Peace Fellowships, Foundation, a Sunday Lunch Invitation and RI President Elect, Barry Rassin.

The phrase at the top of The Ramble is Rotary International's new Mission Statement.

Last Week
It was a Business Meeting.  I came under fire for not suggesting that the club look for a possible Peace Fellowship applicant.
I pointed out that clubs had been circulated by District at my request for possible applicants and that I am not the Club's Foundation Chair.

I was asked what the criteria are and the closing date.....the date I got hopelessly wrong!  It's the 31st May...so my apologies.  It was 28th February last year.
The criteria?  I referred members to the RI website which everyone should be familiar with but here they are:

Peace fellowship applicants must meet these requirements:

• Proficiency in English; a second language is strongly recommended
• Demonstrated commitment to international understanding and peace 
• Excellent leadership skills
• Master’s degree applicants: minimum three years of related full-time work or volunteer experience, bachelor’s degree
• Certificate applicants: minimum five years of related full-time work or volunteer experience, strong academic background.
• The applicant has to apply through the RI website and then the application is routed to me to my specific District page and I then assess the application and subsequently call likely applicants for an interview.  If they are miles away we conduct the interview via Skype.
  
  Professor Steven Friedman assists me with the interviews as he has much more experience in conducting student interviews that I have!
• Last year candidates just applied without being recommended by a club but this year we are insisting on a club recommendation because this will hopefully weed out those looking for a free overseas holiday.  Last year we put forward 1 candidate out of 10 applicants and he was not awarded a Fellowship.  RI funds 50 Masters and 50 Certificates per annum so competition is intense and we do recommend that if an applicant is turned down that they consider applying again having gained more experience in the field.  It's the lack of full-time or volunteer work where they generally fall down.
• Picture Quiz
• Not one person knew their Bouvier des Flandres from their elbow.
• This Week
• Mike Lamb is the Club's  Foundation Chair and he has specifically asked to speak about the Rotary Foundation.
• While we are on Foundation don't forget the upcoming visit of Doreen Busingye , the Dinner on the 6th March...book with me...and the lunch on the 9th March...book with James Croswell.
• This is what Doreen Busingye is all about:

Cadre of Technical Advisers

The Rotary Foundation Cadre of Technical Advisers is a group of volunteer Rotarians who provide technical expertise and advice to Rotarians planning and carrying out Rotary grant projects around the world.

What we do

Cadre members review, monitor, and evaluate projects and ensure grant funds are being used properly. Our assignments include:

·         Technical reviews. Cadre members evaluate the technical feasibility of a project and submit a written evaluation. Reviewers don’t travel or communicate with the project sponsors.

·         Site visits. An advance site visitor evaluates the technical feasibility of a proposed project. An interim monitor reports on the implementation of an ongoing project. A post project monitor evaluates the impact and resolution of a completed project. For these assignments, cadre members travel to the project site and meet with the project sponsors and the benefiting community.

·         Audits. Auditors evaluate the financial management and oversight of grant funds. Audits can be targeted or random. Cadre members travel to the project site and meet with the project sponsors and the benefiting community.

·         Operational audits. Cadre members assess the controls grant sponsors have to ensure qualification. This involves evaluating financial books, records, and documentation.

Invitation

We received this invitation from Johannesburg East at PETS/AG Training.

If anyone is interested we could possible make up a Rosebank Table.

Friday 13th April

     

      Ronnie Kasrils will be talking to us at our normal meeting.  You might like to invite a guest or two.

President-elect Barry Rassin on where Rotary has been, where he hopes to lead it – and how the organization profoundly changed his life

Terry Cannon, Youth Exchange Chair, RI President Elect Barry Rassin, DG Elect Charles Deiner & Unknown Rotarian

Q: You want Rotary to have a transformational impact. How should we allocate our resources to do that?

A: It’s OK to do small projects – don’t get me wrong. We’re always going to be doing them. But I’d like every club to think of at least one high-impact service project they can do to change people’s lives. They don’t have to cost a lot of money. I always use the jeep we provided in Haiti as an example. For $60,000 or $70,000, we provided a pink jeep to a group of midwives who go out into the community and give prenatal care to mothers who wouldn’t get it any other way. The mortality rate has gone down dramatically. That’s transformational.

