Business, Quiz, Making up at an e-Club and welcome Sushil Gupta

Last Week
We had a very successful business meeting. We had one visitor, Laura Bos who must be the only person suggested directly from RI who has turned up for a meeting.  There was much hilarity when I introduced her as someone else....an existing Rotarian looking for a daytime club but has never materialised.
Laura was particularly interested in the Cervical Cancer Project that is being championed by Richard Moloney.  Not only is it a potential Global Grant Project but the African Union is interested in the project as having potential for the continent as a whole.
Laura has 10 years of experience as an international public health expert with a track record in strategy consulting, finance, supply chain management and health insurances. She has experience in a wide range of international, national, provincial and local government public and private sector projects in the health sector and beyond. Her passion is focused on healthcare innovation and delivery as well as competitive dynamics, which explains her interest.  She is particularly interested in Mother/Child Health Care.

This Week

Cesare Vidulich is talking about himself.  

These talks by members are extremely popular as we know so little about each other.  We do know that Cesare works exceptionally hard with the Interact Club at Highlands North and makes sure that a close contact is maintained with the club.
 We also know that he sings with the Italian Choir....but that's about all.

And we also know that he is married to Donny.




Quiz Night 16th November
So far we have two teams of 10 but there is still space if you wish to come.  Just be in touch with Pam Donaldson.

Spar Collection, Norwood this Weekend
Don't forget!

Making up at the e-Club

-You must visit the website of the Rotary e-club for a minimum of 30 minutes. Please note that this is 30+ continuous minutes. You cannot claim a make-up credit if you have 6 x 5 minute visits in a week. Many visiting Rotarians stay longer than the minimum 30 minutes because website content is very interesting and informative.

At that rate we could have 200% attendance without coming on a Friday at all

Fourth Indian to head global membership organization

NEW DELHI, (1 Oct. 2018) — Sushil Kumar Gupta, chair and managing director of Asian Hotels (West) Ltd. and owner of Hyatt Regency Mumbai and JW Marriott Hotel New Delhi Aerocity, will begin his one-year term as president of Rotary International on 1 July 2020. 

Gupta, a member of the service organization for 41 years, belongs to the Rotary Club of Delhi Midwest. As head of Rotary’s global network of 35,000 clubs, Gupta aims to increase the organization’s humanitarian impact and club member diversity. 

"I’m humbled to join the distinguished ranks of those who have led this organization before me,” Gupta said. “I hope to leave a mark on Rotary that reflects selfless leadership and an unwavering commitment to service.”   

India’s 3,700 Rotary clubs and 146,000 members take action to address humanitarian challenges and implement sustainable projects that fight disease, promote peace, provide clean water, support education, save mothers and children and grow local economies. More than $221 million awarded over the past several years through The Rotary Foundation has supported these programs. 

Last month, Dakoju Ravishankar, a real-estate investor and Rotary member from Bengaluru, donated $14.7 million to The Foundation. “People support Rotary because it is a trusted organization that supports communities through tangible projects,” Gupta said. “In fact, CNBC named Rotary one of its top 10 charities in the world. In India alone, Rotary has positively impacted our communities through polio eradication, installing sustainable and safe latrines, building schools, providing potable water, and countless good deeds.”

Gupta has served as president of the Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Associations of India and on the board of directors of Tourism Finance Corporation of India Ltd. He was the president of Experience India Society, a public-private partnership between the tourism industry and the government of India that promotes India as a tourist destination. He is currently vice chair of the Himalayan Environment Trust and serves on the board of Operation Eyesight Universal in India. 

Jokes, Rotary Grub Club, Collection at Norwood Spar and More

Last Week
Social Meetings always bring out the worst jokes and we had a change of pizzas.  We normally alternate but last week we kept the Mexican and had a Margarita and a Regina.  Nobody complained so we will ring the changes more often.

