Boxing Day lunch restores hope after Hurricane Melissa

Rotary members pack supplies during the Boxing Day Senior Lunch.

By Nerissa Persaud, past president, Rotary Club of Montego Bay, Jamaica

The day began quietly — but with a purpose. At 7 a.m. 26 December, I was on my way to First Baptist Church Grand Cayman. Not for a service, but to be part of an annual Rotary tradition, built on six decades of unwavering service, love, and human connection.

This year marked the 60th anniversary of the Rotary Club of Grand Cayman’s Boxing Day Seniors Lunch — an act of service so rooted in consistency and care that it has quietly become part of the island’s heartbeat.

Two months prior, my family and I were uprooted from our home of almost four years in Montego Bay, Jamaica, when Hurricane Melissa struck with 185 mph winds. Montego Bay had been a happy place, where I discovered belonging and connection to my community through Rotary service.  

Leaving what was left of our home, relocating schools, rebuilding business, and landing in the Cayman Islands meant far more than logistics. There was grief. A quiet, unspoken grief for the Rotary community I had poured myself into, for the people and the causes that had become part of my identity. Service was not something I did — it was something I was.

And then came the Boxing Day Senior Lunch. Putting on a simple white polo shirt, golden Rotary wheel stitched over my heart, never felt better. It was not nostalgia. It was readiness. Readiness in action. A reminder that service does not belong to a place; it belongs to a calling.

A Rotary volunteer handles a box of supplies for the Boxing Day event.

Walking through the church doors, I saw Rotarians, children, young and old, mothers and fathers, entire generations moving together in quiet efficiency. Tables were prepared, boxes unpacked, hamper bags assembled — over 900 of them — each with a tangible expression of dignity, nourishment, and respect. The Boxing Day lunches were prepared not as charity, but as an act of community.

Rotary does more than serve meals to seniors or bring clean water to children. Rotary connects and creates belonging, reminding us that we matter. Our smallest actions, when done together, ripple outwards in ways we never fully see.

As I stood there, surrounded by people who give as much as they teach, who support through both actions and caring, I felt something revive inside me. A quiet certainty. Rotary had not left me. Community had not left me. Purpose had not left me.

This Christmas, I was deeply grateful that my family was safe under one roof. But I am also acutely aware that much of that resilience — much of who I am — has been shaped and sustained by the Rotarians in my life who have become family.

The Boxing Day Seniors Lunch of the Rotary Club of Grand Cayman was a testimony that when we come together, good things happen. And when we serve together, we heal together. Never stop believing in the power of Rotary.

Nerissa Persaud is the 2025-26 membership engagement chair in Rotary District 7020.

Global Leaders pledge US$ 1.9 billion in Abu Dhabi to End Polio and protect children worldwide

• New funds will help protect 370 million children from polio each year and brings the world closer to eradicating polio
• The pledging moment was hosted by the Mohamed bin Zayed Foundation for Humanity in partnership with the Global Polio Eradication Initiative

ABU DHABI, UAE (8 December 2025) International leaders, philanthropists, and global health partners announced today in Abu Dhabi a collective US$ 1.9 billion to advance polio eradication. This includes approximately $1.2 billion in newly pledged funds that will reduce the remaining resource gap for the Global Polio Eradication Initiative’s (GPEI) 2022-2029 Strategy to $440 million. The funds will accelerate vital efforts to reach 370 million children each year with polio vaccines, alongside strengthening health systems in affected countries to protect children from other preventable diseases.

The global pledging event, ‘Investing in Humanity: Uniting to End Polio’, was hosted by the Mohamed bin Zayed Foundation for Humanity in partnership with GPEI, and took place at Abu Dhabi Finance Week.

The event was attended by His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Vice Chairman of the Mohamed bin Zayed Foundation for Humanity; Ahsan Iqbal Chaudhary, Minister for Planning and Development, Pakistan; Bill Gates, Chair of the Gates Foundation; and Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization; alongside leaders from governments, multilateral institutions, and the private sector.

Pledges were made from a diverse group of donors and countries, including: $1.2 billion from the Gates Foundation; $140 million from the Mohamed bin Zayed Foundation for Humanity; $450 million from Rotary International; $100 million from Bloomberg Philanthropies; $154 million from Pakistan and $62 million from Germany; $46 million from the United States of America; $6 million from Japan; $4 million from the Islamic Food & Nutrition Council of America (IFANCA); and $3 million from Luxembourg.