The Rotary Foundation has talked about sustainability for a long time. To be sustainable – to make the good we do last – you should be transformational, so that fits well into what the Foundation’s trustees and global grants are doing. The districts could look at district grants and do the same kind of thing. We have the resources. We just have to think a little differently.

Q: Did the act of rebuilding in Haiti have a positive effect on Rotary?

A: If you go into certain parts of Haiti with the Rotary wheel, they’re going to say thank you, because they know what Rotarians have done. Rotary has provided them with food, with water, with a school for their children. When we talk transformational, one project we’ve been working on is to bring potable water to the entire country of Haiti. The prime minister is a Rotarian and past president of his club. He is working with us, and he’s got a government agency that’s going to work directly with us. That’s way above any global grant, but we can plan for that and figure out how to do it in chunks. I’m sure districts and clubs around the world would love to be a part of it. That’s transformational. That’s the kind of thing that could change a region for the better, forever.

Q: What other goals do you wish to accomplish during your year?

A: There’s a disconnect between what we do at Rotary International – and do really well – and what Rotary clubs are doing. I’d like to bridge that gap. One of our strategic priorities is strengthening clubs, which involves things like membership and Foundation giving. We’re not reaching the clubs to get them to understand why we need to do some of these things, and therefore some don’t do them.

I want to explore ways of starting new Rotary clubs. There are a lot of clubs out there. We keep telling them, “You’ve got to get new members.” But their club culture may not be attractive to other people. Fine – they should enjoy their club, and then start another club next door. We’re working on making sure everybody knows that Rotaract clubs can start Rotary clubs. We need to tell Rotaractors they can start a Rotary club they’re comfortable with when they move on after 30. Rotaract is our secret weapon, and we need to spend time developing the transition from Rotaract to Rotary in a different way.

We’ve got to get better at social media. When you look at our numbers versus a celebrity’s, we’re nothing. We need Rotarians and Rotaractors to access social media and use it to improve our public image. And that’s the other part of it: I don’t believe our communities understand what Rotary is. I want to hold Rotary days so clubs and districts can get into their communities and talk about Rotary – what do we do and why do we do it.

I want clubs to have leadership development programs for their members. Rotary’s new vision statement says: “Together, we see a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change – across the globe, in our communities, and in ourselves.” It is a great opportunity to remind everybody that as members of Rotary clubs, we’re also there for personal development. Young people are looking for ways to grow and develop, and that gives them another reason to join Rotary. Those are the key things I want to go with.

Q: You mentioned Rotary’s new vision statement. We already have a motto, Service Above Self. We have presidential themes every year. Why do we need a vision statement too?

A: A vision statement allows us to tell the world what our ultimate value is for the long term. It helps Rotarians and non-Rotarians understand what our goal is when it comes to changing our world. This vision statement came from Rotarians, who recommended each phrase. The end result shows our vision for the future and the path to get there.

Q: Rotaract and Rotary clubs in the Caribbean have a good relationship. What’s the key?

A: My club is an example. When a Rotaractor comes to our club, they’re not our guest for the day. They sign in as a member. So right away they’re feeling like they’re a part of us. That’s important. We also make sure that a Rotarian from our club always goes to Rotaract meetings so there’s always a connection. In the last two years, I believe we’ve got 100 percent transition from Rotaract to Rotary. They come and join our club because they know us. We’ve got to keep that connection going.

Q: What have you learned from Rotaractors?

A: Rotaractors are energetic. They’re passionate. They want to do good, and they really like working with each other. The frustration is that they then find it difficult to transition to a different club that has a totally different culture, doesn’t have the energy, doesn’t even know how to use social media. Rotaractors are the Rotary of the future, and we need to help them get there. What are they going to want in a club when they’re 40? We have to come up with that answer and then create Rotary clubs, or help them create Rotary clubs, that can get them there.

