I wish you all a wonderful year 2023 ahead with health, happiness, and success. May you all thrive in your planned projects be it personal or professional.
I hope that you all enjoyed a delightful time with your families and friends during the festive season. Already half of a year gone in my assignment as DG, I can confess that I did not sense the time going by because I have been enjoying every bit of it despite some inevitable challenges. I have been very happy and privileged to meet with so many fellow Rotarians up to now across the district who are so dedicated and who have the right agenda in their belief and actions. I consider myself so lucky to have spoken with them and been able to share our ideas.
The most enjoyable moments of my visits are when I can exchange on a one-on-one basis; taking the time to listen to the story and experience, these incredible Rotarians have accomplished so much as individuals and as a group. I have been working hard on increasing membership in our district so that we have more hands and heads to help those less fortunate than us. At this time, I was hoping our numbers would be much higher and I know we can do better as a team. Please, I am asking each one of you to lend a hand. Let’s do our best to identify the people who are true Rotarians at heart and in action but who have simply not joined our organisation yet. You’ll know a Rotarian when you see one, so go find that new Rotarian!
Posted by Michele Herblin E-club Premier 7040, article from Rotary Canada
There are more than 671,000 monthly visits to Quebec food banks in 2022, with a significant increase in demand since 2019. In addition to the rise in job insecurity, the soaring cost of food is creating a profound sense of food insecurity. I asked myself: To help solve this problem, would it be possible to hold on to some of the millions of tons of food that are wasted each year in this country?
Two events made me decide to get involved: the poignant words of a mother at an emergency food basket distribution organized by our Rotary Club, who had to choose between taking the bus to the grocery store or walking to pick up what she was given, and a delivery from a large food bank to a neighborhood community organization whose truck was full of chips, energy bars and sugary drinks.
Have you been wondering what you could do to help suffering people in Ukraine?
The Arnprior Rotary Club is spearheading a District-wide project to Support Ukrainian Refugees by donating to the Warm Blanket Project - “WE WILL WARM UP UKRAINE IN A DIFFICULT HOUR.” This is a project created by the Rotary Club of Kharkiv-New Level in Ukraine.
Many of you may be aware that we are raising funds to make and distribute Blankets in Ukraine - this project is an initiative by the Rotary Club of Kharkiv in Ukraine. Last August, the Rotary Club of Arnprior held a Silent Auction at our inaugural Tarts and Arts Festival at Robert Simpson Park with proceeds going to this project.
Gerhard learned of this project by talking with Ukrainian Rotarian, Olga Lalovenko, who we had met in Houston, Texas last June during the Rotary International Convention there. She had just presented John Hewko, Rotary International’s current General Secretary, a pair of the Snake Island Stamps, which celebrates the infamous reaction to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The New Year brings with it many exciting events, including the District Conference in May. Until then, you are invited to attend two online events hosted by Literacy Chair Jacinthe Paillé.
The first event is a literacy presentation for all - Rotarians, their spouses, friends, Rotaractors, Interactors, alumni, etc. on Wednesday, January 11 (7:00pm EDT). Jacinthe presented to many clubs in the fall of 2022 (in person and virtually), and would like to offer any club and/or individual the opportunity to attend the presentation in 2023.
Recently, I was asked to tell a few lines about my Canadian university experience. That is how I present myself to you today. My name is Camille and I am 25 years old. I studied law in Belgium, my country of origin. Very quickly, I knew that I wanted to put my studies at the service of certain causes that go beyond my Belgian national borders. Having grown up in a family with adopted siblings and coming from different backgrounds, I quickly developed a particular interest in international law, and more specifically international humanitarian law which aims to humanize armed conflicts around the world as much as possible, by offering minimal legal protection to the most vulnerable people. It was in this context that I applied to the master's program in this subject offered by the University of Ottawa.
When it came to finding sources of funding to carry out these studies that have been close to my heart for a long time, I turned to Rotary, whose values and ambitions echo mine. Rotary allows students, whose academic ambitions are aligned with one or the other of the seven Rotary axes, to obtain a scholarship to cover the substantial costs of studying abroad. With the precious support of my club in Belgium (the Plombières-Welkenraedt club), I was able to win first place in a competition for a district scholarship. Then, I had the chance to become a global grant scholar and receive the prestigious Rotary Foundation grant.
At UOttawa, I am pursuing a study project that is related to the Rotary axis on preserving and promoting peace. Indeed, through my final thesis, I am interested in the armed conflicts currently taking place in the Democratic Republic of Congo, in North and South Kivu. In these conflicts, sexual violence is used on a massive scale for the purposes of, among other things, appropriating the country's wealth. Since widespread impunity is an element that leads to a continuation of this violence, I question the effectiveness of national and international criminal tribunals in caring for victims. I try, through the use of a feminist perspective, to propose ways to improve the response of the law to this violence.
Ten years ago, the Rotary Club of Kingston was looking for a new fundraiser to support our charitable work in the community. One of our members, Scott Buckley suggested that we sell a Cash Calendar. Similar fundraisers were being conducted by Rotary Clubs in Prince Edward County and Napanee. After some detailed research, including determining that we weren’t encroaching on other clubs’ sales, we initiated the project for the 2013 calendar year.
The calendar featured the work of local artists and was well received by the community. The introductory pages of the calendar gave an overview of Rotary, its various programmes and our initiatives in the local community. Our first year we raised over $15,000. We refined the calendar in subsequent years focussing on photographs from local artists. The intent was to highlight the diversity of our community, its buildings, landscapes and wildlife. Sales and revenues continued to grow.
