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April 25, 2024 |
With the traditional ringing of the bell we bring this meeting to order!
Club member's attendance is recorded by logging in.
Visiting Rotarians may complete a makeup form at the end of this meeting; YOUR donation for making up with us helps fund our service projects!
Visitors are always welcome to browse and register without obligation.
Our club offers the flexibility of ROTARY ON YOUR TIME!
and an opportunity to remain connected with Rotary!
Welcome to this week’s meeting of the eClub of the State of Jefferson.
I am Bob Gibson, President of the Rotary eClub of State of Jefferson. Welcome to this week’s meeting. I hope this finds you well.
As we move into the last quarter of the Rotary year, it is good to take stock of what remains to be accomplished. Polio-Plus and The Annual Fund of The Rotary Foundation deserve our attention and support. We have not yet attained our goals in either area. Rotary, along with our partners, is so very close to eradicating polio. The number of new cases continues to decline. As close as we are, new outbreaks continue to arise. This effort deserves our support. Supporting the Annual Fund of The Rotary Foundation develops the financial resources that match our contributions for District Grants. Our primary use of these resources has been our continuing work with the Navajo Nation. Our contributions to these funds support Rotary’s mission to “do good in the world.” Our Club is active in many areas of service. Our efforts are creating hope and opportunities in many areas of the world.
Thank you for your interest in our Club and your commitment to “Service above Self.” Enjoy the meeting.
If you have any questions or comments, I am available. My e-mail address is: bob@bluewaterphoto.net.
email president@StateOfJeffersonRotary.org
Dear State of Jefferson Rotary Members,
We are excited to participate with our young friends in Uganda using digital tools, a perfect activity for our eClub! The children in the Tandi Reading Club will gather on April 27 in Uganda. Before then, my colleague from Uganda and I invite you to record a short video using Flip, a Microsoft tool specifically for educational environments such as schools and this project. We chose it because it is relatively easy to use, but there are some tricky parts, so if you need help, please just drop me an email (remember I’m in Spain, 9 hours ahead of you, so it may take a day for me to respond).
This week, please join our Flip classroom, Uganda Reading Tent. Click here: https://flip.com/6fbbe6c3. You can also scan the QR code instead.
There you will find a video that walks you through the steps to record your message. You can find it here: https://flip.com/s/2ymmd62ey3mb
The children will respond on April 27, and we hope they will see anything you post to respond back to them. Internet can be a challenge in Uganda.
Weekly eClub "Coffee Chat" Zoom meetings
Tuesday at 12:00 PM PDT
I believe these “fellowship” meetings have been valuable. They are informal opportunities to get acquainted with our members. If it fits your schedule, I look forward to “seeing” you at the meetings.
April is Maternal and Child Health Month
Rotary makes high-quality health care available to vulnerable mothers and children so they can live longer and grow stronger.
An estimated 5.9 million children under the age of five die each year because of malnutrition, inadequate health care, and poor sanitation — all of which can be prevented.
Resources & reference
- WASH in Schools Target Challenge
- Apply for a UNESCO-IHE scholarship (for water and sanitation professionals)
- Learn more about our partners
- Browse Rotary Showcase for member projects providing clean water
- Find a water project to sponsor on Rotary Ideas
- Contact our manager for water and sanitation
How Rotary makes help happen
Rotary provides education, immunizations, birth kits, and mobile health clinics. Women are taught how to prevent mother-to-infant HIV transmission, how to breast-feed, and how to protect themselves and their children from disease.
District-wide online clubs offer easy entry into Rotary
Members of Activate Victoria, which uses a club model that attracts members through community service projects.
By Amanda Wendt, past governor of District 9800
During my year as district governor, we wanted to charter a club that would be different and offer a pathway for new Rotarians to pursue their passion for community service and enjoy the benefits of membership without some of the conventional obligations. The club, which adopts a district-wide online model, provides flexibility for members to pursue their own interests and creates a supportive experience for each member.
