From Erdenet, Mongolia, to Evanston, Illinois, support for dads can be life-changing
By Steve Almond
Three years ago, Davaanyam Gongorjav, a young father living in Erdenet, Mongolia, found himself in dire straits. His wife had recently died of cancer. He had no job and no child care for his daughters, who were 4 and 7 years old. More fundamentally, he was facing a crisis of confidence as a father.
Davaanyam, it turns out, was not alone. There were dozens of single fathers in Erdenet facing similar challenges in a culture where the notion of a father raising children without a partner was alien, and where community support for those fathers was virtually nonexistent.
Word of these fathers had passed from a professor at the International University of Ulaanbaatar to Jennifer Scott, an Australian Rotarian working in law and mediation. Before long, Scott and a group of colleagues had conducted a community needs assessment and organized a workshop for nearly two dozen single fathers, supported by a global grant from The Rotary Foundation.
"These were men in tragic circumstances, who had lost wives in childbirth or to cancer," says Scott, a member of the Rotary Club of Central Blue Mountains, who traveled to Mongolia as part of a vocational training team. "They loved their children and wanted to raise them. But they were living in a society where the mother-in-law viewed child rearing as her role and would try to remove them."
Fathers play an important role in their children’s lives but often lack support.
Image credit: Andrew Esiebo
The recent history of Mongolia only compounded their plight. Under Soviet influence, Mongolian men were tasked with herding and farming, Scott notes, while young women were educated. A subsequent mining boom claimed much of the country's agricultural land, leaving many men without any education or sense of identity. "These men felt, therefore, terribly disempowered," she says.
The workshop, by all accounts, yielded astonishing results. But Scott and the other facilitators first had to learn a crucial lesson. "On the first day of the fathers' training, I invited many female social workers to observe," recalls Enkhtuya Sukhbaatar, a member of the Rotary Club of Ulaanbaatar who helped organize the project. "We wanted to learn from the Australian professionals how to work with these fathers. We didn't realize that fathers in trouble need male trainers."
Only after all the women were asked to leave the room were the fathers willing to discuss the hardships they faced. "That made all the difference," Scott recalls. "The men were finally able to open up about the complexity of parenting, the risk of losing their children while mourning the loss of a wife, and the fact that there was nothing there to support them in the system."
For men such as Davaanyam, the workshop was life-changing. "I feel very lucky to be part of this project," the 31-year-old says. "I cannot imagine how I would have managed my life as a father without it."
Not only did Davaanyam gain confidence in his role as a father but he became a member of a local fathers association. Another dad hired him as a security guard at a vocational school. He's also been able to secure child care and counseling from local agencies.
“The men were finally able to open up about the complexity of parenting ... and the fact that there was nothing there to support them in the system.”
“It was one of those perfect Rotary projects where you go somewhere and are able to truly enable people,” reports Ian Scott, Jennifer’s husband and also a Central Blue Mountains club member, who helped handle administration for the workshop. “Jennifer and her colleagues provided professional and academic support. But it was the locals who really picked it up and ran with it.” The result isn’t just personal empowerment, but systemic change, in the form of greater social and legal support for single fathers in Mongolia.
By the numbers --- Among American dads:
63%
say they spend too little time with their children
39%
say they are doing a “very good job” raising their children
57%
say parenting is “extremely important” to their identity
Source: Pew Research Center
For Jennifer Scott, the project underscored that while the importance of mothers is universally recognized and supported, the role of fathers is too often overlooked and underserved.
That's a sentiment that Brian Anderson, half a world away in the United States, will second. About a decade ago, when his first daughter was born, Anderson saw his wife quickly join a slew of support groups for mothers, both in person and online. But when he began looking for fathers groups, he found virtually nothing.
Anderson, a social worker and interfaith counselor in Evanston, Illinois, took it upon himself to launch Fathering Together, which began as "a bunch of dads meeting at a bar every month to talk." He soon joined forces with a friend who had formed a Facebook group called Dads with Daughters.
That group has grown into one of the largest fathers networks in the world, with more than 125,000 members. "So many dads were asking questions of the group," Anderson recalls, "and they all really boiled down to this: I want to be a better dad than my dad, but I don't know how and don't know where to look."
Anderson had hit upon the same vacuum of support that Davaanyam struggled with in Mongolia. The question that nagged at Anderson was: why? Why was it so difficult for fathers like him to find community?
After talking to hundreds of fathers informally, Anderson concluded that there are three factors: "First, most of us are still raised in a culture that tells dads you need to be a breadwinner and not much else," he observes. "Second, we're given no support when it comes to translating our professional skills into our lives as fathers. And maybe most important, we're socialized in a way that makes us uncomfortable with emotion."
As membership in the Facebook group exploded, he launched Fathering Together as a nonprofit. "We want to provide support to dads, but also hold them accountable to who they need to be for their families," he says.
That accountability holds true for Anderson himself. He recalls a time a year and a half ago when he was tucking his 7-year-old daughter, Clara, into bed. She wouldn't let him kiss her good night. When he asked what was wrong, she replied, "You know, you run this group for dads, but you're not being a good dad to me."
Children with involved fathers are twice as likely to go to college and 80 percent less likely to spend time in jail, according to research compiled by the University of Texas at Austin.
Image credit: Monika Lozinska.
At the time, Anderson had a full-time job as a program manager while also working nights and weekends on Fathering Together. The truth of his daughter's comment pierced him. Holding back tears, he told his daughter she was right. He acknowledged he was putting all his creative energy into his project, rather than into his family. And he pledged to change that.
A couple of weeks later, a major source of funding came through, allowing Anderson to leave his job and devote himself to Fathering Together full time.
Through the nonprofit, he has run workshops to empower fathers to tell their stories and to understand the values they seek to pass down to their children.
"I encounter so many dads who are dealing with the trauma of disconnection from their own fathers and who are saying, 'I need to be the one who changes that,'" he says. "The question is: How do we let go of the old trappings and live a more connected dad life?"
To that end, Anderson is working on a book called Fathering Together.
The goal for today's fathers, he says, remains the same, whether you're in Evanston or Erdenet. "It's not to be perfect, because we all mess things up," he says. "It's to be present for our children — to honor the gift of being a dad."
This story originally appeared in the September 2022 issue of Rotary magazine.
This Project was Supported by a Global Grant from The Rotary Foundation.