Q: Imagine your life without Rotary.

A: Wow! That’s hard to do, to be quite honest. I have put my heart and soul into Rotary for 37 years, and without it I wouldn’t have the friends I have or the ability to do some of the things I can do. I always give the example of my first speech. I was holding on to the lectern reading the speech I wrote, and when I got to the bottom of the first page, I was so nervous that I couldn’t turn the page. But my club kept asking me to speak, so I kept doing it, and now I speak publicly with confidence. I couldn’t do that without Rotary.

Q: How do you begin a speech?

A: It’s important to recognize and acknowledge who’s in your audience. You want to connect with them in one fashion or another, either by saying thank you or it’s nice to be here, or by recognizing a particular individual. Whenever I make a speech, I want to make it as personal as I can.

Q: If there’s one thing you could change about Rotary, what would that be?

A: One of our challenges in Rotary is our Council on Legislation. We meet every three years to consider changing Rotary’s governing policies, but it takes more like four and a half or five years to accomplish this because of the deadlines to propose legislation. The world is changing far too fast for that. We need a way to make major decisions that affect the organization on a quicker basis. Our Council on Legislation needs to understand that maybe it’s time to make that change. I’d love to see our Council restructured. One way would be to conduct those meetings electronically every year. It would be a challenge because it’s hard to have a dynamic debate online, but I think Rotary is smart enough to figure out how to do that.

Q: Is there a Rotary tradition you would never get rid of?

A: I would never get rid of our Four-Way Test. I would never get rid of vocational service. Some of the traditions from weekly club meetings could go. I don’t think there’s a need to be that formal in a club meeting anymore. But when you look at core values or ethics or classifications, those are things that have to stay with us. That’s who we are and what makes us different, and we need to appreciate that and keep developing those principles. 

Lester Connock & Vocational Service Awards, Business Meeting, Doreen Maheru's Visit and the First Woman Rotary Club President.

Last Week

On the outside, Lester Connock Awardees Sizakele Hadebe & Shakiera Saallie.
On the inside, Vocational Service Awardees David Heritage & Josephine Mhlongo.
In the Middle, President Lyn Collocott

It was time for our annual Rotary Vocational Service Awards where we recognise people who work hard for the community but would never receive recognition and we also presented certificates to the Lester Connock Awardees who received a bursary each of R20 000 to assist them in their post graduate research at Wits University's Faculty of Nursing.

The Vocational Service Awardees receive a certificate and we make a donation to the charity of their choice.

David Heritage

David spoke to us at Rotary a couple of weeks ago and it was reported in The Ramble so there is no need to repeat the work he does as an ex prisoner in assisting prisoners on parole to ensure they do not re-offend.

Josephine Mhlongo

Josephine was involved in the squint correction project which the club undertook last year. During one of Josephine Mhlongo’s outreach projects visiting Pohopedi Primary to give out uniforms to children in need, she came across Agnes Moremi which lead to Rosebank Rotary Club engaging with Dr Vercueil to correct Agnes’ squint.

She did an Alpha course at the Bryanston Catholic Church and then went out to start the first Alpha course in Soweto. She has facilitated many courses extending /reaching other denominations in Soweto. She has even extended her work to work in prisons.

 In 2016 Josephine worked as a volunteer for six months at Johannesburg Prison Medium B.   She involved herself with the program of caring for ex-offenders. She strongly believes that by visiting those in Prison she can help them as well as visiting ex-offenders after prison to prevent them from re-offending

Josephine is actively involved in church matters and the Catholic Woman’s League since 1994. She was the vice president for 3years and currently is the treasurer. She takes responsibility every year to fundraise and uses this opportunity to empower others.

She supports all activities plus she initiates new programs and projects. She motivates people to get involved and to help themselves and their community.

She took an active part in starting the Sunday school at her church, Holy Rosary.

 She inspired her church to adopt the Wolmaraanstad Catholic Church. Josephine concerns herself with vulnerable children and pensioners in Wolmaraanstad. She attempted to get ZoZo tanks to establish a vegetable garden for the pensioners.

