Don't forget the AGM! Steven's Mindtrap, Art for Art's Sake and the Centenary of the Rotary Foundation in 2017.

This Week
It is a rather belated AGM.  The real reason for the delay was a lack of a quorum prior to the end of December so it is very important that everyone attends.  
Don't forget to forward the nominations for 2017/18 Rotary Year to Lyn Collocott.

Steven Mind-trapping.

Last Week

Steven Anastopoulos treated us to Mind Trap 2.  The puzzles....I hesitate to call them questions...were much easier than last time so we felt quite pleased with ourselves!  
Steven then showed us a number of short videos that appealed to him.....much laughter.

Joan Sainsbury brought a couple of the artists who exhibit and sell at our Annual Rotary Art Festival, Chrysoula Argyros and Paul Botes.  This is the first of monthly visits from artists who exhibit at the Festival, the idea being that we all get to know each other a lot better and there is a more sustainable link between the artists and the club.  It's an excellent idea as we now have good links with the Bag Factory as well and Rotary is not noted for it's interest in the arts, generally.
An important aspect of the visit was the donation by Chrysoula and Paul of two paintings for the annual Rotary Art Festival Draw.  Paul is also telling President Neville about a calendar he produces.  Many thanks, Joan for this initiative.

We will be establishing a "Page" for aspects of the Art Festival and participating artists in The Ramble in the future.

DISTRICT LEADERS SET TO CELEBRATE FOUNDATION’S CENTENNIAL

The Rotary Foundation has been improving lives since 1917. Learn about our work and help us celebrate 100 years of doing good in the world.

Rotary Foundation Trustee Chair Ray Klinginsmith asked district governors in training at the International Assembly to lead the celebration of the Foundation's centennial year, 2016-17.

"You are the primary contacts between the Foundation and our 34,000 Rotary clubs in the world. The success of the centennial celebration is largely in your hands," said Klinginsmith at a 19 January general session. "Catch the spirit and spread the word about the importance of celebrating our success."

Since the Foundation was established in 1917, it has spent more than $3 billion on programs and projects to improve the lives of millions worldwide, said Klinginsmith.

The centennial celebration officially kicks off in May at the Rotary Convention in Korea and culminates at the 2017 convention in Atlanta.

DISTRICT PLANS FOR THE CENTENNIAL

Governor-elect Tom James Markos of District 5100 in Oregon, USA, says he is proud to be serving during such a historic year. He plans to promote the centennial not only to his district's members, but also through local media.

"We need the public to be aware of what we've accomplished," says Markos, who has set a district goal of raising $1 million for the Foundation during the centennial year.

Bill Proctor, incoming governor of District 7080 in Ontario, Canada, believes the centennial year is an opportunity to "refocus and reeducate" members on the importance the Foundation's work.

"We have so many accomplishments to celebrate," said Proctor. "We need to use the momentum of the celebration to strengthen the Foundation's future."

HISTORY OF THE ROTARY FOUNDATION

At the 1917 convention, outgoing RI President Arch C. Klumph proposed to set up an endowment “for the purpose of doing good in the world.” In 1928, it was renamed The Rotary Foundation, and it became a distinct entity within Rotary International.

GROWTH OF THE FOUNDATION

In 1929, the Foundation made its first gift of $500 to the International Society for Crippled Children. The organization, created by Rotarian Edgar F. “Daddy” Allen, later grew into Easter Seals.

When Rotary founder Paul Harris died in 1947, contributions began pouring in to Rotary International, and the Paul Harris Memorial Fund was created to build the Foundation.

EVOLUTION OF FOUNDATION PROGRAMS

1947: The Foundation established its first program, Fellowships for Advance Study, later known as Ambassadorial Scholarships.

1965-66: Three programs were launched: Group Study Exchange, Awards for Technical Training, and Grants for Activities in Keeping with the Objective of The Rotary Foundation, which was later called Matching Grants.

1978: Rotary introduced the Health, Hunger and Humanity (3-H) Grants. The first 3-H Grant funded a project to immunize 6 million Philippine children against polio.

1985: The PolioPlus program was launched to eradicate polio worldwide.

1987-88: The first peace forums were held, leading to Rotary Peace Fellowships.

2013: New district, global, and packaged grants enable Rotarians around the world to respond to the world’s greatest needs.

Since the first donation of $26.50 in 1917, the Foundation has received contributions totaling more than $1 billion.

