Zimbabwean-born Constancia Bosha is the founder and CEO of The Courage of HOPE Foundation. The Courage of Hope Foundation (COHF) was launched in December 2019 with the aim of providing resources, infrastructure, and education in Southern Africa, specifically in Zimbabwe. Constancia was born in Musekiwa village in the outskirts of Harare. She grew up in an under-developed area where clean water, quality literacy, and lack of healthy nutrition were an everyday reality. The focus of the Foundation is to give back to the rural under-resourced populations of Zimbabwe by serving the families and children who need assistance in this current climate.
Constancia currently works as a Registered Nurse (RN) at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital in Northern California, USA. She holds a bachelor’s degree in nursing (BSN). She is also a member of Epsilon Phi, as well as Sigma Theta Tau International Nursing Honor Society.

Previous Projects
The first COHF project began in January 2020 when a visit to Zimbabwe uncovered a significant issue with the water supply. The role of ensuring there is water at home generally belongs to girls and women, especially in traditional rural communities. The women and young girls had to travel 8 miles to fetch water and wait over three hours for only five liters of water. This meant they had less time to invest in productive work or literacy. The Foundation conducted an observation and reacted by partnering with the St. Helena Rotary Club to secure funding for projects. The Rotarians were gracious enough to help us apply for a global grant (GG2118636) and were awarded $82,250 for water, sanitation, and hygiene improvements. As of Spring 2023,
after three years, we successfully served over 2,100 villagers with clean and safe water. The joint effort of the Courage of HOPE Foundation and Rotary continued into phase two of the project.
At the conclusion of phase two, the collaboration of the Courage of HOPE Foundation and Rotary would have brought clean accessible water to over 10,000 human beings.

Connstancia will share her personal experiences and her desire to provide solar power to ruralvillages to improve health and well-being to the local people.

Our Speakers for Thursday, July 18, 2024, were Andy Elkind and Sarah Vantrease from the Sonoma County Library. Andy has served on the Sonoma County Library Commission since 2018 as the Commissioner appointed by the City of Healdsburg. He is a member of the Rotary Club of Healdsburg. Sarah is a Division Manager of Public Services for the Library and works to ensure that library visitors have great experiences at their neighborhood libraries. She has an extensive background working in public library management.

The Sonoma County Library system is for everyone and it’s free! It has experienced extensive growth and diversification since 2016, when Sonoma County voters approved a ballot measure imposing a 1/8 cent sales tax for the Library. That funding increase constitutes 40% of the Library’s budget. The tax measure will again be on the ballot for renewal this year. The tax measure income allowed the Library to add hours, expand staff (including bilingual staff), and implement new services. The Library currently has 12 full-service branches (most open 7 days-per-week), a mobile library for coastal and smaller areas, and book pickup lockers. There are currently 200,000 people with library cards (47% of Sonoma County residents are card holders!). There were 2.7 million physical check-outs and 1.3 million digital check outs last year.

The Sonoma County Library emphasizes community resiliency. Access is easy with library cards, and there are no overdue fines, a wide range of materials in English and Spanish, live interpretation in dozens of world languages, available tech access, hot spot lending programs, meeting rooms and study pods for small groups, and jail and juvenile hall services. The Library is a place for lifelong learning. There is a robust early childhood education program, student access, and support for educators. Programs include adult and family literacy, English as a Second Language, career online high school, training resources, access to national news publications, diverse programming and creative collaborations. The Library is for everyone. There is a playback memory lab, an ongoing program to digitize old tapes and other materials, sound studios and audio-visual equipment, state and county park pass lending, and community histories, including an oral history project. And, the Library has over 5 million lendable items (the borrowing of paper books is actually increasing!).

The Library website provides access to all of the Library’s offerings. The website also contains links or downloads to a variety of other resources, including Libby (digital books), Hoopla, Kanopy (streaming movie collection), Linkedin Learning, and ProQuest.

Many thanks to Andy and Sarah for bringing the Library to us. Thank you so much for giving us an overview of all of the newest Library programs and resources.

Click HERE to see a limited time recording of Andy and Sarah's presentation.

On a regular basis, our resident photo pro Warren Smith, submits pictures of what is going on at the weekly meetings. You can always find the most recent pictures at the websites photo journal called "Meeting Sighting" Please note that all the meeting photos for the entire Rotary year are at this location with the most recent on the last page.

Thanks for all the great pictures Warren! Link to Meeting Sightings. The most recent are on the last page!