As our club is active in service projects and activities, we were sent a personal invitation to participate in this year’s Rotary-Peace Corps Week, 19-23 September. This week is an opportunity for members of both organizations to collaborate, share their resources, and co-create projects that will have an even greater impact. It is hosted by Partnering for Peace, a group of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers who are also Rotary members and are passionate about the impact we can all make together through the official Rotary-Peace Corps partnership.
The week’s theme is Peacebuilding on the Ground and starts on Monday, 19 September with a panel webinar including:
Chief Financial Officer of Open Doors Asheville, Keevon Baten, who is a Founding Rotaractor Club President, and Returned Peace Corps Volunteer;
President Emeritus of the National Peace Corps Association and Former President of the Alliance for Peacebuilding, Charles Dambach, who was nominated for the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize and received the 2017 Institute for Economics and Peace Leadership and Service for Peace Award;
Past Rotary International Director Peter Kyle who has been an active peace builder and former chair of the Rotary Peace Center Committee; and,
U.S. Representative for Frontline Defenders, Ana Patel, who is a Rotary Peace Fellow, Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, and a Rotary Representative to UN Women.
The week’s other events include:
Tuesday, 20 September - What does “Peacekeeping on the Ground” mean to you? (Social Media Discussion on Partnering for Peace’s Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn)
Wednesday, 21 September – Breaking Down the Design of a Rotary-Peace Corps Partnership Project with Peace Corps, Namibia Director of Programming and Training, Jane O'Sullivan (Webinar, 11 am EDT)
Thursday, 22 September – Rotary-Peace Corps Partnership Question & Answer “Drop In” Session with Rotary International, Partnerships Manager, Carrie Golden, and Peace Corps Office of Strategic Partnerships & Intergovernmental Affairs, Acting Director, Ted Adams (Zoom Meeting, 10 am EDT)
Friday, 23 September – Information Sessions: From Rotary to Peace Corps: Continuing Your Legacy of Service (Webinar, 2 pm EDT)
Friday, 23 September - Deepen Your Impact: Get Started on Your Journey to Become a Rotary Peace Fellow (Webinar, 3 pm EDT)
Friday, 23 September – Virtual Cultural Happy Hour (Zoom Meeting, 4 pm EDT)
How else can your Rotary community participate in this week-long grassroots initiative? Although opportunities vary by country and geographic region, consider the ideas below.
Invite a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (RPCV) to speak about their service at your club meeting. Find a speaker here.
Promote the Rotary-Peace Corps partnership by sharing successful partnership projects with the Partnership Manager (contact information below), district newsletters or local media.
Attend the Rotary-Peace Corps Week events. Register for them here.
Clubs seek to increase awareness and understanding of the autism spectrum
By Christine Mungai
When schools in Kenya reopened in January 2021 after a nine-month closure due to COVID-19, Sylvia Mochabo was looking forward to her 11-year-old son, Andy, returning to the classroom. Their schedule, like those of millions of families around the world, had been disrupted by the pandemic, and for Andy, who was diagnosed with autism at age 3 and who struggles with adapting to changes in his routine, the closures and lockdowns were particularly challenging. But his first day back at school didn’t go as planned.
“His school refused to take him back until he was wearing a mask, which Andy isn’t able to do because autism makes him sensitive to physical sensations. Without speech therapy, he began drooling more. He found the mask unbearable,” says Mochabo, a member of the Rotary Club of Muthaiga. Because he wasn’t in school, Andy also lost access to discounts on occupational therapy sessions, which are crucial to his development. Now, Mochabo has to pay the full price for home-based support.
“I’ve had to reduce the number of sessions from thrice weekly to once; without the discount I can’t afford to do all three sessions, even though I know Andy needs them,” she says. “It’s heartbreaking.”
Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) consist of a range of developmental disabilities that can make communication and social interaction difficult and can also cause behavioral challenges. People with autism may think, act, learn, and communicate in ways that are different from most other people. According to the World Health Organization, 1 in 160 children globally has an autism spectrum disorder.
In recent years, the reported prevalence of the disorder has been trending higher, and this is consistent across data sources from countries as diverse as Germany, Iran, and Japan, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is unclear how much of this increase is due to changes in clinical definitions of ASD or to better efforts to diagnose the condition. However, the CDC doesn’t rule out an absolute increase in the number of people with ASD, and researchers are looking into why this might be the case.
A global grant- supported project of the Rotary Club of Chicagoland Korean-Northbrook, Illinois, helps young people on the autism spectrum to become more comfortable in a social setting
For Rotary member Corina Yatco-Guerrero, her child’s diagnosis came as a shock, even though she and her husband are medical practitioners — she’s a neuro-ophthalmologist and he’s a neurologist. It took them a while to accept their son’s diagnosis and find ways to support him with speech therapy, occupational therapy, and a special needs education.
“For me, the most important thing that parents and families should know is that autism is not a life sentence, that children with autism have a right to life and proper special education that will make them better equipped to face the challenges that they will face,” says Yatco-Guerrero, a member of the Rotary Club of Sta. Ana (Davao), Philippines.
“Parents must learn to accept and not dwell in their state of denial, and to love their children and give them the best in life,” she says. “A child with autism is lovable, and they deserve our love, too.”
Families of children with autism often have to grapple with the lack of social understanding about the condition, even in cosmopolitan cities. Many families experience social stigma, and in some countries the condition is frequently attributed to witchcraft or something that the parents did wrong.
Early interventions, starting before age 5, have been shown to yield the best results for children with autism. “Children need to be assessed at young ages to determine gaps in development and allow for early intervention,” says Pooja Panesar, director and co-founder of the Kaizora Centre for Neurodevelopmental Therapies, a Nairobi institution that uses a step-by-step approach to teach children crucial skills such as communication and toilet training, while reducing behaviors of concern.
“Through this process, we have had great success, from children receiving early intervention who transition into mainstream education to adults who are now living independently and maintaining permanent employment,” Panesar says.
By the numbers
40%
Portion of people with autism who are nonverbal
2 in 3
Children ages 6-15 with autism who have been bullied
$268 billion
Cost of caring for Americans with autism in 2015
Source: Autism Speaks
There are several management styles for the condition, and one size does not fit all. Some children might need a lot of help in daily living, while others might be quite independent. “If a child is nonverbal, then having a speech therapist would help. If a child has sensory integration problems, an occupational therapist can help,” says Yatco-Guerrero.