The Mind Trap, Discon, Friendship Exchange to Nigeria & Hunger in the USA

Last Week
It was a Business Meeting and President Neville has commented on it in his column.

This Week

Back by POPULAR DEMAND 

                                                  Steven Anastopoulos 

                                                                                    Presents MIND TRAP 2

Steven has the ability to lower the perceived intellectual capacity of the Rotary Club of Rosebank Johannesburg by approximately 90%.  He is a dangerous man.  If you are feeling insecure, subject to bouts of depression, anthophobia, bathmophobia, coulrophobia, ecclesiophobia or even islamophobia it is recommended that you stay away.

Discon, Muldersdrift, 16th - 19th June

Discon is just around the corner both geographically and timewise.  I haven't seen a booking form yet but keep a look out for one coming your way.  It would be great to have a really good turn out from our club.



Rotary Friendship Exchange Lagos Nigeria 23rd April - 5th May

Lagos Island

This exchange sounds really fascinating as there are so many interesting things to see and I am sure that the hospitality will be outstanding.  The approximate cost is R14 000 per head all inclusive.

Should you be interested you can contact the tour co-ordinator Koekie Makunyane-Quashie 

e-mail: koekiemq@inkhanyetischool.ac.sz

cell: (+268) 7602 8220

OBITUARY

It is with great sadness that I inform you that we have just heard  that our dear mouth-painter Elsie Fouche passed away last November.

Apparently she died of the illness which had caused her disability. Joan Sainsbury battled to make contact with the artist, and finally reached her sister.

Elsie was a resident of Ry-Ma-In, a home for disabled in Linden, and joined our group of exhibiting artists in 2004, along with Kobie Tait. Rudy Lombard joined the group in 2005.

Elsie exhibited at every exhibition since then, and attended each event regularly in her wheelchair. She was always friendly, smiling and loved to talk about her art, which was much admired and sold modestly well. She thrived, despite her disabilities. She had her own computer and was active on email.

We shall miss her bright face, personality and lovely artworks at our Festivals in future. We shall remember her for all her attributes, and are sure she is blessed in her new home.

Mark Franklin

CLUBS BATTLE HUNGER IN MISSOURI WITH ‘FOOD FIGHT’

Rotary members from Columbia, Missouri, USA, volunteer at a regional food bank.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of District 6080 (Missouri, USA)

Though the media tends to focus on underdeveloped countries when the subject is hunger, food scarcity is also a problem in the United States.

Consider parts of Missouri, where one of every six people goes hungry, according to the Food Bank for Central & Northeast Missouri.

Rotary member Steve Dulle wanted to change that. For his induction as this year’s governor of District 6080, he eschewed a traditional installation featuring fine food and formal wear. Instead, he asked members throughout the district to collect nonperishable provisions and volunteer at local food banks and pantries on the day that he took office. And he launched a month long “food fight” that pits clubs in the northern part of his district against those in the south to see who could collect the most food.

The north won — as did the area’s hungry residents. Rotary members, Rotoractors, and their families and friends collected more than 10,000 pounds of food and raised nearly $19,000 for Missouri’s food pantries.

“I wanted to start off my year with an example of what it should primarily portray, namely a dedication to service,” says Dulle. “This was the first time we did a service project for our district — it united us.”

The Rotary Club of Jefferson City Breakfast took top honors for the amount of food brought in, collecting more than 2,500 pounds of nonperishable items outside a supermarket on Saturdays in July. The Rotary Club of Columbia-Metro contributed the most labor, volunteering 258 hours at the Food Bank of Central & North East Missouri. And the Columbia South, Fulton and Jefferson City Evening clubs collected the most money for the cause, more than $2,000 each.

Rotary members and guests even repackaged nearly 5,000 pounds of Rice Krispies for local food pantries. Dulle says that a volunteer stood on a ladder and shoveled the cereal from a 15-foot box into a large pan, which was eventually divided by others into serving sizes for innumerable plastic containers ready for delivery.

Local Rotaract members pitched in as well.

“Coordinated projects like these are able to take service projects to another level,” says Jolyn Sattizahn, president of the Rotaract Club of Columbia, who helped with the effort.

Of the 49 clubs in the district, 36 participated in the initiative.

Larry Price, president of the Rotary Club of Mountain View, says he’ll never forget volunteering at an Ozarks Food Harvest pantry.