Members of the Rotary Club of Activate Victoria are not obligated to attend every club meeting or serve on committees if they don’t want to. They are encouraged to support the club in service activities. They can pay their annual membership fees upfront. And they are encouraged to attend district leadership events that align with their leadership journey.
We encourage Activate members to investigate other conventional clubs to find their best fit, seeking a club culture, experience, and resources that will help them make the changes they want to see. But importantly, as members of Activate, they’ll already be Rotarians as they conduct that search.
Many Activate members see themselves as belonging to Rotary as an organization more than members of a single local club. As such, they feel free to run their own projects, work with other Rotary clubs, and even serve in leadership roles in other community organizations.
What I love about this club format is that it offers busy, prospective members minimal obligations so as not to be a barrier to them joining Rotary. It will still provide them with all the benefits of connecting with other volunteers with a heart to give back to their communities. They can gain experience, learn from and share knowledge with others, and pursue their own interests and passions.
Meetings are held online regularly, but these serve mainly as a chance for collaborating on ideas. It is an entirely optional forum to problem-solve and work together to advance ideas or tackle an issue that has arisen. Fees are kept to a minimum, only what is necessary to cover RI dues and district charges. And these are levied through monthly automatic payments from a member’s bank account. The club has no budget of its own; instead, whatever is collected in donations is contributed to joint efforts with partners or to support a common initiative.
I find that clubs like this introduce new members to the Rotary experience while providing them an easy, no-hassle opportunity to explore and connect with other Rotary clubs, grow their leadership skills, work on service projects with other Rotarians, and expand their networks. Our members tell us they find greater fulfilment in this club model and gain experience that resonates with their careers, a significant advantage for people in their 20s, 30s, or 40s. People who have limited time due to other obligations are attracted to this model.
The club, now a year old, is evolving as we learn more about our members’ priorities. We need to continue listening and responding as new members come aboard and expectations shift. While we enjoy a reasonable conversion rate, we work to maintain a steady stream of membership leads from our district.
There are many advantages to chartering a club like Activate Victoria. You will need a strong partnership with your district leadership to share membership inquiries. Remind them that members who join an introductory club like this could be taking their first steps to a more conventional club in your district. Time spent finding the best Rotary fit is always time well spent and increases the chances for a fully engaged and committed long-term member of Rotary.
Navajo Solar Lights
Bringing solar powered lighting to at-risk populations on the Navajo Reservation.
The Navajo Solar Light Project is a program that brings solar powered lighting to at-risk populations on the Navajo Reservation, including elders over 70 years old. The project was initiated by the Rotary Club of Durango Daybreak by Joe Williams.
The Navajo Nation, bigger than the state of West Virginia, sprawls across Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico. It is a harsh but beautiful land.
Over 15,000 Navajo homes don’t have access to electricity. Nearly a third have no running water, and more than half lack kitchen and toilet facilities.
A solar panel the size of a baking sheet mounts onto a roof with a pole. A wire runs from the panel into the house where up to three rechargeable lights hang from hooks on the ceiling. To turn on the lights, the resident need only touch a button. The light can be detached and used as a flashlight for going outside at night. The kit includes a charging outlet for cell phones which enhances the resident’s safety and contact with family. Each solar light kit costs about $300.
The impact of the COVID pandemic on Navajo children has been significant. Children have been out of school and many lack reliable internet for access to online education.
Chinle Plants Hope (CPH) is a project that can take the Navajo Solar Lights Project to a new level, offer significant assistance to the Navajo people and meet the challenges of Covid. It is a community-based program that is also being supported by the Durango Daybreak (CO) and Glenwood Springs (AZ) Rotary Clubs.
This project will expand the reading and learning opportunities for both the children and the community of Chinle, Arizona.