Mochabo, a single mother of three, has found support and encouragement from her Rotary club, and with the help of fellow members, she has started to do more to spread awareness and advocate on behalf of children with special needs. Every year, in partnership with other clubs in Kenya, the Rotary clubs of Machakos, Nairobi, and Thika host the Sunshine Rally, a day of fun, games, and entertainment for children with disabilities.
“I attended a Sunshine Rally and realized that I wasn’t alone in this journey, and being a Rotarian gave me the desire to do more and to be of service to other families like mine,” says Mochabo.
Inspired by the rally, Mochabo founded an organization called Andy Speaks for Special Needs Persons, named for her son, to advocate on behalf of people with special needs and for an end to the stigma they face. “We can support each other all year round,” she says.
Yatco-Guerrero is also involved in creating awareness of autism, in her case through a nationwide organization called Autism Society of the Philippines (ASP). This group advocates for acceptance and integration of people with special needs into society.
“Our Rotary District 3860 has been actively advocating for awareness and acceptance,” Yatco-Guerrero says, “by joining ASP’s annual Angels Walk, a one-day march of persons with autism and their families and teachers. It draws thousands of people by the year, thus earning a spot in the news, which in turn helps disseminate autism awareness throughout the country.”
Other clubs around the world also have organized projects related to autism. The Rotaract Club of Çekirge, Turkey, put together a series of monthly art workshops for autistic artists working with mosaic and painting, and they plan to organize an exhibition of the artworks to raise awareness about autism. In Malaysia, a global grant funded a series of workshops, hosted by more than a dozen clubs, that provided early-intervention training for teachers and primary caregivers of children with autism. The Interact Club of Rio Claro-Cidade Azul, Brazil, with support from its sponsor Rotary club and District 4590, created the Inclusion Symphony, a music therapy room for children with autism, to provide a differentiated therapeutic space and to stimulate and expand the interaction and communication capacity of people with autism. And the Rotary Club of Chicagoland Korean-Northbrook, Illinois, organized a global grant-supported vocational training program for youth on the spectrum.
For Yatco-Guerrero, ultimately the home is ground zero for any kind of autism intervention. “Having a special-needs child means the whole family must get involved to make things work and make life bearable for all,” she says. “It is a labor of love because it is not easy, and it will test your patience to the fullest. But it is your own child who needs your help, and help you will definitely give. It involves a lot of sacrifice, a lot of patience and understanding.”
Christine Mungai is a writer and journalist based in Nairobi, Kenya. Her work has been published in the Africa Report, Washington Post, Boston Globe, and Al Jazeera English. Mungai is the curator for Baraza Media Lab in Nairobi, a co-creation space for public-interest storytelling.
World Autism Awareness Dayis 2 April.
Help support autism-related projects through The Rotary Foundation. Make your gift at rotary.org/donate.
Layering protective measures, including vaccination, masking, ventilation, handwashing, physical distancing, testing, and timely treatment help reduce the spread of the COVID-19 virus.
The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) encourages Alaskans to talk with a health care provider or call 907-646-3322 about getting the COVID-19 vaccine and getting boosted when eligible.
Medications that fight COVID-19 are widely available, and most Alaskans are eligible. If you get COVID, don't wait till you get worse: call a health care provider as soon as possible about treatment options. Learn more at covidrx.alaska.gov.
VACCINATIONS – These rates cover all Alaskan residents including those reported by the Department of Defense and Veterans Administration (DoD/VA).
72.1% of Alaskans age 5 and older have received at least their first vaccine dose.
65% of Alaskans 5 and older have been fully vaccinated. The higher the vaccination rate, the more protected community members are from COVID-19. See below for percentages of all fully vaccinated Alaskans ages 5 and older by region.
Juneau Region: 80.6%
Y-K Delta Region: 78%
Other Southeast Region - Northern: 75.2%
Anchorage Region: 71.6%
Southwest Region: 70.1%
Other Southeast Region - Southern: 68.4%
Fairbanks North Star Borough: 67%
Northwest Region: 63%
Other Interior Region: 60.3%
Kenai Peninsula Region: 50.4%
Matanuska-Susitna Region: 43.2%
CASES – DHSS today announced 1,954 new people identified with COVID-19 in Alaska.
1,675 were residents of: Aleutians East Borough (1), Anchor Point (3), Anchorage (575), Bethel (13), Bethel Census Area (26), Bristol Bay plus Lake and Peninsula (5), Chevak (2), Chugach Census Area (1), Chugiak (6), Copper River Census Area (2), Cordova (5), Delta Junction (2), Denali Borough (6), Dillingham (3), Dillingham Census Area (2), Eagle River (56), Ester (2), Fairbanks (213), Fairbanks North Star Borough (16), Fritz Creek (1), Girdwood (2), Greater Palmer Area (36), Greater Wasilla Area (100), Haines (9), Healy (4), Homer (42), Hooper Bay (1), Houston/Big Lake Area (4), Juneau (246), Kenai (28), Kenai Peninsula Borough-North (6), Kenai Peninsula Borough-South (3), Ketchikan (74), Ketchikan Gateway Borough (2), Kodiak (24), Kotzebue (12), Kusilvak Census Area (6), Matanuska-Susitna Borough (6), Metlakatla (5), Nikiski (1), Nome (3), Nome Census Area (2), North Pole (37), North Slope Borough (3), Northwest Arctic Borough (10), Petersburg (3), Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area (2), Seward (4), Sitka (54), Skagway (24), Soldotna (12), Southeast Fairbanks Census Area (1), Sterling (3), Sutton-Alpine (1), Tok (1), Utqiaġvik (9), Valdez (4), Willow (1), Wrangell (8), Yakutat plus Hoonah-Angoon (24), Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area (19).