Michael Hadjihambis won the bottle of wine. 
It looks as if Mike Honnet is going to share it

A well as Stewart Mutegeki we had two new visitors, Michael Hadjihambis from the Rotary Club of Nicosia-Salamis in Cyprus and Nigel Bellamy from the Rotary Club of Selibe Pikwe in Botswana.  Our Past District Governor, Jankees Sligcher had lent his moustache to Nigel and I for a moment thought that Jankees was visiting us.

President Jean, Nigel Bellamy and Cesare Vidulich listening to jokes.

Rotary Grub Club
Here are the Rosebank members and partners at Lau's Restaurant in Cyrildene last Thursday.

And the other table, mainly members of Johannesburg New Dawn.  

I added Jellyfish to the appetiser for my own amusement and most people enjoyed it.

Weekend Collection at Norwood Spar

We really do struggle to get enough people to man or woman these collections which is extraordinary for a club with over 40 members. It

is quite depressing.
With the four collections we should be able to give more to the charities we support at Christmas than we have ever managed with the previous collections at Makro and this much easier and we need fewer Rotarians yet it's a problem.
Please get hold of Costa Qually if you can help.

The Quiz 16th November
Don't forget to book with Pam Donaldson.

This Week
It's a business meeting so there isn't much to say other than it's important to be there to hear what is being done in your name.

Rotary Club of Vancouver Yaletown, British Columbia

Rotary Club of Vancouver Yaletown members Lejla Uzicanin (from left), Neil Mort, and Rebecca Donnelly.  

At first glance, everything about the Rotary Club of Vancouver Yaletown seems modest: its meeting space (a cozy conference room in the lobby of a downtown high-rise); its roster (11 members at the start of this Rotary year); even its short list of past presidents (several of whom have held the office more than once in the club’s 10-year history).

But Yaletown’s achievements are disproportionate to its size. The secret to the club’s success? Every member is an active member. 

“We’re a small club, but we do great things,” says Neil Mort, who is in his second term as club president. “They call us ‘the little club that could.’”

Indeed, the calendar that Mort projects onto the wall during a recent meeting is packed with activities: fellowship and service opportunities; networking, fundraising, and outreach events; and a celebration of the club’s first decade. 

Yaletown Rotary was founded in 2008 by Rotarians who wanted a structure that was more economical and convenient than their traditional clubs. They meet for one hour right after work, with no meal, and plan social activities and patronize local businesses together. 

The club is a favorite of out-of-town Rotarians. “We have visitors all the time because of our location,” says Jane LePorte, club secretary and youth services director. The Yaletown neighborhood sits at the southern end of Vancouver’s downtown business corridor, about a mile from where the cruise ships dock at Canada Place. High-rise buildings tower above street-level boutiques and sidewalk cafés. Restaurant menus reflect the city’s many cultures. A few blocks from the club’s meeting place, water taxis zip back and forth across the False Creek waterway to the Granville Island Public Market. A popular bike path parallels the park-lined shore. 

As members joke around and discuss plans for their 10th anniversary party — which, it appears, will likely include either polka dancing or the use of a club member’s recently acquired karaoke machine — it’s clear that this isn’t just a Rotary meeting; it’s a gathering of friends. 

The club’s outgoing nature is reflected on its active social media accounts. Its Instagram page has more than 600 followers, and members recently used Facebook to launch a fundraising campaign called the Every Drop of Talent Challenge, which called on supporters to post a video of themselves performing their talent, then tag three friends to do the same or to make a donation. 

Another tip for small clubs? The Yaletown Rotarians piggyback on other groups’ outreach events, such as a Canada Day celebration put on by the Rotary Club of Lionsgate, which drew more than 20,000 attendees to a park in North Vancouver, a town across the harbor from Vancouver. Yaletown Rotary hosted a booth that featured a small pool filled with dirty water. “People came by and said, ‘What’s that?’” says Karen McDiarmid, membership chair and two-time past president. “We said, ‘Do you want to drink this water, or do you want to drink clean water?’ Then we’d get a conversation started.” 

