Our speaker today is Ciara NicCarthaigh of the Childhood Development Initiative (CDI) who is telling us about the Dolly Parton Imagination Library.

 

President Mariandy Lennon chaired our meeting on Monday March 30th. The online meeting was hosted by Dermot Knight through Gotomeetings.com. Delma Sweeney gave the invocation.

 

Forthcoming Speakers and Events

 

8th April            Evening Meeting in Merrion Inn CANCELLED

8th-10th May     Leonardo de Vinci weekend in Vienna. CANCELLED.

9th April            The quiz in aid of Foundation has been deferred.

23rd May          Please note that Masquerade Ball has also been deferred until later in year.

 

Rotary Rangers Walks

All walks are cancelled until further notice due to COVID 19 restrictions and guidelines.

If interested, members and friends should contact Past President Brian George or Honorary Secretary Tony Keegan for further details about time and place to meet for any of the walks, when they resume.

Attendees

The attendance at last week’s meeting was: President Mariandy, PP Paul Martin, Alan Harrison,  Tony Keegan, David Booth,  John Costello,  Major Stuart Dicker, Tony McCourt, Delma Sweeney, Sonia Crepaldi, Derek Byrne, Roger Owens,  Houghton Fry,  May O’Rafferty, PP Ted Corcoran,  PP Tom O’Neill, Kevin McAnallen IPP Brian George, PE Alan Davidson and Dermot Knight.                                                                                                                                                                     

We had one visitor, Carrie Andrews.

President’s Announcements

President Mariandy reminded us of the circulated letter from the D. G. William Cross who cancelled all face to face Rotary meetings until further notice and recommended that we use online meetings. She noted the cancellation of a number of events due to the Covid 19 virus, the 2020 Rotary International Convention and the Rotary and United Nations: Connecting for Peace Conference at UNESCO. She asked if we are checking in with each other. Mariandy had telephoned John McCabe, whose family are looking after him.  PP Brian told us that he had phoned Ken Hunt who had family with him at the time. Mariandy told us of a system used in the Philippines set up after a disaster such as a hurricane. People, listed alphabetically, called the person who came after them in the alphabet at regular intervals to check in on them.

Mariandy wished Derek Griffith a Happy Birthday. 

Overview of Gotomeetings.com

Dermot Knight gave us an overview of how to use Gotomeetings.com, which he is kindly providing for us to use for our meetings.

Last Week’s Speaker

Last week’s speaker was Delma Sweeney who gave a presentation on our own Rotary Foundation Charity, whose mission is to enable Rotarians advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace through the improvement of health, the support of education, and the alleviation of poverty.

In 1917 President Arch Klumph planted the seed for today’s Foundation at the Rotary Convention that year with a speech that expanded the reach of Rotary far beyond the local club to do good in the wider world. Foundation has spent over €4billion euros to date on services worldwide and has become one of the world’s leading humanitarian foundations.  Each club funds €150 per member annually to Rotary Foundation so that this work can continue. Together, Rotary Foundation has shown that when we give, we can accomplish great things.

The challenge for our club is for us to capitalise on our contribution to Rotary Foundation.  We can leverage large global grants and double funds raised for local projects through district grants.

The Foundation grant system focuses on six key areas.

1. Peace and Conflict Resolution, promoting positive peace, dealing with domestic violence and raising awareness of bullying through service projects, fellowships and scholarships.  Foundation seeks out potential students for a Rotary Peace Scholarship.  The Foundation funds the training of hundreds of peacemakers through the Rotary Peace Centres program, which enables students pursue a master's degree or professional certificate at one of Rotary's partner universities. Through academic training, study, and practice, the fellows become leaders who promote peace and aid conflict resolution in their communities and around the world. There are six host universities in the US, Japan, England, Sweden, Australia and Thailand that offer peace making programs.  Foundation also supports an Ambassadorial Scholarships Program, sponsoring some 1,300 scholars each year to study in a country other than their own. Foundation supports Group Study Exchange (GSE) program which pairs Rotary districts in different countries to send and receive professional, non-Rotarian study groups.

2. FIGHTING DISEASE. Rotary Foundation, along with our partners, has reduced polio cases by 99.9 percent worldwide. The work continues to eradicate polio continues. Members of Foundation set up health camps and training facilities to increase knowledge about disease and health in undeveloped countries.

3. WATER SANITATION Rotary Foundation builds wells and installs rainwater harvesting systems through grants to Rotary clubs.