279 nonresident cases were identified in:
Anchorage: 26 with purpose under investigation
At sea: 23 with purpose tourism
Delta Junction: 2 with purpose mining
Denali Borough: 9 with purpose under investigation
Fairbanks: 12 with purpose under investigation
Homer: 6 with purpose under investigation
Juneau: 9 with purpose tourism, 92 with purpose under investigation
Kenai: 1 with purpose under investigation
Ketchikan: 3 with purpose tourism, 9 with purpose under investigation
Kodiak: 1 with purpose under investigation
Northwest Arctic Borough: 2 with purpose mining
Palmer: 1 with purpose under investigation
Petersburg: 1 with purpose under investigation
Prudhoe Bay: 11 with purpose North Slope oil
Seward: 1 with purpose under investigation
Sitka: 9 with purpose under investigation
Skagway Borough: 13 with purpose tourism, 14 with purpose under investigation
Soldotna: 1 with purpose under investigation
Unalaska: 1 with purpose under investigation
Valdez: 1 with purpose under investigation
Wasilla: 1 with purpose under investigation
Yakutat plus Hoonah-Angoon: 3 with purpose under investigation
Location under investigation: 27 with purpose under investigation
18 resident cases were subtracted and 14 nonresident case were added to the state's overall totals due to data verification procedures, bringing the total number of Alaska resident cases to 249,522 and the total number of nonresident cases to 8,517.
HOSPITALIZATIONS & DEATHS – There have been a total of 3,762 resident hospitalizations and 1,252 resident deaths.
8 new Alaska resident hospitalizations and 17 Alaska resident deaths were reported. 1 nonresident death was also reported. Please see this webpage for more information on the process used to report COVID-19 deaths:dhss.alaska.gov/dph/epi/id/pages/covid-19/deathcounts.aspx.
The Alaska residents who died were:
A female resident of Anchorage age 80+
A female resident of Anchorage age 80+
A female resident of Anchorage in her 70s
A female resident of Anchorage in her 60s
A female resident of Anchorage in her 60s
A male resident of Copper River Census Area in his 70s
A female resident of Dillingham age 80+
A male resident of Homer in his 50s
A male resident of Ketchikan in his 70s
A male resident of Ketchikan in his 40s
A male resident of Matanuska-Susitna Borough age 80+
A female resident of North Slope Borough in her 50s
A male resident of Northwest Arctic Borough age 80+
A female resident of Palmer in her 40s
A female resident of Petersburg age 80+
A female resident of Utqiaġvik in her 60s
A male resident of Wasilla in his 70s
Our thoughts are with their family and loved ones.
There are currently 44 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who are hospitalized. 1 of these patients is on a ventilator. The percentage of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 is 3.4%.
TESTING – Updates to testing data can now be found on a tab of the cases dashboard: experience.arcgis.com/experience/af2efc8bffbf4cdc83c2d1a134354074. DHSS is no longer reporting percent positivity or the cumulative number of tests on our dashboard. This is in part because of the increased use in at-home rapid antigen testing, where results are not reported to the State.
COMMUNITY CASE RATES – We encourage the public and community leaders to continue to be aware of case rates in their area. On the dashboard, the Community Case Rates Map presents the total number of new reported resident cases per 100,000 persons in the past 7 days for each borough/census area.
A tab monitoring CDC COVID-19 Community Levels also considers COVID-19 impacts on hospital admissions and hospital beds. CDC looks at the combination of three metrics — new COVID-19 admissions per 100,000 population in the past 7 days, the percent of staffed inpatient beds occupied by COVID-19 patients, and total new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 population in the past 7 days — to determine the COVID-19 Community Level. Learn more here.
The current statewide Community Case Rate — based on the reported number of cases per 100,000 people over the past 7 days — is 229.8. For boroughs and census areas: 6 areas are at >400 cases, 7 areas are at 200-399 cases, 9 areas are at 100-199 cases, 4 areas are at 50-99 cases and 2 areas are at 0-49 cases per 100,000.
Notes: Reports are received electronically, by phone and by fax. Cases are verified, redundancies are eliminated and then cases are entered into the data system that feeds into Alaska’s Coronavirus Response Hub. When there is a high number of reports being received, this may cause delays in getting reports entered and counted. Personnel continue to focus on the effort to process and count reports and minimize the delay from receipt to posting on the hub.
There is a lag between cases being reported on the DHSS data dashboard and what local communities report. Each case is an individual person even if they are tested multiple times. Total tests are a not a count of unique individuals tested and includes both positive and negative results. The current number of hospitalized patients represents more real-time data compared to the cumulative total hospitalizations. Current hospitalizations are reported for all facilities, not just general acute care and critical access facilities. Total number of hospital beds available fluctuate daily as the number of available hospital staff changes. Community Case Rates are provided to show trends and patterns over time, as there can be substantial day-to-day variation in reporting of cases to DHSS. Community Case Rates show how widespread the virus is in a community and are a good tool to determine weekly trends for specific geographic areas. All data reported in real-time, on a daily basis, should be considered preliminary and subject to change. To view more data visit data.coronavirus.alaska.gov.
*PLEASE NOTE: There is currently a lag in State of Alaska reports of positive results tested at South Peninsula Hospital. Use chart at right for weekly SPH data.
Ukraine Rotariets magazine editor Mykola Stebljanko, discusses how Rotary clubs in the country are helping and how he is adapting to the increasingly dire situation.
The war in Ukraine has displaced millions of people, creating a devastating humanitarian crisis along the country's borders. In response, The Rotary Foundation set up an official channel for donors worldwide to support relief efforts. At press time, more than $3.5 million has been contributed to the fund.
While the situation is evolving quickly, this interview with Rotariets magazine editor Mykola Stebljanko, conducted in late March, offers a telling picture of the troubling events in Ukraine as well as Rotary's tremendous relief efforts there. Stebljanko discusses how Rotary clubs in the country are helping and how he is adapting to the increasingly dire situation.
What's your situation there now?
I'm living in Odesa. It's the third most populous city in Ukraine, an important port city on the Black Sea coast, in the southwest. Currently, there's no military presence here, but we live under the constant threat of bombs and missiles. Often, air raid sirens will wake us up in the middle of the night. We have to get up and hide in a safe place. In my apartment, the safest place is the bathroom. We huddle together and spend the rest of the night there. Occasionally, we experienced a few rocket attacks, but most of the time, it's a safe place.
As of now, most of the military actions center around Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, and Kharkiv. More than a dozen smaller cities are also under attack. The city of Mariupol in the southeast of Ukraine is under siege. More than 2,500 civilians have died in Mariupol and close to 400,000 people are trapped, and the Russian army has stopped anyone from escaping. Many are without electricity, water, and heat.
What is happening with Rotary clubs in Ukraine?
There are 62 Rotary clubs in Ukraine. At the moment, only the Rotary Club of Kherson has temporarily suspended meetings, because the city is under the control of the Russian military. I recently spoke with the Rotarians there. None of them are able to escape and they are trapped inside the city. They no longer meet or do any projects for fear of personal safety. Our district governor sent a letter of support to all Rotarians in Kherson.