The Yaletown club’s focus on clean water came after hearing a presentation on rainwater collection last year. The club decided to partner with the Rotary Club of Hurlingham-Nairobi on a project that aims to bring fresh water to four rural schools in Kenya via a rooftop collection system. 

“There’s a desperate need for water there,” Mort says. “They simply don’t have a water source that’s close by and sustainable.” During the dry season, children sometimes have to walk up to 20 kilometers per day to fill a 5-gallon bucket with water of questionable quality. “That’s all they do all day,” he says. “They don’t go to school.” 

At the Canada Day event, a volunteer face painter and a stack of coloring pages kept kids busy while their parents learned about the project. The back of each coloring page featured information and a link to the club’s fundraising page. “We decided as a group to commit to the project,” says Mort, who traveled to Kenya for a site visit last year. Other members are promoting the project on social media.

There are challenges to being a small club, but there are also advantages. Unlike some clubs that have time for only a few members each week to share their news and contribute “happy dollars,” at Yaletown meetings, every member shares a happy thought each week and drops some coins in a can. 

When everyone is engaged, a little can go a very long way.

Gavin Henry, Inter Club Quiz, Social Meeting, Christmas is Coming and Barging about on the Kennet & Avon.

Last Week
It's back to normal after the very successful Youth Leadership Course.

Our speaker was Gavin Henry, Chairman of the Bedfordview Community Policing Forum.  He became involved following a burglary at his own home.
I got the impression that Bedfordview was rather like the Wild West and dangerous to visit let alone live there.  From 6 police vehicles they are down to two one of which has a puncture that hasn't been repaired, the detectives, all 35 of them are sitting in a room little bigger than a broom cupboard as they have been evicted from the building where they used to be owing to non-payment of rent and so it went on.
He told us that we cannot rely on the police, that we have to be vigilant when driving home in case we are followed and we should turn our home into a fortress and then ensure that electric fences etc are working.  He also told us how few electric fences are turned on and how criminals check that they are functioning.  I was tempted to run round the neighbourhood and see if the criminal electric fence checking system works.  If the alarm goes off run away and then come back later.  If I was about 11 years old it would create lots of fun possibilities.

It was a great pleasure having our former Exchange Student from Alaska, Emily Longbrake,who is an  artist and designer and her husband Bill Jamison as guests as well as Stewart Mutegeki.

Stewart Mutegeki

Emily Longbrake & Bill Jamison

The Inter-club Quiz, Friday 16th November
Please be in touch with Pam Donaldson about this as soon as possible.  I know it's quite a long way ahead but Johannesburg Club are having to estimate the numbers coming and they have reckoned on 20 people coming from our club.  Last week Pam had heard from nobody....so you can see that I am as bad as everyone else!







Social Dinner in Cyrildene on Thursday Evening
Don't forget to book with me if you still want to come. 
There are 15 at the moment and we have booked for 20.

This Week.
It's a Social Meeting and it's also a Board Meeting.  One thing that you should always remember is that any Rotarian can attend a Board Meeting though if there is a discussion that results in a vote you can't vote.  In all my years of being on various boards I can only ever remember one vote!

Christmas Lunch

Friday 7th December.  We will try to book Parkview Golf Club again.

For years, Rotary Newbury has been running canal barge trips for charities in Berkshire and Wiltshire. This year, they took out guests over two weekends on the picturesque Kennet & Avon canal.

Fair weather favoured the guests and volunteer crews for the Rotary Newbury annual barge week which took place in September.

The week gave the Newbury Rotary crews the opportunity of giving local community groups a day out on the beautiful Kennet & Avon canal on sections between Great Bedwyn and Woolhampton and back to Bedwyn.

This year, the Rotary club entertained groups from Eight Bells Mental Health, Fairclose Day Centre, Kintbury Volunteers, The MS Society and The Polio Group.

The final leg between Hungerford and Great Bedwyn proved to be hard graft with low water levels causing two other boats to be marooned.

