Rotary Gros Islet Proud to be a Part of Our Nation's Future
The Rotary Foundation Focuses the World's Attention on Peace and the Prevention and Resolution of Conflict in February
Club Information
Great to see you, come back again soon!
Tuesdays at 6:30 PM
Sandal Golf Club
Cap Estate
Gros Islet/ Castries, lc Saint Lucia
We Meet on the 1st & 3rd Tuesdays at 12.30pm; On the 2nd & 4th Tuesdays we meet at 6.00 pm & 5th Tuesday we do something special - Check Website for Details
NOTE: Until further notice, meetings take place via Zoom @6.30pm on Tuesdays
"Together we see a world where people unite and take action, to create lasting change - across the globe, in our communities, and in ourselves".
Object of Rotary
The Object of Rotary is to encourage and foster the ideal of service as a basis of worthy enterprise and, in particular, to encourage and foster:
FIRST: The development of acquaintance as an opportunity for service;
SECOND: High ethical standards in business and professions; the recognition of the worthiness of all useful occupations; and the dignifying of each Rotarian’s occupation as an opportunity to serve society;
THIRD: The application of the ideal of service in each Rotarian’s personal, business, and community life;
FOURTH: The advancement of international understanding, goodwill, and peace through a world fellowship of business and professional persons united in the ideal of service.
The Four-Way Test
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
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905.829.5299
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On Tuesday 19th February the club held the second Clun Assembly for the year. At the commencement of the Assembly, three new Rotarians were inducted: Ernest Noeline, Simone Skinner and Sheldon Michel. We warmly welcome our new members and encourage them to get involved in club activities, make suggestions to improve all aspects of service and fellowship, and enjoy Rotary.
The major decision taken at the assembly was to introduce evening meetings as it is felt that in order to attract younger members, we need to be prepared to accommodate their work commitments. Noted that most young persons are unable to take time off in the middle of the working day to attend Rotary lunch. Also, the traffic now makes the travel time to and from meetings, unpredictable but generally much too long.
To this end, effective March 5th, meetings will alternate between Lunch and evening. 1st and 3rd Tuesdays will be lunch meetings; 2nd and 4th Tuesdays will be evening meetings starting at 6.00pm. The venue remains the Sandals Golf Club. When there is a 5th Tuesday in the month, we will organize a special event. Check the website for details.
President Lenita went through the club's achievements for the year to date and advised members that much has been achieved but that there is still much to do before the year closes out.
The Rotary Club of Gros Islet Prosthetic Limb Legacy Project Kicks Into High Gear!
This year 2018/2019, the Rotary Club of Gros Islet embarked on a project to enhance the capacity of the National Council of and for Persons with Disabilities (NCPD) through their Prosthetic Repair Workshop. The island of Saint Lucia has seen a steady increase in the number of amputees, mostly as a result of diabetes and also road traffic injuries. The NCPD has not been able to keep up with the demand, limited by manpower and innovation challenges. At best, perhaps only one or two prosthetic limb could be produced per week and even then, the costs were prohibitive and materials rudimentary. Only one prosthetic limb technician was available at the workshop which was located in Vieux Fort.
The Rotary Club of Gros Islet therefore undertook to build the capacity of the NCPD by sponsoring the training of additional persons who would become skilled in carrying out the assessments of amputees and manufacture the appropriate prosthetic limb, in the first instance, for simple ambulation and eventually, for more athletic uses. Of course, over time, limbs will also require adjustment or maintenance which would necessitate skilled personnel on hand to provide this service.
A certified prosthetist was identified in the United States, Mr. James de Wees, who himself is also an amputee and owns and operates his own prosthetic clinic in the US. Mr. de Wees visited the NCPD workshop in June 2018 to assess its potential for a clinic and the level of readiness of the identified technicians. From a total of sixteen (16) persons, the final number of trainees has whittled down to four (4). Equipment was sourced and procured through the kindness of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
During the months of June to December 2018, the Rotary Club of Gros Islet worked closely with Winchester Rotary and with the tremendous and generous support of Rotarian Richard Spalding and his colleague, Alasdair Gilbertson, prosthetist of the Portsmouth Prosthetic Centre, a prosthetic limb was sourced for a male individual who is now employed as a driver! The success of this trial run to source limbs for underprivileged or low income persons was just the motivation required to push this project through.