“Frankly, I had no idea that so many people in Mountain View were being served at this site,” he says. “And the beneficiaries of the program were quick to express their appreciation to the volunteers as they made their way around the tables.”

Dulle’s 28 June installation as district governor, at the Food Bank for Central & Northeast Missouri, was atypical. There was no banquet, attendees wore shorts, and the governor was sworn in during a lunch break. He wouldn’t have done it any differently.

“It was important that the project be hands-on so we could better feel the service we were doing,” he says. “Because of the project, clubs are continuing to work with their food banks.”

And that promises to make a dent in the district’s hunger problem in the years to come.

By David Sweet

Rotary News

Business, Muhamed Nordien & Susan Davis

This Week
It's a Business Meeting....there's not much else I can say about it.  Twelfth Night or What You Will has passed us by and this is almost certainly what happened a year down the line.

Last Week
Muhammed Nur Nordien talked to us about a likely home for conservative thought in South Africa.  It didn't make much sense to me as nothing is 100% conservative or progressive.
We don't have any Donald Trumps in this country, or if we do they are not in the public domain!  Muhamed didn't think it was much of a possibility either!
I got the impression that he wanted to promote some sort of discussion and in that he was successful.

FOUNDATION HONOREE CREATES OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE POOR

Susan Davis shares a photo with school children in Pakistan. Davis co-founded BRAC USA to advance the mission of BRAC -- Bangladesh Rehabilitation Assistance Committee -- which is dedicated to fighting poverty.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Susan Davis

For her work to mitigate extreme poverty around the world, Susan Davis has received many honors. But the 2015-16 Rotary Foundation Global Alumni Service to Humanity Award has special significance.

“It feels like a circle of completion,” says Davis, who was a Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholar in 1980-81, doing graduate studies in international relations at Oxford University in England. “Rotary invested in me when I was young, and now is celebrating the harvest.”

A decade ago, Davis co-founded BRAC USA to advance the mission of BRAC -- Bangladesh Rehabilitation Assistance Committee -- the world's largest nongovernmental development organization, which was founded after Bangladesh’s partition from Pakistan in the 1970s. The U.S. branch is dedicated to fighting poverty and to creating opportunities for the poor in Africa and elsewhere.

Fulfilling that mission hasn’t been easy. Davis’ work has been disrupted by floods, cyclones, earthquakes, and war. Even worse was the sudden and deadly Ebola epidemic in 2014 in West Africa.

“I wasn't sure how to protect our staff and clients and accompany these vulnerable communities out of this tragic situation,” says Davis, who served as BRAC USA’s president and chief executive officer until her departure this month. She quickly contacted Ebola experts and connected them with BRAC USA’s representatives in affected countries. “I lost sleep and cried with each death,” she says.

Two of those deaths were particularly painful. Ophilia Dede, a BRAC credit officer in Liberia, and her husband succumbed to the virus, leaving behind a little girl. Davis helped set up a scholarship fund for her education.

But she doesn’t allow such painful experiences to deter her.

“The urgency of the need and the tangible opportunities to make a difference keep me going,” she says. “And I have been blessed by seeing two big ideas — microfinance and social entrepreneurship — take root globally.”

From 1987 to 1991, Davis championed microfinance while working as a program officer with the Ford Foundation in Bangladesh. She developed a consortium that raised $175 million, increasing the availability of microloans in Bangladeshi villages to 44 percent from 5 percent, she says. Though debates endure over how much credit microfinance should receive for the country’s progress, conditions in Bangladesh have improved significantly: According to The Economist, life expectancy in the country rose from 59 to 69 during a 20-year span ending in 2010.

Davis also is co-author, with journalist David Bornstein, of the book “Social Entrepreneurship: What Everyone Needs to Know.”  And she is involved with Ashoka, a nonprofit organization that supports social entrepreneurship; as a director, she oversaw its expansion to the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia.

A resident of New York City, Davis is widely recognized for her work in the field of international development. She was appointed to the board of the United Nations Fund for International Partnership in 2012, is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and has served on the boards of the Grameen Foundation, the Sirleaf Market Women's Fund, and the African Women's Development Fund USA.

Davis has come a long way from the small town in southwest Louisiana, USA, where she grew up. The Rotary scholarship provided her first opportunity to live abroad. She believes that her Oxford experience allowed her to be taken seriously, and credits it with helping her land a job with the Ford Foundation.

