Here is her report combined with some comments from participants.
Tête-à-tête with RIPE Shekhar Mehta
This meeting was well worth waiting until 11:00PM our time. RIPE encourages and supports women to join his Board - not for the sake of numbers but they should be suitably qualified for the position.
There were about 145 on line from all over the world.
I received the following emails from one attendee from Uganda. I told her about Annabelle Chauncy and Barbara Parkins and their work. Hence the second email
Email 1
This is Rtn. Maria R. Muzaaki from District 9211 (Uganda and Tanzania) soon to be redistricted and we become 9213 (part of Uganda alone). We chatted online during the WiR India event.
Kindly allow me to share with you some of our DG's newsletters so that we can get to know something about the District. I am the Editor of the magazine.
Please enjoy The Wave, and feel free to share with your colleagues."
Email 2
" Nice to hear from you. I look forward to joining your club for the meeting. So this sunday, we have a date, hahahhaha
Thank you for sharing about Annabelle's school, I have looked it up on the internet and what she is doing is great. It is amazing. May she be blessed. Has your club partnered with her on this project.
Kindly share her email, I could reach out to her to feature in our magazine.
Also the work by Barbara is amazing! Wow, all your members are amazing. You are doing great things in our neighbourhood. Thank you
Look what I found on this page from Rae Shirer. Well done Lucy.
""Women of Rotary", highlighting the lives of women around the world dedicated to family, career, community and service to others. This public group is open to all women currently in Rotary or Rotaract and women alumni of Rotary Foundation programs (i.e., ambassadorial and peace scholars).
Women of Rotary celebrates the lives of these Rotarians, showing the world our diversity and our passion. Invite your favorite woman of Rotary to join the group and to share her service projects and the causes close to her heart. And don't be afraid to share family and career successes too! A Rotarian woman is many things to many people, and a true gift to the world."
Our Global Grants Graduate Scholar, Garrette Milne has Taken a position in Canada.
David Dean has introduced Garrette to Wade Garrison, a member of the Halifax Harbourside Rotary Club, who has attended several of our E-Club online meetings.
Here follows a copy of the comunications.
Hi, Garrett -- I would like to introduce you to Wade Garrison, a member of the Halifax Harbourside Rotary Club, who has attended several of our E-Club online meetings.
And, Hi, Wade! I would like to introduce you to Garrett Milne, who was a Rotary Global Grant Graduate Scholar studying in Sydney a couple of years ago, sponsored by the E-Club.
Garrett has just moved to Halifax in the last week. He would be an inspirational guest speaker at any Rotary Club!
I hope you two can make contact in Halifax!
Garrett left Australia after completing his Masters Degree just before the pandemic hit, moving to England. He reports:
I was working in a hospital in the north of the UK in a city called Sheffield. It is one of the largest hospitals and also services a large population. As an emergency planning officer at the hospital, I was involved with ensuring the hospital was responding effectively and efficiently to Covid-19. This involved a lot of skills in hospital management.
Because of Covid, we were having to move and change wards rapidly to ensure there was enough red capacity (covid positive) in the hospital. Covid patients were almost covering 30% of the total beds of the hospital at the peak (1800 bed hospital). It was then trying to balance the capacity of Blue Wards (covid secure wards, negative patients for surgeries) so that the hospital could continue to manage its caseload. Add in the move to remote working for large parts of the hospital, issues with PPE, and other emergencies that came up, it was an eye opening opportunity.
I also had the pleasure of working on the mass vaccination plan for the hospital as well, which was a very positive project to work on. The hospital had delivered thousands of doses by the middle of February to both staff and vulnerable patients.
I have been offered a job in Canada and have moved to Halifax, Nova Scotia!
The job is still related to Covid - I'll be at Indigenous Services Canada as a Health Emergency Management Coordinator. I'll be working with the First Nations Communities in the four Atlantic provinces of Canada to help them in their Covid response and recovery, one aspect of which is another mass vaccination plan.
However, selfishly, one of the benefits is being able to move back home to Canada. Today is just my second day, which has largely consisted of IT issues thus far, so not much of an update but I am very much looking forward to it.
Please keep us posted on how things are going in Nova Scotia! Australia continues to be very lucky with the pandemic. We have had zero cases in New South Wales for over a month, and the vaccines are just now starting a slow rollout.
Here's the latest news from Australian Rotary Health
Join the New Australian Rotary Health Supporters Facebook Group
You're invited to join our Australian Rotary Health Supporters Facebook group - a place where ARH supporters can share their ideas, events, feedback, and photos/videos.
Taree North Rotary Club are requesting sock donations for their world record attempt to build a washing line 10km long with more than 100,000 socks pegged to it.
This challenge will also be raising funds for Australian Rotary Health.