Other Rotary clubs continue to operate and are trying their best to conduct Rotary services. We have created a special coordination committee. Each club has a representative on the committee, and we meet online twice a day to discuss issues that are facing our clubs.
What kind of relief projects are Ukrainian clubs doing?
Our Rotary services fall into the following three areas:
The first involves providing help to our hospitals, where a large number of wounded civilians are being treated. The hospitals are in dire need of medical supplies. Our district has set up special accounts and has received about US$100,000 from Rotary clubs and districts around the world. We have already purchased and distributed medicine and equipment. We have also received two Rotary Foundation disaster response grants.
Second, we are working to coordinate humanitarian aid. Rotary clubs and districts are sending aid via trucks, ships, and air carriers. We are rebuilding Rotary's humanitarian hubs along Ukraine's borders with Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, and Romania. They have received all the supply items and sent them across the border to our cities. Then, we have different hubs inside Ukraine near the border regions, where Rotarians distribute this humanitarian help to the cities that are in dire need of it. Most of the items are clothes, food, and medicine.
Third, we are trying to help Rotarians' family members who want to leave the country. We have received many requests from Rotarians in Europe and America who would like to host our family members and relatives.
Why don't you leave Ukraine?
I'm already a refugee. I lived in Simferopol, the capital of Crimea, for 40 years. But in 2015, I had to leave my native city because of the Russian annexation of Crimea. So, my wife, Olga, and I moved to Odesa. We felt our move to Ukraine would keep us safe. When people asked us why we do not want to leave Odesa and go outside Ukraine, I always answer: We were forced to leave our motherland once in 2015. We don't want to leave our country again. We are Ukrainians and we would like to stay in Ukraine.
What's your message to the Rotary clubs around the world?
On behalf of Rotarians in Ukraine, I would like to say a big thank you to all our Rotary members who have helped us in Ukraine. It means a lot to us during this difficult time in our country's history. At the same time, I would like to appeal to Rotary people to lobby their governments and push for peace. We are grateful to our friends around the world who are helping us.
In early March, missiles hit a residential district in the city of Zhytomyr, killing three people.
Mykola Stebljanko in the pre-war years.
Tatyana, 22, says goodbye to her boyfriend Oleksander, 23, at a barracks in Lviv. Oleksander has received his conscription notice.
• This story originally appeared in the May 2022 issue of Rotary magazine.
Rotary Ukraine: "A Big Thank You to All Our Rotary Members Who Have Helped Us In Ukraine"
A surgeon in Spain finds a way to treat patients in Nigeria
by Steve Almond
Even as a child growing up in Owerri, Nigeria, Dr. Nnamdi Elenwoke had a penchant for surgery. “I remember my mom would buy a chicken for us to eat, and she would ask me to prepare it for cooking,” he says. “I would cut into the bird very carefully, trying to understand its insides. My mom got mad at me for wasting time, but gradually she realized that I was doing this for a reason.” As a teenager, Elenwoke was taken to a nearby hospital to visit a family friend. He promptly wandered away from his mother to see patients on a nearby ward, feeling an instinctual desire to heal them.
With his family’s support, Elenwoke, 39, attended medical school and now works as a neurosurgeon in Barcelona, Spain. He still goes back to Nigeria to perform surgeries when he can, but his desire to help patients and doctors in his homeland prompted Elenwoke in 2016 to help launch Docotal Health, which uses an international community of doctors to remotely help patients in underserved parts of the world.
Sometimes, this consists of Elenwoke dispensing medical advice directly to a patient via email or video chats. Just as often, Docotal offers support to health professionals on the ground. “Our community of doctors has different specialties,” he explains. “We have a cardiologist who can help if there is heart pain, a radiologist who can read X-rays and scans. Our core group consists of 11 doctors, but each of us has our own network we can reach out to.”
Elenwoke’s devotion to service dates back to his teenage years in Nigeria, where he joined Interact, following in the footsteps of his brother-in-law, a longtime Rotarian. Rotary and Docotal recently collaborated on a campaign to provide personal protective equipment for health workers in Nigeria, and future projects are in the works.
“To be successful,” Elenwoke says, “you have to surround yourself with a team that helps you succeed. You also need ‘a little bit of salt,’ which means a little bit of luck. For me, finding Rotary, having them as part of my team, has been that little bit of salt.”
"Everyone is on board with the idea that people are biased. But it’s always the other group!"
Cory Clark Executive Director of the Adversarial Collaboration Project at the University of Pennsylvania
Most of us associate the word "bias" with bad things like racism, sexism, and homophobia.
To social scientists, however, those things go beyond bias; they're bigotry. Social scientists define bias as a preference, and without it, well, imagine how long it'd take you to place an order in a restaurant.
Psychologist Matt Grawitch, director of strategic research at Saint Louis University's School for Professional Studies, says our brains evolved to make decisions quickly, based on small amounts of information. And in prehistoric times, experts believe that the more someone seemed like us, the less dangerous we assumed them to be, whether or not this was true.
But many of our prehistoric tendencies aren't necessarily good for us today. Studies have shown that the most diverse companies are more likely to outperform their competitors. And you may have a bias toward burgers and against vegetables, but that doesn't mean you should only eat burgers or hate vegetables.
Part of being a modern, evolved human or organization might mean avoiding some of the things we're biased toward and seeking out alternatives.
While we are often bad at spotting our own biases, we can learn to distinguish bias from bigotry and keep it from negatively affecting our decisions.
Here are some tips for keeping bias from becoming a detriment.
The cost of bias
Employer bias drives employee disengagement, which costs U.S. companies an estimated $550 billion per year.
20 percent vs. 7 percent. Employees at large companies who perceive that their companies are unfairly biased are nearly three times as likely to be disengaged at work.
31 percent vs. 10 percent. People who perceive unfair employer bias are more than three times as likely to say that they’re planning to leave their current jobs within the year.
34 percent vs. 13 percent. Those who perceive unfair bias are 2.6 times more likely to say that they’ve withheld ideas and solutions over the previous six months.