Perhaps most importantly, says Davis, that Rotary-sponsored year gave her an entirely new perspective on power and privilege.  “Oxford was larger than life in my imagination,” she recalls. “But when I became a part of Oxford and got to know the dons and the students, I realized that, whether rich or poor, we were all just human beings and all of us were vulnerable and full of imperfections.”

Davis will be honored at the Rotary International Convention in Korea in June.

By David Sweet

Rotary News

Casual, Unofficial, Chariots Bar Meeting, Muhamed-Nur Nordien and Food Banks in the USA?

The Casual, Unofficial Chariots Bar Meeting

And it was a great success with about a dozen of us turning up and having a great social time...maybe we should have more?

This Week
Muhamed-Nur Nordien is talking to us on "The Conservative Home in South African Politics".

I have 7 years experience in international satellite radio, 3 years in the South African Department of Foreign Affairs and 4 years as a content manager ( Head of Religion ) for the South African Broadcasting Corporation. 
I am now the MD of my own company Nordien Consulting. We specialize in providing political consulting services primarily to foreign entities in South Africa. We also provide Strategic Communication services. My skills are at the crossroads between communications and politics, the merging of the two and the managing the interdependency between the two. 
We intend to grow our field of services into political communication as well as political campaigning in the next few years.
Innovation is a key driver towards success in this industry as well as exploiting the opportunities to create new markets and be at the front-line of developing and servicing these markets.

London 2016 Fireworks   Just to cheer you up!  Happy New Year!

CLUBS BATTLE HUNGER IN MISSOURI WITH ‘FOOD FIGHT’

Rotary members from Columbia, Missouri, USA, volunteer at a regional food bank.

Courtesy of District 6080 (Missouri, USA)

Though the media tends to focus on underdeveloped countries when the subject is hunger, food scarcity is also a problem in the United States.

Consider parts of Missouri, where one of every six people goes hungry, according to the Food Bank for Central & Northeast Missouri.

Rotary member Steve Dulle wanted to change that. For his induction as this year’s governor of District 6080, he eschewed a traditional installation featuring fine food and formal wear. Instead, he asked members throughout the district to collect non perishable provisions and volunteer at local food banks and pantries on the day that he took office. And he launched a monthlong “food fight” that pit clubs in the northern part of his district against those in the south to see who could collect the most food.

The north won — as did the area’s hungry residents. Rotary members, Rotaractors, and their families and friends collected more than 10,000 pounds of food and raised nearly $19,000 for Missouri’s food pantries.

“I wanted to start off my year with an example of what it should primarily portray, namely a dedication to service,” says Dulle. “This was the first time we did a service project for our district — it united us.”

The Rotary Club of Jefferson City Breakfast took top honors for the amount of food brought in, collecting more than 2,500 pounds of nonperishable items outside a supermarket on Saturdays in July. The Rotary Club of Columbia-Metro contributed the most labor, volunteering 258 hours at the Food Bank of Central & Northeast Missouri. And the Columbia South, Fulton and Jefferson City Evening clubs collected the most money for the cause, more than $2,000 each.

Rotary members and guests even repackaged nearly 5,000 pounds of Rice Krispies for local food pantries. Dulle says that a volunteer stood on a ladder and shoveled the cereal from a 15-foot box into a large pan, which was eventually divided by others into serving sizes for innumerable plastic containers ready for delivery.

Local Rotaract members pitched in as well.

“Coordinated projects like these are able to take service projects to another level,” says Jolyn Sattizahn, president of the Rotaract Club of Columbia, who helped with the effort.

Of the 49 clubs in the district, 36 participated in the initiative.

Larry Price, president of the Rotary Club of Mountain View, says he’ll never forget volunteering at an Ozarks Food Harvest pantry.

“Frankly, I had no idea that so many people in Mountain View were being served at this site,” he says. “And the beneficiaries of the program were quick to express their appreciation to the volunteers as they made their way around the tables.”

Dulle’s 28 June installation as district governor, at the Food Bank for Central & Northeast Missouri, was atypical. There was no banquet, attendees wore shorts, and the governor was sworn in during a lunch break. He wouldn’t have done it any differently.

“It was important that the project be hands-on so we could better feel the service we were doing,” he says. “Because of the project, clubs are continuing to work with their food banks.”

And that promises to make a dent in the district’s hunger problem in the years to come.

