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While visiting the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre on the island of Borneo in Malaysia three years ago, New Zealand Rotarian Debbie Mair fell in love with a couple of fuzzy orphaned pygmy elephants, the smallest subspecies of elephant.
Mair says the orphans’ parents had wandered onto palm plantations in search of food and were killed. Indonesia and Malaysia are the world’s largest producers of palm oil, a common ingredient in food and household items. Deforestation to make room for plantations has greatly reduced food sources for pygmy elephants, along with rhinos, sun bears, orangutans, and tigers. Poachers also target the animals.
The sky above the playground at Lao Mei Elementary School in New Taipei City, Taiwan, is dotted with kites of different colors, shapes, and sizes. Below, groups of students are busy making more kites and testing their construction skills in flying competitions.
To a passerby, the scene looks like just a fun day at school, but teachers know this is much more than play. It’s science, or to be exact, physics.
The basic ability to fly a kite teaches lessons of aerodynamics and physics.
Tsai Shin Yi
Lao Mei science teacher
The Association of Fundraising Professionals recognized The Rotary Foundation with its annual Award for Outstanding Foundation at its 2017 conference in San Francisco.
The award honors organizations that show philanthropic commitment and leadership through financial support, innovation, encouragement of others, and involvement in public affairs. Some of the boldest names in American giving — Kellogg, Komen, and MacArthur, among others —are past honorees.
Thirty-four young people, ages 16 to 21, sit in a large circle on the mat where they train each week. Timid at first, they begin to open up, little by little, about life before Força Jovem Judo.
Lucas Ferreira, who lives in Morro da Mangueira, a slum in Rio de Janeiro, speaks first.
“Before I began practicing judo, I was an eight-year-old roaming the streets and keeping bad company,” says Ferreira, who is now 20 and married.
Renan Alves, a 19-year-old living in Morro da Mangueira, an impoverished area of Rio de Janeiro, credits the Força Jovem Judo team with turning his life around. He now teaches at a day care sponsored by the Rotary Club of Rio de Janeiro-Mercado São Sebastião.
Vitor Vogel
With a half-smile, 19-year-old Renan Alves, who has been taking judo since he was 10, begins speaking rapidly: “I was a kid who had terrible thoughts like I’ll be a bad guy, a drug dealer.
“Finding Força Jovem Judo opened doors for me. It showed me I could be a good citizen and compete for my country,” says Alves, who teaches at a day care center in the favela where he and Ferreira live.
To read more visit: https://www.rotary.org/en/judo-helps-brazil-youth-escape-slums
