MINUTES OF MEETING : Tuesday July 19, 2016
ROTARY GRACE
O Lord, The Giver of all good,
We thank Thee for our daily food
May Rotary friends and Rotary ways
Help us to serve Thee all our days.
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Grace: Hilda Finnigan
O Canada: Peter Dueck
Toast To The Queen : Bob Elliott
GUESTS/VISITING ROTARIANS:
We welcomed Linda Biddle, Rhonda Stewart, Caroline Kipling, Elizabeth Brighton, Sharron Morrison, Terry Lynn LaRoque, Launi Elliott, Esther Trotter, Jean Keys
BIRTHDAYS: Linda Porritt celebrated on July 17th, Esther Trotter & Eamon Attalla on July 25th Best wishes to all
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
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Ted Morrison – our meeting on Tuesday August 23rd, will be Lawn Bowling (wear flat shoes) Bowling at 6PM, dinner at 7:15; also noted he wore a tie tonight as Devon always does – tonight Devon is NOT wearing a tie?!?!
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Hilda Finnigan – Annual Picnic – Saturday August 6th, hosted by Linda and Devon Biddle - $15.00/couple – will be collecting next week – July 26th, also asking for pot luck donations; Devon/Linda will purchase the meat, President Dave will bring the corn; Hilda also asked for a volunteer(s) as Bulletin editor for the month of August and reminded everyone that the deadline for picture and other memorbelia for the video is July 26th
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President Dave thanked everyone for their attendance updates, noting that it does save $$ for our club; he also noted upcoming speakers Dr. Colin Carrie on July 26th, Mayor John Henry on August 2nd; our District Governor on August 16th, Steve Routledge - “Adopt a Village’ update on August 30th
ACE OF SPADES DRAW: Jean Keys drew the five of spades after pulling her own ticket – was surprised to receive toothpaste
DUTIES FOR THE WEEK: Front Desk Kris Sachdeva Greeter Ted Morrison
Bulletin Editor Hilda Finnigan
(Editor’s note: If you cannot be on the door , please find a replacement)
HAPPY TOONIES :
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Bob E. took his wife’s 2012 car for servicing – returned with a 2016!– great for Launi
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Lennis looking forward to tonight’s presentation
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Janice happy to be here
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Happy Birthday to Linda
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Devon happy wife Linda is here to help with presentation
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Robert Kipling happy his wife Caroline and their friend Elizabeth are here for this special presentation
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Ted happy to be here
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Bob Stewart happy to have wife Rhonda here - couldn’t sleep (he was so excited to hear the speech tonight)
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Pres. Dave happy for good times
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Alan Nason happy invoices will be coming soon!!!
ROTARY MOMENT President Dave presented some up to date Polio Facts
As a lead in to tonight's very special speakers, I thought that an update may be a good idea.
In 2015, there were 74 cases of the wild polio virus. So far in 2016, we have had 19 - 6 in Afghanistan and 13 in Pakistan.
Polio remains endemic in 2 countries – Afghanistan and Pakistan. Until poliovirus trnasmission is interrupted in these 2 countries, all countries remain at risk of importing polio, especially to vulnerable countries with weak public health and immunization services, and travel or trade links to the 2 endemic countries.
The circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus is causing an outbreak in Madagascar, Guniea, and Ukraine.
Other vulnerable countries include Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Iraq, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and the Syrian Arab Repubic.
The circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus is very rare and has mutated from the weakened strain of poliovirus in the oral polio vaccine.
Three cases have been reported this year in Laos.
In 2015, 2 Ukranian children were diagnosed with paralytic polio. Ukraine had fully vaccinated ONLY 50 % of its children against polio, and low immunization rates are a recipe for an outbreak. To stop it from progressing, Ukraine needed to administer 5 to 6 million vaccines through an emergency program. As of March 2016, Ukraine's ability to do so remained in question.
The appearance of polio in Ukraine last year is a perfect example of why vaccination campaigns are essential – and not only in Afghanistan and Pakistan. One reason why Devon, Linda and Kris went to India to help with a vaccination campaign.
Large-scale vaccinations are an enormous undertaking that require money as well as thousands of volunteers on the ground. And in places where the vaccination programs have been successful, the challenge is now to locate and vaccinate that small percentage of children who have been missed. Just like India.
The vaccine itself isn’t the biggest expense in a vaccination campaign (in fact, Rotary rarely funds vaccines).
It’s the distribution of the vaccine – transportation and staffing, for example – that costs so much.
In January, money donated by Rotarians covered the costs of a Cameroun vaccination campaign that involved 34,000 vaccinators and 21,000 rental cars, which volunteers used to canvass neighborhoods and travel from home to home administering the vaccine.
Funds also went to more than 3,700 town criers and 45 radio spots in Chad, to more than 14,000 local guides and 500 clan leaders to ensure that the children of nomads were vaccinated in Ethiopia, and to provide training and support for 60,000 community volunteer vaccinators in Afghanistan.
“I think sometimes people don’t realize the scale of what these immunization campaigns are actually like,” says International PolioPlus Committee Chair Mike McGovern.
He said that “Rotary and its partners have administered 15 billion doses since 2000. We’ve immunized 2.5 billion kids. Repeatedly reaching the kids to raise their immunization levels is very personnel intensive.”
A vaccination campaign is almost mind-bogglingly complex. Rotarians’ contributions pay for planning by technical experts, large-scale communication efforts to make people aware of the benefits of vaccinations and the dates of the campaign, and support for volunteers to go door to door in large cities as well as in remote areas that may not appear on any map.
It sometimes includes overcoming local distrust of government or outsiders and negotiating complicated religious doctrine.
And it means trying to understand the movements of nomadic populations or people pushed out of their homes because of unrest.
Regardless of how they live their lives, each of these children must be vaccinated
Even if the last case of polio is identified this year, a huge amount of work will remain to ensure that it stays gone.
Vaccinations will continue and need to be funded.
Once the final case of polio is recorded, it will take three years to ensure that the last case is, in fact, the final one.
That means that if the final case is seen this year, all of these programs will continue to need funding and volunteers until 2019, at a price tag of $1.5 billion that will be funded by governments and donors such as Rotary.
That’s in addition to the more than $1.5 billion Rotarians have contributed to the cause so far.
“We are so close.
We’ve got a 99.9 percent reduction in polio.
But we’re not there yet,” says John Sever, a vice chair of Rotary’s International PolioPlus Committee, who has been part of the eradication effort since the beginning.
“Rotarians and others have to keep working. People will naturally say, ‘Well, it seems to be basically gone so let’s move on to other things,’ but the fact is it isn’t gone, and if we move on and don’t complete the job, we set ourselves up for having the disease come right back.”
“Rotary was there at the beginning,” McGovern says.
“It would be unfortunate if Rotary isn’t there at the finish line.
We’ve done too much, we’ve made too much progress to walk away before we finish.”
So when someone asks what are YOU doing about polio eradication , you can tell them about Devon and Linda and Kris. And be sure to tell them that you are a very prouud member of the Rotary Club of Oshawa-Parkwood.
And come out to one of our meetings and join in the fun, friendship and helping make the world a better place.
And that is tonight’s Rotary Moment.
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