Winchester Rotary went one step further and endowed the RCGI with sponsorship of £2,000 towards a diabetic youth training camp which will seek to raise awareness among young persons of the importance of healthy lifestyles and management of the disease. Thank you President Les!
The prosthetic repair workshop has now been relocated to Carellie, Castries in more spacious and accommodating facilities with all the required equipment to facilitate increased production of limbs.
NCPD for its part has expressed its immense gratitude to the Rotary Club of Gros Islet for this initiative. According to Mr. Merphilius James, President, the NCPD, "are in need of greater support in securing materials for prosthetic limbs and in the proper training of a small number of amputees to become basic prosthetic limb technicians. The demand for basic artificial limbs by the growing number of poor amputees, particularly due to diabetes, is significant. This programme has amazing scope for expansion and development."
On February 6, 2019, Mr. de Wees arrived in Saint Lucia and work on setting up the workshop commenced in earnest. The trainees have also commenced training in casting, using each other as experiments. On completion of the training which ends on February 20, 2019, the trainees will be employed by the NCPD to continue to provide services to amputees in Saint Lucia.
To complete this phase of the project, Rtn. Richard is expected to arrive in Saint Lucia with a crate of approximately thirty (30) prosthetic limbs to be donated to the NCPD for its underprivileged clients.
The RCGI is pleased to be associated with this project as it not only improves the mobility of amputees, it enhances their opportunities for employment, restores their dignity and is very importantly, sustainable.
2019-20 RI president announces his presidential theme
Rotary International President-elect Mark Daniel Maloney explained his vision for building a stronger Rotary, calling on leaders to expand connections to their communities and to embrace innovative membership models.
Maloney, a member of the Rotary Club of Decatur, Alabama, USA, unveiled the 2019-20 presidential theme, Rotary Connects the World, to incoming district governors at Rotary’s annual training event, the International Assembly, in San Diego, California, USA, on Monday.
“The first emphasis is to grow Rotary — to grow our service, to grow the impact of our projects, but most importantly, to grow our membership so that we can achieve more,” Maloney said.
Maloney believes that connection is at the heart of the Rotary experience.
“(Rotary) allows us to connect with each other, in deep and meaningful ways, across our differences,” Maloney said. “It connects us to people we would never otherwise have met, who are more like us than we ever could have known. It connects us to our communities, to professional opportunities, and to the people who need our help.”
Maloney also called on every Rotary and Rotaract club to identify segments of their community not represented in their club by creating a membership committee with diverse members.
“Through Rotary, we connect to the incredible diversity of humanity on a truly unique footing, forging deep and lasting ties in pursuit of a common goal,” he added. “In this ever more divided world, Rotary connects us all.”
Maloney urged leaders to offer alternative meeting experiences and service opportunities to make it easier for busy professionals and people with many family obligations to serve in leadership roles.
“We need to foster a culture where Rotary does not compete with the family, but rather complements it,” Maloney said. “That means taking real, practical steps to change the existing culture: being realistic in our expectations, considerate in our scheduling, and welcoming of children at Rotary events on every level.”
Maloney said many of the barriers that prevent people from serving as leaders in Rotary are based on expectations that are no longer relevant.
“It is time to adapt, to change our culture, and to convey the message that you can be a great district governor without visiting every club individually, and a great president without doing everything yourself.”
Relationship with the United Nations
During 2019-20, Rotary will host a series of presidential conferences around the world, focusing on Rotary’s relationship with the United Nations and the UN’s sustainable development goals that many Rotary service projects support. More information will be available in July.
In 2020, the United Nations will celebrate the 75th anniversary of its charter and its mission of promoting peace. Rotary was one of 42 organizations the United States invited to serve as consultants to its delegation at the 1945 San Francisco conference, which led to the UN’s charter. For decades, Rotary has worked alongside the United Nations to address humanitarian issues around the world. Today, Rotary holds the highest consultative status that the UN offers to nongovernmental organizations.
“Rotary shares the United Nations’ enduring commitment to a healthier, more peaceful, and more sustainable world,” Maloney said. “And Rotary offers something no other organization can match: an existing infrastructure that allows people from all over the world to connect in a spirit of service and peace and take meaningful action toward that goal.”
