat loss and chlamydia,” says Michael Pyne, senior veterinarian and general manager of the Currumbin hospital, which admits about 14,000 native animals annually. Pyne is also a regular speaker at club meetings. “Our members get direct access to Dr. Pyne, which a lot of our members really appreciate,” Revere says. “For aspiring veterinarians, it’s exciting.” Frequent collisions with automobiles also are diminishing the koala population, and so, Revere says, the club has encouraged the installation of signs that warn motorists of the animals’ presence. Laura Gerber, a member of Koala Lovers and also a member of the Queensland Parliament, is helping to advocate for the construction of a proposed “fauna bridge” in the Burleigh Heads community. “We’ve got action teams who are dedicated to certain projects and work to lobby state and local government to do better for the Queensland and New South Wales
koalas,” says Revere. “Rotary is a trusted organization in that they’re not politically motivated. They’re community-driven. If Rotary says it’s a concern, [public officials] take it seriously. ‘Well, if you’re from Rotary, I’d better sit with you and have a chat.’ They respect that opportunity.” Local leaders aren’t the only ones interested in talking with club members. “It’s wonderful to chat with people from all around the world who share our values and our goal to save our precious koalas,” says Georgia Lane, a club member and the head of fundraising for the National Trust of Australia (Queensland). “I enjoy that modern approach to connecting with the community locally, nationally, and internationally.” “We’re dedicated to ensuring that the next generation can live in a world where koalas call Australia home,” adds Revere. “It’s serious, and we’re willing to stake an entire club on it.” — brad webber
From left: Rotary Club of Koala Lovers members Lydia Brown, Jonathan Woodward, and Zachary Revere. Club members work closely with the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary in Queensland. They are raising money for medical equipment and the club’s long-term project focusing on koala vaccinations.
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OUR CLUBS
FOUR QUESTIONS
Each one, bring one — or more Inviting people to become members has always been important. Now, a new society will recognize top sponsors
Tom Gump Rotary Club of Edina/Morningside, Minnesota 2020-21 governor of District 5950
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It is a recognition program for new-member sponsors, with a virtual gallery (accessible through My Rotary) that lists those who have achieved various levels of sponsorship. The program went live in July and includes four recognition levels: Bronze for Rotary members who sponsor 25 to 29 new members into their club, Silver for those who sponsor 30 to 49 members, Gold for those who sponsor 50 to 74 members, and Platinum for those who sponsor 75 or more. Members you bring into a satellite club that is sponsored by your club also count. If you sponsor a new member, you’ll receive a thank-you email from Rotary later that month. Once you reach 25, you’ll receive an email from Rotary letting you know that you are eligible to join the Membership Society.
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Visit the Membership Society for New Member Sponsors virtual gallery at rotary.org/ membership society.
How has the society increased enthusiasm for bringing in new members in your district, and why is this important? When I speak about membership around the world, I can feel the enthusiasm that has been created by the Membership Society for New Member Sponsors. This enthusiasm is reflected in the number of questions I receive on the topic during presentations. The brilliance of Rotary President Shekhar Mehta’s Each One, Bring One initiative is that it turns the traditional view of a membership committee of just a few club members on its head, by making every Rotary and Rotaract member a part of the membership team. The Each One part rightly places the responsibility on every member, encouraging each of us to put effort into the growth that will keep Rotary alive.
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What is Rotary’s Membership Society for New Member Sponsors?
The Bring One part encourages us to focus on one person with whom we can share the gift of Rotary.
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What advice do you have for others on how to talk to prospective members? Listen to what they want out of a club. We need to focus less on how Rotary does what it does and focus more on why. With most of the members I’ve sponsored, the connection began with conversations about the Rotary Youth Exchange students my family and I were hosting at the time; our trip to Honduras to work on a water, sanitation, and hygiene project; and why we were making reusable feminine hygiene packets. There are many reasons to join Rotary, but I find that discussing why Rotary exists — to do good in the world — works best.