Not so with the Rotary team who managed to get the boat ‘Hannah’ back to base.

This is an annual event in Newbury Rotary’s community calendar in which the club uses a specially adapted barge from the Kennet & Avon Canal Trust (KACT) fleet.

This event fully demonstrates our Rotary community focus. We get great joy from operating the barge week and seeing the pleasure that this gives to those members of our local community and charity groups that join us.”

‘Hannah’ is a specially-designed, purpose-built, wide-beam canal boat which can be used by disabled, disadvantaged or elderly people.

It has wide-access ramps for boarding at the stern deck and a electro hydraulic lift down into the boat.

The extra width of the boats provides excellent manoeuvrability for wheelchair users and they all have special built-in facilities.

Since the late 1980s, Rotary Newbury has used one of the Kennet KACT Bruce Branch canal boats to treat local charities to day trips as part of their community programme.

To date, in excess of 200 day trips have been provided enabling more than 2,000 charity members to enjoy the tranquility of canal barge travel and the Kennet Valley scenery.

Irene Waters, the current Newbury Rotary President, said: “This event fully demonstrates our Rotary community focus.

“We get great joy from operating the barge week and seeing the pleasure that this gives to those members of our local community and charity groups that join us.”

Visitors, Rotary Youth Leadership Course, Quiz Prep, Security and Modern Slavery

Last Week

PP Lyn Collocott exchanges banners with John Palmer of the Rotary Club of  Akron Ohio

Monica Kiwanuka

We expected a small meeting with President Jean and other Rotarians in the Magaliesberg for our annual Youth Leadership Weekend so it was a pleasant surprise seeing how many were there to hear David Bradshaw talk about Rotary Friendship Exchange.  David us an enthusiastic member of the District Friendship Exchange Committee and the next Exchange will be with Mexico and you will all have received the notice direct from District.

We also hosted two visiting Rotarians and a student enquiring about short term youth exchange.

Masega Matiku

John Palmer from Ohio USA told us about the annual camp that his club runs for physically and mentally challenged children.

Monica Kiwanuka from the Rotary Club of Johannesburg North Central had dropped one of her children off in Rosebank and had time to spare so thought she would pay us a visit.

Masega Matiku, who is studying drama at National School of the Arts came to ask us about Short Term Youth Exchange only to discover the Youth Committee were all in the Magaliesberg.





Rotary Youth Leadership Course
President Jean has already written about this in her column and, as you know, we cannot publish photographs of minors without parents'consent if faces are visible.  Fortunately we do have permission to add pictures of the team.

But here are a couple of photos of the event....but not the fun ones!

Dinner Lau's Restaurant, Cyrildene

I have circulated everyone about this and so far two have responded.  Please come back to me as soon as possible.



Interclub Quiz Friday 16th November

A team consists of a table of 10 which can be anyone.  Obviously it would be us and partners or the Anns might like to have their own team including their partners.  Intelligent children would be very welcome as would intelligent friends.
It was hinted to me that Johannesburg Club reckon they would win easily because they have so many old knowledgeable members.  I don't really think we should get them away with that!
I wonder how many of them have heard of Drake, Eminem or Ariana Grande?

Please email Pam Donaldson pmmdonaldson@gmail.com with your list of those who are going for the honour of Rosebank.







Christmas Lunch
It will be on Friday 7th December this year.

This Week
It's a topic than concerns us all, Security and our speaker is Gavin Henry, Chairman of the Bedfordview Community Policing Forum.  As our own Costa Qually is the Chairman of the Rosebank Community Policing Forum it should make an interesting lunchtime.

Here is an article from the Bedfordview&Edenvale News that gives an idea of some of the things Gavin Henry is involved with.

In revealing its plans for the year ahead, the Bedfordview Community Policing Forum (BCPF) said it expects 2016 to be as challenging as the previous year.