The Rotary Club of Devonport hosted its annual Kite Festival and Teddy Bear Drop earlier in February.
The club's community service director Tony Reid said records were broken, estimating more than $20,000 raised. These funds will go towards gastroparesis research through Australian Rotary Health.
The 2021 Shoalhaven Emergency Services Community Awards (SESCA) have been launched.
Funds raised from this program will go to Australian Rotary Health - a PhD Research Scholarship investigating Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in Emergency Services Personnel.
The Rotary Club of Largs Bay welcomed ARH Director David Jones and his wife Lyn Jones to their club meeting earlier this month. Following David and Lyn's presentation, the club made a donation to Australian Rotary Health research.
We thank them for their support.
Recently District 9810 ARH representative Glenn Tippett had the pleasure of presenting Val Henry from the Rotary Club of Boronia with a Ruby Companion for her very substantial support of Australian Rotary Health and its projects over many years.
Thank you for your ongoing support, Val!
ARH Out In The Community
One of our 'Lift the Lid Walk' purple entry arches were spotted recently at an Australian Day function in Mackay, showing some ARH pride!
Last Sunday the ARH arches were also spotted at the finish line of the Rotary 100 Baton Relay event at Sunset Beach in Mackay.
Rotary remains committed to fighting polio and responding to COVID-19
As Rotary members continue the fight against polio, they’re also responding to the COVID-19 health crisis by addressing the urgent needs of the communities it’s affecting worldwide. And now with the development of COVID-19 vaccines, Rotary is ready to use its expertise in distributing polio vaccine and communicating about vaccine efficacy to assist local health authorities in promoting and delivering COVID-19 vaccinations
Learn how Rotary’s experience with global polio immunizations is helping COVID-19 vaccination efforts. To read more click here
Rotary members persevered to eradicate wild polio in WHO's African region
Despite many challenges, Rotary and our partners have remained committed to polio eradication. As a result, in August 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) was able to certify its African region free of wild poliovirus. Since 1996 — when wild polio paralyzed an estimated 75,000 children across Africa — health workers have given more than 9 billion doses of the oral polio vaccine and helped prevent 1.8 million wild polio cases. Rotary members around the world have contributed nearly $890 million to end polio in Africa. To distribute vaccines, determined Rotary leaders, local officials, and health workers in the region worked together to overcome immense obstacles, such as war and conflict, vaccine skepticism, difficulty reaching remote locations and, at times, weak political support.
Polio infrastructure supports contact tracing to control disease
Polio infrastructure supports contact tracing to control disease
An extensive health network and strong partnerships built over time through Rotary-supported polio eradication efforts help control the spread of several global diseases. In 2014, an Ebola outbreak in Nigeria was stopped when the government health ministry modeled its response after the country’s polio program. Officials recruited health experts in polio to train 150 contact tracers, who then visited thousands of people to check them for symptoms. This prevented an epidemic. For COVID-19, global health responders again depended on lessons they had learned from contact tracing to control polio. This time, more than 50,000 community members in Nigeria who were already trained in looking for symptoms of polio and other diseases are also monitoring for signs of coronavirus and assisting in contact tracing to prevent further spread.
2021 District Assembly for all New Board Directors..
District Assembly
This is the training program for all incoming Boards of you Clubs. It is essential that incoming Board members, or a representative participate in these broadcasts. This will be held on-line as it was in 2020. Conditions are still somewhat uncertain and having groups as large a District Assembly (ie. 600-700 attendees) makes it inconceivable to find a venue that would be safe. More details will be published soon but here are the dates for your diaries. The District Assembly will occur over 5 non-consecutive Saturdays commencing 18.4.21, then 2.5.21, 16.5.21, 23.5.21 and 30.5.21.
David Dean, in his capacity of Rotary Foundation Stewardship Chair, District 9685 (2020-2021)
and
Geena Dunne fromThe Cova Project.
Geena Dunne is the CEO and Founder of The Cova Project. She began her pursuit to combat period poverty in 2018, after living in Namibia and witnessing, firsthand, the unaffordability of basic sanitary products for many women around the world. Geena has created a network of women (and some incredible men) across the globe, who share a passion for menstrual health and strive for equality. She believes in sustainable solutions that are community-run and hopes that with a little bit of education and collaboration, period poverty can be an issue of the past.
The Cova Project is an Australian registered charity that provides safe sanitary care to girls in developing communities across Africa, by donating reusable menstrual cups and providing menstrual health education. The Cova Project exists to bridge the school attendance gap between girls and boys, due to menstruation, as well as to empower women of all ages. To date, The Cova Project has distributed 6,500 menstrual cups, to girls from low-income communities. Currently operating in four countries, with a focus on sustainable solutions, The Cova Project is in the business of providing access, education and dignity.
Please send all Bulletin submissions to mrdgm41@gmail.com
