The Rotary International theme for February is Peace and Conflict Prevention. As a member of a club operating here in Northern Thailand, I can’t help but think of all the migrants and refugees who we come into contact with – most of whom are living here to escape (often oppressive and deadly) conflict in their home country. I like to throw out challenges in my monthly Presidential Message, and this month is no different. Please consider spending time to think about what you can do to reduce conflict in your life and help increase peace at home and right here in our community. Peace is more than just the absence of war.

In January 2022, Rotarian Bill and Nicha Trempus continued to work on the CMIRC “Free Food For The Poor” Initiative. They assembled and donated survival food packets to migrant work camps in Chiang Dao and Hang Dong and gave basic non-perishable food staples to the Urban Light Foundation on behalf of the Chiang Mai International Rotary Club.

The Children’s Winter Clothing Appeal Project, which I co-champion with my wife, Viki, completed two deliveries in January. Our trip to a Karen hill tribe in Sop Khong, Omkoi District of Chiang Mai Province was highly eventful. It would be an understatement to say that the village was hard to access – my family got stuck overnight and we had to enlist help from the local government to tow us up the mountain. Needless to say, we got home and plan to complete our final delivery in the next few days.

Club Secretary and Project Champion, Nick Dale, has continued to work on our “Teddy Bear” Initiative and has successfully gotten more teddies into the arms of their new owners. Project Champion Nick has also established “Teddy Land” (fancy name for a storage room!) inside his home to house teddies that are still awaiting deployment.

New patients (all children) have arrived at the Burma Children Medical Fund’s B.K. Kee Patient House. Project Champion and Sergeant-at-Arms Bill Pierce, Secretary Nick and his spouse, Pink, dropped off supplies twice, but could not stay and socialize with the patients and caregivers due to COVID-19 restrictions.

Charter President Roger Lindley, Treasurer Nancy Lindley, Sergeant-at-Arms Bill Pierce, and Rotarian Bill Trempus continued their work to help form a foundation to support our long-term efforts of improving children’s safety, health, and education in Northern Thailand.

Even though government schools remain largely closed, we’ve made some progress with the club’s School Vision Screening Project. Project Champion John Schorr, Rotarian Clarence Shettlesworth, and our soon to be inducted Honorary Member, Phijitra Schorr, spent time meeting with Project Partners Optician One of Chom Jun Optic and Ophthalmologist Dr. Tayakorn Kupakanjana (aka dr. Nickie) at the St. Peter Eye Hospital in preparation for the reopening of schools.

We also received news that a friend to our club, Wessel Veenstra from the Rotary Club of Franeker (Netherlands), has returned to Thailand to continue his on the ground work with The ONE Award nominee and finalist Avis Rideout. Ms. Rideout runs Nikki’s Place Agape Home, an orphanage for young HIV patients here in Chiang Mai.

Currently, the COVID-19 vaccination rate in Thailand is 68.7%, which puts us well above the world average at 52.1% and higher than the United States at 64%. Nevertheless, following the COVID-19 advisory by the Chiang Mai government, the CMIRC Board of Directors has voted once again to delay returning to in-person meetings until February 15. Your safety is important to us.

In closing, I’m pleased to announce that barring any unexpected upticks in COVID infections or restrictions on travel, our District Governor, Jirayuth Hirunyawat, is planning to visit our Chiang Mai International Rotary Club on February 15, 2022. The District Governor will first meet with the Board of Directors before joining our customary meeting at 7 PM. If you’re a member of the club planning to attend, please remember to wear your Rotary shirt and follow CMIRC’s updated COVID safety policies (distributed via email on February 8th).

We are getting closer to wrapping up the 2021 Children's Winter Clothing Appeal. In January, President and Project Champion Dylan continued delivering warm clothes, jackets, blankets, shoes, and toys to two more vulnerable communities.