4. MATERNAL & CHILD CARE.  5.9 million children under the age of 5 die each year because of malnutrition, inadequate health care, and poor sanitation — all of which can be prevented. Rotary expands access to quality healthcare, so mothers and children everywhere have the opportunity for a healthy future.  

5. EDUCATION AND LITERACY More than 775 million people over the age of 15 are illiterate. That’s 17% of the world’s adult population. A key Rotary Foundation goal is to increase child and adult literacy.   

6. COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT. Foundation invests in people to bring about improvement in their lives and communities by strengthening the development of local enterprises and community leaders. It supports research studies related to economic and community development.

7.                                                                                                                                        

DISTRICT GRANTS: District grants support smaller-scale projects related to the foundation's mission. Last year Bernadette Mulvey was successful in the application for a grant and increased the €1k raised by Community for the Dolly Parton Literacy Project, to €3k. Our club can double funds raised through District Grants. When we hold the Masquerade Ball, which is raising funds for the redecoration of the dining area in Granby Life house, Salvation Army, when we follow the application process and apply for a District Grant to match the money raised.                                                                                                                                             The Foundation grant system has, for example:                                                                                                 ҂ Brought peacebuilding seminars to 200 teachers and 1,300 students in Uganda.                                  ҂ Distributed insecticide-treated mosquito nets and medical services that help prevent    malaria in Mali.                                                                                                                                                            ҂ Trained teachers who are establishing an early-childhood education center in South Africa.                                                                                                  ҂ Provided water filters, toilet blocks, and hygiene training to prevent fluorosis in a community in India.                                                                                                                                       ҂ Funded a scholarship for a medical professional to research ways to minimize mortality rates among premature babies in Italy.                                                                                                                         ҂ Protected children around the world from polio.

Most recently Rotary Foundation’s disaster response grants provide a fast and effective way to respond to local events. The Rotary Foundation recently added COVID-19 projects to its list of eligible activities for these grants.

OUR CLUB: Our club’s contribution to Foundation, of €12.50 per month from each member entitles us to apply for Foundation Global and District Grants. The target sum required for our club this year is €7,950, that is 53 by €150 per member.  This sum is gathered through:

• Contributions of members to Sustaining Membership of Foundation, paying €12.50 per month. Approximately one fifth of our club members already subscribe. Following the meeting HS Tony Keegan circulated everyone this week with the standing order form for Foundation Sustaining Membership.

• Various fund-raising activities organised by the Foundation Committee such as the Duck Race are used to make up the club shortfall in meeting its funding requirement.

• The sale of badges and

• Individual contributions.

•  Foundation is supported by those participating in the Eirex Scheme, which contributes approximately €500 per annum.

 

The members of our Foundation Committee are: David Booth, Haughton Fry, Bernadette Mulvey, Roger Owens, Jonathan Pim and Delma Sweeney.

            Members Questions and Comments

• PP Brian George said that there are historical reasons why our club has not been good at applying for grants. He said that it is good to hear that we will be doing so in the future.

• John Costello asked if there was a way that we could let young people know about the scholarships offered by Rotary Foundation. Delma responded that we would certainly be exploring this avenue of recruiting potential scholars. 

• Delma reported that the Scribes for the Dubliner are examining how to make the coming issues a vehicle for communication and stimulation between us. The fruits of their discussions will be available to all in due course.

• In reply to a question about the possibility of our meetings being recorded, Dermot Knight replied that recording would contravene GDPR. He added that he can put up a PowerPoint presentation for a presenter at future meetings.

• Mary O’Rafferty suggested that we target key areas for our projects so that we can make grants more accessible, such as the application for the Dolly Parton Imagination Library which matched the key area of Education and Literacy.

• PP Ted Corcoran suggested that a small amount, such as €1k can mean a lot to a local charity.

• Derek Byrne said that he is lining up a number of speakers for future meetings. We need to hold our AGM.  The issue is that not everyone member has the technology or is familiar with its usage. VP Alan Davidson said that we have to hold the AGM before the end of June. We can hold off for as long as possible.  The positions are filled already for next year. There are three urgent matters, the subscriptions for next year, the election of honorary members and members to council.

• Stuart Dicker said that he wished to acknowledge and thank to two club members. Kenneth Carroll responded to his request to provide meals for those in the St. Bricken’s centre. Delma and her husband offered to collect sanitiser in Mervue Laboratories Middleton, for the Salvation army which unfortunately was not available.

• Mariandy offered to give a stress relief session online to anyone who wishes.

 

Following the ending of the meeting, Kevin McAnallen wrote to say that he had set up the Standing Order for Foundation on the RI website and wished to communicate how easy the My Rotary process is and to encourage members to register on the site.