What a fantastic meeting with our Zambian Teacher Exchange team last week. Excellent job Cindy Hornaman for your relentless pursuit to make this project become a reality! The ability through the Rotary network to bring people from around the world together in an effort to grow, become better people and serve those in need never ceases to amaze me. It will be great to see the full fruition of the project and the potential impact we can have on their village in Africa.

 

There's just over one week away until our Scholarship Social Fundraiser! Please mark your calendars for Thursday evening May 11th from 6 - 8 PM + at Yergey Brewing and Triple Sun Distillery at 518 Bank St., Emmaus, PA 18049.  There will be raffles along with a 50/50.  Triple Sun and Yergey Brewery has also offered to donate 10% of their entire evenings sales to the Emmaus Rotary Scholarship Fund.

 

For entertainment we have the Lehigh Valley's and Philadelphia's best cover band, Sunshine Symphony. They play hits from the 60's, 70's, 80's through today. Check out their link, https://sunshinesymphony.com/videos.

If you were not there Thursday morning you missed an incredible journey three people took from the village of Mfuwe Zambia to Emmaus Pa.  Cindy and Chris Hornaman met Charles while on a trip several years ago. Put the bug in his ear for Charles to consider starting a Rotary club.   Charles started the first club in Mfuwe in October 2012.  From there history has been made.  Between Cindy, the East Penn School district, and the Rotary foundation they came together for this international project bringing two teachers from Zambia to the US to share ideas and curriculum and then East Penn is sending two teachers to Zambia this summer for a trip of a lifetime to share and learn about their school, their needs, and to help in any way they can.  Charles is the former Principle of the secondary school.  He now is an entrepreneur with several businesses he runs out of his home.  

 

Charles brought two incredible people with him we were first introduced to Judy Chinyemba (pic at the end of this story) who is a teacher at the school.  Judy has a BA in Education, with a major in Geography, and a minor in history.  She speaks 4 different languages and she enjoys swimming, net ball and traveling.  She is part of a large family and she is still single. 

 

                                Picture of their school

                                                        Picture of their village

Next we were introduced to Tim Tembo.  Tim is married a BS in education with a major in science.  He teaches Physics along with other science courses.  Tim loves football (soccer), badminton and anything athletic.  (pic below)

 

Following are some pictures of the wildlife that you can see in this truly wonderful country.

 

 

 

 

                                        Judy Charles and Tim

Of course without the help of a very special person at East Penn Cindy could not have accomplished all she has since she started this project.  Below is a picture with Laura Groh (Community At large representative) and Cindy along with our guests, Judy, Charles and Tim.

 

 

       In attendance we had our current DISTRICT GOVERNOR LINDA YOUNG, along with 4 past district governors,our superintendent for East Penn and 75 Rotarians and some family members.   

First Come First Serve : 4 tickets to the Iron Pigs game on Thursday at 10:35 a.m.

Please email President Jeff if interested.    Jeff.McElhaney@edwardjones.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rotarians took to their rakes and shovels this past Saturday morning to spruce up the Rotary Garden & Planter located

at the Weiss Food Market on the corner of Chestnut Street and Cedar Crest Blvd in Emmaus.  The planter was weeded and

a new design of fresh plants and flowers was installed under the expert direction of Master Gardener Geoff Boyer.

Be sure to check it out as you drive by.

 

Pictured left to right:  Gary Guthrie, Jim Ritter, Doug Brinker, Geoff Boyer, Rory King, Steve La Pierre and Bob Rust.

Club Foundation-International Committee Update [edited version-JRP]
 
Global Grant for Strengthening Women Peacebuilders in South America
Colombia VTT Mediation GG 1745757
 
The Emmaus Rotary Club Foundation-International Committee this year supported a project to train peacebuilders in the Andes region of South America starting with training May 7 to 12, 2017 in Bogota Colombia.  The training is being done by International Training Institute (ITI) through Rotary’s partnership with Mediators Beyond Borders International.   This is a Rotary Global Grant (GG) and a Rotary Vocational Training Team (VTT) project. 
 
Twenty six women peacebuilders will come from Bolivia, Peru, Venezuela, Ecuador, Panama, and Colombia. They come from both large cities and from communities in the countryside. Selected from 190 applications, their strong field experience ranges from working on immigration conflict in the border areas of Panama/Columbia, developing community services in first nation communities, reducing trauma for victims of family violence, training youth in mediation and conflict resolution skills in schools and working with former combatants on reintegration/socialization issues.
 
After the initial training in May, trainees will meet on a regular basis via video conference call with their trainers for assistance with their projects. Finally they will return in early 2018 for advanced training.
 
This is the third International Training Institute/Rotary trainings and a dozen of the first two programs participants recently reported on the amazing projects that they are involved in and told of the ways their training had helped them in this work.
 
For example, a woman from the Philippines is working with a tribal community that has been until now a “warrior” community. She expressed the challenge of using mediation/facilitation skills that she learned at the ITI while she has been working with people who had previously been involved in killings (both police personnel and community members). One of the men in the training related how, using his new skills from the ITI, he had been teaching over 9000 young people in Myanmar (Burma) on how to avoid landmines.
 
This current project was supported by 18 clubs and 5 districts and 2 individuals.  The leadership team offers thanks and the assurance that the hard work going on in the field related to peace and conflict resolution/prevention will carry the values Rotary brings to changing the world and serving humanity.
 
Peace through Service,
Steve Goldsmith,
Project Coordinator/PP Rotary Club of Torrance CA/Manager of the MOU between Mediators Beyond Borders International and Rotary International
 
Sent on behalf of the ITI-VTT Team

 

Dear District Rotarians,

 

Registration is now open for the Rotary D7430 District Training Assembly  on Saturday, May 20th.  The training will be held in the Parkhouse Hall on the campus of Montgomery County Community College, 340 Dekalb Pike, Blue Bell, PA 19422 starting at 8 am.