Celebrating MURC Global and Local Community Impact
By Lori Simpson
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Last month's Newsletter included an
article about how Rotary projects are funded.
This is the second article in that series, providing information about MURC's projects and the impact we've had in our community and the world.
Since its founding in 1991, the small and mighty Minneapolis University Rotary Club and its foundation, the Minneapolis University Rotary Service Foundation, has raised $74,410. With related project grants from Rotary District 5950, other Rotary Clubs, The Rotary Foundation and others, that amount has been increased to an astonishing $1,567,576for international service projects led or supported by MURC members.
And, MURC and its partners and friends have provided tens of thousands of dollars in support to local community projects. MURC members also volunteer with hands-on support in our local communities, including reading in schools, bell-ringing for the Salvation Army, working in food pantries for those in need, helping with an after-school program, and more.
Many people in our local communities and across the world have improved sight, hearing, access to healthy food, and quality of life because of MURC's caring actions.We celebrate that.
The Otto Gabler Instituto de la Sordera (Institute of Deafness) in Santiago, Chile
The Hearing Care Center in Santiago, Chile, will expand its diagnostic services to include children, while upgrading hearing services and equipment, made possible by a Rotary International grant that allows the Institute to obtain modern audiology equipment.
The Institute reopened its doors on July 13, 2021, and since that date has provided otorhinolaryngology care and hearing exams to more than 150 low income patients from San Joaquín and surrounding communities of Santiago de Chile.
The people who come to the Center include children as young as four, to adults over 85 years of age, who have a hearing problem or need an early diagnosis and quality evaluation.
The Center will provide free care to many patients who have been on a waiting list for more than two years.
The grant from Rotary International is provided in partnership with MURC and several other Rotary clubs in the Minneapolis and Santiago areas, Rotary districts of each area, and the International Hearing Society.
This grant builds on our club’s relationship with the Institute that began with an initial Rotary grant in 2002.
Food Group Minnesota - Virtual Food Drive
In 2020, during the pandemic, MURC was looking for ways to help our communities. We were aware the pandemic had exacerbated existing “food deserts,” communities with little access to healthy or plentiful food, and many people in the same communities struggle to afford food.
In response, MURC established a Virtual Food Drive, partnering with Food Group Minnesota, a nonprofit organization. Their mission is to focus on providing nutritious food to strengthen the communities they serve. MURC's donations support the Simpson Food Pantry, the Community Bridge Food Shelf, and Our Village Reunion (First Covenant Church), all in Minneapolis.
As food shortages continue and increase in our communities right now, the MURC virtual food drive continues. So far, total donations from our foundation, MURC members and others, and with matching donations, are nearly $9,000.
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Africa Strong
In Uganda, plans are underway for a project for the girls who board at Rwemiyenje Primary School.
Africa Strong has served over 1,200 students to date.
First, a new girls' bathroom will be built, replacing existing toilet facilities that are a health and safety concern and have been deemed unusable. The lack of clean and safe facilities is a contributing factor that keeps girls out of school. The new facilities will include shower stalls with running water and individual pit latrine stalls.
In addition to building the girls' bathroom, there are plans to make bookshelves for the 3,000+ books that arrived at the port in Mombasa,
Kenya, on October 8th, 2021.
Shelving will allow the books to be appropriately stored which helps them last longer.
Thanks to MURC and friends for contributing $3,000, a substantial portion of the overall costs of this project.
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Improving Maternal and Child Health in Palestine
Minneapolis University Rotary Club is partnering with East Jerusalem Rotary Club on a grant to provide health education and medical care in the West Bank. The grant from Rotary International will fund a mobile health unit with staff serving the needs of women and young children in refugee camps and remote areas where high rates of infant mortality and birth defects are common.
Besides Rotary International, this project has support from five District 5950 Rotary clubs, the East Jerusalem club, several national and local organizations, and many individuals.
This project is an international, multi-faith project exemplifying Rotary’s commitment to improving health and building bridges between people around the world.
Rotary’s motto “Service Above Self” is seen in everything we do as Rotarians, from living the four way test to the plethora of service projects we champion from start to finish. The past two years have tested our ability and means of not only how to provide meaningful service above self but changed the inclusive processes in which we interact (in all aspects) with all stakeholders including interclub to the global communities we serve.
I believe we can find answers to our dilemmas in the following parable:
“A blind boy sat on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet. He held up a sign which said: “I am blind, please help.” There were only a few coins in the hat.