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What is Rotary’s best value proposition? The greatest value Rotary offers is the ability to develop lifelong friendships while serving with other members, locally or internationally. I look forward to my weekly club meetings as a chance to catch up with my Rotary friends who live close by. As a result of partnering on a project in South Africa, we also have wonderful friends in Johannesburg whom we look forward to visiting. Our “family” has also increased in size through hosting Youth Exchange students from France, Czech Republic, Korea, Belgium, Spain, and India. To me, all of these friendships are not only worth the price of my membership dues, but they also add a richness to my life that is priceless. Tom Gump is a Zone 29 Innovative Club Advocate, an assistant Rotary coordinator, and a Gold-level member of Rotary’s Membership Society. Illustration by Viktor Miller Gausa
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OUR CLUBS
CALENDAR
April events Over the hills, onto the farm
Arts, crafts, and the Easter Bunny
You ‘auto’ come
Cycle Dindi 22
Lehighton Handmade Spring Craft Show
Mt. Vernon Car Show
Event: Hosts:
Event:
Event: Host:
Rotary Clubs of Yea and Alexandra, Australia
Host:
What it benefits:
What it benefits:
This annual bike ride along the Great Victorian Rail Trail offers three starting points, allowing participants to choose the distance they’ll cycle. All routes converge on the banks of the Goulburn River, at the town of Cathkin, for lunch. The entrance fee also includes admission to a working farm, with a sheepdog demonstration, tea in a shearing shed, and a trailer ride.
More than 40 artisans will display their handmade crafts for purchase at this inaugural spring craft show. Bring the kids and grandkids along; the event also features an egg hunt, an opportunity for photos with the Easter Bunny, and an appearance by Buster the Clown.
Located in Mt. Vernon’s historic town square, the site of an architecturally significant county courthouse, this annual event draws automobile aficionados from miles around to admire an array of classic cars, including antiques, street rods, and muscle cars. Admission is free; car entries cost $25 and include a commemorative T-shirt.
It’s in the bag
A brew-haha
Bags Tournament
Temple Terrace Craft Brewfest
Youth projects Date: 2 April
A beautiful race Event:
Race the Rubeena Host:
Rotary Club of Sale, Australia What it benefits:
Local projects Date: 3 April
Choose to run either a 5K or a 10K between the Port of Sale and a historic swing bridge in Wellington Shire, about two hours east of Melbourne. All ages and fitness levels are welcome at this community fun run that will charm participants with its scenic path.
Rotary Club of Lehighton, Pennsylvania Local projects and educational programs Date: 9 April
Event:
Rotary Club of Mt. Vernon, Missouri What it benefits:
Local scholarships for high school students Date: 30 April
Event:
Host:
Host:
What it benefits:
What it benefits:
The Monroe County Fairgrounds in Waterloo is the site for this club’s firstever bags tournament, which it intends to hold annually. Also known as cornhole, the game involves two-person teams tossing beanbags at a hole in a raised board, promising casual, competitive fun for all ages. Bring cash for food and drinks, as well as for a chance to win a wheelbarrow full of adult beverages.
Live music, food trucks, retail vendors, and plenty of beer keep crowds coming back to this annual festival at a treeshaded park. Tickets include a 4-ounce pilsner glass for unlimited tasting pours of more than 100 craft beers. A selection of canned beers and hard seltzers will also be available for purchase. Children and pets are welcome; bring your own chairs.
Rotary Club of Monroe County, Illinois Local projects Date: 23 April
Rotary Club of Temple Terrace, Florida The Rotary Foundation and local charities and schools Date: 30 April
Tell us about your event. Write to [email protected] with “calendar” in the subject line.
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OUR CLUBS: DISPATCHES FROM OUR SISTER MAGAZINES
ROTARY AFRICA-SOUTH
Serve (wine) to change lives
Rotary Africa-South
The Rotary E-clubs of Hamburg-Connect, Germany, and Greater Cape Town, South Africa, planned the perfect fundraiser around this perfect theme — with a bit of “shaken, not stirred” added. The end result was an online wine-tasting fundraiser that served wine to change lives. Members of Rotary clubs, NGOs, businesses, and their friends gathered from Germany, Namibia, and South Africa to be part of the tasting experience. The guests tasted the exact same wines at the exact same time while listening to a winemaker. This took some careful planning, but it worked brilliantly.
