I want to thank everyone for their warm welcome and hope that I can count on each and every member to support me and our club throughout the year. Working together, I know we can make our club better and stronger than ever.
The “Our Gift to Nepal” Fundraiser is quickly coming our way. Our Club, Rotary E-Club of Houston, TX, USA is working with Disaster Aid USA and other partners to provide help for the victims in Nepal. The event will take place on July 16th, 2015. 100% of the proceeds from this fundraiser will be given to Disaster Aid USA. Contact Nguyen T. Nguyen if you can help out.
This month is going to be busy. On July 25th, we will have our first Board of Directors and general meeting of the year. For newcomers, this is like the “State of the Nation” for our club. We will go over upcoming events, responsibilities, and budget.
Thank you to all our current members and I hope to see many new members join our Club in the current year.
Our Club Installation of Officers for the 2015-2016 Rotary Year will be conducted on June 20th, 2015 beginning at 11:00 am and ending at 1:00 pm; Lunch will be served by Soto's Cantina and the cost will be $15/person. AG Wally Kronzer will conduct the installation of officers. This will be a joint meeting with the Rotary Club of Houston NW Sunset.
Rotary eClub of Houston hosted a fundraiser for Nepal disaster relief on Jul 16 at Lee High School, Houston, Texas. Rotary E-Club of Houston, TX, USA is working with Disaster Aid USA and other partners to provide help for the victims in Nepal. A very special thank you to Wind Nguyen for organizing this event and also to his committee. Rtn. Lizette Odfalk said, "Impressive! We could not have done it without your amazing leadership! " Also, Rtn. Cristal Montanez said, "Congratulations to all of you for a wonderful, well organized and executed avery successful 'Our Gift to Nepal Fundraiser' event last night. The food was delicious, the photo booth was su much fun, and I love my new T-shirt!! Thank you to our Chairman Nguyen T. Nguyen and the organizing team for their hard work and determination in bringing together organizations, volunteers and performers and making sure that everything works timely and efficiently to help the people of Nepal.
This details the events of the evening;
6:00 pm: Greetings and Reception
6:00 pm: Information Center - Information on Nepal earthquakes and avenues to help the disaster victims will be available. Attendants can meet and greet corporate and community sponsors.
6:00 pm to 8:30 pm: Silent auction. Art and other treasured items auctioned.
7:00 pm: Ceremony, Special Speakers
7:30 pm: Entertainment. Music, dance, drummers, comedy acts, martial arts performances.
PDG Ed Charlesworth was the emcee for this event and welcomed special guests including State Representative Gene Wu, DG Nick Giannone, Lee High School principal, Mr. Johnathon Trinh, Dr. Tara Nath Sharma, and Saras Paudel (Lee High School Graduate from Nepal).
Dr. Tara Nath Sharma is a well-known litterateur of Nepal. He is recognized as a travel writer, essayist and literary critic. Dr. Sharma has authored over 112 books in Nepali language. He has been a writer of Nepali literature for over five decades. Mr. Sharma has been received the Madan Puraskar Award 1969 for 'Belayat tira baralida' travelogue, Saajha Award 1972 for 'Sama ra samaka kriti' critic, and Aadi kabi Bhanubhakta award 2013.
Saras Paudel led the audience in a special candle ceremony to honor the victims of the earthquake. See photo below.
The musical entertainers provided a world tour of talent and exposed out guests to a great cultural experience! Some of the performers included:
Ryukyu Kingdom Festival Drums - choreography is created in Okinawa. It is a dynamic blend of traditional Eisa and Karate forms with contemporary influences incorporating both traditional folk music and modern rock music.
A Nepali remix song performed by the Nepali Student Association of Houston and a Hawaiian dance group.
The Texas Yuanji Dance Association is dedicated to the introduction of Yuanji Dance exercise to all people and to increase an awareness of Asian American culture. A Yuanji Dance combines serene music and therapeutic movements to enlighten the person's mind, body and soul and was also performed at this event.