Chairperson Mr Gavin Henry said the goals and plans set by the forum cannot be achieved without the financial support of the community that it serves.

“We once again ask the community of Bedfordview to help sponsor us on a monthly basis. You will be given a section 18a certificate to deduct the amount you contribute from your taxable income,” said Mr Henry.

He said the forum plans to implement a new telephone system, which will record all calls to the sector vehicles as well as forward any unanswered calls to the management of Bedfordview Police Station.

“We believe this will bring accountability to the system and improve the relationship between the SAPS and the community,” he said.

Mr Henry said the BCPF is also looking into installing license plate recognition cameras on the main roads in the area.

After installation, the cameras will pick up known suspicious number plates and notify the police and local security companies of their presence in the suburb.

“We also hope to raise awareness of driveway robberies and home invasions, and subsequently combat this violation of our peaceful suburb,” said Mr Henry.

He said the BCPF would like to increase the number of patrollers on its books.

“These are the men and women who care for us and give of their time to be the eyes and ears of the police,” he said.

He said the forum has a wish to acquire a dedicated response vehicle for both patrolling and medical response in the area.

“This vehicle will be on the roads of Bedfordview, in close co-operation with both the SAPS and EMPD, keeping a lookout for suspicious activity and ready to react should there be a medical emergency in our area,” said Mr Henry.

EMAIL THIS PAGE

An estimated 40.3 million people around the world live in slavery involving either sexual exploitation or forced labor. A new partnership with Freedom United is giving Rotarians a chance to do something to stop it.

Dave McCleary was volunteering at a youth conference in 2012 when a young woman named Melissa explained how she had ended up in the sex trade.

She was living in a nice suburb of Atlanta, Georgia, USA, when a young man knocked on her door and offered her a job as a model. The man turned out to be a pimp, who lured her into prostitution through a combination of drugs, threats, and coercion.

“She was from my town, and was living in an apartment where my wife used to live before we got married,” remembers McCleary, a member of the Rotary Club of Roswell. “After the presentation, a member of my club gave her a big hug. I asked how he knew her, and he said she used to babysit his kids when she was 12. That’s when I realized this wasn’t someone else’s problem. This is happening all around us.”

McCleary is now co-chair of the Rotarian Action Group Against Slavery, which has been coordinating Rotary clubs’ efforts to fight slavery since 2013. A big challenge for the group has been motivating clubs to act. The immense scale of the problem can be daunting. 

The Global Slavery Index estimates that, worldwide, 40.3 million people are subject to some form of slavery: bonded labor, forced labor, child slavery, sex trafficking, or forced marriage. 

“I think many people ask, ‘What can I do? What impact can my small club possibly have?’” McCleary says.

One answer could come from the group’s recent partnership with Freedom United, a nonprofit organization that has mobilized millions of partners, activists, and advocates through online campaigns to convince governments and companies to end slavery. 

Freedom United Executive Director Joanna Ewart-James and Advocacy Assistant Miriam Karmali hand out fliers at a flower show being held in London discussing the link between modern slavery and the sponsor of the flower show.

Through Freedom United’s website, Rotary clubs of any size can sign up to form “freedom rings,” which raise community awareness of slavery while sharing information with one another through an online platform. Freedom United helps the club plan a two-hour community event by arranging speakers that can include experts, survivors, and representatives of local nonprofits that are already fighting modern slavery. At the end of the event, people are invited to join the ring. The core team this creates then selects yearly projects to commit to.

“These rings are inspired out of a Rotary club but also pull from the larger community,” says Joe Schmidt, CEO of Freedom United. “We have a series of things they can choose to do. We ask them to keep it pretty simple and laser-focused on one particular project.” 

Schmidt, who advises Delta Airlines on its anti-trafficking strategy, met McCleary through Delta’s involvement with Georgia Rotarians, including during the 2017 Rotary Convention in Atlanta.