Beautiful wine tasting boxes that included spices and tasting notes were sent to help the guests become future expert wine drinkers. The winemaker walked them through the tasting process, which included smelling and tasting the spices before sipping the wine, and then comparing the senses and wine notes. The tasting was not just virtual, as each of the virtual guests had invited a small group of people to join them at their home to share the tasting experience. At the Nitida wine cellar in Durbanville, South Africa, spirits were raised by the
guests who had been invited to enjoy an exclusive tasting and a meal prepared by the farm restaurant. Among these guests were District 9350 Governor Ian Robertson and his wife, Barbara, Past District Governor Carl-Heinz Duisberg and his wife, Caroline, many Rotarians, and some potential new Rotarians. During the tasting, a wonderful surprise was revealed when 2020-21 Rotary President Holger Knaack joined from Germany, shared a special message, and stayed to enjoy the whole evening. About $2,600 was raised for an early childhood development center in Temperance Town, Gordon’s Bay, South Africa, which is in dire need of upkeep and renovations. Members of the Rotaract Club of False Bay will be greatly involved with this project and add their skills to it.
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OUR CLUBS: DISPATCHES FROM OUR SISTER MAGAZINES We can create our own futures
PHILIPPINE ROTARY
Bamboo: the first line of defense against deforestation The Philippines’ forest cover
is among the most depleted in the world. At the end of the 19th century, 70 percent of the country’s land was forested; now it’s down to 20 percent. This has caused bigger floods, more soil erosion, higher temperatures, and fewer crops. Since trees are the “lungs of the world, performing the function of sequestering carbon,” Edmund Singson, president of the Rotary Club of Makati Central, observes that the need to do sustainable projects on reforestation and increase the capacity of people to take care of the forests has become urgent. Bamboo is bringing some hope in revitalizing deforested areas. “Bamboo is the first line of defense to deforestation,” said Edgardo Manda, president of the Philippine Bamboo Foundation and past president of the Makati Central club, who was the featured speaker on one field trip segment of the virtual Rotary presidential conference beamed from Manila on 27 November. Bamboo grows quickly
and can produce a miniforest in just three years, he added. The plant prevents soil erosion and captures carbon dioxide to address pollution. A community can flourish around a bamboo forest by harvesting poles and shoots from the crop for sustainable livelihood as construction material, charcoal, and food. This leaves forest trees undisturbed and protected because bamboo has given the community an alternative source of livelihood. This was the rationale behind the rehabilitation of Wawa Dam, a critical watershed, especially for Metro Manila, which is experiencing accelerated deforestation. The Indigenous people residing in the watershed produce charcoal for their livelihood by cutting trees. The resulting loss of forest cover has contributed to the heavy flooding in Metro Manila, resulting in severe damage to property, dislocation of families, and economic disruption. Since Manda became its president in 2010, the Philippine Bamboo Foundation has undertaken several nationwide
information and education campaigns on the plant. It has also developed four eco farms and created bamboo villages/ communities, and in so doing also created bamboo forests. It has teamed up with the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) in preparing training materials on bamboo plantation management and development of skills in producing finished products. Manda believes there is a commercial potential worldwide for bamboo products: as a healthy food option, beer, laminated/engineered bamboo lumber, natural fiber, and reinforcement material for housing.
Philippine Rotary
Elora Hardy grew up in the wonderland of Bali, Indonesia, where her father taught her that if you have an idea, you can create it. Her father created a world-renowned designand-build team in Bali called Green School. On its campus is a three-story, triplespiral cathedral innovation in architecture and engineering, made of bamboo. After working abroad, Hardy was lured back to Bali to carry on the work her father started. She founded the IBUKU studio, which has become an incubator of new ideas borne from collaborations between Balinese artisans and innovative designers and architects worldwide. There were no experts on using bamboo in creative architectural designs. Hardy and her father put a whole new industry in motion. The strength of bamboo is comparable to steel and concrete, says Hardy, who has brought bamboo to concrete spaces overseas. In Hong Kong, her company was asked to build a Balinese landscape. In Las Vegas, she was asked to create comfort, texture, and a sense of closeness, “like bringing a sculptural bamboo volcano,” within a warehouse space. It was, quite appropriately, called The Sanctuary. She has created 300 structures around the world, using bamboo. Bamboo construction is combining artistry with technology, hand with machine. The results are beautiful, inspiring, and technically precise, even breathtaking. This is the future, says Hardy. With efficiency of process systems and design, one can build a whole bamboo city within just four years — using forms that are warm, that can hold us, even hug us, that are enclosed and yet still a part of nature. Elora Hardy was a keynote speaker at the Rotary presidential conference in Manila in November.