In addition, a classical Vietnamese instrument orchestra, a Turkish singer, a 10-year old talented violinist, a Hindu (Odissi) classical dance and even more kept the audience intrigued.
A Magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck Nepal on April 25, 2015 killing more than 8,800 people and injuring more than 23,000. Hundreds of thousands of people were made homeless with entire villages flattened across the country. In addition, hundreds of aftershocks have occurred to date from this event, including a magnitude 7.3 earthquake and a magnitude 6.3 earthquake both on May 12, 2015, which further devastated Nepal.
Rotarians exemplify Rotary's motto of ''Service Above Self'' with local and international projects. Due to the major earthquakes that happened recently in Nepal, Rotary E-Club of Houston, TX, USA leads the event “Our Gift to Nepal Fundraiser”. Corporate and community partners within the Houston city and beyond collaborate to raise funds to provide relief for the victims. 100% of the funds raised will be presented to Disaster Aid USA for their current efforts in Nepal. Disaster Aid USA will join forces with Disaster Aid International, Rotary Clubs in Nepal, and other non-governmental organizations around the world to provide immediate relief supplies and funding to help the victims of the earthquake. Other collaborating partners include: International Nepali Literary Society (INLS), Napalese Association of Houston (NAH), Vox Culture, Junior Chamber International - Houston, and Hashoo Foundation USA.
Event Chairman Wind says, "Thank you everyone for making this community fundraiser for Nepal a successful event. We could not have done it without your support. Please stay connected and continue making our Houston community stronger. Be the light and share your light with people around you. #LightUpRotary #GiftToNepal".
The monies are not finalized, but the results already look quite good. The following Rotary clubs in D5890 contributed as follows: Houston - $10,000; West University Area - $5,000; Memorial Spring Branch - $1,500. Other donations amount to about $1405.00 and another donation specifically designated for a mobile clinic in Nepal amounting to $30,000. That means, the efforts of the e-club of Houston fundraiser has already acquired about $48,000.
Tonight is the kick-off of the new Rotary Year with a wonderful installation gala at Safari Texas Ranch for incoming District Governor Dr. Nick Giannone, First Lady Fabiola Giannone, and your 2015-16 team of District officers! Some Rotarians in Northwest Houston are carpooling from the office of Dr. Ed Charlesworth leaving at 5:30 pm. The event begins at 6:30 for fun and fellowship with a tasty appetizer table and cash bar. At 7:00 p.m. begins the delectable seated dinner, featuring Safari Salad, Beef and Chicken Marsala, with potatoes, mixed vegetables, rolls, tea, coffee, and two bottles of wine (1 white/1 red). As you top it all off with Chocolate Decadence Cake, the installation program will begin, which will be followed by dancing from 10:00 p.m. until you’re ready to call it a night. Now it's too late to register, so hope you are already on the list to attend. Don't forget your tickets.
EVANSTON, Ill. (11 June 2015) — Today the European Parliament announced the passage of a written declaration in support of the global effort to eradicate the crippling disease polio. The declaration, signed by 404 signatories within Parliament, underscores the critical importance of supporting efforts to eradicate polio from the few remaining pockets of the world where the virus still exists.
In the European Parliament, a written declaration – a text of no more than 200 words – relates to a matter falling within the competence of the European Union. The declaration does not represent an act of Parliament, but rather reflects the support of its authors and signatories. A declaration receiving the requisite number of signatories, as the polio declaration did, is published in Parliament's minutes and also sent to the European Commission.
Rotary, which launched the global effort to eradicate polio in 1985, has thousands of members throughout the European Union. Since the written declaration's entry into the official register in early March, Rotary members have contacted their respective Members of Parliament to communicate the importance of supporting polio eradication.
The poliovirus still flourishes in just a few corners of the three remaining polio-endemic countries: Nigeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Recent progress shows these geographic pockets containing the virus are getting smaller and smaller. Nigeria, for example, sits poised to mark one-year without a single case of polio within its borders on 24 July, 2015. Pakistan, which accounted for 90% of the world's polio cases in 2014, has shown a 70% reduction in cases over this same time last year.