Each year Josephine finds and invites special ‘cases’ to the Christmas parties. With teachers’ help Josephine finds children who have never had a birthday party and who live in extreme poverty. These are the children that Josephine takes to a Christmas party.

 Josephine does not wait for hand outs and donations. Her fund raising events focus on family and community involvement. She will arrange a Sports Day for the community. Members of the community are invited to set up tables selling home crafts to raise funds. Her Mother’s Day tea party fund raiser is another hugely successful event.

Josephine is the person who makes it her business to take care of the children who have disabilities in her church. She used her initiative to help a mentally ill little girl Hadio Lebuso by taking her to the Mother Theresa Home in Yeoville. Her intervention did not stop. Josephine then opened a case of child abuse against the mother. The list of how she helps is endless..... ! One of her best contributions is her reliability and willingness to take responsibility for projects. She will dedicate her time to make sure that the projects are well organized and involve members to uplift their communities themselves.

In December 2006 she inspired a group of ladies from Bryanston, lead by Mrs Florence Banahan and Mrs Bernadette Winderley, to get involved in charity work in Soweto, very far from their comfort zone! They started a program of doing a Christmas party for the disadvantaged pensioners. Josephine said she started with 60 food parcels for the pensioners and annually it has increased. Now her group looks after 650 families. Josephine focuses on child headed families and pensioners from the poorest of the poor such as Protea South informal settlement, Orange Farm, Kliptown, Poortjie informal settlement and Wolmaraanstad in the North West. Josephine encourages involvement from volunteers to assist in the packaging and distribution food parcels to these extremely poor families.

As her sister is a teacher at Pohopedi Primary School in Poortjie, Josephine got involved with this group of children. Through her contacts she gets funding to buy school uniforms and blankets for pupils who come from struggling families. 

As keeping warm in winter is important to her, she was actively involved with an NGO called Knit-a -Square when it first started in 2009 by Ronda Lowrie. She also involves herself in a “Jersey drive” to get jerseys and jackets for pensioners, children, unemployed moms and unemployed men.

She is involved in providing sanitary towels for girls and counsels teenage pupils.

She is passionate about not forgetting the boys who get given a bag with toiletries, a pair of socks and underwear.

Josephine helped a young Wits University student who was unable to get accommodation in the first year of his studies. She assist Ishmael Motsweneng by paying for his accommodation until he managed to get NAFSAS support after which she only provided him with meals.

She helped a young man who was seriously injured in a car accident last June. He was sent home from hospital with wounds in a terrible state. By November he was  critical and unable to walk. Josephine called upon her contacts. getting the wounds dressed properly, rehab care and physio each day to teach him to walk again. Josephine arranged a wheel chair and a commode. Josephine’s insistence on care and treatment saved this young man’s life.

Josephine  assist families to access grants if they are eligible and she finds proof of birth for many so that they can become eligible for an ID document  Sometimes this info requires Josephine  to visit farms and travel far afield to visit families in order to get the documentation that is necessary.  One is filled with admiration as she runs to and fro often at her own personal cost.

Josephine is driven to improve the lot of others and to empower them to help themselves. This is what Josephine uniquely brings to the table of humanity.

Lester Connock Awards to:

Shakiera Saallie

for her ongoing contribution to the understanding of cross infection within a hospital environment

with a view to ongoing training and the resultant saving of lives.

Sizakele Hadebe

for her ongoing contribution to the nursing of cancer patients within a hospital environment

with a view to ongoing training in the development of a sympathetic understanding of the needs of patients and their families.

This Week

It's back to normality and a Business Meeting.

Cafe Dolci

Doreen Maheru's Visit to audit the Baragwanath Palliative Care Project 

She will be addressing the club at a special lunch at Old Edwardians on Friday 9th March at R120 per head and James Croswell has sent out invitations to all club members and special guests...if you are not yet a member get in touch with him as you wouldn't have received anything.

In addition there will be a dinner to which anybody at Dolci Cafe, Clarence Rd Craighall Park on Tuesday 6th March, 7:00 for 7:30pm.

