Rotary Satellite Club of Ending Forced Organ Harvesting: Our Story
In 2018, a booth from HOF (House of Friendship) at the RI Convention in Toronto with the name of “End Organ Trafficking Now” caught Rotarian Shirley Hu’s attention. People at the booth were distributing flyers about forced organ harvesting - a crime against humanity that has been going on for more than 20 years. Traveling from halfway around the world, these booth exhibitors belonged to an NGO, TAICOT (Taiwan Association for International Care of Organ Transplant).
Shirley was inspired by the group and was surprised she couldn’t find any Rotarians who were involved or aware of this significant initiative.
In 2019, on behalf of Plano Metro Rotary club, she was able to organize a booth of “Ending Forced Organ Trafficking - Time to Act Now” at the RI Convention in Germany in partnership with TAICOT. More than 1,000 flyers and petitions were distributed; 550 Rotarians signatures were collected in support of the initiative. 59 banners were received from Rotary clubs worldwide. Clearly, she was on to something that struck a nerve with fellow Rotarians!
In 2022, with the proactive support from the RAGAS Chair Dave McCleary, Shirley recruited a group of four volunteers to help distribute flyers raising awareness of FOH (Forced Organ Harvesting) at the RAGAS booth at the Houston Convention. Crystal Chen was one of them.
Crystal was also invited as a featured speaker in one of the breakout sessions hosted by RAGAS. The session was standing room only.
Crystal was born to a family of musicians in Guangzhou city, China. After graduating college with a Bachelor’s in Economics, she worked for one of the largest international trade companies in China. Her career, however, was waylaid when she was imprisoned for years in China because of her religious beliefs. During her time in imprisonment, she endured excruciating torture and forced labor. Her persecutors threatened to harvest her organs as they had from countless other fellow prisoners. After surviving the torture and escaping to the US, she made it her mission to speak for those voiceless she left behind. Many in the audience were moved to tears after hearing Crystal’s testimony, including RAGAS board member Amelia Stansell.
Numerous clubs followed up with Crystal and the volunteer team to present for them. Patti Mellard, the founder of CAAHT (Community Action Against Human Trafficking) Rotary club, was the first to invite the team to present to CAAHT on Jul 19.
Recognizing the powerful story Crystal shared and the support the four non-Rotarian volunteers at the HOF booth in Houston garnered through the hundreds of signatures on their petition to raise awareness, Amelia texted Shirley and the team on the way to the airport that they should explore a satellite club focused on organ harvesting and offered assistance when everyone was settled after the convention.
On Jun 15, Amelia initiated a Zoom call with the team and the topic was “Organ Harvesting Satellite Club Exploratory Committee.” Deeply touched by Amelia’s enthusiastic support and heartfelt compassion, Shirley and the team started to recruit more people to fulfill the minimum requirement for the Satellite club and set about meeting with the various human trafficking cause-based clubs to find the best fit for their effort.
On June 23, Patti shared the good news that the CAAHT Board and the District Governor Stephanie Meyer were both very supportive of sponsoring the team as a Satellite Club.
On July 29, an application for the Satellite Club with a total of 10 members was submitted to CAAHT to get approval from RI.
On Aug 15, “Rotary Satellite Club of Ending Forced Organ Harvesting, Kansas, USA” was born with the official blessings from RI!
Shirley Hu is a Coordinator of RAGAS and served as the Chair of EHT in district 5810 in Texas before she moved to Delaware in April. She is currently with RCEHT (Rotary Club to End Human Trafficking) based in Minnesota. She is proud to stand with Amelia, Patti and Stephanie behind the RSC of EFOH to fulfill their mission!
With 9 new members joining Rotary through the EFOH club, this is a great example of how cause-based clubs can support satellite clubs with a niche focus related to theirs and how we can continue to GROW ROTARY!
If you are interested in learning more about Forced Organ Harvesting or would like to have a program on the subject at your club meeting, please contact us at info@efoh.org.
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