“We are on the cusp of eradicating polio and securing a historic win for humanity. But we need all countries, partners and donors to step up now to get the job done,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization. “The new support pledged in Abu Dhabi will be instrumental in helping the GPEI reach all children in the final endemic countries and stop variant polio outbreaks around the world.”

A Legacy of Leadership

His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates, is a global leader in polio eradication, committing $525 million since 2011 and bringing global resources and attention to the cause. The UAE’s Emirates Polio Campaign has also distributed more than 850 million vaccine doses to children across Pakistan since 2014, with a focus on immunizing children in remote and hard-to-reach communities.

Today’s pledging moment is the third hosted in Abu Dhabi, following summits in 2013 and 2019 that collectively raised $6.6 billion for GPEI’s work to end polio.

“Today’s pledges demonstrate our shared determination to end polio and protect every child from this preventable disease,” said Her Highness Sheikha Mariam bint Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Chair of the Mohamed bin Zayed Foundation for Humanity. “Decades of progress has proved that a polio-free world is within our reach when we act together. Under the guidance of His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, we are proud to stand with countries, donors and partners as we work hand-in-hand to achieve it.”

Polio Eradication: A Proof Point for Global Partnership

Wild poliovirus is now endemic in only two countries – Afghanistan and Pakistan – but outbreaks of variant poliovirus still threaten children around the world. The pledges announced today reaffirm international resolve to finish the job and protect future generations from a disease that once paralyzed 1,000 children every day across 125 countries.

Success would make polio just the second human disease ever eradicated—after smallpox—and is projected to save the world more than $33 billion by 2100 compared to the ongoing cost of outbreak control.

“The fight to end polio shows what is possible when the world invests together in a shared goal. We’re 99.9 percent of the way there – but the last stretch demands the same determination that got us this far,” said Bill Gates, Chair of the Gates Foundation. “This renewed funding will help us cross the finish line and strengthen the systems that protect children from this terrible disease for good.”

Bloomberg Philanthropies has also been a partner in the fight to eradicate polio for more than a decade, investing $325 million to date. Their support of the GPEI has helped deliver lifesaving vaccines to children in some of the world’s most challenging areas, and ensured that surveillance, outbreak response, and immunization systems remain robust.

“Bloomberg Philanthropies has been teaming up with the Gates Foundation for more than a decade to eradicate polio – and we are within striking distance of what would be a monumental achievement,” said Michael R. Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg L.P. and Bloomberg Philanthropies, and WHO Global Ambassador for Noncommunicable Diseases and Injuries. “This new $100 million in support for the Global Polio Eradication Initiative and our partners around the world will help us get there – and help spare more people from the terrible effects of this disease.”

The hard work of governments, advocates, researchers and partners has helped bring cases of polio down by over 99% since 1988. Intensive efforts to reach every child with polio vaccines have also led to improvements in broader health infrastructure such as routine immunization, disease surveillance, and emergency response.

Despite this progress, the journey toward eradication is not linear. After historic lows in 2021 and 2023, wild polio has tragically paralyzed 39 children in Pakistan and Afghanistan this year while outbreaks of variant poliovirus continue in 18 countries, underscoring that persistent challenges in reaching every child remain.

“Pakistan is committed to ending polio and protecting every child. Through innovative vaccination strategies and stronger community engagement, we are building trust and reaching more children. These efforts bring us closer to a polio-free Pakistan and a healthier future for all,” said Ahsan Iqbal, Honorable Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives.

UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said, “The generous pledges made by donors today, and many others who continue supporting the eradication effort, will help community health workers worldwide in reaching every child, especially those who are consistently missing vaccination in the most fragile and conflict affected areas. UNICEF is committed to play our part in eradicating polio once and for all.”

Dr Sania Nishtar, CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, said: “Decades of global partnership—including the convening power of the UAE and other key supporters—have brought us closer than ever before to ending polio. As we continue to work innovatively towards this shared goal, this new funding gives us renewed confidence that one day soon we can achieve a polio-free future for all children.”

“Twenty million people are walking today because of polio vaccination, and we have learned, improved and innovated along the way. Rotary remains committed to seeing this fight through to the end,” said Mike McGovern, Chair of Rotary International’s International PolioPlus Committee.