The first destination was the Ban Mae La Ma School in an impoverished remote Karen village in the Sop Moei district of Mae Hong Son Province. President Dylan had made three delivery attempts in Phitsanulok and Uttaradit Provinces before he finally left the donations with this village. We deliver only to truly deserving communities. They must be located at a high elevation (where there is cold weather in Thailand), hard to access, and impoverished. The three above mentioned villages did not meet the criteria. Therefore, this load ended up traveling for three days and over 1,400 kilometers by the time we found a suitable destination.

The second destination was Ban Mo Khi in Omkoi, Chiang Mai Province. It is believed to be the hardest-to-access village in Northern Thailand. President Dylan, our daughter, Charlotte, and I delivered winter clothes to this ethnic Karen hill tribe of 200 residents on impassable steep roads littered by rocks, fine sand, and mud. They have no electricity, phone service, or Internet connection. For 5-6 months of the year, these villagers lose contact with the outside world. They cannot leave their village due to the heavy downpours in the rainy season. A doctor pays a visit to them once every month when it is possible.

There is one shared truck for two villages in the area, which the local teacher owns. If he relocates, those villages will lose the only truck they can use. Even though the vehicle was a four-wheel drive, it failed to tow us out or drive up to the hill to call for help when our truck got stuck. We had to stay overnight and wait for the government to send a rescue truck. A Karen family gave us food and shelter for the night. The adults did not speak Thai, but their two children did, and our 7-year-old Thai-speaking daughter, Charlotte, made friends with them, and they played together.

We can attest that temperatures drop down significantly at night, and boy, we were lucky that we had warm blankets! The morning came, and still, nobody came to our rescue. It turned out that the government wanted to send us a tractor. However, being a Sunday, they could not find an available driver. A couple of hours later, our knight in shining armor arrived in the form of a heavily reinforced and equipped 4WD pickup truck. By the end of the trip, our vehicle had lost two of its tires, a rooftop rack, suffered damages to its body, and became incapacitated for two weeks. (No passenger was injured.) Regardless, it was a great adventure!

So far, we have distributed donations to sixteen remote, hard-to-access locations (marked with red hearts) in eight Northern provinces, namely Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Lamphun, Tak, Nan, Phayao, Mae Hong Son, and Uttaradit. Amongst the beneficiaries are refugees, hill tribes, migrants, and local villagers - people of Lua, Palong, Lahu, Lisu, Karen, Shan, Thai, Burmese, Kayan, and Mien origin. In addition, the Burma Children Medical Fund delivered donations on our behalf to newly displaced refugees in Mae Sot, Tak. The donations weighed 9,392.69 kgs (20,707.34 lbs).

Thanks to the generous donors at Lanna International School, we have received another truckload of winter clothes that we will deliver in the coming weeks. In addition, our long-time project partner, Philanthropy Connections, got in touch with us and said that they wish to send some more donations along. We will report on our latest delivery trip (marked with a green heart) in the next CMIRC Bulletin. In the meantime, you can read more details about this project on our website and watch videos of our delivery trips on the CMIRC Facebook Page and Instagram.

January is the start of a new year and our Food Initiative continues. The need for food supplementation in Chiang Mai province is not diminishing. CMIRC continues the crusade fighting hunger, in January contributing 55,527 THB toward the Food Initiative, and providing 36 hours of volunteer time.

CMIRC continues to work with The Human Rights Development Foundation.  In January we delivered 200 bags, each filled with 2 kg of rice, 3 cans of fish, 6 packages of noodles, oil, fish sauce, milk, and sanitary napkins. The deliveries this month went to migrant worker camps in Hang Dong and Chiang Dao.

The dedicated staff at Urban Light’s community center for boys at risk of exploitation www.urban-light.org continues to provide community support in efforts to provide food for the hungry. As requested by Urban Light, CMIRC is providing only nonperishable food items to the community center. Urban Light is in the process of relocating to a space across from the northeast corner of Old City. They have successfully completed their move and are finishing setting up!

Many thanks to all the people so generous with the time and money. The need is great and the generosity is deeply appreciated. (Rotarians Nicha and Bill T. with a representative of The Human Rights Development Foundation.)