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OUR CLUBS Tips for placing your news stories Making Rotary’s impact more visible helps the organization connect with people who don’t know about Rotary. It also inspires more engagement, participation, and support. So when you’re working with journalists to identify timely and relevant stories that convey Rotary’s impact in a compelling way, make sure your story pitch includes as many of these elements as possible:
Rotary in the news
I
n 2021, Rotary’s Communications team secured more than 300 news stories in a variety of international media outlets. Those stories focused on Rotary’s efforts to end polio, support COVID-19 mitigation and vaccination efforts, protect the environment, and empower girls.
‘A big heart full of love’
With its distinctive blend of memorable melodies, slick choreography, and attractive performers who sing and dance in synchronized perfection, K-pop enjoys a huge fandom all over the world. And one of its most popular acts is the seven-member boy band BTS. Some Rotary members in Korea are among K-pop’s biggest fans, so they were thrilled when Jimin, one of the best-known members of BTS, pitched in to promote Rotary and its efforts to end polio. Inspired by Rotary’s dedication to that cause, Jimin donated 100 million won (US$88,000) before World Polio Day 2021 to Rotary’s global polio eradication efforts. When the donation was acknowledged during Rotary International President Shekhar Mehta’s presidential conference in Gyeongju, Korea, in October, Rotary’s Korea office worked with Rotarians to contact the media. KBS and other Korean and international outlets reported on the donation, and Rotary’s brand skyrocketed on social media.
Getty Images
Polio campaign for children in Afghanistan
When Voice of America, the U.S.-funded international broadcaster, reported on the resumption of polio immunization campaigns in Afghanistan, it included an interview with Carol Pandak, director of Rotary’s PolioPlus program. “We need to continue immunizing children against polio and intensify our disease detection systems so that with so few cases we’ll be able
to tell and prove that there is no polio circulating,” said Pandak, who was quoted extensively in the report. A Rotary club for refugees
Just ahead of World Refugee Day on 20 June, Rotary’s South Pacific and Philippines office connected with the Rotaract Club of Illawarra, Australia, a club formed by refugees, and shared the club’s story with Australian Broadcasting Corporation Radio. Zeinab Azimi, who relocated to Australia from Iran and is the club’s 2021-22 president, appeared as a guest on a talk show focused on people from different cultural backgrounds. The Illawarra Mercury also featured a photo and interview with Azimi. Shame no more
In India, about 23 percent of girls drop out of school once they start menstruating. To address this issue, Rotary has made promoting the health needs of women and girls a top priority in the local communities. When Srinidhi S U, a member of the Rotaract Club of Swarna Bengaluru, was recognized on 11 October, International Day of the Girl Child, as one of six Rotary People of Action: Champions of Girls’ Empowerment for raising awareness about menstrual hygiene, Rotary’s South Asia office secured an exclusive story about Srinidhi in YourStory.com, one of India’s leading digital platforms dedicated to entrepreneurship.
A news hook: A clear reason for telling a story at a particular time Timeliness: News that is about to occur, ongoing, or near completion Proximity: News related to issues, people, or events within the location of a particular media organization and its audience Human interest: News that elicits sympathy or emotional response Prominence: Stories that involve public figures, celebrities, and notable personalities Consequence: News about the result of something that has significant impact on the news organization’s audience or an influencer’s followers Data: Relevant statistics and research that support the story Visual appeal: New or unique and attentiongetting images that dramatically convey the message To learn more about securing news coverage of your stories of impact, check out the Learning Center course “Public Relations and Your Club” at rotary. org/learn.
