Whether you are taking on next year's leadership role for the first time, or you are a seasoned veteran, or you are someone who is interested in finding out about club leadership roles please plan to join us on
April 29th from 9 to noon at Harper College.
(This year's spring training will be 100% in person)
We will start with an opening general session, featuring incoming Rotary International President Gordon McInally followed by role-based elective breakout sessions where we will review roles and responsibilities and share ideas. This will be followed by an optional session for clubs that want to do internal planning for next year.
Since I’d “met” her in mid-October, Oksana had sent me hundreds of e-mails through Facebook Messenger. I’m pretty sure this was the first one that made me laugh out loud.
We’d just enrolled Oksana’s daughter Nastya in first grade at Washington School in Dixon, Illinois, and Nastya’s teacher had excitedly shared the schedule for the week ahead. When Oksana read Friday was Pajama Day, she was beyond perplexed.
In Ukraine, you see, schools don’t celebrate Pajama Day.
Just three weeks prior, on 22 November, Oksana, her husband Oleg, daughter Nastya, and twin three-year-olds Bohdan and Roman landed at O’Hare airport in Chicago. After the few hours it took us to navigate customs and drive to Dixon, they opened the door to their new apartment. It had been graciously donated by Katherine Shaw Bethea Hospital and beautifully furnished and decorated by part of the team that formed to save two Ukrainian families from Russia’s brutal invasion.
Although I’m technically the family’s sponsor, there are 16 of us who have made this project possible. We call ourselves “Welcoming Ukrainians to Dixon,” and one of the younger members created a Facebook page under that name so the community can follow our work and offer support. So far, that support – in cash and in-kind donations – totals close to $50,000.
Starting point
Our community-based team (which includes several other members of the Rotary Club of Dixon, in addition to me) is just one model of how people who care can help those fleeing Ukraine. A family, for example, can open its home to a Ukrainian family. A few families can work together to create a safe haven for refugees. Rotary clubs, churches, and other clubs and organizations can include a welcoming project in their work.
While many models exist for assisting displaced Ukrainians, I can’t imagine a better starting point than Welcome.US, a nonpartisan American initiative to support refugees. Welcome.US has created the Welcome Connect platform to “match” Americans, including Rotarians, with Ukrainians who’ve been displaced by the war and are now hoping to come to the United States. Their website also provides all the resources and information a sponsor needs in order to get started. I completed my registration to become a sponsor on the evening of Columbus Day, 2022.; when I checked the site the next morning, I’d already received inquiries from the two families I ultimately sponsored. The guidance Welcome.US provides has been invaluable as our team has helped these two families settle in Dixon.
The government’s Uniting for Ukraine program works, and it works quickly. We obtained travel authorizations in eight days. On the day Oksana and her family arrived, the government dropped its requirement that Ukrainians obtain separate work permits, instead allowing travel authorizations to serve as work permits for individuals’ first 90 days.
Oleh and Viktoria
Five weeks after Oksana and her family arrived, we welcomed our second couple, Oleh and Viktoria. While our team’s work is far from done, we now occasionally catch our breath as the families acquire vehicles and explore more permanent housing. When we reflect, we marvel at our community’s generosity and how lovingly it has embraced our new friends.
We smile at what we’ve helped accomplish in less than five months: jobs for Oleg, Oleh and Viktoria; a CDL class (with full scholarship) for Oleh; Social Security numbers and driver’s licenses; doctor and dentist visits; bank accounts; public aid; rental assistance; transportation near and far; cell phones, groceries and clothes; enrollment in school and dance lessons; YMCA memberships – even occasional nights out. We hug our old friends and family members a little tighter, realizing how foolish it is to take them for granted.
Taxes and used cars
A few weeks ago, my wife and I were at Viktoria and Oleh’s apartment helping them complete employment tax forms and reassuring them their new jobs would go well. The topic turned to vehicles, and we apologized for the sorry state of the local used-car market. Oleh then reassured us.
“Please do not worry,” he said, in his better-than-average English. “You are giving us safety. Nothing is more important than that.”
I nearly choked up as I realized the most important thing about our team’s to-do list wasn’t what was on it, but the love that inspires it. I recalled what I say to people who ask what this project means to me.
“I knew this project would change the families’ lives,” I tell them. “What I didn’t know is that it would change mine, too.”