This month we made two supply deliveries to the Burma Children Medical Fund's B.K. Kee Patient House with our normal supplies of hygiene items and supplementary snacks. The house also welcomed two new young patients and their mothers. We had an opportunity during one of our visits to bring them teddy bears that had been donated by members and friends of the CMIRC. They came in a hand painted bag created by the other patients and caregivers, as well as a hand drawn/painted greeting card, signed by the artist. 

While CMIRC member Nick and volunteer Pink unloaded supplies I had an opportunity to speak with employee Klao and find out what items or projects would benefit the house as we prepare for next year’s Rotary project budget. We had a productive discussion of some needs and wants for the house, and he then shared those with director Kanchana Thornton. Following their discussion, we developed a list of items/repairs that are essential (such as repairing bathroom doors) as well as things that would enhance and provide educational opportunities for the patients and caregivers such as a third sewing machine, large whiteboard, and a projector for displaying PowerPoint presentations.

Sewing projects continue and I had the opportunity to snap a few photos of one of the latest samples of beautiful work. 

Nursing student Intern David has completed his volunteer hours and Intern Diana will soon be resuming her time at the house. At this time we are still making supply deliveries every other week, but are unable to stay to socialize with the patients and caregivers due to Covid-19 restrictions.

Hours- CMIRC members - 8; Volunteer - 4

In January four teddies went to new patients and carers at the Burma Children Medical Fund's B.K. Kee Patient House, so the current patients were able to see the joy their work (all paper bags and pictures that accompany the teddies are painted by B.K.Kee patients) gives to recipients of the teddy parcels. (one of the new patients is pictured, right, with her new teddy) In Mae Sot, life is very quiet in the arrivals department of new patients due to the continual high rate of Covid infections.

CMIRC B.K.Kee Project Champion Bill Pierce, patients, and teddies are all excited for the day when restrictions are lifted and we can socialize. A teddy bear picnic is planned.

Meanwhile, I serve as foster father for the teddies-in-waiting (left) for their assignment to future patients either here in Chiang Mai or Mae Sot.

The good news is Teddy Land is gratefully receiving new donations, and the CMIRC Board voted unanimously for the third club meeting 3rd quarter raffle funds  to go to the B. K. Kee Teddy Fund. Thank you, thank you all. This means many more happy faces and cuddles.

Our next activity is to give B.K.Kee House patients paints, paper bags, and art paper so that the patients can show off their artistic skills for future teddy deliveries.

CMIRC continues in the application process for forming a foundation to support our long-term efforts of improving children’s safety, health and education in Northern Thailand. This has been a slow and, at times, stressful process. All of the legal costs for the creation of a foundation and upfront provisional bank account's “not to be touched deposit” of 250,000 baht is being funded by Rotarians Nancy and Roger Lindley.

The front entry room to the CMIRC "office" of room 208 at the Royal Peninsula Hotel was rearranged from storage into the office area for the proposed foundation and furniture was purchased that would be considered “appropriate” for a foundation office in Thailand. Thanks to Rotarians Bill T., Nicha, Bill P. and Nick for making the room look like an office. The officers for the proposed foundation are: President -- Roger Lindley, Vice President -- Bill Trempus, Secretary -- Bill Pierce and Treasurer -- Nancy Lindley. 

(Below, the proposed Foundation officers meet with "Lawyer Joe" in our spiffy office to sign yet more documents.  Note the presence of impressive Rotary District Awards for feats like Best Website and Best Newsletter and how the hotel wallpaper just happens to be Rotary blue and yellow. Here's hoping that will impress the Thai officials during their office inspection!)

The foundation will operate as a recognized entity under Thai law and will comply with all legal requirements for a foundation in Thailand. As a legal entity it will be able to have a bank account in the name of the foundation that may help when donors deposit into bank account under the foundation name versus names of individuals, as is the case now. The application document is “frozen” for now with no changes permitted, while the application winds through the approval process. Once the foundation is approved any changes in this approved application document will bear a cost of 30,000 baht per change request.