However, experts caution we cannot become complacent in the face of such progress. As stated by the written declaration, global polio eradication still face challenges, particularly in delivering the vaccine to hard-to-reach and underserved children. Ongoing support and funding is needed from the European Union over the next several years to ensure a polio-free world.
The authors of the declaration included the following ten Members of Parliament: Linda McAvan, Elmar Brok, Davor Ivo Stier, Enrique Guerrero Salom, Mairead McGuinness, Michael Gahler, Maria Heubuch, Louis Michel, Nirj Deva and Charles Goerens.
Rotary launched its polio immunization program PolioPlus in 1985 and in 1988 became a spearheading partner in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative with the WHO, UNICEF, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Rotary's partners in the GPEI supported efforts to have the written declaration passed, emphasizing to policymakers the broad impacts polio eradication will have, including $US50 billion in direct and indirect healthcare savings by 2035, and healthcare infrastructure which is already being used to address other health issues, such as Ebola.
Rotary's roles within the GPEI are fundraising, advocacy, and social mobilization of volunteers. To date, Rotary has contributed more than $1.4 billion and countless volunteer hours to fight polio. Through 2018, every new dollar Rotary commits to polio eradication will be matched two-to-one by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation up to $35 million a year.
About Rotary
Rotary brings together a global network of volunteer leaders dedicated to tackling the world's most pressing humanitarian challenges. Rotary connects 1.2 million members of more than 34,000 Rotary clubs in over 200 countries and geographical areas. Their work improves lives at both the local and international levels, from helping families in need in their own communities to working toward a polio-free world. In 1988, Rotary was joined by the WHO, UNICEF and the CDC to launch the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. Visit rotary.org and endpolio.org for more about Rotary and its efforts to eradicate polio. Video and still images will be available on the Rotary Media Center.
Nearly 80 years after her final flight, the mystery of Amelia Earhart's disappearance endures.
Recently discovered footage showing Earhart preparing for one of her last flights is going viral online, reigniting interest in the woman who was first to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.
The grainy film, believed to have been shot in May 1937, shows Earhart posing for photographer Albert Bresnik, climbing into the cockpit of her twin-engine Electra and walking on a tarmac in California. Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, took their final flight on July 2 of that year from New Guinea, as part of an attempt to fly around the world.
Found by Bresnik’s nephew, the film had sat on his father’s shelf for more than 50 years. It accompanies a new e-book published by The Paragon Agency called “Amelia Earhart’s Last Photo Shoot.” We talked to the author, Nicole Swinford, about what this footage means for the Earhart enigma.
Does this footage offer anything new for our understanding of Earhart's Amelia’s last flight?
You do notice differences in this moment at the beginning of the flight versus photos that we see throughout the [final] flight with the plane. You start to notice that she had been making changes specifically to radio equipment in the antennas. And you ask, why did she do these things? Because looking back, we see that these choices inhibited her communication ability. It significantly shortened the range that she was able to communicate with. It could have been the difference between a success and failure.
The film, "Amelia Earhart's Last Photo Shoot," is being released this month by The Paragon Agency publishing house, along with an 80-page book of the same name that documents a journey that ended tragically short of the finish line when Earhart's plane vanished somewhere over the Pacific Ocean.
A downloadable copy of the film is being provided to those who buy the book. Paragon publisher Doug Westfall said he eventually plans to donate the fragile original given to him by John Bresnik's son to an archive or museum.
The film, taken with a 16-milimeter camera, sat on a shelf in the office of his father for more than 50 years until his death in 1992, said Bresnik's son, also named John. After that, it sat in the younger man's home in Escondido, California, for about 20 more years.
"I didn't even know what was on the film until my dad died and I took it home and watched it," Bresnik said recently. "It just always sat it in a plain box on a shelf in his office, and on the outside it said, 'Amelia Earhart, Burbank Airport, 1937.' "
The following is a long video about Amelia Earhart which I hope you enjoy. Please watch as much as you have time to dedicate to this program.