Now, and for the past 9 years, Rotarians led by the Rotary Club of Durango Daybreak have teamed with the Navajo Nation to bring solar lights to remote, off-the-grid homes on the country’s largest Native American reservation. Volunteers from all over the United States have not only pitched-in to make solar light a reality to Navajo residents but have had the opportunity to sample regional food and learn about a vastly different culture. Among the Rotary Clubs that have supported this project are:
- The Rotary eClub of the State of Jefferson
- Durango High Noon Rotary Club (CO)
- The Rotary Club of Eugene Airport (OR)
- Boise Rotary Club (ID)
- Denver Rotary Club (CO)
- Rotary Club of the Caldwells (NJ)
- Rotary Club of Five Points (SC)
In addition, an important part of the project has been to involve local Interact Clubs and Youth Exchange students.
The American Garment Workers Who Helped Inspire International Women’s Day
Jobs in the garment industry were some of the first to empower women in the industrial workforce
International Women’s Day describes itself as “a collective day of global celebration and a call for gender parity.”
No one group is responsible for the event, its website says. But the roots of this celebration did largely come from one group: women workers. It was first known as “International Working Women’s Day,” and its purpose was to give laboring women a focusing point in their struggle for fair working conditions and pay.
In America in the early twentieth century, working women were coming together to fight for labor rights as well as other rights, like voting. The International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union (ILGWU) became one of the largest unions voicing the concerns of women workers (men also joined this union.) It was formed in 1900. Another central influence in the movement was the Women’s Trade Union League (WTUL), formed three years later.
It was initially challenging to get working women to join unions, for a number of reasons including class and racial struggles, write historians Annelise Orleck and Eileen Boris. But in a moment in the early twentieth century, the interests of working-class women who were fighting for labor rights and human rights aligned with those of middle-class feminists, who, they write, were "focused primarily on achieving equality with male professionals and executives."
The WTUL was a uniting force, they write, because it “drew together educated women reformers (mostly white, Protestant and native-born) and young women workers (many of them immigrant Jews, Italians and Irish) to improve factory wages, working conditions and hours.”
At that time, working-class women who worked in industrial settings did their jobs in dangerous conditions, and their work was valued significantly lower than that of men, even men doing similar jobs. A central industry for the kind of factory work women did was garment-making, which was also the subject of several 1900s-era strikes that helped to transform American labor.
“This cross-class network deepened with the uprisings of young women garment workers that began in New York in 1909 and then spread out over the next few years into other Eastern and Midwestern cities,” the historians write. One such strike, known as “The Uprising,” lasted 14 weeks in 1909 and comprised 20,000 New York women’s shirtwaist makers. Writes the Jewish Women’s Archive:
The uprising was more than a “strike.” It was the revolt of a community of “greenhorn” teenagers against common oppression. The uprising set off shock waves in multiple directions: in the labor movement, which discovered women could be warriors; in American society, which found out that young “girls”—immigrants, no less—out of the disputatious Jewish community could organize; in the suffragist movement, which saw in the plight of these women a good reason why women should have the right to vote; and among feminists, who recognized this massive upheaval as a protest against sexual harassment.
According to the International Women’s Day website, that strike helped to inspire the creation of National Women’s Day. This holiday merged with International Women’s Day in 1910, which was originally more focused on the plight of laboring European women. Butbfter the infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911 exposed the struggle of American garment workers, as Smithsonian has written about before, that cause became emblematic of Women’s Day.
“Shortly after the fire, the Executive Board of the Ladies’ Waist and Dress Makers’ Union, Local No. 25 of the ILGWU, the local to which some Triangle factory workers belonged, met to plan relief work for the survivors and the families of the victims,” writes the University of Illinois. Other labor organizations as well as Jewish community groups joined forces with them.
United, the groups cared for the injured workers and the families of those killed. They also fought for labor legislation that would protect vulnerable workers, and saw them passed.
After 1913, International Women’s Day came to be celebrated on March 8, as it is today.
weekly@StateOfJeffersonRotary.org
Prosthetic hands change lives
The recipient of a prosthetic hand during one of the Rotary club’s medical camps.
