Rotary Meeting Nov 30, 2022 Minutes
 
President Everton opened the meeting with announcements recognizing Larry Masseo’s birthday and Alex and Oudejans Pavlov’s birthday.  Mac Graham’s guest, Darryl Watty was introduced.

Everton also updated that the ticket sales for the Drayton performance on Saturday evening had not been as good as hoped with 23 tickets sold.  The evening performance has been cancelled and those who bought tickets are able to exchange them for another performance.  

 

Everton also recognized John Thompson and the Adventure Afternoon with a Lunatic event that was recently held at the Princess Theatre.   The event raised $625 for our Rotary Foundation and Polio Plus.

50/50 draw saw Ian Robertson, Dave Forwell and our guest Darryl Watty try for the black marble but no winner.

Andrew Williams introduced the guest speaker, Gem Munro, Gem spoke to our club 9 years ago.  He has received  the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Medal in recognition of his charitable work. 

 
Gem spoke of how he and his wife Dr. Tanyss Munro, PhD and their four children moved to Bangladesh to bring education to those living in poverty.  When there, they discovered that the tradition education solution of building a physical building for children to come to school was not a feasible option for those in the slums who had no opportunities to attend.  The new model they developed was to go into the neighbourhoods and teach the mothers.  The mothers then teach teams 5 – 7 of children at the time in their home at a time they can attend.  This distributive model has had many positive impacts beyond just teaching the children.  The mothers come to school and learn themselves which gives them the pride and confidence to teach the children.  This also addresses child labour issues, because it works with the schedule that the children have while they are working, but gives them the skills to improve their work or move on from work.  It improves the experience of women in the culture as girls and boys are educated together and boys learn a different appreciation for what girls can do.   He also said that education has proved to be a prevention of extremism as it provides hope and learning.

Gem shared the stories of three different children they have worked with and how those children are now sharing the education they receive with their families and about Charmaine who is now graduating university.  Gem has written a book of stories on the education experiences of the children from the slums of Pakistan and sale of the books are a fundraiser for his organization.

Ian Robertson thanked our speaker.