Where do we stand now? We are waiting for a short notice call (maybe less than four-hour notice) for inspection by Thai government officials of the office and meeting with proposed foundation officers at the foundation office. Thanks to "Lawyer Joe", we have a sign above our "office", as held by Bill T and Roger, right, before the hotel staff affixed it to the wall. 

After this approval, the last step should be approval by the Chiang Mai Provincial Governor, with foundation officers mustering at the Governor's office.  Again, probably with short notice, as has been the case with everything else in this process.

Then begins the real work of building the value of the foundation with the vision of long-term support of CMIRC projects related to children’s safety, health and education in Northern Thailand.

The CMIRC SVSP continues to work to incorporate the expertise of Ophthalmologist Tayakorn Kupakanjana, M.D. (Dr. Nickie) of the St. Peter Eye Hospital into our program to serve poor children in the Chiang Mai Municipal Schools. To that end, we organized a meeting with Dr. Nickie (far left in photo at right), our SVSP Optician, Khun One (green shirt), program volunteer Phijitra (back right), Rtn Clarence, now program photographer (pictured far right) and me (SVSP chair) on January 19, 2022. It was an excellent meeting and allowed our on-site optician, Khun One, to better understand the depths of support that Dr. Nickie and his team at St. Peter Eye Hospital are prepared to provide.

As part of our discussion, we learned from Dr. Nickie that there are many eye/vision ailments in children that are not corrected by eyeglasses alone, e.g., amblyopia (lazy eye) and strabismus (crossed eyes). Dr. Nickie is helping us to prepare a training packet to help identify these problems. We also have developed a system for the optician to share his concerns about a child with our ophthalmologist via photographs and videos.

Finally, we are fortunate to have Khun Pomme’s (our swim program partner) daughter, Nong Fern, now a medical student, willing to volunteer her services for the next few months. She has agreed to help us develop a vision training kit (under Dr. Nickie’s supervision) for use by teachers and health officers. This will help school staff identify problems, such as strabismus and amblyopia, that should be referred to our screening program when we are at their schools. It will also allow us to identify problems in the youngest children when correction is still possible.  Typically these are children younger than the ones we screen at our SVSP.

So, we are making real progress in our School Vision Screening Project! But, unfortunately, due to the continued resurgence of Covid-19 in Chiang Mai, we face delays in restarting the screenings. Municipal elementary schools are not yet fully open for onsite learning, but we still hope to screen all 3rd and 5th graders at the 11 municipal schools and the Wat Suan Dok School this spring, again in partnership with Optician Khun One at Chom Jun Optic, the Rotary Club of Chiang Mai Wattana, and, if pediatric ophthalmological surgery is needed, the Rotary Club of Chiang Mai North’s Eye Service Foundation.

We are tentatively planning  School Vision Screening Program (SVSP) volunteer training for February, with screenings in the municipal schools and the Wat Suan Dok School beginning in late February. Because we will probably have only two months to complete our screenings and prescriptions for this academic year, we will need to screen at least two or three schools per week when we get started. We are hoping to train a large contingent of volunteers so there will be trained substitutes for each of the screening stations. We recognize that many volunteers cannot be on call every week. Please contact Project Champion John Schorr if you’d like to volunteer and be trained: johnkschorr@gmail.com, in English or ไทย .

Once again, we’d like to take this opportunity to recognize the generous support of our partners, sponsors and donors, so here is a list of these generous organizations, beginning with the Rotary Club of Spokane 21 whose donation of $2,500 this year will fund about 80% of our program !! THANK YOU ROTARY CLUB of SPOKANE 21!!!

