Hello Daybreakers,
Winter has certainly arrived in our area, ill health and the cold weather kept those in attendance down to 17. We still managed to have a bit of fun and went on to discuss many issues.
We discussed some of the outcomes of our recent board meeting including the Peter Johns award and updates on Daybreaks care program. Andrew Suggett and I updated those present on recent developments within the Rotary House Committee and the correspondence received from Southwest Healthcare. There has been further correspondence with the hospital that will be discussed with the membership and at board level in the new Rotary year.
Given that we had no guest speaker this week, I was able to give the members a brief update on the developments of the End polio now program. For those unable to attend the meeting, that information is included under.
After breakfast Ian Watson gave us an update on his involvement with the Rotary Club of Warrnambool’s PNG water project. Ian will be mostly there to take photographs and video events; we can look forward to seeing and hearing about his adventure when he returns in August. The Club, via Chris Preston, have just received an email from District that our Joint club Grant application for this project has been approved by The Rotary Foundation, fantastic news!
Geoff Grec updated us on his son Dan’s speaking tour in America and brought along some copies of Dan’s book The road chose me . As many of you know Dan has been driving around Africa for 2 years in a Jeep Wrangler. You can read more of this adventure by following the above link, or this one Africa Expedition Overview ·
Jan was unwell this week, so Cheryl read out Jan’s fun session. We all had a chuckle about the data contained especially the facts on sayings and anecdotes often repeated without knowing the historical background.
Due to a miscommunication, and over booking by the Mid-City, this week’s changeover meeting will be held in the Restaurant, numbers will be tight, so please confirm your attendance to Cheryl ASAP.
EPN Update:
Wild poliovirus type 1 and Circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus cases
Case breakdown by country
- On 4 June, The Lancet published the results of the first in-human, Phase 1 clinical trial for nOPV2 – a key first step toward determining the potential for a novel type-2 oral polio vaccine that would provide the same level of protection against type-2 poliovirus as OPV without the same risk of reverting into cVDPV2 in under-immunized populations. These initial results are promising, and suggest the vaccine is safe and immunogenic in adults; further clinical trial results will be important to evaluate nOPV as a potential tool to sustain a world free from all types of polioviruses.
- The GPEI Semi-Annual Status Report covering the reporting period July-December 2018 is available online, reporting against the major objectives of the Polio Endgame Plan 2013-2018. The GPEI will continue to publish its Semi-Annual Status Reports, to track progress against the newly-launched Polio Endgame Strategy 2019-2023.
- Summary of new viruses this week: Afghanistan – one new wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) case; Pakistan – two new WPV1 cases and 16 WPV1-positive environmental samples; Niger – one cVDPV2 case; and, Nigeria – one cVDPV2-positive environmental sample.
Rotary Voices
Stories of service from around the world
What is inspiration?
By Stacey Jones, Rotary Club of Kingsville Southshore, Ontario, Canada
.jpg) | What is inspiration? To me it means that we are so moved by something, that we are compelled to act. Almost without a conscious thought. That was my experience in Italy in the summer of 2018. While attending an event at the Coliseum, I had the opportunity to speak to Connie Nielsen about her charity called the Human Needs Project. They work primarily in the slums of Nairobi assisting people with the very basics of human needs. And as I stood there, literally rubbing elbows with these celebrities listening to them speak so passionately about their charity work; and staring out into the city from this private gala, |
I couldn’t help but question what I was doing with my life. And so at that moment my question became my answer.
Seven months from that night, a small group of us met for our very first Rotary meeting. The great thing about never having been in Rotary before is that we knew we could write our own script. We are a group of young professionals with families for the most part. I understood immediately that that meant kids would be a main “concern.” It’s the entire reason I hadn’t joined Rotary for so many years. I was busy with my kids!
.jpg) | So we decided that our children had to be a part of our story. Immediately we held a vision planning session. Through that process we secured our belief that children and families would be our priority. Not just our community children, but our own. Who wants to go to meetings feeling guilty that yet another evening is being spent away from your kids? So they tag along. We set up tables for them during our meetings and they come to most of our events and service projects. Can it be chaotic? Oh ya. Is it fun? Definitely. Does it appeal to everyone? Absolutely not. I do understand that I have lost potential members when they come in to one of our meetings and one of the kids is doing handstands up against the wall and two others are doing a dance routine in the corner. That’s OK with me. I am happy to recommend another club in my area. We are different. What we do offer is a new version of Rotary. Rotary 2.0. We don’t take attendance. (I hear the gasps!) We don’t recite The Four-Way Test; our children do. We don’t serve dinner at our meetings. It takes too much time. And we don’t have meetings every week. |
Maybe we go to someone’s house or clean up a park one week. It’s not perfect and it’s not for everyone. We are learning and growing and trying our best.
But what I do know is that it’s working. I know it’s working because last week, two of the kids made their own “end polio now” bracelets as a craft. On their own! The week before that, three of them were crawling through a ditch and long grass helping us clean a park; because it was fun. They had a meeting of their own and decided that they want to hold bake sales and also paint and sell rocks. And every Wednesday when we pick our daughter up from school, she asks if WE have Rotary tonight.
You see, kids are no different than us adults. They want to do good things because it makes them feel good. They also want to feel empowered. So let them. Just because they are children doesn’t mean they don’t have really good ideas. And allowing them to help at service projects will absolutely make that experience richer for everyone.
So while there are times that we have to shush them in a meeting or stop to kiss a boo boo, at the end of it all I know they hear us. They may not be listening, but they certainly hear. And by hearing, they do. And my hope is that we’ve now created the next generation of doers.””
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Thank you all for your ongoing support throughout this Rotary Year. Together, we have had an “Inspirational Year” – The directors Annual Reports will show how much we have achieved by working with and within our community this year.
Steve