“Dave and I started to talk, and we recognized that there are maybe 200 to 400 groups just in the U.S. working on modern slavery topics. However, they are all disjointed with no common platform,” Schmidt says. “It sparked in us a connection between Freedom United’s interest in taking our massive online community down to the grassroots level and Rotary’s ability to provide hundreds of groups all over the world who would be foot soldiers in this fight.”

According to Schmidt, a ring in Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA, is planning an annual gala fundraiser, and one in Raleigh, North Carolina, is working on a walk/run to raise awareness. Another ring is organizing a “red sand project,” where volunteers sprinkle red sand in the cracks of city streets to represent all the people in the world who are enslaved. 

Ian Rumbles, president-elect of the Rotary Club of Clayton, North Carolina, heard Schmidt speak at his district conference in April. His club is in the beginning stages of forming a ring.

“What resonated with me was hearing about the amount of domestic slavery and the number of people forced to work in farm fields in my own state,” says Rumbles. “The fact that people in our country were modern slaves made me think that I can only imagine the amount of slavery around the world.”

Schmidt says Rotary’s experience with polio eradication makes it a perfect partner for this fight.

“Rotary’s patience in committing to a cause and its track record with polio have shown that Rotarians are willing to take mature, committed action toward long-term global change, even if it doesn’t give immediate gratifying results,” he says. “That’s the thing missing in the fight against modern slavery: large organizations who are willing to step into this thing for the long haul and eradicate slavery once and for all.”

Rotary clubs have been supporting anti-slavery organizations for over a decade. In one of the larger efforts, 14 Rotary clubs led by the Rotary Club of Dunbar, Lothian, Scotland, opened a vocational training center for trafficking survivors in Kalimpong, India, in 2015. The project was funded in part by a Rotary Foundation grant. The group plans to add  a home for women and girls freed from slavery. 

McCleary is hoping that the partnership with Freedom United will better lead to more. 

“The great thing about Rotary is that even though we are international, we are community-based,” he adds. “So if there’s a need in a community, we have Rotary clubs there to make it happen.”

Business, District Seminars, a Quiz, Rotary Friendship Exchange & Rotary Day at the UN

Last Week
It was a Business Meeting.  Here's the Board holding forth to the assembled multitudes.  I seldom take pictures at Business Meetings so here is the exception to the rule:

President Jean Bernardo

Mark Franklin (Commemoration Fund)

James Croswell (International)

John Symons (Finance)

Costa Qually (Community & Vocational)

Melodene Stonestreet (Membership)

Les Short (Foundation)

Ann Hope-Bailie (Secretary)

Joan Sainsbury (Youth)

And here, for the first time, is a picture of a happy wine winner, Pam Donaldson , who checks us in to the meeting.  Past President Lyn Collocott, in the background, is another Board Member.

Rosebank @ The District Membership & Foundation Seminar

It was also a weekend that saw our monthly collection at Spar Norwood...I don't have any pictures of that... and the club was well represented at the Membership/Foundation Seminar.

And here is our invitation to the Quiz.....more details will follow.  Just put the date in your diary.

This Week

David Bradshaw is an enthusiastic supporter of Rotary Friendship Exchange so we are looking forward to seeing the pictures of the ones he has been on......and naturally he is going to sell it to us.

Rotary Day at the United Nations celebrates two organizations’ shared vision for peace and highlights the critical humanitarian activities that Rotary and the UN lead around the world.

The event also honors people who make a positive difference in their community, their country, or around the world. Each year, about 1,000 guests attend.

Who attends?

Rotary Day at the United Nations is open to the public. The audience includes: 

• Rotary International president and Board of Directors, Rotary Foundation Trustees, other Rotary leaders, and Rotary club members
• Leaders from the United Nations 
• Experts from other nongovernmental agencies
• Renowned humanitarians 
• Young leaders who attend to exchange ideas, learn about the UN, and meet international leaders

Rotary Day at the UN 2018

Under this year’s theme of “Youth Innovation: Crafting Solutions to Emerging Challenges,” Rotary will honor six innovators who are under age 35.

