This week's program was versatile and captivating: 

We welcomed guests and visiting Rotarians, celebrated the Birthday of Secretary Parastoo & Nathan, heard an update on Club Committees from President Navid, and welcomed guest Speaker Friba Rezayee. 

Club Committees & New Portal Update

President outlined recent work to modernize how the club runs its projects and committees. Over the past 5–6 months, a new online portal has been developed (now in beta) to centralize club information, track projects, and better measure impact. Members will be invited to a hands-on workshop on August 25 to explore the platform and learn how it supports the club’s long-term vision.

The club’s project work is now framed around:

• Short-term projects (1–2 years): high-impact, time-limited support with intentional gaps before funding the same organization again.
• Long-term “special” projects (3–5+ years): sustained initiatives—often international or youth-focused—where impact and accountability can be tracked over time.

To support this, the club has:

• Strengthened an advisory board with representatives from each committee and senior members.
• Clarified the roles of International Service, Youth, and Community Services committees, including a new Community Services Special Projects committee focused on long-term community work.
• Set a funding guideline where at least 75% of some committee budgets go to long-term projects, with details and a full written charter (about 10 pages) available through the new portal.

Overall, the changes aim to make club work more transparent, collaborative, and sustainable, reducing reliance on any one person and ensuring members can clearly see and share the impact of Rotary projects.

Championing Education for Afghan Girls

Our guest speaker, Friba, one of Afghanistan’s first female Olympic athletes in judo, shared her powerful journey from growing up in a traditional Afghan family to competing in the 2004 Athens Olympic Games and later resettling in Vancouver.

Drawing on her own experience of fighting for equality and opportunity, she founded Women Leaders of Tomorrow, an organization that:

• Empowers Afghan women and girls through education and sport
• Provides scholarships for high school and university (including STEM and mining geology programs at UBC and Laurentian University)
• Delivers online learning (English, digital literacy, math, science and more) to girls still inside Afghanistan, where schools above Grade 3–6 for females are now closed by the Taliban.

Friba described today’s Afghanistan as a place where women are effectively under permanent house arrest, barred from education and most work, and needing a male escort even for basic errands. Despite this, thousands of girls are applying to her programs—over 5,000 applications recently, with only limited spaces due to funding and immigration constraints.

She also highlighted:

• The courage and risk girls take to leave Afghanistan for study abroad
• Their strong desire to return one day to help rebuild their country—some aspiring to become doctors, engineers, politicians, and even the first female president of Afghanistan
• The crucial role of Canadian schools, donors, and volunteers in making scholarships and online programs possible.

The club recognized her work with a donation of 25 polio vaccinations in her honour, and members expressed strong interest in future collaboration, including her upcoming event “A Night in Afghanistan” on October 17 at Crofton House School.