“Germany remains steadfast in its support of the global fight against polio and has contributed to GPEI since the beginning. Thereby, we have played a key role in achieving that Nigeria and India are now considered polio-free. By working together and investing in robust health systems—including through vital contributions to WHO and UNICEF like those announced today—we can ensure that every child, no matter where they live, is protected from this preventable disease.” said Reem Alabali Radovan, Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, Germany.

“Supporting children and protecting the most vulnerable is central to IFANCA’s mission,” said IFANCA President Dr. Muhammad Munir Chaudry. “We are proud to renew our commitment to the global effort to end polio and to help ensure every child is reached with lifesaving protection. The last mile is the hardest, but we stand with our partners across GPEI to finish the job and create a world finally free of polio.”

About the Mohamed bin Zayed Foundation for Humanity

The Mohamed bin Zayed Foundation for Humanity is an innovative philanthropy dedicated to advancing human potential and opportunity. We invest in the building blocks of human progress: strengthening health systems, reducing the burden of preventable diseases, and empowering communities to thrive.

The Foundation’s work is guided by the vision of our founder, His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who grew up alongside the UAE’s transformation and saw how ambition, collaboration and resolve could redefine opportunity.

Building on this conviction, the Foundation focuses on challenges that are often underfunded or overlooked but hold the potential to deliver outsized human impact. By working in partnership with countries and communities to support progress, we seek to create impact that endures, for this generation and those to come.

For more information, visit: www.mohamedbinzayedfoundation.org

Media contact: media@mohamedbinzayedfoundation.org

About the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI)

The Global Polio Eradication Initiative is a public-private partnership led by six core partners: the World Health Organization, Rotary International, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, UNICEF, the Gates Foundation, and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. Since 1988, GPEI has reduced polio cases by over 99% and protected billions of children through vaccination.

Media contact: Ally Rogers, arogers@globalhealthstrategies.com

The 17th-century Pueblo leader who fought for independence from colonial rule – long before the American Revolution

The U.S. Capitol’s Statuary Hall Collection contains 100 sculptures: two luminaries from each state. They include many familiar figures, such as Helen Keller, Johnny Cash, Ronald Reagan and Amelia Earhart. There are a few from the Colonial era, including founders such as Samuel Adams and George Washington.

Some will also be represented in the Garden of American Heroes that the Trump administration plans to build. The monument will eventually have 250 statues, and the administration has proposed a list of names. Among the figures in the Capitol who did not make the cut is Po’pay, a 17th-century Native American leader from what is now New Mexico. The inscription on his statue in the Capitol identifies him as “Holy Man – Farmer – Defender.”

As a historian of early America, I see Po’pay’s absence in the to-be-built shrine as unfortunate – but not surprising. After all, he led the Pueblo Revolt of 1680: the most successful Indigenous rebellion against colonization in the history of what became the United States. He and his followers sought political independence and religious freedom, issues central to Americans’ sense of themselves.

Spanish conquest of New Mexico

Religious movements and figures played a central role in early American history. For example, as I have frequently written, Thanksgiving is linked to Protestant religious dissenters we call Pilgrims and Puritans. American myth tells us that those hearty souls braved an ocean crossing and a contest with the “wilderness,” in the words of the Plymouth colony’s governor, William Bradford. They did so, according to our legends, to pursue their faith – though the historical record reveals that economics also drove their decision to migrate.

Po’pay, a Tewa religious leader born around 1630, did not have to cross an ocean to prove his commitment to his faith. Instead, in the face of oppression, he wanted to restore the traditions and practices of his homeland: Ohkay Owingeh, which Spanish colonizers renamed San Juan Pueblo, in what is now New Mexico. The Tewa are one of many Pueblo peoples living in the Southwest.

Pueblo lands had witnessed spasms of brutal violence since Spanish colonizers arrived at the end of the 16th century. In 1598, a group of Spanish soldiers arrived in Acoma, a famous Pueblo city known to the Spanish through earlier reports from the explorer Francisco Coronado. The oldest settlement within the territorial boundaries of the United States, Acoma has been occupied almost continuously since the 12th century.

Acoma Pueblo has been inhabited for almost a millennium. Scott Catron/Flickr via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

At the end of the 16th century, conflict erupted when residents of Acoma refused the soldiers’ demands for food. Locals killed the commander and around a dozen others. In response, the provincial governor, Juan de Oñate, consulted with Franciscan priests and then ordered a counterattack.

