Ashley Burman, a Young Rotary leader who joined our Club last fall, introduced tech executive Margo Day, who co-founded the Mekuno Project with World Vision. Margo said how much she loves that our motto is “Rotarians Inspire Hope”; as that is what her talk is about, she knows that this power is transformative. Her time in 3rd grade set the foundation for her life of helping people and in particular, girls, which she would see to fruition when she visited Kenya with World Vision in 2009.
She learned about the practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) and child marriage that is prevalent in tribes in rural Kenya. 200 million women have undergone FGM as it is a prerequisite for a 12-year-old to be married. She heard about girls as young as 8-years-old that run away to avoid FGM and go to “rescue centers.” She saw two things in these girls: determination for a better life and desire to be loved as a valuable child. She said that she never would have had the courage that those did.
Day then worked with World Vision to construct schools for girls that grew from 69 female students to now over 200! She realized that parents need to have a (financial) alternative to “the cut” and that alternative was schooling.
The root causes of FGM and child marriage are:
Extreme Poverty
Lack of Education
Cultural Norms
The girls need to “provide a bride price for her family,” so these programs teach them techniques of farming (how to plant additional crops and nutritional ones) and to overproduce to sell as cash crops. Girls and families are now being empowered economically. Their program has reached over 500,000 people at the cost of $30 million; Day says their approach works throughout Kenya.
This is leading to “lives being transformed.” Before World Vision’s Big Dream, FGM was being practiced in over 90% of the villages and now, less than ten years later, it’s down to under 10%!
President Jimmy opened the meeting and looking back on our Club’s involvement with Seattle’s Day of Service last weekend. He said there is still one more way to be involved and that is to sign up to give blood before the end of May through Bloodworks NW.
Trish Bostrom and Marli Iverson on two grand pianos (with Linda Rough filming) led us in a live version of Rodgers and Hart’s “Blue Moon,” which was followed by Rabbi Daniel Weiner’s inspiration, a “clarion call for equal treatment and a call for justice for the women of the world”.
President Jimmy announced that he was turning over the meeting to our Young Rotary Leaders to lead us in the remainder of the program and in particular, Tabitha Claus, who joined our Club in 2020. She is a 5th generation Rotarian who was part of the Rotary Young Exchange and traveled to the Czech Republic thirteen years ago via the Lewis River Rotary Club in Battle Ground. She introduced us to Emily Fain of Mercer Island who is getting ready to travel to Spain as part of Rotary’s Youth Exchange Program and is looking forward to having this experience that will open doors for her and increase her exposure to the global community. Tabitha wants to see our Club more involved in these exchanges and is excited for Emily and the other Rotary Exchange students.
Tabitha encouraged you to contact her if you want to learn more or get involved: tabithaclaus@gmail.com and visit the Youth Exchange website, www.rotaryyouth5030.org.
Our District 5030 offers one-month exchanges over the summer. Start thinking of students that would want to participate next summer and get them connected to our district committee.
President Jimmy concluded the meeting by encouraging us to remember those who have given their lives for us to enjoy the lifestyle we are able to live in the United States on Monday, May 30th Memorial Day/Day of Remembrance. He is going to be taking part in the Renton Memorial Day service and focusing on four people from Renton that represent the four military branches that made the ultimate sacrifice. Please help to memorialize these Americans who have given their lives in our own way at 3:00 PM on Monday.
Thank you to meeting reporter Dann Mead Smith for this write-up of our recent meeting! Interested in becoming a meeting reporter for a future meeting? Please email Mary Goldie at mary@seattlerotary.org.
