Rotary Club Minutes of Meeting
December 8, 2021
Prepared by Alison Scott
Announcements
- We are sad to announce that Edi Stevens, beloved wife of Bill Stevens for 54 years, passed away on December 3, 2021. Bill and family will receive relatives and friends from 4 - 7 p.m. on Friday, December 10, 2021, at the Henry Walser Funeral Home, 507 Frederick Street, Kitchener, 519-749-8467. Please RSVP on the funeral home website to attend the visitation.
- Reminder to buy your Catch the Ace tickets for this week’s draw.
- Upcoming Meetings:
- December 15th: AGM meeting at regular lunch meeting
- December 22 and 29th: No meetings over the holiday season. The regular meeting schedule resumes on January 5, 2022.
- January 2nd: Hogmanay Fellowship Open House at Alison Scott’s. Please RSVP to the invitation.
- January 19th: the regular lunch meeting will be cancelled and in lieu we will have an Evening Meeting on January 18th at the Edelweiss Restaurant. This is a joint meeting with the Kitchener Sports Association. The National Sledge Hockey Team will join us.
January 26th 2022 we will have our Holiday dinner meeting (further information and invite to come)
Thanks go to Everton for providing last minute assistance with Club duties and chairing today.
Birthdays
Everton turns 50 in a few days! Happy Birthday Everton
Club Anniversaries:
Jim Kibble – Dec 8th, 28 years and Brad Enns Dec 11th,7 years
Congratulations to you both.
Guests of Members: we had one guest of Alexandar Pavlov and the club today in addition to the Guest Speaker.
50/50 Draw
The Jackpot continues to grow! Today’s pot was $205.50
Paul Puopolo, Don Wilcox and John Vickery all missed the black marble today.
Guest Speaker: Dr. Dennis Willms of Salama Shield, NGO.
Our guest was introduced by Alexandar Pavlov.
Dr. Willms is a principle investigator from McMaster University. Dr. Willms spoke about his early work in Immunization clinics in SubSahara Africa. Through this work he began to meet Rotarians. One of the early initiatives was to develop a microfinance initiative in 2006. This has now grown considerably.
Dr. Willms spoke about the medical anthropological research approach conducted by Salama Shield. Initially concerned about HIV prevention, Dr. Willms indicated HIV positive individuals are generally marginalized, suffer inequity, and are at a major disadvantage.
Salama Shield’s approach addresses peace and conflict using a community development approach to ensure the culture components of a local community are integrated into their work. For communities to thrive and survive you need to understand what makes them work and invest in the strengths of the community.
Dr. Willms spoke about the intentional action of moral entrepreneurs to create and sustain change. As researchers, they feel morally culpable to translate what they are learning into programs of relevance to meet the needs of HIV infected persons. The importance of developing trust and building relationships is essential. Once you have the buy in from the community, you can address stigma and engage in health education. This approach incorporates science, scientific research, with grass roots spirituality, and community story telling.
Dr. Willms was thanked by Bill Green.
Meeting was adjourned at 1:15 pm.
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