Almost 200 million days of school attendance are lost every year because of the lack of proper sanitation. Many diarrhea cases in children result from transmission of disease in schools rather than at home.
“A school is a place where children should feel safe, not a place where they are susceptible to infection,” says Lizette Burgers, senior adviser of UNICEF’s Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) in Schools program.
But the message at the World Water Summit on 4 June in São Paulo was positive: Rotary members and their clubs can make schools healthier places through programs that provide clean water and better sanitation.
“WASH in Schools is about addressing the rights of the children. This forum can help us all learn how to provide a healthy, safe, and secure school environment,” said Burgers. “This will help ensure quality education, because healthy, well-nourished children can fully participate in schooling. It increases school attendance, because students have to spend less time traveling long distances to fetch water. And it encourages children to take pride in their school and community by providing them with a renewed sense of dignity.”
The water summit, the seventh convened by the Water and Sanitation Rotarian Action Group, focused on water, sanitation, and hygiene in schools and provided Rotary members with resources and tips for starting their own projects.
Sushil Gupta, The Rotary Foundation’s WASH in Schools committee chair, explained that these projects aren’t just about investing in infrastructure and improving sanitation facilities. A successful WASH in Schools project is also about advocacy. Rotary members were encouraged, when considering a new project, to focus on hygiene education by finding ways to develop healthy behaviors in youths. Gupta said that children are generally more receptive to new ideas than adults are, and they can more easily change their habits and improve practices within families and their communities.
“WASH in Schools is about revitalizing and bringing revolution in societies,” Gupta said. “These young children can become our agents of change, and help us reach our goal of a cleaner, better, and more educated world.”
At a breakout session, Greg Allgood, vice president of World Vision, a leading nongovernmental provider of clean drinking water in rural areas of the developing world, discussed how Rotary members can develop more sustainable and effective WASH in Schools projects by partnering with NGOs and the private sector. With the support of Rotary-collaborated projects, World Vision helped more than 845,000 children gain access to clean water through $85 million in project funding in 2013 alone.
Other breakout sessions focused on the basics of conducting a WASH in Schools program, the importance of changing behavior through hygiene education, and how to address sanitation needs in schools. Carlos Rossin, director of sustainability solutions for PricewaterhouseCoopers, also provided an update on São Paulo’s current drought and water resources issues.
“Rotarians are dedicating their time and leadership to address the need for basic WASH in Schools programs, and the results are already inspiring,” said John Hewko, general secretary of Rotary International. “These programs create a cycle of opportunity. It reduces hygiene-related disease, it increases attendance in school, it enhances the learning environment, and it contributes to a student’s dignity. This is an opportunity for Rotary to showcase what we’re all about. And through your work, we will be impacting generations to come.”
Learn more about the Water and Sanitation Rotarian Action Group
Follow all the coverage from the convention
Go behind the scenes on Convention Insider
Africa - It has been over 10 months since the last Polio case was reported in Somalia, 10 months for Nigeria, and over 11 months for Cameroon. Can Nigeria, Somalia, and Cameroon go 12 months with quality surveillance detecting no Wild Polio Virus? If so, they will join the countries which have stopped Polio transmission. And if after an additional two years, no Wild Polio Virus has been detected, Africa could be certified as Polio - Free!
Pakistan - No new Polio cases were reported in Pakistan this past week. Two new environmental samples this week from the Karachi & Sindh, collected on May 5 & 11, tested positive for the Wild Polio Type 1 Virus.
The Final Three Endemic Countries:
Pakistan - 24 Polio cases reported in 2015 with 306 cases recorded in 2014 The most recent case was reported on 05/06/15 in North Waziristan, FATA. Afghanistan - Three Polio cases reported in 2015 with 28 cases recorded in 2014. The most recent case was reported on 05/05/15 from the Gulestan District of the Farah Province. Nigeria - Zero Polio cases reported in 2015 with 6 cases recorded in 2014. The most recent case was reported on 7/24/14.