 The menu is Italian and includes Arancini which no-one guessed in the picture quiz.

We'll choose from the menu so you can spend as much or as little as you like.  Please book with me.

Picture Quiz

Last week's vegetable was Chou Chou.  Only Lyn Collocott got it right.  The Chinese call it Chow Chow and it is terribly boring. See if you recognise this week's breed of dog.

Women in Rotary - How it all began.

Sylvia Whitlock became the first female Rotary president after her right to membership went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The mandate that Rotarians welcome women to their ranks came down 30 years ago. She asked for arms in the air: Who was a Rotarian 30 years ago? A handful went up and she nodded. Someone shouted, “All men.”

Her club, in Duarte, was small. The president looked at the community and saw women in leadership roles, and invited some.

“This didn’t start as a women’s issue, but as a simple attempt to recruit more members into Rotary,” she said.

It was 1976. She had never even heard of Rotary.

Whitlock accepted the invitation and in 1982 she became a member of the club. She was ready to be a part of the good Rotarians do.

At the time, Rotary had more work to do to eradicate polio. (Today, she pointed out, there is just one place polio still endures: Afghanistan.)

The Rotary district governor told the club president it was OK to invite women, but, he said, don’t send their names to Rotary International; just send initials. Whitlock pulled a face of disdain and mentioned this was not in line with our Four-Way Test of the things we think, say and do. The first filter is truth.

So there they were with women in the club, thriving, for years.

Then they got caught and were told they had to ask the women to leave, or the club could be declared “not a real Rotary.” The club held firm and lost its charter.

It went to appeal to the board of directors, but only real Rotary clubs could address that board, which they were decidedly not, what with all those members in skirts.

So it appealed to the Council on Legislation and the ousting was confirmed.

“It was not an issue of whether women could be in, but whether Duarte had violated the bylaws by inviting them, which of course they had,” she said.

The California Superior Court sided for exclusivity too.

But then the California Appellate Court reversed the ruling and said the Duarte club could be both inclusive and officially Rotary.

This was the year she was president-elect of what they had renamed the “ExRotary” club, and she was sent to the annual conference for incoming leaders. She, like the other participants, was reminded in advance to take her jacket and tie, “so I took my jacket and tie and went,” she said.

“I was one woman out of 290 men,” she said. “The most interesting part was during restroom breaks ….” Everyone started laughing and she was cut off. “I never get to finish that line.”

At the event, her club’s incoming governor announced that the fight to remove the rogue Duarte club was not over: “Rotary International will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court and I have every reason to believe we will win.” Forthwith Whitlock had a banner made that read “Rotary Club of Duarte, the mouse that roared — equal opportunity for all.” And she heard somebody say, “They’re forcing us to take everyone in, just like a hotel.”

The court was determining whether the group had a First Amendment right to exclude, and it was looking like it did not.

Judge Sandra Day O’Connor didn’t vote, because her husband was a Rotarian, but the judges found for the Duarte club. It was 1987.

The judges’ statement was progressive: “Even if there were a slight encroachment on the rights of Rotarians to associate, that minimal infringement would be justified since it serves the state’s compelling interest in ending sexual discrimination.”

As of that moment, all clubs in the nation had to welcome women. If a club did not, it would lose its charter.

Whitlock was on her way to work as the principal of an elementary school when the news was announced.

“Twenty minutes after the announcement all the media in California descended on the school,” she said.

She went into a room to give interviews, and for hours gave intelligent, researched responses to their questions. Then one reporter asked, “How did you get chosen to be president?”

She shrugged  and said, “What do good Rotarians say? ‘Oh, I don’t know, I must’ve missed a meeting.’ ”

Greta Schuler and her study on Sex Workers, Vocational & Lester Connock Awards and Water- the Scarce Resource

Last Week
Greta Schuler came to talk to us about her study of Sex Workers and the establishment of the Sisonke Sex Workers Movement and Izwi Lethu (The Voice) as a newspaper for sex workers.
Sex working is one of those illegal yet impossible to stop activities like dagga smoking but with the proviso that if there were no customers there would be no sex workers.
It was an interesting talk on the lives and attitudes of sex workers and in a country like ours it is often the only way to put bread on the table.