A man was walking by. He took a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the hat. He then took the sign, turned it around, and wrote some words. He put the sign back so that everyone who walked by would see the new words.
Soon the hat began to fill up. A lot more people were giving money to the blind boy. That afternoon the man who had changed the sign came to see how things were. The boy recognized his footsteps and asked, “Were you the one who changed my sign this morning? What did you write?”
The man said, “I only wrote the truth. I said what you said but in a different way.” I wrote: “Today is a beautiful day but I cannot see it.”
Both signs told people that the boy was blind. But the first sign simply said the boy was blind. The second sign told people that they were so lucky that they were not blind. Should we be surprised that the second sign was more effective?
Can we, as Rotarians, turn our own service sign around to be more relevant to meet the service challenges we face in life today? The ways in which we asked and provided services in the past are losing their effectiveness in the issues we face today. How can we turn our Rotary sign around to be more inclusive and helpful to the communities we serve?
I worked in consulting and a Fortune 6 health insurance company for the first 16 years of my career. I was up for a promotion to Vice President, a title less than 3% of the employees hold when I did some real soul searching. Something seemed off about the move, and unlike other positions I had held at the health insurance company I had been at for 12 years, I could not connect the new job to "meaningful" work. This was when I shocked my entire leadership team, colleagues, family, and maybe even myself and resigned. I quickly started to research going to Africa, and within a month, I was on my way to Zambia.
2. How has Africa changed your life?
I spent six life-changing weeks volunteering in schools and with community programs in Zambia in 2016. There was a room full of students and no teacher on my first day, so I observed another class. On day two, there was a teacher, but she did not teach. She did a sample math problem for the students and then wrote several more for them to solve independently and left the room. I could go on with my experience, but in three weeks, I got to know some of these intelligent students with much potential well but was saddened that they had no one to help them learn and achieve their full potential.
After my six weeks of volunteering and seeing other community schools as well as a government school in Zambia, I returned to the US with a love for Africa that I would never forget. My experience in Zambia is also how I got connected to Africa Strong. My time volunteering in Zambia overlapped with Emily Guidry, one of the co-founders of Africa Strong.
3. Tell us about your role with Africa Strong.
As the volunteer Executive Director of Africa Strong, I put all of my heart and energy into Africa Strong. While I continue to learn and grow, I believe education is a human right and hope to put my small mark on ensuring young kids have access to a relevant and quality education. Ultimately, I hope they receive the skills to help them realize their full potential and empower them to make a difference in the world and for themselves and others.
I continue to travel back to Uganda to work with teachers to determine how to implement and deliver professional development needed to transform pedagogical practices to focus on building 21-century skills. I am establishing relationships with facilitators within the education system who are responsible for teacher professional development to ensure that the work we do can be scaled and is sustainable. As you can tell, Uganda got a piece of my heart. I am passionate about education and looking to do what I can to make a difference.
In late 2018, I was looking for a tax-deductible way to receive donations for Rwemiyenje Primary School in Southwestern Uganda and reached out to Emily. This is when we joined forces, and my role with Africa Strong took off.
4. What one thing do you wish you could do next for Africa Strong?
I am currently taking a 20-week entrepreneurship training course looking at business options to create a sustainable revenue stream for supporting Africa Strong (and) possibly other nonprofits. I am exploring options to import coffee from Uganda and maybe other African-made goods at some point. I am still in the ideation phase to understand what this will all take and if it is a sustainable, scalable option to add another revenue stream to Africa Strong.
Stay tuned, coffee lovers ☺
5. What do you see in the future for Africa Strong?
According to the World Bank, 90% of those in school are not learning. Education is a powerful tool to help create opportunities, open doors and build resilience. It empowers young children to make different decisions and achieve their dreams. So when schools reopen in Uganda, we will launch a pilot teacher professional development program focused on transition teachers’ pedagogical practices from rote memorization to student-centered teaching approaches. We are working with facilitators in their teachers' colleges responsible for teacher professional development and teacher observation. If our pilot goes well, we’d like to encourage other schools to request the same training.
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How old would you be if you didn't know the date you were born?
We are a small and mighty group of local professionals and we are part of a global network of 1.2 million Rotarians.
We meet Wednesdays, noon-1:15 p.m. During the COVID-19 pandemic, club meetings are held online via Zoom. To join our meeting and receive the Zoom link, email us at mplsunivrotary@gmail.com.
Africa Strong has served over 1,200 students to date.
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