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SERVICE ABOVE SELF THE OBJECT OF ROTARY The Object of Rotary is to encourage and foster the ideal of service as a basis of worthy enterprise and, in particular, to encourage and foster: First The development of acquaintance as an opportunity for service; Second High ethical standards in business and professions, the recognition of the worthiness of all useful occupations, and the dignifying of each Rotarian’s occupation as an opportunity to serve society;
TRUSTEE CHAIR’S MESSAGE
Third The application of the ideal of service in each Rotarian’s personal, business, and community life;
Seize the moment What’s your Rotary moment — a time that strengthened your dedication to Rotary and confirmed you would be a lifetime Rotarian? I have had many such moments over the years, and they all had one thing in common: They showed me Rotary’s tangible power of turning our dreams of a better world into reality. Rotary members are exceptional at it. I see that power in my own club in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and now, as Rotary Foundation trustee chair, in clubs and districts around the world. Rotary members from Austria, Germany, Nigeria, and Switzerland are realizing their dream to help mothers and children in Nigeria. In partnership with several organizations, they have launched a multiyear, large-scale project to reduce unwanted births and drive down rates of maternal and child mortality. This project, once a vision of a few members but now the recipient of Foundation global grants, is training doctors, nurses, and midwives throughout all 36 states of Nigeria. Every great project begins in the minds of our members. You are the ones who see schools that adolescent girls have stopped attending because of the lack of private bathrooms. You are the ones who see families facing food shortages, children who can’t read, and communities with health problems caused by mosquitoes. Not only do you see these things, because you are in Rotary, you also do something about them. And because of your engagement,
Illustration by Viktor Miller Gausa
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over the past decade, the amount of money the Foundation has awarded for global grants has grown by more than 100 percent. As more and more Rotarians have become involved, to keep our grants going we have had to adjust and stretch those funds by reducing overhead and by other means. The reason is simple: While the need for these projects is increasing and grant participation is also on the rise, annual giving from Rotary members has stayed relatively static for years. Quite simply, we need more clubs and individuals to give to the Annual Fund to help keep our district and global grant programs thriving. This year, we set a goal of raising $125 million for the Annual Fund. We can’t realize your Rotary dreams or those of your fellow members without everyone’s support. Remember: It’s not about the money, but about what our money can do. I am a firm believer that when we all give what we can, both as clubs and individuals, to the Foundation every year, we take another step toward making the world a better place. Imagine the Rotary dreams we could make real if every member and every club got together and made a gift to our Foundation today. That would be quite a Rotary moment — for all of us.
JOHN F. GERM
Foundation trustee chair
Fourth The advancement of international understanding, goodwill, and peace through a world fellowship of business and professional persons united in the ideal of service.
THE FOUR-WAY TEST Of the things we think, say, or do: 1. Is it the truth? 2. Is it fair to all concerned? 3. Will it build goodwill and better friendships? 4. Will it be beneficial to all concerned?
ROTARIAN CODE OF CONDUCT The following code of conduct has been adopted for the use of Rotarians: As a Rotarian, I will 1. Act with integrity and high ethical standards in my personal and professional life 2. Deal fairly with others and treat them and their occupations with respect 3. Use my professional skills through Rotary to: mentor young people, help those with special needs, and improve people’s quality of life in my community and in the world 4. Avoid behavior that reflects adversely on Rotary or other Rotarians 5. Help maintain a harassment-free environment in Rotary meetings, events, and activities, report any suspected harassment, and help ensure non-retaliation to those individuals that report harassment.
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OUR CLUBS
FOLLOW YOUR BLISS
HANDBOOK
Common ground Interest-based clubs inspire new members to dig in
In January 2020, RI Presidentelect Holger Knaack made an impassioned plea for Rotary to revitalize itself by “creating unique clubs for younger people.” For Gary Kao, who joined the Rotary Club of Taipei North, Taiwan, a decade ago, something clicked. He immediately launched an effort that has paid remarkable dividends. In the space of three months, Kao helped start three new interest-based clubs, drawing about 200 new Rotarians into the fold. A fourth club was chartered in December, and Kao and his team are also helping an existing club expand by moving to an interest-based model. “These new clubs really attract people, especially young people, who might not have wanted to join Rotary otherwise,” notes Kao, a 59-year-old information technology expert. “They love to come, and find that Rotary is a good way to meet new friends.” Based on his experiences, Kao offers these tips to other Rotarians who are considering launching interest-based clubs. — steve almond
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Kao adhered to a simple rule in conceiving his new clubs: Trust that your interests will appeal to others. Thus, as a triathlete who loves gourmet food and belongs to an art organization, Kao helped launch the Rotary Clubs of Taipei Triathlete, Taipei Long Distance Runner, Taipei Gourmet, and Taipei Art. His passion for these hobbies, and the community that already existed around them, made the clubs an instant success and provided a model for younger Rotarians. This year his Rotary district plans to launch a club with a cycling theme, and he has inspired other districts in Taiwan to establish interest-based clubs, including one for mountain climbers and another for triathletes. Kao has also found that appealing to people’s passions creates a deep and immediate sense of devotion to the clubs. For example, the Taipei Gourmet club raised a whopping $52,000 for The Rotary Foundation — in its first year.