Sex work – the consensual sale of sex between adults – is an important livelihood activity for some migrants in South Africa.  Currently all aspects of sex work are illegal, resulting in multiple forms of violence against male, female and transgendered people working in the industry.  In this research area, we explore intersections between sex work, migration, health and well-being.

Research projects involve a partnership with Sisonke – the South African National Sex Worker Movement, and involvement in various policy processes.

Using mixed method and inter-disciplinary approaches, including arts-based methods, our research projects explore the lived experiences of migrant sex workers in South Africa.  Research contributes to a range of policy and programmatic interventions, including efforts supporting the decriminalisation of sex work in South Africa.

WHAT DOES SISONKE STAND FOR: 

Sisonke’s Vision

Our vision is to see a South Africa where sex work is recognised as work, and where sex workers’ health and human rights are ensured.

Sisonke’s Mission

As Sisonke our aim is to unite sex workers, improve our living and working conditions and fight for equal access to rights.

We know that united we will have a voice.

We do not want to be labelled as criminals.

We want the laws to change.

We want our rights to be respected like any other person in South Africa.

We demand the right to make a living.                  

HOW CAN SISONKE HELP SEX WORKERS?

As a member, you are part of a national movement which looks after your rights.

Sisonke helps you with:

Free advice and information – we partner with SWEAT to offer a 24/7 Counselling and referrals via the Help Line.

Outreach, including providing condoms and safe sex material.

Rights advice and referrals for legal support.

Life skills and training (e.g. computer skills, self-development, financial skills).

We are mobilising to fight for our human rights.

We are building a movement of visible, empowered and politically active sex workers who demand appropriate services, resist exploitation and support each other to challenge criminalisation.

We had a number of visitors.....

DG Jankees Sligcher and President Lyn Collocott are obviously engrossed.

 

Linda Vink, President Elect and Mike Vink Immediate Past President of Johannesburg New Dawn.  Greta Schuler's in-laws.

David Heritage, Welcome James & Henry, Greta Schuler and War in the Ukraine

Last Week

David Heritage came to talk to us about 'Revive', the NPO he has set up to assist prisoners who are just released or out on parole.  He in fact is on parole himself.
It was a very interesting talk and he spoke about his own personal experiences and what led him to do what he does today.  The vast majority of former prisoners re-offend probably owing to lack of support and financial need.  His own story shows that a combination of apartheid regulations and neglect can be so damaging and yet despite everything stacked against him the individual with assistance and care can rise above the past.

 President Lyn inducted two new members.  James Byrne, second from left and Henry Jensen, first on the right.  Other than President Lyn the others are sponsors except for the lady clutching the certificates,, Melodene Stonestreet, Director, Membership.







We also had a visiting Rotarian, Tony Nchgwazila from Mutare, Zimbabwe.







This Week

Our speaker is Greta Schuler.  She came to South Africa from the USA as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar to Wits and was hosted by Johannesburg New Dawn.  Mike and Linda Vink hosted her and she ended up marrying their son John.....enough said!

Picture Puzzle
You should all be ashamed of yourselves!  How can you not know the Black Galjoen, South Africa's National Fish!  (I wouldn't have recognised it myself.)  Better luck this week.

Vocational Service and Lester Connock Awards 
This will be a joint affair on the 16th February at Wanderers Golf Club with the same menu as last year.  The cost will again be R120 per head and Hugh Rix will be coordinating attendees etc. so wait to hear from him.  Do let him know if there are and special dietary requirements.
The next special lunch for the Baragwanath assessment on the 9th March will also be R120 and will be a three course meal at Old Eds.

Rotary Peace Fellowships
It's that time of year for recommendations.  See the RI website for details.  It would be good if we as a club could suggest someone.

