Thursday, 13 February 2014

Rotary Club of Oak Bay Bulletin February 11, 2014 - Amarok Society (Gem Munro)

Reporter Tom Croft. Photos by Bob Schelle

     President Peter Opened the meeting right on time at 12:15 and reminded us that this month in Rotary is “Rotary Awareness Month”.  He shared correspondence from Jacqueline in Guatemala and John in Rwanda and a slide show from John and Linda Edgell in Mexico.

     Jim Force provided a stirring rendition of “O ’Canada” in which the members joined the DuFour-Lapointe sisters singing as they received their Gold and Silver medals in Sochi for placing first and second in the Slopestyle Skiing event.

     Lynne Murray provided the Grace and lunch was a Chinese-style buffet - very delicious as usual.

     Jessica Van der Veen introduced our two visitors, Stuart Adam, a Rotarian from Saskatoon, and Gem Munroe, our guest speaker and a Rotarian as well.

     Jim reminded us of our duties to raise money for our Club over the next few months with the Mardi Gras Madness dinner and fundraiser, Canadian Flag program and Car Raffle with the Victoria Club.  There is about $50,000 to be raised so remember to do your part to generate the funding for our Club’s projects.

     Guest speaker, Gem Munro (left), was introduced by Wolf Schopper. Gem spoke to us today about the relationship between the Amarok Society and Rotary.  Amarok Society was founded with one family at its centre: Dr. Tanyss Munro, Gem Munro and their four children. The Society teaches extremely poor, uneducated mothers in the world’s worst slums to become neighbourhood teachers.  View this video for more information.
     Gem: We teach these women how to read and write in their own language; we teach them English (necessary in South Asia for economic advancement), and teach them math. We also teach them life skills such as health, nutrition, child care and conflict resolution. And we teach them to think, something they’ve never before been encouraged or taught to do. The mothers, many of whom have never before even held a pencil, attend school every day for 2 hours. Teachers recruited from poor neighbourhoods and trained by AS, use accelerated learning methods (using songs, drama, games). Neighbourhood premises are used as schools.  The mothers are then trained to become teachers of their own and their neighbours’ children, developing some of the learning materials themselves for use with the children. The small schools, when not being used for mothers’ classes, are used by the women to discuss issues of importance, as determined by them, and as a place for cottage-industry enterprises to increase family income. Working from the centre of the family out, using our own accelerated learning methods, is a highly effective – and cost-effective – approach. Mothers come to understand and value education. They learn how to create a positive learning environment for children, and they come to make better decisions in many areas for their families. Mothers report that they can now make better sense of their world and have become more highly valued within their own homes and in their community as they disprove old, backward attitudes about the limitations and suitable role of women.
     The improvements in the women’s abilities and circumstance dramatically improve every aspect of slum life overall. As a result of a hastily prepared meeting of Canadian and Bangladeshi Rotarians held in a cafeteria at the Montreal International Rotary Conference in the spring of 2010, a new partnership was been created. With the assistance of Rotary District 7070, Literacy Chair, Joan Hayward, Zone Coordinators Roger Hayward (for Canada) and Safina Rahman (for Bangladesh), and Rotary International Literacy Coordinator Richard Hattwick, an Agreement in Principle was made between the Rotary Club of Belleville, Ontario, Canada and the the Rotary Club of Midtown Dhaka, Bangladesh with Amarok Society for the purpose of supporting specific initiatives in the poorest slums of Dhaka.
Read more here on the Amarok blog: http://amaroksociety.org/wordpress/
Gem was thanked by David Westler (above) and received a Rotary Four Way Test coffee mug as a thank-you for speaking today. 

We closed with the Queen.





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