Sources: Gallup, Coqual
Recognize that it’s hard. We are largely unaware of our own biases, even when they are brought to our attention, says Cory Clark, a psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania. Clark often asks a classroom of students to rate themselves relative to the others in the room on friendliness, attractiveness, sense of humor, and other factors, and it invariably turns out that they all consider themselves above average. "Almost everyone is a six or above," Clark says. Then she shows them the results and points out that it’s impossible for 100 percent to be in the top half on each trait. Having revealed their bias, she asks them to rate themselves again. The vast majority still rate themselves as better than average. "Everyone is on board with the idea that people are biased," says Clark. "But it’s always the other group!"
Beware of group-think. Psychologist Matt Grawitch says the risk of bigotry grows when our circle is made up of people who look, think, and sound too much alike. "When everyone has the same bias," he says, "you’ve created an echo chamber."
Ask yourself: Is it true — or safe? Clark says that earlier in our history, our biases tied us to our clan, our tribe, or what psychologists call our "ingroup." And disagreeing with your ingroup could get you cast out — or worse. Today, that bias toward our ingroup creates the potential for us to distort the information we process and to feel frustrated when others don’t see things as we do.
Consider whether the bias is good for you, or for the group. Bias may have favored evolution, but not necessarily the individual. Squirrels are biased, says Clark, "to think everything is a predator." So while fear of predators may promote the survival of the species, it might make an individual squirrel disadvantage itself by staying away from a human who's trying to help it.
Set policies. "We can't rely on our self-awareness," says Gail Tolstoi-Miller, founder of a staffing-strategy firm. One way to combat unconscious bias is to follow processes developed by a diverse group. "Diversity isn’t just identity," she says. "Decision-makers must have diverse thinking." This is especially true for hiring decisions. A diverse group of interviewers can help put unconscious bias to the side.
Encourage robust discussion. "Organizations need to cultivate a culture that encourages and even celebrates constructive debate," says Michael Diaz, founder of Delco Business Solutions, in Folsom, Pennsylvania. "If an organization’s culture empowers team members to question each other's assumptions, regardless of where they fall on the organization chart, the negative impact of bias will be minimized."
Learn more about uncovering unconscious bias in the diversity, equity, and inclusion courses in the Rotary Learning Center. Find them at my.rotary.org/learning-reference.
This story originally appeared in the May 2022 issue of Rotary magazine.
Can an all-female anti-poaching unit stop wildlife crime in an African game preserve — without guns?
by Nick Dall Photography by Bobby Neptune
Judy Malatjie, Naledi Malungane, and Tsakane Nxumalo on patrol.
Dressed in a baggy green camouflage uniform and black work boots, long ponytail swinging against her back, Tsakane Nxumalo, 26, and her partner Naledi Malungane, 21, stride alongside an elephant-proof electric fence that is 7 feet high and nearly 100 miles long. The potent, honey-like odor of purple-pod cluster-leaf trees hangs heavy in the humid summer air, while overhead a yellow-billed hornbill swoops to perch on the skeleton of a dead leadwood tree. Nxumalo and Malungane are members of the Black Mambas Anti-Poaching Unit. Named after a snake that is native to the region and long, fast, and highly venomous, the Mambas strive to protect the animals of the Balule Nature Reserve within Greater Kruger National Park, a South African wilderness that is about the size of Israel.
Nxumalo and Malungane, who both grew up near the unit's headquarters but only got to know each other since they became Mambas, are checking, as they do every day of their 21-day shift, for breaches in the fence. Mostly this entails collecting rocks to shore up the places where animals such as warthogs and leopards have tried to burrow their way under, but periodically they come across a spot where humans have cut the fence to hunt animals for bushmeat or, worse, poach rhinos for their horns.
In 2013, when the first Mambas began patrolling the reserve, they quickly discovered that rhino poaching was only part of the problem. The park was also losing hundreds of animals of all species to snares every year. "It was embarrassing," recalls Craig Spencer, 48, as he sits by a bushveld braai (barbecue) and talks over the calls of a nearby hyena. A maverick South African conservationist, he was head warden of Balule, a private animal preserve. "I should have known what was happening under my nose. It took the Mambas to show me what was going on."
White rhinos have been hunted almost to extinction in Africa. Of the continent's 18,000 remaining white rhinos, nearly 90 percent are in South Africa, the species' last best hope. Kruger is home to by far the biggest white rhino population, as well as about 300 of the world's 5,600 remaining black rhinos.
The rhinoceros horn is prized in some countries, used as a traditional medicine and a status symbol. According to the Wildlife Justice Commission, a horn fetches an average of $4,000 per pound in Africa, and as much as $8,000 per pound in Asia; given that a set of white rhino horns typically weighs 11 pounds, it's worth between $44,000 and $88,000. South Africa's per capita income is about $5,000 per year and its pre-COVID-19 unemployment rate was about 29 percent. Therefore, a rhino, sadly, is a tempting target. In 2017, poachers killed more than 500 rhinos in Greater Kruger National Park, including 17 in Balule.
"Poachers make me angry," Nxumalo says, because they are killing the animals that all South Africans should be preserving for future generations. While Nxumalo is fully aware that some people poach only out of a desperation to feed their families, her commitment to the cause is unwavering. She points out that it would be devastating for both tourism and conservation to lose a member of what's called the "Big Five," an old hunting term that refers to the five most sought-after animals in Africa: lions, leopards, elephants, buffalo, and rhinos. Rhinos, along with elephants, are keystone megaherbivores that shape the landscape in ways that benefit other species. And the big animals in any ecosystem are usually the canaries in the coal mine, to abuse the phrase. "If we can't prevent keystone species from going extinct," says Tom Tochterman, "other species are also doomed."
Since 2009, when he had an "aha!" moment during his first photo safari in South Africa, Tochterman, 60, has been a passionate supporter of this nature reserve. A retired real estate developer and a member of the Rotary Club of Chelan, Washington, he has since founded a nonprofit called Rhino Mercy, which strives to fight rhino poaching, and developed a luxury photo-safari program that helps to fund conservation work. He also earned a PhD by researching the influence of cognitive dissonance on the consumption of natural resources and ecosystem degradation.
In addition, Tochterman was a founding member of the Rotary Action Group for Endangered Species (RAGES), which has the goal of improving the lives of people by improving the habitats and lives of endangered animals of all types. He welcomes the recent addition of protecting the environment to Rotary International's areas of focus. "We firmly believe that healthy landscapes contribute to healthy communities," he says, adding that "the Mambas have shown that the reverse is also true."