Sanjiv, a transgender man in his mid-20s from a small town in southern India, remembers 2018 as the year he jumped from a moving train to escape being sexually harassed. It was the year he argued bitterly with his parents, who refused to accept his gender identity and dragged him to a psychiatrist who would slip drugs into his coffee and give him mysterious injections by force. It was also the year he shaved his head and moved 350 miles away to Chennai, after a failed suicide attempt, leaving behind Sengottai, the town he grew up in and loved, for a harsh life on the streets.
The Rotary Club of Madras Elite, India, has three major goals: to improve public awareness of issues concerning transgender people, to help people who’ve had to leave their homes, and to prevent bullying.
Despite having a degree in business administration and having trained as an accountant, he could only find menial jobs because, at first, his parents refused to hand over his graduation certificates, which he needed for interviews. So Sanjiv worked long hours in a restaurant for low pay, washing mountains of dishes. "Just surviving was a daily challenge," he says. (Like others interviewed for this story, Sanjiv goes by first name only.)
But five years later, Sanjiv has made a dramatic turnaround. He went from dishwasher to trained cook. Then he got a job at Wipro, a technology services and consulting company. A friend reached out with an invitation to join Rotary, where he found community and support. Today, he's president-elect of the Rotary Club of Madras Elite.
Chartered in November 2021, the Madras Elite club is the first of its kind in India, made up entirely of transgender members and dedicated to addressing the needs of the transgender community. Among its charter members is Nila, a trans woman and social activist. Nila was trained as a pharmacist and has served as a public relations representative for PeriFerry, an organization that creates job opportunities for the transgender community. She also runs her own service organization called the Pharm Foundation, which advocates for the neglected health care needs of transgender people as well as those experiencing poverty in her community. ("Pharm" stands for People Health Action and Research Management.)
In 2017, N. Dhanraj, a social entrepreneur and at the time a member of the Rotaract Club of Dexterous, invited Nila to his club to give a speech on the challenges that the transgender community faces. "Nila was always a good friend," says Dhanraj (who like many people in South India goes by his first name and an initial for his family name). "Her speech helped members understand more about the lives and struggles of trans men and women, and how we could help promote inclusivity and acceptance in our society."
Later, he asked Nila if she'd like to become a Rotaractor herself and join the Dexterous club. "Rotary has always been inclusive," says Dhanraj, who is now a member of the Rotary Club of Madras Coromandel. "There are many clubs across India who have welcomed transgender members."
While Nila is still a member of Dexterous, she realized that to focus specifically on transgender-related projects and needs, it made sense to charter a new club. The initial hurdle was financial. Facing discrimination, many of the club's members struggled to find and keep jobs. They couldn't afford the Rotary International dues, but other Rotary members, including District 3232 Governor-elect Ravi Raman, stepped in to cover costs during the club's first two years.
Empowering India's transgender community
The Madras Elite club's priorities include helping transgender individuals:
Complete their education. Bullying in schools leads many transgender students to drop out. Based on 2011 census data, the literacy rate among India's transgender community has been estimated at 56 percent, compared with India's overall rate of 74 percent.
Obtain new identity documents. Without a government ID, transgender individuals cannot open a bank account, vote, or access government assistance and health care.
Make their voices heard. Charter member Nila serves on the Transgender Welfare Board for the southern state of Tamil Nadu, an important platform for promoting the social welfare and economic empowerment of the transgender community.
Each of the club's 25 charter members has overcome adversity and pain. "We've all seen a lot of problems in our lives," says Deepthi, a trans woman in her late 30s who works in an IT company and is the club president. "Our goals are to now help other transgender people avoid these pitfalls and save them from extreme discrimination." The club has three major goals: to improve public awareness of issues concerning transgender people, to help people who've fought with their loved ones and left their homes, and to prevent bullying.
Recently, they've connected with schoolchildren in online workshops, asking them to support peers who may be exploring their gender identity. "We tell them to be a buddy, not a bully," says Nila. "That kind of sensitization starts at a young age." They're also helping secure national ID cards and documentation for transgender people who may not have access to their identity documents because of family disputes. They would like to use microfinancing programs to help club members set up small businesses and become financially independent. "We wish to be seen as productive members of society," says Deepthi. "People rarely see transgender individuals as being in positions of strength and tend to typecast the entire community as either beggars or sex workers, and that's a problem."
Other initiatives they'd like to take on include a nationwide photography project to showcase portraits of successful members of the trans community whose gender identity may not have been widely known. Another is a documentary about the challenges they face.
