This month is World Peace and Understanding month. A month where we focus on building peace and reducing conflict locally and internationally. Our DG Sam Kavan reminds us in his newsletter that there are ways we can support Rotary's efforts to build peace and reduce conflict through the Rotary International Annual Fund. Two of these ways are:
Through Peace Scholarships, our 7 World Peace Centers educate young men and women from all over the world in the important work of diplomacy and conflict resolution.
Funding of other areas of focus include: Disease Treatment and Prevention, Literacy, Water and Sanitation, Maternal and Child Health, Community Development, supporting our Environment and Empowering Girls initiatives all help to alleviate problems that can ultimately sow the seeds of war and conflict.
We have some great things to look forward to this week and next week. This week, we'll show a video that played on KKTV regarding the Mock Trials, which is one of our annual service projects. Our Rotary Club was mentioned as one of the sponsors.
Our speaker this week, Frank Sinclair, has a great Horatio Alger (rags-to-riches) personal life story. He will be talking about Martin Luther King Jr., which should be very interesting. Next week, we'll have our big World Peace and Understanding Luncheon coordinated by our own PE, Samantha Chapman. This is an opportunity for all 6 Rotary Clubs in our area to get together for a join meeting and fellowship. Our speaker will be our own fellow Rotarian, Martin Cook speaking on "What is the World Peace We Hope For?" Please get your RSVP's in by SUNDAY evening. This luncheon will be back at The Pinery on the Hill.
Speaking of PE Samantha Chapman, she was featured in the Colorado Springs Business Journal earlier this month for her work for Rotary and Sentinels for Freedom. You can read the article here. Congratulations Samantha on the featured article and your efforts to promote Rotary.
As always, our club has some great service projects going on - this month is the Care and Share Spread-the-Love peanut butter and jelly drive. Look for lots more details further in the bulletin.
We are also doing amazing things with our international projects and involvement with global grants. Later in this bulletin is information on how to help victims of the recent earthquakes in Turkey and Syria. Through Rotary International, you can be sure that the funds you donate to help are going to directly help those in need, usually coordinated by the local Rotary Clubs in the area and nearby.
Watch next week for information on the program "iGive" which is replacing the Amazon Smile program. Information on the program and how to sign up will be in next week's bulletin.
After telling your friends, coworkers and neighbors about what great things we do in Rotary, invite them to come see what great people we are too! Invite them to a meeting or our March 1st social at a downtown speakeasy, District Elleven.
Next week we will have our own member, Martin Cook, speaking on "What is the World Peace We Hope For? This is also the joint World Peace and Understanding Luncheon. Come and bring a friend. Don't forget to RSVP by SUNDAY at 5 pm. Also, don't forget we will be back at The Pinery on the Hill for that luncheon.
If you can't attend but would like to watch the meeting, let our club administrator, Karen Mooty know and we'll try to Facetime the meeting as we are no longer Zooming the meetings.
Please take time to read the bulletin each week and check out our website that has more information about all our events, activities and upcoming speakers.
The human aspiration and yearning for a time of universal peace and understanding lies deep in the human heart. The Biblical book of Isaiah is often paraphrased to say, “The lion will lie down with the lamb” as a way of expressing this universal longing. On the other hand (again paraphrasing), Woody Allen quipped “The lion may lie down with the lamb, but the lamb won’t get much sleep!”
This tension raises some profound and important questions. What kind of peace is realistically humanly attainable? How is that peace to be established and sustained? What roles do power, the threat of the use of force and sometimes the actual use of force play in creating, sustaining and maintaining humanly attainable peace?
This talk will explore these questions, drawing on the profound reflections on these questions by Augustine of Hippo, the great Christian philosopher/theologian, who brooded about these questions as the Western part of the Roman Empire was collapsing around him. What was the value of that Empire? Was the Pax Roman (the “Roman Peace) really a kind of peace? Will the world be better or worse off without it?
Augustine’s reflections from the 5th Century have profound relevance to the world situation today. After World War II, the world created the structures of what is commonly called in the press the “Rules Based International Order” or the “Liberal International Order.” Major elements of that order included a ban on wars of aggression, the creation of the United Nations, NATO, and the other major institutions of an order that has persisted and defined the interational order until recently. And that order was often called a Pax Americana, shored up by the military and political power of the United States. Needless to say, that order never lived up fully to its highest ideals. But it did prevent major power war.
Now that order is under serious challenge. The Russian invasion of Ukraine clearly violates the core proinciple of that order the ban on aggressive war. China’s militarization of artificial islands in the South China Sea (in clear violation of the Law of the Sea Convention, to which it is signatory) and its threats to Taiwan are part of a larger plan to undo the Post World War II order and replace it if on more Sinocentric. And the Islamic World has a very different vision of an ideal international order than the Western one of sovereign independent states.
In short, it may well be that we are a world historical inflection poiont from which a very different vision of world order (or disorder!) will emerge. This talk will reflect on these challenges and try to make sense of our historical moment.
Turkey and Syria were struck by a devastating earthquake on 6 February that has killed tens of thousands of people, destroyed thousands of homes and other structures, and left people across the region without shelter in bitterly cold winter weather.
The Rotary world responded to this catastrophe immediately. RI President Jennifer Jones activated our disaster response efforts, communicated with the affected districts, and encouraged governors in those regions to apply for disaster response grants and share information about their relief efforts so that Rotary can amplify the calls for support.
