Rotary Club of Oak Bay Meeting of 8 March 2016 - Esther Mwale from the APU School in Malawi

Reporter: Sabrina Corraini

Photos:

Joan Firkins stood in as MC for President Heather.  In honour of International Women's Day, she sent all the women in the club to the front of the lunch line.

Grace: Corey Burger. Corey chose to speak about the first woman pilot, Raymonde de Laroche, who was licensed on this day in 1910.

Visiting Rotarians and Guests: 

David Stocks, Past District Governor (2011/2012) – Westshore Club

Peter and Jane Markesteyn of the Winnipeg Club

Esther Mwale – Malawi APU School (now at Pearson College), guest of the club

Alyx Valdel, guest of Janna Gisler

Jennifer Hastings, guest of Mary Canty

Betty Pitt, guest of Vicky Pitt

 Joan Firkins and Vicky Pitt exchanged banners with Peter and Jane Markesteyn.

Speaker: Esther Mwale from the APU School in Malawi

Joan Peggs introduced Past District Governor David Stocks who introduced Esther Mwale.  Esther is currently attending Pearson College and has just won a full scholarship to the university of Oklahoma.  She spoke to us about how the APU school in Malawi transformed her life.

Some notes from Esther’s presentation:

• Girls are not expected to have a share in education – they are just supposed to get married at 16/17
• After primary school, Esther was sent to a community school with few resources and teachers who are not committed to their work. Girls do not make it through to university from these schools.
• Her dad said to try primary school again in an attempt to get into a better government school afterward.  At that time, her dad heard about another school and had her write entrance exams – she got in.
• Esther attended the APU school from 2010-2013.  It was a huge school with many buildings, electricity, and teachers who would only miss classes for very good reasons – nothing like what she had experienced before.
• The head teacher taught the other teachers to expect more from the girls, and taught the girls to expect more from themselves.  Esther and the other students were exposed to different opportunities and experiences.  It wasn't just the academic help that she got from APU, but started believing in herself and was really transformed.
• The APU graduation rate is 93%, as opposed to government schools' rate of 33%. Average national graduation rate 54%.
• Esther now sees herself as someone who will be financially stable and able to support a family one day. She has previously spoken to other groups, and the women at times just didn't believe her that what she was saying was possible or even part of the real world.
• Esther told us about her older sister who is now 24 and didn’t get into a good school.  She ran away to get married, had a baby, and then couldn’t support or feed herself or her baby because her husband spent all their money on things that didn’t support the family.  Eventually, she returned home, tried school again, but didn’t get into a good school due to her long hiatus from education.  Again, she ran away from school and got married once more.  She’s now in the same situation where she can’t support her family and is not educated.  APU diverted Esther from that kind of life and she is grateful for that.

Esther thanked us for all of our support for her and for the APU school she attended.  It transformed her life.

Peter Lawrie thanked Esther and noted that it’s hard to imagine a better story on International Women's Day.

Announcements:

• Jack Petrie: the party on Saturday starts at 6-ish.  There will be good food and drink, and dress to impress in a tropical theme.
• Perry Bamji: reminded us about the Paul Harris Fellow dinner coming up. Ticket sales are going well: about 1/3 of the room sold so far.  You can purchase your tickets from Mandy or Perry, or if you want to pay by credit card, visit the hotel front desk.
• Jim Force: March is Start Early Literacy campaign month. Go “like” (and share) their Facebook page.  If not, you'll get fined by Tav next week.  Also check out the 1000x5 Facebook page. Jim said thanks to everyone who brought books this week. 

Celebrations Master: Tav McPherson

Vicki was fined for not addressing Past District Governor David Stocks correctly.  Tav also fined the people sitting at the back table when seats at the front were vacant.  He said he’ll continue to do this for the rest of the month.  Jack was fined for wearing shorts, although Tav noted that his knees are lovely.  Tav asked questions about photos in the Rotarian magazine and fined tables who didn't know the answers.

Past District Governor David Stocks then fined himself for neglecting to mention in his introduction of Esther, that our club sponsored the water tower that was installed at the APU school.  Our club enabled the school to have running water.

 Tav asked us all to make a resolution in 2016 to bring a guest/potential new member to our club meeting, noting that Taiwan doubled its Rotarian membership last year.

Happy/Sad Dollars:

Jim Force: happy dollar because his 20-yr-old grandson has moved in with him after earning a 3-yr contract here in town.  He’ll be looking for a new place to live here in Victoria.

 Lorna Curtis spoke for Rod Sim: 41 very sad dollars because his 41-yr-old nephew recently passed away in hospice in Kelowna from brain cancer. Left behind a family with two young children.

50/50:

Sandy pulled a marble for his 50/50 win last week (we didn’t have the marbles with us last week) – he pulled a white marble.  Then, Ron Cooley won today and pulled the black marble!

To close the meeting, Joan Firkins showed us a short clip about how communities are improved when sanitation is improved with the building of ecological toilets.  It’s water and sanitation month.

One more video to end the meeting, just to make us laugh: it was a baby helping her father rip up a rejection letter from a prospective employer.  The baby was laughing like crazy every time the paper ripped.