Importation Countries:
Ethiopia - Zero Polio Cases reported in 2015 with 1 case in 2014.
Cameroon - Zero Polio Cases reported in 2015 with 5 cases in 2014
Somalia - Zero Polio Cases reported in 2015 with 5 cases in 2014.
Iraq - Zero Polio cases reported in 2015 with 2 cases in 2014
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Syria - Zero Polio cases reported in 2015 with 1 case in 2014.
Equatorial Guinea - Zero Polio Cases reported in 2015 with 5 cases in 2014.
I hope you will join us for our August, 2015 trip to Nicaragua. We will be leaving from Houston on Wednesday August 5,2015 on United flight # UA1421, at 6:10 p.m. and arriving in Managua at 8:25 p.m.
We will return from Managua on Tuesday August11th on United flight # UA1423 leaving Managua at 7:15 a.m. and arriving in Houston at 11:40 a.m.
Getting group rates for tickets has gotten increasingly difficult. People are coming from so many different places and usually you can get much better prices on line than we can get as a group rate. So we are asking everyone to buy your own tickets directly but, you must coordinate your arrival and departure to match within an hour or so of the United flights shown above. I know that American and some others have flights through Miami which closely match this schedule. The ground travel, meals and hotel charges will be $640.00 per person (double occupancy in hotels). Add $200.00 per person if you require a private room. We will co-ordinate all of this as we always have in the past. If you will be on flights other than these United flights Please send me a copy of your tickets so that we will know when to meet you. Payments and sign-up sheets for this should be sent to:
Hope & Relief International Foundation, Inc.
10700 Gerke Rd.
Brenham, Texas 77833
Fax 979-836-0614
We will schedule everyone on a first come, first served, basis as of the date we receive your payment. No one will be scheduled before payment is received. Attached is a reservation form which should be sent in by everyone, with the information and your payment. Please provide ALL the information. In order to secure all the hotel reservations we need to have your registration by July 5,2015 or we will not be able to be sure that we can have hotel reservations for you.
Rotarians are your neighbors, your community leaders and some of the world’s greatest history-makers:
Warren G. Harding, U.S. president
Jean Sibelius, Finnish composer
Dr. Charles H. Mayo, co-founder of Mayo Clinic
Guglielmo Marconi, Italian inventor of the wireless radio and Nobel laureate
Thomas Mann, German novelist and Nobel laureate
Friedrich Bergius, German chemist and Nobel laureate
Admiral Richard E. Byrd, American explorer
Jan Masaryk, foreign minister of Czechoslovakia
H.E. Soleiman Frangieh, president of Lebanon
Dianne Feinstein, U.S. senator
Manny Pacquaio, Filipino world-champion boxer and congressman
Richard Lugar, U.S. senator
Frank Borman, American astronaut
Edgar A. Guest, American poet and journalist
Sir Harry Lauder, Scottish entertainer
Franz Lehar, Austrian composer
Lennart Nilsson, Swedish photographer
James Cash Penney, founder of JC Penney Co.
Carlos Romulo, UN General Assembly president
Sigmund Sternberg, English businessman and philanthropist
Here's how you can assist the Houston Food Bank with disaster recovery:
Donate Cleaning Supplies - These are our most-needed items right now.
Donate by dropping off at our main warehouse on Portwall St or in the
Red Barrel at your neighborhood grocery store.
Volunteer at the Food Bank - Register to volunteer on our website or
by calling Millie Jones at 713-547-8604.
Make a Financial Donation - Please select either "Area of Greatest
Impact" or "Disaster Response" under Available Programs.
Host a Food Drive - Remember to ask your participants to include
cleaning supplies in their donated items.
The Four-Way Test is a nonpartisan and nonsectarian ethical guide for Rotarians to use for their personal and professional relationships. The test has been translated into more than 100 languages, and Rotarians recite it at club meetings:
Of the things we think, say or do
Is it the TRUTH?
Is it FAIR to all concerned?
Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?