Meanwhile, Sanjiv continues to thrive after the cascading challenges he faced in years past. He has reconciled with his family and is hopeful about the power of greater representation to influence change. "Parents of trans children would be far more accepting if we had a chance to make something of ourselves," he says. "We need to give the community a reason to come out and the support to do so. Rotary has given us a platform; it's a chance to unite, to work together, to raise our collective voices against discrimination."
This story originally appeared in the March 2023 issue of Rotary magazine.
Empowering India's transgender community
The Madras Elite club's priorities include helping transgender individuals:
Complete their education. Bullying in schools leads many transgender students to drop out. Based on 2011 census data, the literacy rate among India's transgender community has been estimated at 56 percent, compared with India's overall rate of 74 percent.
Obtain new identity documents. Without a government ID, transgender individuals cannot open a bank account, vote, or access government assistance and health care.
Make their voices heard. Charter member Nila serves on the Transgender Welfare Board for the southern state of Tamil Nadu, an important platform for promoting the social welfare and economic empowerment of the transgender community.
Hear author Steinberg - Columnist, Chicago Sun-Times - and contributor to Rotary Magazine share:
"How to Defang Critics: Lessons from Rotary's past"
In the 1920s, author Sinclair Lewis parodied Rotary in his best-selling books. Rather than complain, Rotary laughed along, invited him to contribute to their magazine, and ended up nearly taking credit for his Nobel Prize in Literature. A model that anyone can use when dealing with criticism.
History is an interesting place and not something to be afraid of, even when it serves up negative information;
Criticism can be a valuable learning experience;
When writing or communicating any message, edginess can be judiciously used to draw attention.
Neil Steinberg is on staff at the Chicago Sun-Times, and the last general interest daily news columnist working at a newspaper in Chicago. A contributor to many major publications, from Esquire to Rolling Stone to the Washington Post, he began writing for Rotary Magazine in September and his article on suicide and handguns is slated to run in August.
The author of nine books, his latest, "Every Goddamn Day," based on his blog of the same name, was published in October by the University of Chicago Press and includes a brief history of the founding of Rotary.
HYBRID Meeting see LINK below for April 18th
To Lunch Club & Satellite Club Members:
April 25th
D'Agonstino's
at 241 S. Milwaukee Ave.,
just south of Dundee Rd,
5:30 -7 p.m.
This will be a club "social" meeting that will include dinner, and games!
This is an in-person meeting - NOT a hybrid meeting.
Please make sure you let Andy & Mike know you will be attending as we must provide a head count!
We will meet to socialize at 5:30 PM, with formal meeting to begin promptly at 6 PM. We will feast on pizza, Caesar salad and soft drinks, with cookies, brownies, coffee and tea for desert. Cash bar will also available. Following the conclusion of the formal meeting at 7 PM, we will play bingo,
hosted by that renowned entertainer Mitch Portugal.
Call me with any comment or questions and have a great day and weekend too.
The 411 from the District 6440 Governor Line - Excerpts
ITEM #1 - In preparation for the annual change in leadership coming up in a couple of months, ClubRunner has announced that their Changeover Training Series is back for the 2023 year. Webinars will be provided for you to brush up on your ClubRunner skills or prepare you for your new role and responsibilities as you prepare for your upcoming year.
For more information and to register for one of the webinars, click here.
ITEM #2 - First, Past District Governor Kevin is pleased to announce the appointment of the Primary Committee supporting nomination of the District 6440 Governor for the 2026-27 Rotary Year. Acting as the Primary Chair will be Jeff Harger from Libertyville Sunrise. Other members of the committee will be Trish Whitecotton from the Fox Valley Sunset club and Glenn Garlick from the Buffalo Grove club.
ITEM #3 - Officer Installation season is almost here.
If you would like one of the current or past Governor Line to install your officers for the Rotary year 2023-24, now is the time to contact the person you wish to do the installation.
Dates fill up quick and you don't want to get shut out. Remember, you snooze, you lose!
ITEM #4 - THE DISTRICT FACEBOOK PAGE HAS BEEN SUSPENDED FOR VIOLATING COMMUNITY STANDARDS, WHATEVER THAT MEANS???. WE ARE CURRENTLY WORKING ON GETTING IT BACK UP. THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE!
Be sure to check out our District 6440 social media. Many highlights of club and district activity show up on our Facebook page! Please feel free to share your club social media posts to the District 6440 page.
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