Coping with technology resulted in a delayed start to the Zoom meeting of about 15 minutes – but a speedy rock version of O Canada by the DuBay Band, accompanied by flashing videos from across the country made up a bit for that - (https://www.dubayband.com/videos.html).

President Doug’s Thought for the Week was the following quote from Paul Harris: “This is a changing world; we must be prepared to change with it. The story of Rotary will have to be written again and again.”

ANNOUNCEMENTS/ROTARY MOMENTS

President Doug acknowledged the passing of Frank Gramiak (Ed Gramiak’s brother) on March 4th, at the age of 75 and expressed sincere condolences to Ed and the Gramiak family on behalf of all the members of Charleswood Rotary Club.

The District talk Show originally scheduled for February 4th (which was Zoom-bombed) was held this past Thursday evening (March 4th). Of the 68 Rotarians in attendance, seven were from our Rotary club. There were three interesting presentations once it got started. (There was a delay of at least 15 minutes to have everyone identify themselves onscreen, by including their club name as part of their name. All to do with site security.) President Doug advised members planning to attend future District Evening Talk Shows to sign in early so that the program can start on time.

The next District Evening Talk Show will take place on March 18th at 8:00 pm CDT (ON & MB) / 7:00 pm CST (SK) with the topic of Water and Sanitation, which is the R.I. theme for the month of March.

The next Director Dialogue will be on March 10th 6:00pm to 7:30pm – Central Time. (7:00pm Eastern). Guest speaker will be RI President-Elect Shekar Mehta. He will share his thoughts on ‘Positive Peace’. To register for this online meeting, go to the Zone 28 -32 Clubrunner site - find ‘Directors Dialogue’ under the Webinars tab.

The 2021 District 5550 Conference will take place online on Friday, May 14th and Saturday May 15th. As the Covid-19 pandemic continues to keep us physically distant, the Conference will be presented as an exclusive online interactive experience. The conference host is the Rotary Club of Melfort and the program will include: Youth Engagement, Entrepreneurship & Philanthropy, Community Involvement & Fundraising, Mental Wellbeing and Indigenous Relations. Online registration should be available soon.

The Sioux Lookout Rotary Club is involved in a Global Grant providing Ophthalmology services in southern Peru. As part of this program, they are collecting used eyewear. If interested contact Tara Drew of the Sioux Lookout club whose email address is tara.m.drew@gmail.com and whose mailing address (if you’re sending used eyeglasses) is Tara Drew, 2 Hannah Cres Sioux Lookout, ON P8T 1G8

Jack reported that he had spoken recently with Margaret Hemphill, who told him that there was a good response to the article in the Neighbours of Charleswood’s interview of Al Roberts dealing with our club’s Assiniboine Forest projects. He also mentioned that President Doug will be preparing a press release about our projects in the Assiniboine Forest to local media in the coming week.

PDG Nancy introduced our guest speakers.

Victor Belendez, a Rotarian since 1985 (in the Izcalli Rotary Club, D4170 in Mexico), served as DG 97/98 and has been a Training Leader in one Governor-Nominee Training Seminar, six Governor-Elect Training Seminars and two International Assemblies. Bob Miller, with degrees in Electronics and Psychology, is a former international entrepreneur, author, speaker and management training consultant who has traveled to 47 countries and worked with companies and individuals in 21 countries. Initially a member of the Mountain Hills Rotary Club of Evergreen, Colorado in District 5450, he is currently a member of Rotary eClub One.

The presentation to our club began with Bob Miller’s moving description of how a vacation week spent volunteering at an orphanage in Guadalajara, Mexico (and subsequent personal experiences) changed his life and eventually led to his becoming the volunteer Executive Director and Vision Holder of a new initiative called Sustainable Family Communities, a non-profit that provides opportunities for people living in extreme poverty.

Victor Belendez followed up with a description of how the non-profit operates to reduce poverty and thereby reduce the number of children placed in orphanages in Mexico.

It turns out that Bob’s experience involved “synchronicity” which has been described by Carl Yung as “an ever-present reality for those who have eyes to see”, and by Deepak Chopra as “God sending us messages anonymously”. Another way to define synchronicity is the coincidental occurrence of events – especially psychic events. Between 1991 and 1992

