By Rotary International

Bill Pollard and his mom, Joan, president of the Rotary Club of Petersburg.

By Bill Pollard, past governor of District 7600 and a member of the Rotary Club of Churchland – Portsmouth, Virginia, USA

In 1988 at the age of 25, a retired banker and neighbor of my parents, Tommy Adkins, invited me to a meeting of the Rotary Club of Petersburg, Virginia. I had just started my banking career in my hometown of Petersburg and I remember calling my mom, Joan Pollard, asking her about Rotary. I recall her telling me it was a service oriented club and that my mom and dad had friends in the club.

We discussed it for a few minutes and I told my mom I would go because it would help my career and Tommy was their neighbor. It wasn’t long before I joined the Petersburg Rotary Club and will always be grateful to Tommy for the positive impact he had on my professional and personal life by asking me to join.

A few years later, I asked mom to go to a Rotary meeting with me. She was the librarian at the local hospital (a position she still holds) and knew most of the members. She …read more

Source:: Rotary International Blog

By Rotary International

Bartlett

By Rebeccah Bartlett, 2014-16 Rotary Peace Fellow, Duke University and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Many refugees rank finding a job and getting a good education for their children as their most pressing needs after finding asylum in a new country. Access to healthcare barely makes their list, even though health affects their ability to acquire and keep a job as well as their children’s ability to perform well in school.

What’s more, refugees are rarely able to focus on accessing prenatal/postnatal health care and family planning services, despite the fact that 80 percent of most refugee populations are made up of women and children. Many refugees in transit through Europe have little or no systematic support or knowledge of the public health resources and legal rights available to them. They are also particularly vulnerable to exploitation and trafficking.

The mobile app which helps refugees find access to healthcare.

Throughout my time as a Rotary Peace Fellow, I constantly thought about how I could work with Rotary to improve access to quality healthcare for refugees and other vulnerable populations.

mAdapt is a research project which aims to connect refugees in Europe with culturally sensitive, country- and language-specific information intended to address their reproductive …read more

Source:: Rotary International Blog

By Rotary International

Amina Ismail, right, checks appointment registers for cases of polio – an essential part of surveillance efforts to trace this devastating disease. WHO/L.Dore

By Michael Zaffran, director of polio eradication for the World Health Organization

In a small health clinic in Tharaka Nithi, Kenya, Amina Ismail pours over a register documenting all of the doctors’ appointments from recent months, a nurse by her side. She is checking every record for symptoms of polio – the sudden onset, floppy arms and legs that signify acute flaccid paralysis.

As they work, she checks that the nurse knows what the symptoms are, and that she knows what she has to do if a child with acute flaccid paralysis is brought to the clinic. This detailed surveillance for polio, working hand in hand with those who know their communities best of all, has been the linchpin of the work of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI).

Surveillance officers like Amina work and volunteer around the world with one aim: the eradication of the poliovirus. Networks of health workers, traditional healers, religious leaders, teachers and parents have helped us identify paralyzed children; and then by testing their stool samples in laboratories, we can find out …read more

Source:: Rotary International Blog

By Rotary International

Ann Syrett, middle, with Past District Governor Ron Lucas, who served as her counselor during her scholarship year, and David Riley, president of the Rotary Club of Newcastle-under-Lyme

By Ann Syrett, former Ambassadorial Scholar and member of the Rotary Club Sunrise of Road Town, British Virgin Islands

In April, I paid an emotional visit to the Rotary Club of Newcastle-under-Lyme that had hosted my Ambassadorial Scholarship more than 40 years ago while I attended Keele University in North Staffordshire, England.

As I shared my experiences with them, I reflected upon how much the experience had changed my life. I grew up in Astoria, Oregon, and the cultural differences between small town USA and Keele University were immense. I was delighted by the warmth of my welcome and at the opportunity to speak to 35 Rotary clubs, Round Table clubs (an association of young business professionals founded by a British Rotarian in the 1920s), and similar organizations during my year. It gave me the confidence to pursue a career as a diplomat.

After my scholarship year, I graduated from the University of Birmingham with a Master’s degree in West African history and economics. I signed up with the U.S. Foreign Service and spent …read more

Source:: Rotary International Blog