By Mohan Kumar K V, member of the Rotary Club of Bangalore Prime, India
Guided by Rotary’s Action Plan, we embarked on a journey of service and empowerment, reaching the unreached by providing free below-the-elbow prosthetic hands to those who had lost limbs.
Our Give Hope Give Hand project restores mobility and dignity to individuals with limb differences, enabling them to live more fulfilling lives. Many of our recipients lost their hands as a result of being electrocuted, having road or industrial accidents, or mishandling fireworks.
Many receive prosthetic hands during one-day events organized in partnership with local Rotary clubs holding medical camps.
Leveraging Rotary’s extensive network, we find our beneficiaries through social media, WhatsApp, print media articles, radio broadcasts, and podcasts. We also collaborate with relevant government agencies, Lions clubs, governments, and corporations. These outreach efforts benefit the recipients and enhance Rotary’s public image.
We have had to develop innovative ideas to reach out to more people. Typically, an individual must have a residual stump length of at least four inches below the elbow to be fitted for a prosthetic hand. However, around 20-30% of our patients come in with stumps that are shorter than that. To address this issue, we collaborated with experts in the field and developed an extender that can be used to increase the length of the stump.
The impacts of a prosthetic hand are immediate and profound. One boy could use his prosthetic hand to write his 10th-grade exams, achieving a commendable score of 73%. Another youth could ride a bicycle to school and complete 12th grade. Other recipients have been able to resume previous vocations, earning income to support themselves and their families. We have received heartwarming videos that show recipients using their new hands to perform everyday activities such as drinking tea, combing their children’s hair, feeding their children, brushing their teeth, and even driving auto-rickshaws.
The power of Rotary to expand our reach and increase our impact was on display as our project continued to grow and expand. After launching in 2007 in India, we extended the project to encompass Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Zambia, and Mauritius, bringing joy to more than 30,000 individuals. This achievement was made possible through collaborative efforts within Rotary’s network. I was privileged to address various Rotary gatherings across India to raise awareness and build capacity.
In Chandigarh, India, we worked with a farmer’s union to find farmers who had lost hands in accidents with agricultural machinery. We provided 1,279 prosthetic hands during a three-day camp. Then, when travel was limited during COVID, we conducted virtual training sessions for the Rotary Club of Flacq, Mauritius. The sessions enabled members to identify beneficiaries and distribute prosthetic hands, and the club has since expanded its outreach to neighboring islands. Additionally, with the assistance of the Ministry of Health in Zambia, I led a team to Lusaka in 2019 to facilitate the distribution of prosthetics. During a recent visit to Sri Lanka, I met a local Rotarian who connected us with a local nonprofit that provided prosthetic hands to war veterans who had lost limbs.
To ensure long-term sustainability, we also empowered local communities to take ownership of the effort by setting up experience centers in more than 30 locations across India. At any point, someone who has lost a hand can walk into one of these centers and get a prosthetic (or a replacement if needed). Some of the centers are at members’ homes or offices. By providing training and resources, we can equip community members with the skills and knowledge they need to support and advocate for individuals with disabilities.
Training is an essential component. Recipients need to learn how to operate their prosthetic hands to receive the maximum benefit. They regain independence and autonomy in their daily routines by learning proper techniques and strategies.
Adjusting to life with a prosthetic hand can be challenging – both emotionally and psychologically. Counseling provides recipients a safe space to express their feelings, fears, and frustrations about their limb loss and the adaptation process. By offering coping strategies, emotional support, and validation, counselors help recipients navigate their journeys’ emotional ups and downs. We have one volunteer, a previous recipient, who has coached and trained other recipients for the past 10 years.
As we follow the Action Plan to reach the unreached, we gain the power to transform lives. We’re building a more just, equitable, and compassionate world through the Magic of Rotary.
weekly@StateOfJeffersonRotary.org
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