By David Sweet

Rotary News

Chariots, Sarah Britten...with apologies and Pavarotti in 1978. An interesting Wheelchair Project in Mexico.

This Week
It's an informal meeting in Chariots.
All that really means is that we order off the menu, have a drink and socialise.
There are no bells and no fines, no sergeant and no-one with a chain around their neck or ankle.
Look forward to seeing you there!

Last Week
Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.
Whilst attempting to download the pictures of the Christmas Lunch all I succeeded in doing was deleting the whole lot so you won't be able to see your smiling faces, Eddie in full flow or Sarah Britten extolling the virtues of lipstick.  Instead you will have to put up with one of her pictures.

We also need a bit of Christmas Cheer having had three Ministers of Finance in less than a week!

Here's Pavarotti at the height of his powers in the Cathedral at Montreal.

It only remains for me to echo the words of President Neville.  Have a Wonderful Christmas and everything of the best for 2016!

SPIN DOCTORS

Liliana Martínez and Francisco Hinojosa Martínez repair a wheelchair in ALEM’s Cuernavaca workshop.

Rotary International / Monika Lozinska

• 
• 
• 
• 
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From the December 2015 issue of The Rotarian

In Cuernavaca, Mexico, cobblestone streets and sidewalks can wreak havoc on wheels and bearings. For people who get around using a wheelchair, a mechanical breakdown only exacerbates the social isolation they often face. But an enterprising group is training people with disabilities to fix wheelchairs – and even bringing the concept of roadside assistance to wheelchair users in other cities.

Erik Friend, a member of the Rotary Club of Cuernavaca-Juárez, Mexico, had been volunteering with a group called Autonomy, Liberation Through Movement (ALEM) and was intrigued by the simple efficacy of its vision and work. ALEM’s employees design, build, and repair standard and sports wheelchairs, recumbent tricycles, and other custom wheeled devices. They work out of a garage workshop in Cuernavaca and staff mobile units that travel to cities such as Puebla and Veracruz.

Other groups distribute wheelchairs, but ALEM is the only wheelchair repair operation in the state of Morelos. It provides an essential service in a place where new wheelchairs frequently break down within a year – and where people with disabilities are often viewed as unable to work. ALEM’s technicians also offer general welding, upholstery, and painting services.

“ALEM opened new doors for me,” says Gilberto Beltran Montero, who was paralyzed after being shot in a mugging. Fighting depression, he didn’t leave his house for a year. “I thought that because I’m disabled, I would never be able to do anything. But I realized that I could still learn new skills.”

Friend, who has experience as a mechanic, is now the president of ALEM. He says he has seen how learning a skill has made workers like Beltran more confident and self-reliant. He has also seen the impact of their example on the communities where they work. Local auto mechanics, for instance, often bring aluminum-welding projects to ALEM, one of the only places in Cuernavaca equipped to do that type of job. When they see someone like Rosy Roman Sánchez, a young woman who specializes in welding aluminum, Friend says, “it makes them question all the assumptions they have – about not only what a woman can do, but also what someone in a wheelchair can do.

“To see the look on their faces when Rosy starts working, and does a job well, is great,” he says. “That’s how we transform society’s way of thinking.”

In 2013, the Rotary Clubs of Paoli-Malvern-Berwyn, Pa., and Cuernavaca-Juárez used a Rotary Foundation grant to purchase parts and equipment for ALEM’s repair operations. The next year, the two clubs received a Rotary global grant to purchase a trailer and a van for ALEM’s mobile repair service, continue to fund needed parts and supplies, and support training, education, and outreach programs. Rotary clubs in each city visited by the mobile repair unit coordinate permits, electricity, and housing for the technicians.

Welcome Lenore! Merle Langenegger, & Sarah Britten. Enjoy our Christmas Lunch!

Welcome to Lenore Terreblanche

Lenore Terreblanche was inducted into our Club last week.  Lenore is a pharmacist so it increases the paramedical team in the club which is very welcome.  We hope you have many happy years with us.  I'm not sure why her eyes are shut...is President Neville soporific?

PDG Peter Margolius
We are delighted to hear that Peter Margolius is doing well and on the road to recovery.  Peter, we are thinking of you.

Hamper Collection at Makro, Woodmead
The final figures are R83 420 worth of hampers etc, roughly 30% up on last year.  Congratulations to all involved.