LEVERAGE YOUR PERSONAL NETWORK In considering who might lead these clubs, Kao didn’t organize a search committee. He reached out to his friends, folks such as Renny Ling, a promoter of Ironman competitions, and Nathan Lin, a local wine enthusiast and merchant. The benefits of this kind of personal recruitment are twofold: The charter presidents of the first three clubs he formed were all younger than 50, yet they had their own experience in recruitment and vast personal networks to tap.
USE SEMINARS AND SOCIAL MEDIA Kao recognized from the start that interest-based clubs would thrive by bringing together people who shared particular passions. He recommends a robust slate of seminars and speaking events, promoted via social media sites, which can draw interest from folks who know little to nothing about Rotary. Illustrations by James Graham
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HAVE A CLEAR PROCESS IN MIND For all his enthusiasm, Kao is quite methodical in his approach to launching a new club. He created a module called Club Building Blocks, which consists of four elements: feature, support, promotion, and administration. The first step is to form interest groups within an existing club, based on its members’ skills and hobbies (feature).
THINK OF NEW MEMBERS AS SEEDS
Then, appoint an experienced Rotarian in each interest group to serve as an adviser (support). Each group communicates its concept to prospective members through social media, gatherings, and speakers (promotion). When an interest group has recruited enough members, the adviser can help them submit a club application to Rotary International (administration).
When one of his interest-based clubs signs up a new member, Kao regards that member as a potential publicist and recruiter who might also compel others to join the fold. This mindset creates the possibility of exponential growth. Kao also credits Rotary’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, which encouraged him to think more expansively about how to increase enthusiasm for Rotary.
DARE TO DREAM BIG
Kao has a reverence for the traditions of Rotary, but he admits that his big ideas endured a lot of skepticism. “We need to find a breakthrough to the current bottleneck of 1.2 million Rotarians,” Kao says. “That takes determination and trying new approaches, even when people question you.”
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OUR CLUBS
The happiness of helping others Cliff Dochterman, 1925-2021
Cliff Dochterman liked to tell the story
of presiding over his first meeting as president of the Rotary Club of Berkeley, California, in 1964. “I stepped up to the rostrum,” he recalled, “and I grabbed that gavel in my right hand, the bell in my left hand, and whang! I missed the bell, and I broke the index finger on my left hand.” Dochterman related that selfdeprecating tale in a speech he delivered often, including at a 2001 presidents-elect training seminar. Called “If I Could Be President Again,” it was a prime example of why Dochterman, the 1992-93 president of Rotary International, was in demand as a speaker: 15 minutes of rapid-fire one-liners, most of which provoked hearty laughter, followed by a sincere 20-minute exhortation in which he encouraged the assembled men and women to make the most of their year as their clubs’ presidents. Clifford L. Dochterman died in Stockton, California, on 23 November. He was 95. Known for his ready smile and lively sense of humor, Dochterman was recognized around the world as one of the premier spokespersons for Rotary. He was also celebrated for his positive outlook on life: His presidential theme was Real Happiness Is Helping Others.
IN MEMORIAM With deep regret, we report the deaths of Sushil Gupta, Delhi Midwest, India, who served RI as director in 2003-05 and district governor in 1986-87; Tadami Saito, Toyota, Japan, who served RI as director in 2016-18 and district governor in 200607; and Kyun Kim, BusanDongrae, Korea, who served RI as director in 2019-21 and district governor in 2011-12. In addition, we report the deaths of the following Rotarians who served RI as district governors:
“My wife, Usha, and I became close friends of Cliff and his wife Dorothy,” said Rajendra Saboo, RI’s 1991-92 president. “Dorothy always made people happy, and Cliff did so even more. Dorothy suffered from cancer, which took her life in 1987. Cliff once confided in me that when God met Dorothy, he’d ask what she did in the world, and she would reply that she made people happy. When Cliff was nominated as RI president, I told him that happiness would be in his theme. And so it was.” “Cliff Dochterman was, and remains, a brilliant beacon of light about service and Rotary,” said Peter Lagarias, a past governor of District 5150 (California), in a tribute to his longtime friend. “Cliff inspired Rotarians everywhere when he went across the country and around the world. And their inspired deeds continue to be of benefit to all concerned.” Dochterman retired in 1990 after 40 years in higher education administration, including 20 years at the University of California and 18 as executive vice president of the University of the Pacific.