More than 750 participants will attend the event on Saturday, 10 November, at the United Nations Information Centre in Nairobi, Kenya.

Rotary leaders, UN officials, and humanitarian experts will educate and inspire participants to find innovative strategies for addressing humanitarian challenges at local, regional, and global levels.

General and breakout sessions will address the UN Sustainable Development Goals and how to harness the technological revolution for good, as well as young people’s role in creating change. A special session on the environment will highlight the importance of environmentally sustainable development and offer concrete actions that everyone can take to ensure a clean and healthy world.

The event will feature an Innovation Fair where Rotary clubs, businesses, and other organizations will exhibit humanitarian projects and cutting-edge technology that can help address the challenges we face.

The event is open to Rotary members and guests.

Dr Neville Howes, a Business Meeting and Polio Plus in Uganda

Dr Neville Howes

Dr Neville & Liz Howes

President Jean has already paid tribute to Neville in her column and we were very fortunate to have such a distinguished medical doctor as a member of our club as his input on matters medical was invaluable, especially where the Baragwanath Palliative Care Project was concerned.  His professional life as Superintendent of what was then the Johannesburg General Hospital and his term as Director General of Health for KZN was of major assistance to the club and gave us a great deal of credibility when negotiating with Province.

I was fortunate enough to follow him as President and what always struck me about him was his ability to see through arguments and discussions  at committee and board meetings and get to the nub of the issue.  He would then tell us how we would handle the particular problem.

Most important of all, he was a very nice man and we will miss him.  I echo President Jean in expressing our condolences to Liz and all his family.

Last Week and This Week
Last week was a Social Meeting so we just had an entertaining time and this week is a Business Meeting so we are expected to concentrate a bit more.

This coming weekend is another Collection at Spar weekend and I am sure we will hear from Costa Qually how we are getting on with the roster.   Also Saturday it's the Rotary Foundation and Membership Seminar and I am delighted to see that our club is represented.
The Rotary Leadership Institute Courses are also coming up so I do hope that we will be represented there as well.

A Rotaractor ventures deep into her native Uganda with a polio vaccination team as part of Rotary’s newest virtual reality film, Two Drops of Patience

EMAIL THIS PAGEHealth workers must have a lot of passion. They face so many challenges to reach every child with the polio vaccine. 

Health Workers must have a lot of patience.  I found that out when I traveled to a mountain community on the border of Uganda and Kenya, 200 miles from my home in Kampala, to join a vaccination team. Just getting to the homes was a challenge, let alone persuading the parents to let us in. We had to park the cars, carry our coolers with the polio vaccine safely tucked inside between ice packs, and move on our own two feet, just walking and walking. It’s a bit of a trick – using your hands to steady yourself while you climb, yet still having to carry this heavy cooler. There were lots of streams and rivers, and at times we had to jump across or walk through the water. 

We would sometimes walk for 30 minutes before we would see a home, because they’re not so close to one another. It was lonely and scary, walking through the trees and rocks. The challenge was getting as far as we could, keeping in mind how long the journey back would take. If we walked three hours to get to a home, we needed to be sure we had three hours to get back before dark. And all that with the possibility of not finding a child at home and having to return another day.

At one point I just sat down. My feet ached. I was sunburned – and until this trip, I didn’t think black people could get sunburned. 

But we had to keep going to save someone’s life.

I’ve been involved in Rotaract for a couple of years now, but I’ve never done anything quite like this. My mother, Margaret Okello, is a member of the Rotary Club of Kampala Naguru. She saw that I had a little energy that could be used more productively. So she suggested I join Rotaract, which I did in 2016 when I was 21. My club is involved in an adopt-a-village project in Gulu in northern Uganda, an area that saw 20 years of armed conflict.  I’ve been there twice. And our club collects money for polio eradication. 