• Bob’s 7-year marriage to a participant of one of his workshops was ended by mutual agreement after he’d been away with his work for more than 5 weeks.
• Stressed, he decided to take a volunteer vacation in the only week available in his schedule – a week “over top of” Thanksgiving – in Mexico (where he could learn more Spanish) and specifically in Guadalajara - as suggested by two Mexican participants in one of his international workshops taking place in Las Vegas.
• He called the Mexican Consulate in Chicago, and was given the names of two organizations in Guadalajara where he could donate some time while there.
• When he got to Mexico, he learned from the taxi driver that one of the two organizations no longer existed and when he got to the second organization, he learned that they didn’t need any help in the coming week. Now what?
• He walked down the block from that location and stopped at a bookstore, where he thought he could find something to help him with his broken Spanish. The lady at the front desk, speaking perfect “North American English” indicated that the morning newspaper had a list of 30-35 organizations needing help – and that she knew the lady in charge of the orphanage listed there – “and she always needs help!”.
• The lady at the bookstore called her friend and learned that indeed their orphanage did need help. On arrival at that orphanage, he learned from Senora Hilda that they had 100 children there because another orphanage had recently closed and their children were now at this facility. Some were up in the infirmary, some in the nursery, and the rest of them were in school at that time of day – except for a 10-year old boy sitting on the steps behind her. This lad was asked to give their guest (Bob) a tour of the place and to teach Bob more Spanish.
• The week that followed hit Bob “like an emotional brick” as he learned the background of the different orphans from Senora Hilda. The stories made him cry as he went to bed each night. At the end of that week, Bob asked if he could come back, and she said “yes”. So he rented an apartment in Guadalajara, from where he continued his international trips which kept him away 3-6 weeks at a time, but when he was there, he would help out at the orphanage – painting, working in the garden, and so on. In the second year of doing that, when he came home he discovered that two brothers from the orphanage had moved into his apartment. Turns out that Raphael had passed away and Senora Hilda could not run the orphanage by herself, so they closed it down.
• The adoption of these two boys in Mexico took five years for the adoption and immigration papers to be completed, during which time they moved to Pueblo, Colorado (a high Hispanic area).
• A year later the boys had jobs and got their own apartment, leaving “Dad” to do something else of a social nature – he took on the role as a co-director of a non-profit organization in southern Colorado.
• Bob had a constant nagging thought about what had happened to the 98 other orphans (who were still in his heart) after Senora Hilda’s orphanage had closed and that he hadn’t been able to help. The question was – is there a way that we could prevent more children from ending up in orphanages and institutions – or if they are already in the orphanages and institutions, is there a way where we can help more of them get out and into families?
• In 2008 Bob learned that it had been his adopted younger son that had been with Senora Hilda when Bob first came to the orphanage and that the boy had had an overwhelming feeling that he had to stay there and hid until the other kids left for school – and he had been discovered by Senora Hilda shortly before Bob had arrived.
• “It’s like God said to that kid ‘Now you stay here today because the guy who is going to adopt you and your brother (he has no idea he is going do this)’…” is going to show up …”so he has to get to know who you are.”
• Since extreme poverty and its effects are responsible for children being placed into orphanages, Bob (and others) are involved in organizing a non-profit called “Sustainable Family Communities”- a job-creating initiative - to address this problem.

All the income from this initiative will go for

1. Ongoing training for the workers and their families
2. Development of a small poverty-free residential community near the businesses created
3. Having each functioning community starting one more such community each year (resulting in an exponential growth in jobs), and
4. Donating to other organizations that are doing community development in the area.

Bob concluded “This is where faith and divine guidance comes in and gets me where I need to be. I have faith in knowing that what we’re doing in this work is the right thing to do. And as for synchronicity, guidance and destiny, I say bring them on! I love to see them coming. And even if I don’t see them coming, I know I’m living it.”

Responses to questions produced the following information from both Bob Miller and Victor Belendez:

• Initially, the kind of businesses that Sustainable Family Communities starts with donated land (30 to 100 hectares = 74 to 247 acres) to ensure that there is commitment that people in Mexico (or in any other country) want this. Immediately after the land is there, the non-profit subcontracts with farmers in the area to start using the land (since they have the expertise and equipment). The primary businesses that are encouraged are multiple greenhouses that will create multiple jobs. Then other small businesses are added in the community to create more jobs.
• The primary sources of funding for this are philanthropists, foundations and grants.
• If a member of the community wishes to sell their share in the community, they have to sell it back to the non-profit - Sustainable Family Communities – so that the local drug lord doesn’t start buying off the community there.
• All ownership of the key assets (greenhouses, land and so on) belongs to the non-profit.
• The building of these communities is just starting in Mexico – the process was interrupted by COVID-19.
• The communities will start with an education centre, an activity centre and a small clinic, but as two or three small communities grow next to each other, there can be a school and a larger clinic serving the communities.

Mandy thanked Bob Miller for sharing his story and informed him that she and her co-partner in the “Talking Rotary” Podcast planned to interview him about their project to spread the word of their good work. Bob made the point that this is a project for people who want to see less poverty, fewer orphans, fewer drug problems, less homelessness – beginning with areas of extreme poverty. There is growing poverty in Mexico – with studies published in March 2020 - anticipating between 16 and 18 million additional people in extreme poverty by the end of the year.

Chuck officially thanked Bob and Victor for coming and speaking to us about their remarkable project. PDG Nancy informed our speakers that she will be sharing their information with clubs in our district and that was okay with both of them.