There, he was instrumental in getting funding for new campus buildings and establishing the development office and the school’s Community Involvement Program. When he retired, his colleagues and friends created an endowment in his name. “You can achieve almost anything if you’re not looking for personal credit,” insisted Dochterman. A member of the Rotary Club of Moraga, California, Dochterman joined Rotary in 1958; he was also the charter president of the Rotary Club of University Hills (Denver). In addition to his term as RI president — when he was a member of the Rotary Club of North Stockton — he served as RI vice president and as Rotary Foundation trustee and trustee chair. He was one of the architects of Rotary’s Health, Hunger and Humanity (3-H) program, and he was recognized for his leadership in creating the PolioPlus program. Dochterman was married to Dorothy Coset from 1954 until her death in 1987. In 1994, he married Mary Elena Straub, who died in 2013. He is survived by two children, Claudia and Clifford Jr.; two stepdaughters, Elena and Karen; and six grandchildren. Cliff and Mary Elena Dochterman were Rotary Foundation Major Donors and Benefactors. He received The Rotary Foundation’s Citation for Meritorious Service, Distinguished Service Award, PolioPlus Pioneer Award, and Service Award for a Polio-Free World. “Cliff was a person who lived his life to the full,” concluded Saboo. “He was an author, orator, philosopher, and visionary. Indeed, with his talent, he lifted Rotary to Himalayan heights.”
Andrew G. Uram Washington, Pennsylvania, 1985-86
Elias E. Ezra Bridgewater-Bound Brook, New Jersey, 2001-02
Laurence Kouassi-Mockey Abidjan-Golf, Côte d’Ivoire, 2005-06
Ralph H. Bowden Crescent (Greensboro), North Carolina, 1988-89
Herbert A. Wilson Iowa City A.M., Iowa, 2001-02
Adebayo Ayodele Oni Akure, Nigeria, 2007-08
Robert Héline Cambrai, France, 2002-03
Yves Dubus Douai-Val de Scarpe, France, 2012-13
Isaac Omire Jemide Warri, Nigeria, 1989-90 Robert A. Hillberry Washington, Pennsylvania, 1994-95 James M. Scott Stratford, Ontario, 1995-96 Eiichi Matsuta Sendai Izumi, Japan, 1997-98
Odoliyi Lolomari Port Harcourt GRA, Nigeria, 2003-04
Marian Jerzy Korczynski Lodz, Poland, 2017-18
Toyoaki Fujibayashi Yokohama Tsurumi North, Japan, 2004-05
Toru Shinohara Takamatsu East, Japan, 2020-21
Taira Kikuchi E-Club of 2730 Japan Current, Japan, 2005-06
Gérard Belloche-Saint Paul Vesoul, France, 2021
© Rotary International. All Rights Reserved
IN MEMORIAM
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2022 CONVENTION
the Rotary International Convention each year is its wide range of breakout sessions. These sessions provide opportunities to explore topics that interest you and to gather inspiration from your fellow Rotary members. At the 2022 convention in Houston, 4-8 June, you can choose from dozens of breakout sessions that will help you sharpen your leadership skills and get new ideas on how to strengthen your club’s membership, implement sustainable projects, and more.
Some of the sessions cover membership topics, such as helping your club grow (Building Your Club-Specific Membership Growth Plan), putting diversity, equity, and inclusion into practice (Eliminating Roadblocks to Diversifying Your Club), and adapting to flexible meeting models (What’s the Hype About Hybrid Meetings?). Sessions focusing on service include those that provide tips for developing successful projects (Designing Results-Oriented Service Projects), offer guidance for coordinating specific activi-
CROSSWORD
Again, where’s the convention? By Victor Fleming Rotary Club of Little Rock, Arkansas
ties (Organize a Local Addiction Prevention Activity), and promote strategies for expanding your capabilities (Enhance Your Club’s Impact and Reach Through Rotary Community Corps). You can also learn how to engage young leaders (Building Rotary’s Future Through Youth Programs), hear best practices for sharing your
Rotary story (Demystifying Resources for Promoting Rotary), and get an overview of where the organization is headed (Rotary’s Action Plan for the Future). Breakout sessions will be held 6-8 June. Registration is not required; seating is available on a first-come, firstserved basis. — john m. cunningham
Learn more and register at convention.rotary.org.