The Tragedy of the Ukraine

In the mountains of Poland, 26 children traumatized by violence get a chance to be kids again at Rotary camp 

Viktoriia Babich, 11, and Khrystyna Treban, 13, fathers killed

Beneath the emotional scars of living in a Ukrainian war zone, Mykyta Berlet flashes the same mischievousness of any other 12-year-old boy headed to camp.  He wants to laugh, play pranks and on the last night of camp “we will cover everyone with toothpaste,” he says excitedly.

Mykyta and 25 other Ukrainian youths headed to the resort town of Zakopane in the foothills of southern Poland are naturally focused on fun. But their two-week respite organized by Rotary members has a higher purpose: To help the children heal and cope with the trauma they may encounter when they go home.  

Each camper has a parent or sibling killed or injured in the fighting in Ukraine. Psychologists at camp will guide them along the way during an itinerary that mixes escape and therapy.

Olga Zmiyivska, a member of the Rotary Club of Kharkiv Multinational in Ukraine, has brought children to the camp for two years and has witnessed its impact.

“After the trip, they are more willing to make contact and open their hearts,” she said.

War came into their homes

Mykhailo, 6, and Oleksandr, 8, Kruhlikov, father killed

Thousands have died and millions have been displaced by the fighting between pro-Russia rebels and the Ukrainian military in eastern Ukraine. 

Mykhailo, 8, and Zakharii Mazunov, 12, father killed

Growing up in the shadow of that nearly four-year conflict, most of the campers don’t remember a life without war. They tell unrealistic stories about battles and keep silent about real horrors. Some are guarded and hypervigilant. Others endure sleepless nights or nightmares. A few withdraw and emotionally shut down.

In Zakopane, nestled in the scenic Tatra Mountains, Rotary members give the children a chance to heal in a peaceful setting. The children sleep in comfortable cabins along a pristine lake flanked by green, rolling hills.

The program, called Vacation 2017 Zakopane: Well-Being for Ukrainian Kids, includes traditional camp activities and field trips along with support from mental health professionals. More than 100 children have attended over the past four years.

This year’s campers visited a mountain village to learn about local traditions, toured historic Krakow, and saw the castles, salt mines and hot springs of southern Poland. The routine activities are simple but powerful.

Yuriy Paschalin and Vlad Tsepun, both 12, became close friends after their fathers were killed by snipers. The field trips helped both boys start to relax and act like typical, curious children.

“This program allows these kids to stay kids and to live children’s emotions,” said psychologist and art therapist Olha Hrytsenko.

“They will observe and absorb another culture, attitude, and language, (and) will be able to compare and make conclusions about what is good and what is bad. It will help them to find themselves.”

Breaking their silence

When asked about their families, the children often talk about their parents, siblings, grandparents, and even their pets. Then the looks in their eyes change. Glints of childish fun disappear, along with any fussing or fidgeting. Instead, there is obvious pain behind their faces. And silence.

Like many children, 11-year-old Dima Tkachuk doesn’t want to talk about his dad’s death. Talking about death makes it all too real.

His father was killed in a military conflict zone; Dima’s mother also serves in the Ukrainian army and has been sent to the same area where Dima’s father was killed.

Dima, though, shared a glimpse of the stress on his family. He explained that since their mother left to join the fighting, his 18-year-old brother has turned to smoking and drinking alcohol.  

“Sometimes he does things that one cannot be proud of,” Dima said.

The psychologists and camp staff know not to pressure the children to open up. Instead they build trust through group games, outdoor activities, art therapy, and individual counseling with psychologists.

Children are more vulnerable to the psychological trauma of war, often causing them to withdraw, experts say. Re-establishing emotional connections is critical to healing. If left untreated, isolated children are more likely to experience domestic violence, addiction, and job loss later in life, research shows.

When a breakthrough does come, therapists listen or just sit quietly as the tears flow.

“It always takes time to survive loss. This time is needed to run the processes that we name ‘grief work,’ ” says Hrytsenko.

“A person will always remember the loss of someone whom he or she loved. The task is not to forget but to find the essence of this loss and to learn how to be happy after this.”