In 2010, Tochterman was at a bush camp, sitting around a campfire with Spencer, the former game warden who is now his close friend and partner, drinking rum-and-cokes and talking long into the night, when they lit a spark that would grow to become the Mambas. "Across Africa, the default response to poaching has been to bring in more men with more guns," Tochterman says. "And it hasn't worked anywhere." It dawned on them that the only way to change the narrative was to shape the minds of the next generation, and that the best way to reach the children was through their mothers.
Tochterman and Spencer eventually learned about a government program to employ women as environmental monitors in conventional agriculture; they thought they could maybe stretch the job description to include "game ranger," but senior management at South African National Parks questioned the concept of unarmed women operating in areas where lions, leopards, rhinos, elephants, and buffalo roam free. Tochterman was told on more than one occasion that this was a "stupid, dumb idea" that "could only have come from America."
When the two men were finally given a chance to put their theory into action, the candidates shortlisted by bureaucrats in the government program were told what the job would entail — and they all quit. So Spencer and Tochterman got permission from the local chiefs to go into communities near the park and look for the right kind of people. The Black Mambas name was chosen by the first group, says Tochterman, symbolizing "how seriously they took their opportunity to enter an industry that had previously been off-limits to women. They wanted to make a statement that they were not window dressing."
Word quickly spread, and within months the Mambas were receiving unsolicited applications from local women almost every day. Since the beginning, the day-to-day operations of the Mambas have been managed by Spencer's nonprofit, Transfrontier Africa. Tochterman was key in building and financing the Mambas' operations hub as well as the separate compound where the women stay during their shifts. He had also spent six years in the military police, so he was able to provide training in skills such as handcuffing a person. Tochterman's Rhino Mercy nonprofit acts as the Mambas' international fundraising arm, and it has brought them financial security. The government recently stopped funding the women's basic salaries (around $450 per month), which was a small fraction of the total cost of the program. Tochterman says that all told, employing one Mamba costs upwards of $50,000 per year.
Naledi Malungane trains on an obstacle course.
Nkateko Mzimba, who was part of the Mambas' second cohort in 2014, remembers many men in her hometown teasing her about the job and belittling her chances of survival in what they deemed to be a man's world. Their predictions very nearly came true when, during her first few months with the Mambas, she and two colleagues were repeatedly charged by a pride of lions and had to be rescued from a tree by a passing vehicle. "I tried to quit," she remembers. "But after counseling I decided to stay and prove the doubters wrong." Looking back, Mzimba, now a sergeant who will soon qualify as a professional field guide, realizes that the whole situation could have been avoided if she had better read the lions' behavior.
Mzimba now ensures that every patrol includes a veteran Mamba and that armed response is always on standby. (The Mambas' every move is tracked from a central operations room.) In their first year, it was not uncommon for the Mambas to find 70 snares in a day. They also came across several "bushmeat kitchens," large operations for butchering and drying meat, within the reserve itself.
One full-moon night in 2015, a patrol of Mambas responded to the sound of gunfire and startled a group of poachers who had just killed a rhino. After briefly giving chase in their vehicle, the Mambas returned to the scene to find two rhinos dead and a third one wounded. Despite the best efforts of emergency veterinarians, the third, too, succumbed. The only small mercy of this grisly episode was that the poachers didn't get their prize.
Knowing that the Mambas have played a part in reducing poaching feels "really amazing," says Nxumalo, more so because it's a job that she says she grew up thinking was "supposed to be done by men." To this day, many in the conservation industry in South Africa still feel that women have no place in the anti-poaching arena and that conducting unarmed patrols in Big Five areas is foolhardy. "I don't think men would want to work unarmed in a Big Five area," says Nxumalo with a laugh. "A man would come up with so many reasons why he needs a gun. But for us it's more about reading the animals' behavior. We understand that it's not really about guns."
A section of the Oliphants River in the Black Mambas’ patrol area.
Through their community connections, the Mambas are also helping to change the cops-and-robbers narrative that has plagued the conservation movement in South Africa since its inception. While nature conservation is often depicted as noble protectors of the environment doing battle with evil poachers and exploiters, this ignores more complex social, political, and economic realities. Shortly after the land that would become the Kruger National Park was set aside and protected in 1898, some 3,000 people belonging to the Tsonga ethnic group were forcibly removed from the land. Fences were erected, national borders that had previously been recognized only on maps were enforced, and people were fined or imprisoned for "trespassing" on the land they had always lived on and hunting the animals they had always eaten. During apartheid, the fences became more impenetrable and the sentences harsher.
This history is vital to understanding how rangers and poachers can come from the same communities — or families. And it's why many of the people who have lived their entire lives on the fringes of one of the world's most iconic national parks know almost nothing about it.
Nxumalo had been to Kruger a few times, but had no real affinity with the bush. After passing a panel interview and a fitness test with flying colors, she and eight other recruits, including Malungane, began their basic training. Training was hard, she says, involving exercises such as "running the whole day in the sun with only a small bottle of water." Now she looks back on that time with appreciation: "Training gave me that go-ahead, that I can be more and do more."
After racking up thousands of kilometers of foot patrols in Big Five areas, Nxumalo loves the bush and remains devoted to the cause. She's not alone — all of the women from her cohort are still Mambas. And they're proud to pass on what they've learned. "We won't only teach our own kids; we will tell other girls that they can do anything," Nxumalo says. "We are telling every lady out there that you can do more, you can be more." While they never go home in their uniforms (a poacher could steal one from a clothesline and use it to infiltrate the park), Nxumalo makes no attempt to hide what she does. "You have to be proud of what you do," she explains. "This inspires others to walk tall. I've always known I could do a lot. But the Mambas really brought it out of me."
Tsakane Nxumalo scans the horizon at sunset.
The Mambas' salary is considered quite good for the area, so in addition to using her income to support her mother and her sister, Nxumalo has been paying her own university fees. She recently completed the first year of a teaching degree online. Mzimba uses her income to fund and run a food pantry for hungry neighbors — which further aids in reducing poaching.
A typical day for the Mambas involves rising at dawn for a fence patrol or snare sweep (both on foot) and conducting nightly observations from a blind or vehicle. Gunshots, torchlight, and the smell of tobacco smoke are all telltale signs of poacher activity, but these days Nxumalo says the Mambas are more likely to be interrupted by a leopard or a herd of elephants. "They are so peaceful at night," she says. "Sometimes they block the way, but we never rush them."