ACROSS 1 Whom HST succeeded 4 “In your dreams!” 8 Run the ____ 13 Thompson of acting 14 At present 16 Pen pal? 17 Host’s landmark indoor stadium 19 Building extension 20 Connection, for an ad rep 21 It may be loose 23 Sch. founded by Jefferson 24 Edible legume 26 Surfer’s phrase 29 Carefree quality 32 Arles article 35 Bronx neighbor 36 Rickman or Colmes 37 Beau for a doe 39 Male mouser 40 President pro ____ 41 Host’s NBAers 43 Partook of a meal 46 Succession network 48 Long deli sandwich 49 Told a fabulous story? 50 Sags 53 Adriatic or Bering 54 “Beware the ____ of March” 55 “I’ll take that wager!” 57 Marina ____ Rey
59 60 63 67 70 72 73 74 75 76 77
Zorba’s N’s Ray, as of light Not as soon Top story, perhaps Host’s nickname Emulates a mouser Quinine-flavored drink Zorba’s H “Then again, I could be wrong” ____ moss (gardener’s buy) Managed, as a business
DOWN 1 Like a pancake in a saying 2 Actor/musician Arnaz 3 Postage amount 4 Make amends 5 Roll for a lawn 6 Worshipped celebrity 7 What worshipped celebrities have 8 Federal purchasing agcy. 9 Barley’s botanical beard 10 With “Park,” host’s MLB arena 11 Odd 12 Host’s NFLers 15 Slangy affirmative 18 Get a bit older, say
22 Browsers’ assistance abbreviation 25 Too 27 Pecan and acorn 28 Thermal start? 29 “Dig in!” 30 Amber drink 31 Host’s namesake 33 Carve with acid 34 “Gracious ____ alive!” 38 Arbitrage actor Richard 41 Cowhand’s cord 42 Frog’s kin 44 Kickoff specialist’s aid 45 Rotary magazine VIPs 47 35-Across, for one (abbr.) 49 Pale purple 50 Host’s MLSers 51 Data-sending computer device 52 Cry aloud 56 Hawk’s home 58 Put into office 61 Per person 62 Locks of a lion 64 Wedding cake layer 65 James or Kett 66 Meg or Irene 68 ____ Jima 69 Winter setting in Evanston, Ill. 71 Spy grp. Solution on page 23
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Rotary International
One of the highlights of
Shutterstock.com Shutterstock.com
Breakout sessions
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FOUND Stitches and time Rotarian has made quilt paintings for the past seven RI presidents
Rod Buffington Rotary Club of Springfield, Illinois Buffington made this quilt painting for Rotary Foundation Trustee Chair John F. Germ when Germ served as the 2016-17 RI president.
MY QUILT PAINTINGS ARE DRAWN on handmade paper. I start painting areas, then collage fabric on the paper. On most paintings, I handstitch with silk thread around the painted and fabric areas. The paintings are mounted on a fabric background and framed. From the start of my design thoughts to the finished painting, it takes more than 120 hours. I USE A “ZERO BRUSH.” It is one of the tiniest brushes with the fewest hairs that you can buy. I paint every-
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thing with them, even the larger areas of the painting.
I HAVE TO POKE HOLES by hand before I can stitch. If I were to go through the paper with the needle and thread, it would tear the paper. If I make one little mistake on a hole, I could ruin the whole painting.
THE ROTARY PRESIDENT SERIES started with 2015-16 President K.R. Ravindran and has continued through this year with Shekhar Mehta. This idea came to me as a way to sell
prints of the paintings to Rotary members to help the End Polio Now campaign. I have also donated the original painting to each president’s collection. The paintings always depict the presidential theme logo.
THE NATIONAL QUILT MUSEUM has one of my pieces on display. Located in Paducah, Kentucky, the museum is a golden treasure in our country. One can see award-winning, great quilts made by quilt artists from throughout our country and the world. Photography by Doug Carr
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Promote your club. Inspire your community. Visit the Brand Center to access promotional materials and resources to share your club’s stories of impact and show your community we’re people of action. You’ll find:
Templates to create club logos and custom promotions
Ads, photos, and videos that show Rotary in action
uidance to apply G Rotary colors and design elements
Use these tools to update your website, social media accounts, and community outreach materials. Get started at rotary.org/brandcenter.
DISCOVER NEW HORIZONS AT THE 2022 ROTARY INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION IN HOUSTON, TEXAS, USA, 4-8 JUNE 2022 Build connections. Exchange ideas. Share successes. Register today at convention.rotary.org. And invite a friend to join you. Nonmembers are welcome to register and attend.