Dreams and beliefs

Psychologist and art therapist Olha Hrytsenko helps children work through their grief at Vacation 2017 Zakopane: Well-Being for Ukrainian Kids.

At the Zakopane camp, Valerie Tkachuk, 12, from Dnipro, Ukraine, was slow to trust others. Her answers were often short and sharp.

Her father was injured in combat while her pregnant mother was home caring for the family. Valerie shrank into herself, stopped communicating with peers, and started sleeping in her father’s sleeping bag on the balcony.

“That year was the most difficult in my life,” Valerie said.

She was asked to close her eyes and remember the most pleasant memory of camp in an effort to make her smile for a photo.

Eyes closed, Valerie started crying and opened up in a way she had not previously at camp.

“I am disturbed about my dad, as he is stressed for mom. And he is forbidden to have any stress, as he can have a heart attack,” Valerie said.

Valerie dreams of following her father’s path and becoming a military officer. 

Many children who grow up with war are drawn to the military. Their vulnerability, feelings of helplessness, and lack of trust make the strong image of a soldier appealing, experts say. 

Dima is set on a career in the army. Sasha Kruglikov, 9, whose father was killed in the conflict, already views himself as a soldier. He likes wrestling and karate and said he wants to defend his country when he grows up.

Creating a place to heal

When the conflict in Ukraine began in early 2014, Rotary members stepped up to help.

“We thought, why not organize vacations for kids whose childhood was affected by war,” says Ryszard Luczyn, a member of the Rotary Club of Zamosc Ordynacki, Poland.

Anna Kaczmarczyk, a member of the Rotary Club of Zamosc Ordynacki, Poland, is the first person to meet the children when they start their trip.

Barbara Pawlisz, of the Rotary Club of Sopot International in Poland, and Łuczyn got support from the Poland-Ukraine Intercountry Committee. Rotary’s Intercountry Committees are networks of Rotary clubs in at least two countries, and they often work together on service projects or to foster peace between the residents of countries in conflict. Rotary clubs in Belarus, Poland and Ukraine participate in the network.

The Well-Being for Ukrainian Kids project started in 2014 with mixed results. The children, ages eight to 17, didn’t always get along. Their war trauma was recent, and communication between the age groups was difficult.

The Rotary members recognized adjustments were necessary, but they were not deterred. 

Since that initial effort, organizers narrowed the age range for campers to six to 12, and the number of Polish Rotary clubs that support the project has more than doubled to 83. 

Rotary District 2231 in Poland raised money to pay the travel and lodging expenses of the children and their caretakers. The project has also drawn support from clubs in Sweden and Slovakia. Ukrainian clubs were involved in selecting participants from all areas of the country. 

“It is always very difficult to find affected children in small towns and villages. So we appealed to all the Ukrainian Rotary clubs to help us,” says Anna Kaczmarczyk, a member of the Rotary Club of Zamosc Ordynacki, Poland. “Now we have children not only from large cities, but also from distant parts of the country.”

Does it work?

The changes in the children are obvious, Rotary members say.

Kaczmarczyk is the first person to meet the children in Lviv, Ukraine, when they start their trip. They may be nervous, which can make them irritable and aggressive.

But after the program, they are relaxed, smiling, filled with a new self-confidence.

“We continue this program because we know how these children react, how they change, how they become more open to the world, and how they look at the world the way it should be for a child,” Kaczmarczyk says. “War takes from them their childhood. And they still have their children’s dreams.”

After the children return home, they send letters and pictures about their camp experiences to program organizers and Rotary members.

Children have drawn portraits, colorful scenes of nature, castles and the kings and queens who live in them, and dragons. Sometimes, they write letters about what they observed. One girl marveled at the clean streets and friendly people.

Whether they are magical stories or practical observations, the children carry warm memories home with them.

Kids who experience violence can be prone to violence themselves; this program shows them a different path.

“After such traumas as car crash, natural disasters, [or] wars, people often go to two extremes: Either they stop being afraid of everything or they start being scared of everything. I think these children will belong to the first category,” psychologist Hrytsenko said.