The total program budget for next year is estimated at about $3,000 US dollars, so we are still a little short. If you wish to learn how you can help, please contact Project Champion John Schorr at johnkschorr@gmail.com or tel.: 66 (0)8 5030 2143, US Skype # 386 490-8100

Our 2021-2022 School Vision Screening Donor Team:

The Thai Thaim Foundation, Park Rapids, MN  

Eyewear Designs, Bethpage, NY

Progress on Application: Thailand Water & Sanitation Project Global Grant Fundraising continues by the District 5230 Rotary Clubs https://rotary5230.org/ for this project in which CMIRC will provide logistical support. The proposed project will help bring clean water and sanitation to Hill Tribes villages in Northern Thailand.

The CMIRC Board met and brought attention to a number of points that need to be addressed:

• Preparation for a project to start in July 2022 needs to comply fully with Rotary International requirements.  

When and how could the Community Assessment take place?

Assessing the community’s strengths, weaknesses, needs, and assets is an essential first step in planning an effective project. The assessment helps to:

• discover the best opportunities for service and highlights ways to maximize the club’s ability to make an impact
• better understand the dynamics of the community
• ensure you and your project’s beneficiaries make informed decisions about service priorities

Before starting an assessment, consider what information is needed about the community.

Assessments are the foundation of every humanitarian project, small or large, because they provide a framework for identifying solutions to a community’s problems. They also build valuable relationships and encourage residents to help make lasting local improvements.

Assessments should be systematic, involve a variety of local stakeholders and beneficiaries, and engage them in a meaningful way.

While conducting an assessment, expectations need to be managed. Communities should understand the benefits of partnering with Rotary and how that partnership requires their involvement, contribution, and ownership

Especially in the Thai context, the status of villages in the project needs to be clarified with respect to the legality of the village and access rights of the water pipeline.

• Detailed data on the villages needs to be collected e.g. child mortality and locations, diets of the villagers, etc and how the project will improve conditions.
• All meetings related to the project need to be carefully documented.

Chiang Mai International Rotary Club (CMIRC)-Kru Payu  Children’s Water Safety and Drowning Prevention Program (CWSDPP) 

Unfortunately, the schools where we conduct our CWSDPP remain closed due to Covid-19. Since we are a school-based program, we have not been able to teach water safety and therefore have little to report for January.

There is hope that at least some of our municipal elementary schools may reopen this month (February), and our funding, swim instructor teams, and facilities are all ready to teach survival swimming and water safety when they do!

We’d like to take this opportunity to recognize the generous support of our partners, sponsors and donors, so here is a list of these generous organizations!! This year we want to especially thank them for their patience as we have faced so many delays.

Special thanks also to individual donors Richard Murray and an anonymous donor, and for the continued support from Ian Bushell. If you wish to help, please contact Project Champion John Schorr at johnkschorr@gmail.com for more information.

CMIRC Member Volunteer Hours for the Month of December: Total: 3 (Chair, 3).

CMIRC Children’s Water Safety and Drowning Prevention Team and Sponsors:

The Thai Thaim Foundation

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As the first organization to envision a polio-free world through mass immunization of children, Rotary believes the decision to vaccinate is a humanitarian imperative. The Rotary International Board of Directors and Rotary Foundation Trustees believe that:

1. Global vaccination is the path to ending the pandemic, and we strongly encourage vaccination for all individuals, including our members.
2. Misinformation hinders the fight against COVID-19, and we are committed to providing our members with science-based information.
3. Rotary is engaged in assuring equity in vaccine access to all people. Through joint efforts with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance we are leveraging our frontline experience with polio to facilitate vaccine delivery.
4. Rotary salutes health care workers everywhere as they continue to provide lifesaving services. We encourage clubs to offer recognition and encouragement to these heroes.
5. Rotary and Rotaract clubs are encouraged to redouble their efforts to support COVID-19 prevention and vaccination efforts.
6. As one of the greatest advances of modern medicine, vaccines are safe, effective and save millions of lives each year. They have eliminated or controlled numerous diseases such as polio, smallpox, measles, and Ebola, and now, there is the opportunity to end the COVID-19 pandemic through vaccination.
7. The eradication of polio remains the goal of the highest order for Rotary. We can continue to apply the lessons we have learned in fighting polio to COVID-19 response efforts.