I knew about polio. I had seen victims of the disease. I had been immunized against it. It’s odd, though – it’s something you hear about, but you don’t really get how bad it is. I found there was an opportunity to do something more to help with the eradication efforts through one of my friends, Fred Masadde. He’s a member of the Rotary Club of Kampala Ssese Islands and a Rotary public image coordinator. I decided to apply. 

In November 2017, I met the team of filmmakers in Kampala who would be documenting the polio immunization effort for Rotary’s newest virtual reality film. I had to request a week off from my job with the Uganda Cancer Society, where I work finding donors and funds to help with their program activities. We chartered a plane to the town of Moroto, which is way, way up in northeastern Uganda at the foot of Mount Moroto. There, we met up with people from UNICEF and the local government, as well as the Rotarians and Rotaractors who had driven three hours from the town of Soroti and would also be giving polio drops. Since there isn’t a Rotary club in this part of the country, Soroti Rotarians occasionally hold medical camps here.

It was another one-hour drive to Tapac, the community on the mountain where we were to work. I had never been in that part of the country before – it’s more than eight hours from my home by car. I was so shocked. I had only seen places like this in movies and television documentaries. 

The poverty was overwhelming. The thatched huts that people live in are built by the women; the men do the cattle keeping. The women harvest long grass and dry it, and also tie together bundles of sticks. Some use the mosquito nets that they get for malaria prevention to tie their things together. Some of the homes are raised on sticks, and the family’s livestock are kept under the house. The doors are so small that you can’t actually walk through them – you crawl.

The health center is up in the hills. It’s really small, and people come to it from miles around. There’s no electricity in that area, but luckily someone donated solar panels to run the refrigerator, since the polio vaccine has to be kept cool. A nurse there taught us about the cold chain and how to place the vaccine in the coolers, and explained how to administer it without contaminating the vial – you have to hold the dropper above the children’s mouths without touching. 

Then we went to one of the homes to get some hands-on experience. When it was my turn, I was shaking. I was worried I would make a mistake and drop in more than two drops. It’s like the way you keep blinking when you’re trying to put in eyedrops. The baby keeps moving! So it can be tricky. We learned the way to hold a child’s mouth so it remains open – you kind of gently press the cheeks together. You have to smile, sing to them. You couldn’t come with a tough face – you want the child to feel comfortable with you. And of course the mother helps keep her child calm

. 

We went up into the mountains the next day to give the vaccinations, but first the film crew needed to talk to people and let them know what was going to happen. Imagine a place where you rarely see visitors, and then you see that camera drone up in the sky. Suddenly people would come out, wondering what was going on. 

And because the government has tried to disarm people in the area, which has a history of violent conflict among tribes, often related to cattle raiding, they are suspicious of everyone. They dress differently and do their hair differently, so you can tell an outsider for miles. 

We didn’t know that people there believe you are not supposed to climb the trees or sit on the rocks. The people hold them in high regard; they’re sacred. They got angry with us because they thought we were provoking them. This is why, when you go places, you need to know the community well. Because who would think sitting on rocks is a bad thing? 

We always moved with the nurse, because people knew her and she knew the language, Ng’akarimojong. We had to tell people why it is important to give the polio vaccine. One father asked me if I wanted to kill his child or if this was a family planning method. We had to spend a good amount of time with him. 

I met a man in Tapac who had been crippled by polio. He can’t run. He can’t walk. He can only crawl. When it rains, the water rushes down the mountain carrying rocks and mud. He tries to get out of the way as fast as possible. But he gets stuck. Imagine being an adult and being pelted with rocks and mud. When I met him, I realized that wheelchairs don’t help in a place like this. Wheelchairs won’t get you up the mountain. You need your legs.  

When we first started filming, I was focused on what we were going to shoot. But that changed when I did my first vaccination. I felt like a hero. It was a satisfying feeling, knowing you probably just changed someone’s life. I felt I had done something very meaningful. I had prevented somebody from being sick. I had given somebody opportunity. Those two drops felt like a life-changing action.