The Spanish killed at least 800 residents – 300 women and children and 500 men – and perhaps as many as 1,500. In a subsequent trial, the colonizers ruled that the people of Acoma had violated their “obligations” to the Spanish king. Judges sold almost 600 survivors into slavery and amputated one foot from each man 25 or over.

In the years that followed, Spanish soldiers captured Indigenous people across the Southwest and sold them into slavery, too. For Pueblos and other Indigenous peoples, the intertwined military, political and spiritual invasions threatened seemingly every aspect of their lives.

For crown and cross

The violence at Acoma did not dissuade Spaniards eager to migrate. Around 1608, horse- and oxen-drawn carriages traveled into the territory to build a new capital, which the Spanish called Santa Fe. In addition to ferrying soldiers and farming families, those wagons also carried Franciscan friars, crucifixes, Bibles and other items the brothers needed to promote Catholicism among those they deemed to be heathens.

Over the ensuing decades, periodic conflicts pitted Indigenous peoples of various pueblos against the colonizers. Nevertheless, Spaniards erected churches in Native communities, and Franciscans often claimed that many Indigenous people welcomed their presence.

Like other Christian missionaries in the Western Hemisphere, Franciscans of the day argued that Indigenous peoples needed to abandon their traditional religions as part of the process of conversion. But many in New Mexico retained older ways. They continued to pray in chambers known as “kivas” and communicate with their deities: Pos’e yemu, for example, whom Tewas believed had the power to bring rain.

A ladder in Acoma leads up to the entrance to a ‘kiva,’ a space often used for spiritual activities. Ian McKeller/Flickr via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

In 1675, colonial authorities accused Indigenous religious leaders of killing Franciscans with sorcery. They rounded up suspects, executed three and beat others. They also destroyed kivas. Among those imprisoned and then released was Po’pay.

Pueblo Revolt

The sting of the lash scarred more than human flesh in Pueblo communities. It fed resentment against colonists. Many of the Pueblos focused their animosity on the clerical authorities who justified the brutality of the Spanish conquest.

The U.S. Capitol’s statue of Po'pay shows scars on his back, a sign of his imprisonment. Einar Kvaran aka Carptrash/Wikimedia Commons

As the decade came to a close, the region was gripped in a drought that reduced supplies of food and water, pushing Indigenous communities’ frustrations to a tipping point. Po’pay led a rebellion that reached across Pueblo communities, saying that he was following guidance from Pos’e yemu.

On Aug. 11, 1680, Po’pay and his followers unleashed a reign of terror against Spanish soldiers, colonial farmers and Catholic churches. They systematically destroyed religious buildings, whipped statues and crucifixes, abused priests before killing them, and rendered mission bells silent by removing their clappers or drowning them in water. Far outnumbering their opponents, the Pueblos chased the colonizers to Santa Fe and then drove them out of the region.

Po’pay, according to a Native witness named Josephe, reveled in the moment, saying, “Now the God of the Spaniards, who was their father, is dead.” Historians believe that the attack killed at least 400 colonists and soldiers, or about 1 in 6 Spaniards in New Mexico. There had been 33 friars in the province before the uprising. Only 12 survived.

Against kings and coercion

In the aftermath of the Pueblos’ military victory, Po’pay led an effort to eradicate the last vestiges of Catholicism in New Mexico. He ordered that Natives who had converted needed to scrub themselves with yucca branches to remove the stain of baptism. While some churches survived, including San Estevan del Rey Mission Church at Acoma, most of the Spanish friars who had led services in them lay dead.

An Ansel Adams photograph, taken in the 1930s or ’40s, of the San Estevan del Rey Mission Church in Acoma. U.S. National Archives and Records Administration via Wikimedia Commons

From 1675 to 1680, the European colonial project came under dire threat across North America. In New England, Metacom’s, or King Philip’s, War – waged between Indigenous groups and English settlers – destroyed scores of communities in one of the most destructive conflicts, measured on a per capita basis, in American history. In Virginia, a dissident hinterland landowner named Nathaniel Bacon led a revolt by aggrieved Colonists that torched the English provincial capital at Jamestown.

In this violent era, as I describe in a forthcoming book, Po’pay became one of the most consequential figures on the continent – and the embodiment of the American idea that people should be free from oppressive rulers and free, too, to practice their faith as they see fit.

Po’pay died in 1688. Four years later, Spanish colonizers returned to New Mexico and once again set out to bring the vast desert and its determined residents back under their control.

But they never erased the legacy of Po’pay, who remains a cultural hero for his defiant stand against king and cross.