Upcoming speakers:
4/23...Anna M. Guiffre...Special Events Manager Alzheimer's Association North Bay Chapter
4/30 Roberto Giannicola.....San Francisco Rotary Club's Centennial Celebration

Sally Johnson at the Gavel
Forrest leads the flag pledge.

Dawn gives us the quote for the day with:
“What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us.  What we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal.”-  Albert Pines.

PVR guests:
Nit Anderson, Banyan Tree owner, Petaluma Rotary.
Alvin Hennings, Petaluma Rotary.
Paul Berringer, Forrest’s son in law.


Presentations:

At the recent District  meeting, Connie, Dave, Walt, Todd and Sheila described the high energy level, attendance and great speakers there.  If you get a chance, go to one.


Dawn presented a $1000 for the Rotary Foundation Rotoplast program.  A worthy humanitarian program and a great contribution from our club.
                             

Finery:
Connie celebrates her occupation and her birthday on April 15th.  Congrats Connie!
Sarah passed her recent tests series 7 and 66- next one in two weeks- good luck! Completes her fine schedule and rings da bell.

Libby celebrates her 12th club anniversary, yea girl!.

Jerrie P. got rat-finked since she now enjoys a Miata convertible.

Russell  F. shares a great day at this year’s Laguna Seca.  

Christine husband’s birthday celebrated and she finishes her fines! Ding!


Liz finishes another tax season and and her fines.  Dong!

Happy Dollar$
Libby requests help for Linda P. who is stuffing 9400 cards for the troops in Iraq so call Linda to see if she still needs help.

Ellie Friday puts one in for the community achievements volunteer of the year, Don O’Brien, president of Cinnabar Theater.

Trish loves her Junior Achievement sessions!  It is a blast with the kids.  If you haven’t done it, sign up next time round!

RAFFLE
$163 bucks, 3 marbles, Bruce draws, but alas no luck.  Down to two next time!

Speaker:
Jo Thorton on
PVR Adopt a Villiage Program in Osukuru, Uganda.

Status and next steps
Introduction from Sheila.
Osukuru is a 2200 member village in Uganda, Africa and is one of ten such villages currently receiving Rotarian help.  Initially, PVR applied for and got a $2000 Rotary International grant and then raised more with help from a fundraiser in the Pelican Art gallery with local artists contributing artwork for a silent auction.   Funding also came from a $1000 donation the Casa Grande InterAct club raised here collecting PVR fines three weeks ago.   The $8000 then raised was matched by the district for a total of over $16000.  In November, PVR members Jo Thorton and Pam Tuft visited Osukuru.  In contrast to a prior combined  travelog,  Jo Thorton will be addressing the more serious side of this program.

Why should we address poverty in Africa?   Reasons not to: they don’t seem to want to help themselves, they will only have more babies, we have poverty here we need to address, and their governments are corrupt.

There are currently estimated 1.5 billion people living in extreme poverty in world struggling for survival.  Extreme poverty means these people have zero economic growth- they consume more resources than they produce.  While bank microcredit works well for folks in moderate poverty, folks in extreme poverty still need help.  In such dire poverty, people need a bootstrap kickstart a climb up the next rung of the economic ladder where they can start producing more than they consume.  Not surprisingly, increased productivity LOWERS the birthrate as women work more.

While corruption produces poverty, good govemment doesn’t always mean economic growth.  Several African countries have good governments but still struggle economically.  To combat corruption, Rotary efforts are typically at the grass roots levels and work in teams to reduce any corruption drain.

And while we do need aid here locally, the US in the past gave mostly emergency band-aid type aid to Africa.  Ultimately poverty creates unstability which makes governments vulnerable to terrorist extremists.  A Marshall Plan-type aid endeavor turns enemies into customers.  It is cheaper than warfare.   It is also the right humanitarian thing to do.

But why has Africa deteriorate in this modern era as Asia shows dramatic growth?  Each economic ecology is different: Africa must deal with the devastating diseases of malaria and aids which soaks resources, killing entire generations, orphaning many more.  The life expectancy in Africa is 20 yrs less than Asia and 30 yrs than developed country.

Frank Mayhew’s Vision: An Intergrated Approach Village by Village.
Frank is from the Sebastopol Club and asked PVR to sponsor a village.  PVR president Russll Rice quickly got PVR involved.  Frank believes the village is small enough units to begin the process for those in extreme poverty.

Osukuru Issues and Accomplishments
The Rotary club in Tororo, Uganda administers the program working with the local village structure.

In Osukuru, only 25 per cent of the  kids attend school even though it is free- the others have to work, cant afford uniforms, have ill parents, or orphaned.  In the mainly open air school, there is a shortage of books, class rooms, no library, and ancient cooking facilities.   Secondary school level is not free and one must pay fees.  

Other than a cement factory with poor wages, there is little employment in the village.

The local medical center mainly treats malaria, thyphoid, and has few medicenes.  Here, aids caused large number deaths resulting in a missing generation.

Living in small housing huts, the villagers of Osuku eat meat once per month, with a staple of dyed millet.


With a $2500 grant, Rotarians constructed six water points in Osukuru, all completed within one month after receiving money showing how great the need was and how determined local Rotarians are to help.  Additionally, 1000 treated mosquito nets were given out as well as 300 hurricane lamps which are cheaper and easy to run.  We also funded 20 exotic goats to increase quality of existing goat stock.  

Several spin-off projects occurred as well:
A Pen Pal project with 100 kids involved between Osukuru and Petaluma- we saw how much the kids learned from their pals previously.

Provide cameras- Todd donated one and PVR obtained a second giving us a view of their world.

Great Aubrey T-shirt club formed.
Obtained several uniforms for school kids.
Funded eleven students for secondary school.

Currently the PVR board is considering expansion of the Osukuru project including:
Setting up a micro-loan revolving grant run by the widows at Osukuru.
Getting fruit tree nursery seedlings.
Oxen and plow team to plant seeds.
Piggery Interact club sponsoring.
Pilot sewing program..
Establishing a lending library.
New latrines and handwashing.
Update school equipment and supplies.
Setup a school lunch fund.
Rocket stoves= more efficient, less deforestation, repiratory diseases, cost efficient, less wood.

Great proposals to consider.  Thank you Jo for a outstanding presentation.

Adeiu.  Gordon