The Rotary Foundation Trustees decided that all donations made, from now until 31 March, to the Turkey/Syria Disaster Response Fund will be used to aid earthquake relief projects. In addition, the Trustees made available more than $125,000 to Rotary districts affected by the earthquake through Disaster Response Grants.
Rotary's project partner ShelterBox also has an emergency response team assessing the needs in the region and how it can respond. That team is communicating with Rotary district leaders. Rotary's service partner Habitat for Humanity International is also working on its response. Many Rotary members are asking how they can help. Here's how to have the greatest impact:
Give to Turkey/Syria Disaster Response Fund. Donations help clubs and districts provide aid and support rebuilding efforts where the need is greatest. The funds are distributed to affected communities through disaster response grants. The Disaster Response Fund can accept cash contributions and District Designated Funds (DDF).
Support local initiatives. As we learn about local response efforts that are being led by clubs and districts, Rotary raises awareness about how to support them. People can then support these projects by working directly with Rotary members in the region. If you want us to publicize information about local response efforts, write to relief@rotary.org.
Can you believe it's already February!? I hope everyone's new year has kicked off right and y'all are ready to get into our next month of service projects, starting off with one of our biggest supported local non-profits, Care & Share!
Care & Share is back with their annual Spread the Love event, where they will be taking peanut butter/ almond, etc. and jelly/ jam donations from Feb. 6th to Feb. 14th, at any of the donation locations found at the link below. I will also be collecting donations this Friday at our weekly meeting and at next Friday's meeting to do a bulk drop off. If you do drop off on your own please let me know the amount in an email, and always feel free to snap a picture or selfie to post on social media and tag our club!
Care & Share has also put out the call for attendees to their largest annual event, Recipe for Hope, where guests will be provided the opportunity to hear powerful stories of hope and courage from their neighbors who have experienced hunger. Join over 1,000 guests to learn more about how you can help to bridge the gap between hunger and abundance, and how Care and Share is able to further their impact by partnering with more than 270 agencies to provide food assistance to thousands of families and individuals across 31 counties and 52,000 square miles throughout Southern Colorado.
The event will be held on March 2nd from 12 p.m.-1 p.m. in Broadmoor Hall at the Broadmoor Hotel, and is free of charge to attend. You will also get to hear from fellow Rotarians like Monique Lewis and Rodney Gullatte who will be speaking at the event! For more info or to reserve your spot at one of the available tables, please respond directly to Monique Lewis at her email: monique@careandshare.org or by cell at: (931) 561-4432
Thank you all for a great first month of clothing donations, over 200 items donated, and I look forward to what the rest of the year brings to our club!
Our club, through the Community Service Fund is supporting the following projects:
Practical Education Network (PEN) in Ghana with a $5,000 grant
A science lab for Maasai High School in Kenya with a $2,500 grant
HKMU in Tanzania with a $3,000 grant
So wonderful things happening throughout the world as we kick off 2023!
Below is an update on the Niger project we sponsored last year.
Warmly,
Jon Kaufman
P.S. If you are interested in participating in our International Committee, please email Jon Kaufman jk595@aol.com to be added to the notification list!
Update on Global Grant from David Smith
Last year your club contributed $4000 to the Farmers of the Future Income Generating Global Grant (GG2127084). This project was approved and funded late in the fall.
Background:
In 2015, the United Nations ranked Niger 187 of 188 countries in human development. Niger disparately needs economic development!
Substantial malnutrition, including stunting and wasting, and subsequent irreversible cognitive impairment are rampant in Niger. Fifty percent of women ages 15-49 years are suffering from the effects of chronic anemia. Malnutrition causes stunting in 48% of the children under the age of 5 years.
This Global Grant addresses both economic development and malnutrition. We will clear 2 acres of land, dig a shallow well, install a solar powered irrigation system and train village women and children to grow high-value, highly nutritious crops.
In addition to providing the 25 families in the cooperative with highly nutritious food, profits from sales of produce will be divided between the families and local schools.
Progress Report January 2023
The following photos show that the well was drilled, a submergible pump was installed, water was found, solar panels were installed, and women are organizing to grow crops. To make so much progress in a few months is remarkable.
March 1st from 5 pm to 7 pm we will meet at District Elleven, a downtown speakeasy.
You can access district elleven in two ways. First, through the vault in Mood Tapas Bar. Just let the host know that you would like to visit district elleven and they will escort you back and through the vault. Please be prepared to show ID at the host stand. You can also access d11 from the back alley. Our entrance is right across the alley from the parking garage’s alley exit. If you are walking up the alley from the south, you will be able to spot our sign under the large flood lamp.
We've had no new wild polio cases reported for the last 15 weeks, yeah!
Meanwhile, the state of New York is still surveilling polio in wastewater and urging all residents to get vaccinated against Polio. Remember, polio anywhere in the world can be transmitted to anyone in the world.
Poliovirus Weekly Update 28 December, 2022, World Health Organization
The number of wild polio cases for 2022 as of December 28 is 30 (2 in Afghanistan, 20 in Pakistan and 8 in Mozambique).
The total number of wild polio cases in 2021 were 6 (1 in Pakistan, 1 in Malawi and 4 in Afghanistan).
The total number of wild polio cases in 2020 were 140 (84 in Pakistan and 56 in Afghanistan).
The total number of wild polio cases in 2019 were 176 (147 in Pakistan and 29 in Afghanistan).
If you have bulletin announcements, please email the EXACT WORDING of your announcement to kay.rendleman@comcast.net by Wednesday at 5 pm. I don't write your announcements, but I do make them nice 'n' fancy!
