The meeting was called to order by President Mike Henry at 7:00pm with a toast to Queen and Canada. The invocation was provided by Ralf Soeder.
Attendance:
A total of 21 people signed into the Zoom meeting – 19 members plus 2 guests – our speaker, plus Noemy Castro, an ex-Rotaractor and potential new member.
Announcements:
Bob Miskelly – update re bursary awards. May 7 application deadline. Once selected by the committee, the awardees have 2 years to use the bursary (old rule was 12 months). Event June 9 – virtual again.
Mike H – April 24 project postponed, because of the latest lockdown restrictions – more information will become available in due course.
Nipun Madan – very optimistic about the vaccine rollout and the future!
Happy Bucks & Fines:
George, George, Frank, Riona, Mahendra and Rod were all happy for a number of reasons
Today’s Fines Master was Mitch Sabsabi, and he raised a lot of bucks with his Rotary related questions
The speaker, Bob Paterson from Mukuru Promotion Centre, Kenya was introduced by George Farrow
Bob actually joined us form Kenya, where it was after 3am by the time we finished
Kenyans have been moving from farms to the cities, and a lot of them now live in slums
Slums (aka informal settlements) have little crime, and people are happy, but there is widespread poverty and fire is a risk as they cook on open fires, etc. inside closely-packed wooden buildings
COVID hit Kenya hard – low official COVID figures, but anticipated to be c.70% who have had it, and most jobs have been lost, without a social safety net
Low death rate from COVID, mainly because of Kenya’s age profile – the average age in Kenya is 19!
Education is the only way out of slums, and education has a positive knock-on impact as students the teach other family members
Mukuru Promotion Centre provides education (primary and high schools) and health – all non-denominational
Management and teachers are mostly Kenya (was started in 1985 by Irish Sisters of Mercy)
Bob works there one day per week, and has done so since he retired (15 years ago) – he also manages a small trucking company there
Bob has a great local network and he finds lots of people to volunteer their time for a variety of tasks, for Mukuru Promotion Centre
Attendance at MPC schools is 98%
Education is a mixture of academic and vocational – the latter helps students to set up their own businesses
They also have a Street Boy Program – education, rehousing and reintegration with their families, with an 80% success rate
80% of MPC’s income comes from abroad, including Germany, Austria and Ireland
Bob created a Secondary School Sponsorship Program
There are 9 Rotary clubs in Nairobi, some of which have supported Mukuru Promotion Centre over the years
Bob Paterson was thanked by Gary Comerford
Next Meetings
Apr 19: Akinkunmi Akinnola, Canadian Centre for Diversity and Inclusion
May 3: George Farrow – acquisitions, developments, renovations and potential disposals of the property owned by THS/ OCHI and managed by RCO members
President Mike closed the meeting at 8.10pm with a toast to friends and Rotarians around the world.