Message from RAGFP Executive Director Reem Ghunaim:
Hello Rotarian Action Group for Peace members, peace partners and friends,
Paul Harris said, “My hope for the future is that Rotarians will continue to be ambassadors of goodwill to all races, to persons of all religious faiths, and to members of all political parties, that Rotarians will continue to be purveyors of tolerance, forbearance, helpfulness, kindliness, neighborliness, and friendliness; and that through our world-wide Rotary fellowship we shall ultimately achieve our goal of international understanding, goodwill, and peace."
World Peace and Understanding Day 2019 commemorates 114 years of Rotary International. On February 23, 1905, four men met in a downtown office building in Chicago, Illinois. The meeting was organized because 36-year-old Attorney Paul Harris wanted to create a professional group expressing kind, tolerant, helpful and friendly human values. Paul Harris hoped, as shown in his words above, that Rotary will help the world to realize what connects principled people is considerably more powerful and meaningful than what separates them. He believed these higher human principles are the foundations of world peace.
The four men who started the first Rotary Club 114 years ago to promote goodwill and understanding are Paul Harris, Gustavus Loehr, Silvestor Schiele, and Hiram Shorey. They decided to call their club ‘Rotary’ because their meeting locations would “Rotate.” As we are celebrating World Peace and Understanding Day in 2019, I would like to propose the word rotate in our modern time represents more than the original story about the Rotation of the meeting locations. Rotary highlights the essence of Paul Harris’s hope and vision for Rotarians, and that is to rotate the values of service, tolerance, kindness, helpfulness, knowledge, trustworthiness, and honesty in every Rotarian service project. He envisioned these values would be practiced in every Rotary meeting, office, committee, email, and phone call. Paul Harris believed these values must first be exemplified by Rotarians, so they can inspire, promote, and lead understanding, goodwill, and peacebuilding worldwide.
The name Rotary International was officially adopted in 1922, as fellow professionals around the world continued to join the organization. Paul Harris confirmed these beautiful human values are universal and Rotarians from all nations, races, genders, ages, creeds, religions and political parties can rotate them in their communities around the world. Those values are the essence of connectivity among all people.
Paul Harris, one of the 20th Century's leading peace visionaries, was correct. Rotarian history has shown what connects us is much more powerful and meaningful than what separates us. Rotary clubs in Germany, Austria, Italy, Japan, and Spain were forced to disband during World War II. The humanitarian work of Rotary International was also banned in Indonesia in 1942 and 1961. However, Rotarians in each country continued the vision of meeting basic needs in their communities and continued to rotate the values of goodwill and understanding through service above self.
The simple idea of professionals uniting for community service could not be extinguished. Today, Rotary International not only thrives in each of these aforementioned countries; Rotarian peacebuilders define international understanding, goodwill, and peace in 200 counties worldwide in 2019. 114 years after the first Rotary meeting, the world recognizes Rotary as one of the leading global service organizations.
Paul Harris taught me peace can be simple. Peace starts from within each of us before it touches our fellow humans, our communities, and our world. Once we see humanity before race, nationality, religion, gender, age, creed and political affiliation, then we can experience common values – elevating mutual understanding, goodwill and peace.
As Rotarians around the world pause to think about the concept of Peace and Conflict, we sometimes miss the significance of the simple test that we recite weekly at our meetings. This test of the things we think say or do in our daily lives was developed in 1932 by Herbert Taylor. This was many years before the legendary Catholic Pope uttered these words:
The parallels between this and the Four Way Test are striking:
Is it the Truth?
Is it Fair to all concerned?
Will it build Goodwill & Better Friendships?
Will it be Beneficial to all concerned?
Fairness, Truth, Justice & Solidarity, all pivotal in the creation of PEACE; the AVOIDANCE of CONFLICT and indeed in CONFLICT RESOLUTION.
Take action to create positive change locally and globally
Partnership with Mediators Beyond Borders International
Rotary and Mediators Beyond Borders International have formed a service partnership to support our clubs and districts in their peacebuilding efforts. Read the partnership factsheet to learn how clubs and districts can take advantage of this partnership to make their peace and conflict resolution projects even better.
Grant management resources
Coming soon: online grant management resources in Rotary’s Learning Center. Find courses on sustainability, community assessments, project planning, roles and responsibilities, financial management, club qualification, reporting, and much more.
Golf Update
Although we do not have a full report on the tournament please note that you can review the Tournament Photos here
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We warmly welcome our new members and encourage them to get involved in club activities, make suggestions to improve all aspects of service and fellowship, and enjoy Rotary.
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