Last Week
Merle Langenegger spoke about her career, initially in midwifery but subsequently as a medical representative specialising in cardiac medicine.
She showed us examples of different artificial heart valves and a pacemaker.  I noticed that the pacemaker had her name engraved on it but I didn't notice a flutter!
Mike Lamb is obviously enjoying the talk.
Many thanks, Merle.  It was extremely interesting and a real pleasure to hear more about the people we sit around a table with every week.
It's people like Merle and Lenore who really strengthen the team for the Baragwanath Project.

This Week









It's that time of year when we have the Christmas Lunch and it is always great.  Eddie de Vos will give a Christmas Address and we also have a guest speaker, Sarah Britten.
Sarah calls herself a Communication Strategist...I'm not quite sure what that is...but I always think of her as a journalist and writer, particularly of children's books.  She is also a "lipstick artist" which means that she uses lipstick instead of paint on paper rather than on herself.
She has had some success with this at the Tokyo International Art Fair and it's her art she will be talking about.

She is married to Kanthan Pillay, the former President of the eClub and Morningside Rotary Club.

Next Week, Friday 18th December
It will be the usual informal meeting that we have at this time of year when those who wish to meet and chat will have lunch in Chariots.

AIDS TRAINING BRINGS LIFE TO LIBERIAN COMMUNITIES

Health care workers in Liberia attend a workshop conducted by Rotary members on new techniques for treating pregnant women with HIV/AIDS.

Rich Casey

The impact of an HIV/AIDS vocational training project in Liberia can be assessed by the ultimate measure: life itself.

“There are children of HIV mothers living today who would not have seen their first birthdays [without the training],” says Elizabeth Mulbah, a member of the Rotary Club of Sinkor, Montserrado County, Monrovia, who delivered a lecture for health care providers about HIV/AIDS during the vocational training team’s five-day workshop in 2012.

The goal of the team -- comprised of individuals from the Los Altos Rotary AIDS Project in California, USA; the Rotary Club of Sinkor; St. Joseph’s Catholic Hospital in Monrovia; Global Strategies for HIV Prevention, and the Center for HIV Information at the University of California, San Francisco -- was to increase maternal HIV/AIDS services and to improve the quality of care in Liberian clinics.

Nearly 60 health care workers in Montserrado and neighboring Bomi counties learned techniques to prevent mother-child transmission of HIV and to improve their ability to diagnose and treat infected women. They also were taught how to pass along the information to other health care workers.

Now, a Rotary Foundation global grant is facilitating an expansion of the project to other parts of Liberia.

Mulbah says that technology played a crucial role in the outcome of the 2012 training. PowerPoint presentations and a computer lab were used to communicate messages effectively, and participants were given flash drives with the latest information about HIV/AIDS.

“They took this learning back to their clinics and conducted much more effective workshops for pregnant women,” she adds.

Rich Casey, president of the Los Altos Rotary AIDS Project, brought computers to Liberia for the training. Even though the group was sleeping in an area protected by guards, robbers broke in one night and stole every computer but one. The workshop went on nonetheless, and proved a success.

Both before and after training, participants were tested on their medical knowledge, and the post-training test scores jumped nearly 20 percent.

And more women are receiving antenatal care, Mulbah says. Husbands now accompany their wives to maternal clinics, and follow-up visits to clinics by people who have AIDS have increased.

The importance of projects like this one will be highlighted once again with the observance of World AIDS Day, on 1 December. According to the United Nations about 2,000 Liberians died of AIDS in 2014 and roughly 33,000 people out of the country’s population of 4.3 million have been infected by the HIV virus; the majority live in urban areas like Monrovia, the country’s capital.

Following the success of the 2012 project, Casey helped procure a $192,500 Rotary Foundation global grant to expand the training to other areas of Liberia. But last year’s Ebola outbreak put the project on hold, and only now is it starting to be implemented.

During the earlier project, Casey had been particularly pleased by the way that the various groups and their members - including Dr. Arthur Ammann, founder of Global Strategies for HIV Prevention and one of the world’s leading pediatric immunologists - came together to plan the workshop a year in advance to achieve the best results.

“It was a good example of Rotary working well with other organizations,” he says.

On the final day of that inaugural workshop, Mulbah handed out certificates of completion to the participants.

“I felt excited and grateful,” she says. “I was very thankful, believing that our mothers and sisters infected by HIV would now receive improved care, and that there was increased hope and opportunity for life without HIV/AIDS for their unborn children.”