Weekly tasks for the Mambas include searching the compounds where reserve staff and contractors live, conducting roadblocks, and speaking to tourists and local communities about the importance of wildlife conservation. "If nothing happens on a patrol, that is a big success," Nxumalo says. "If I don't find any snares, that is a bonus because it means that no one has come in to plant a new snare and no one has cut the fence since I last checked it. It's a huge relief."
Our progress in the fight against polio shows why vaccination is important
Increasing awareness about the power of vaccines and closing immunization gaps could protect millions of people worldwide from vaccine-preventable diseases, including polio, according to the World Health Organization. World Immunization Week, 24-30 April, is an opportunity to focus on that work, and the robust polio eradication infrastructure built by Rotary and our partners in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) provides a model for it.
The GPEI estimates that polio vaccines have saved an estimated 20 million children around the world from paralysis. When Rotary helped launch the GPEI in 1988, the disease paralyzed more than 1,000 people worldwide every day, most of them young children. Since then, Rotary and its partners have reduced the number of polio cases by 99%, and in 2021 there were just six cases of polio caused by the wild poliovirus. Afghanistan and Pakistan are the only two countries where the wild poliovirus remains endemic.
The progress against polio is the result of the efforts of countless volunteers and health workers who immunize children in hard-to-reach communities and establish real-time global surveillance and outbreak response mechanisms. The polio eradication infrastructure has been used to fight other infectious diseases and undertake crucial health interventions, including supporting COVID-19 prevention and vaccination efforts.
With our decades of experience in bringing polio to the brink of eradication, Rotary has been able to highlight the power and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines. Since the pandemic began in 2020, Rotary members have helped health authorities communicate lifesaving information about COVID-19, dispel misinformation, and support fair and equal access to vaccines.
Students at Voznesenka School show the books they received from the Rotary Club of Homer-Kachemak Bay as part of the Rotary Rural Alaska reading Program. The books were delivered on March 28 to 122 students in grades K-12 by Rotary Club members Bernie Griffard and Milli Martin.
Rotary Rural Alaska Reading Program Books Delivered to Voznesenka School
The crisis in Ukraine is having devastating consequences on civilians as families flee their homes. According to the United Nations, more than 3 million people, most of them women and children, have sought refuge in neighboring countries and across Europe, while about 1 million more people have been displaced within Ukraine.
Rotary and Rotaract clubs in Europe and around the world have taken swift action and are working with members nearby to provide food, water, medical equipment, and shelter for refugees.
The Rotary Foundation created a funding channel for relief efforts in Ukraine.
The European Rotaract Information Centre, a multidistrict information organization that serves Rotaractors all over Europe, created a United for Peace site that compiles information for refugees and volunteers.
The site offers information about free rail, bus, and air transportation available to refugees and lists details about what’s needed and how to help at specific national borders.
It also has fundraising details for hospitals in the western Ukraine city of Lviv, as well as for clubs that are helping in various places and for other organizations in the region.
The site lets Rotaractors coordinate shelter for refugees stranded at the border. Volunteer hosts can sign up through an online form and specify how many people they can house and for how long. Begun as an initiative to help fellow Rotary members leaving Ukraine, it’s now being used by Rotaract and Rotary members all over Europe to offer help.
A tool on the site links a demand for goods with available supplies. It was created within 48 hours after a team of 60 members from 10 countries met by videoconference about how to meet the most urgent needs.
Ukraine
Ukraine has 62 Rotary clubs and six satellite clubs with about 1,100 members, and 24 Rotaract clubs with more than 300 members.
District 2232 (Ukraine and Belarus) formed a committee to help people affected by the crisis. It has launched an appeal to Rotary members worldwide for funds to provide basic necessities.
The city of Lviv has had an influx of people displaced from other cities around Ukraine. The Rotary Club of Lviv International, working with local authorities and major hospitals, created an online spreadsheet of relief items that can be accessed by people who want to help. Members arrange for the donated items to be delivered to hospitals and coordinate storage with local warehouses.
Poland
Poland has taken in more than a million refugees, and Rotary clubs all over the country created a central account for contributions.
The Rotary Club of Olsztyn is collecting and managing donations for more than 150 Ukrainians who are staying at Ostróda Camp, a conference and recreation center. Most of the occupants are unaccompanied children whose parents stayed in Ukraine. Four cars full of supplies including food, clothes, toiletries, and toys were donated hours after the center began accepting refugees.
Members of the Rotary Club of Zamosc worked with a member of the Rotary Club of Wolsztyn, who owns a medical supply distribution company, to coordinate a partnership with other organizations to collect supplies and equipment.
The Rotary Club of Gdansk Centrum is providing accommodations for four refugee families, and members who own businesses are offering them work.
Other countries that border Ukraine
The Rotary Club of Kisvárda, Hungary, is coordinating contributions and mobilizing members to donate necessities and deliver the items to where they’re needed.
Rotary members in Romania and Moldova have created a central fund for contributions and set up WhatsApp groups that organize food donations and coordinate shelter for refugees.
In Slovakia and the Czech Republic, clubs have partnered with a railway and cargo company to offer transportation to nearly 2,300 refugees.
Kim Widlicki and Claudia Brunner contributed to this article.
Would you like more information about your child’s development? CHILD FIND Can Help!
The Kenai Peninsula Borough School District (KPBSD) provides free screening for children 3 through 5 years old (not yet in kindergarten)
Areas screened include: speech and language, learning and understanding, coordination and movement, social-emotional skills, self-helping skills (feeding, dressing, and toileting), vision or hearing.
Children already identified with disabilities should also be screened if not receiving special education services through the district.
Screenings in your area
Central Kenai Peninsula Kenai and Soldotna Area
Friday, February 25, 2022: 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. by appointment only. Frontier Community Services Infant Learning Program and KPBSD Child Find, 43335 K-Beach Rd. Suite 36, Soldotna. Call 907.714.6660 to schedule an appointment or learn more.
Eastern Kenai Peninsula Seward Area
Call Casie Warner at 907.491.0544 to schedule an appointment
Southern Kenai Peninsula Homer Area
Call Kelli at 907.260.5148 to schedule an appointment
To make an appointment or for more information call the KPBSD Child Find office at 907.260.5148 or email ChildFind@kpbsd.k12.ak.us
Additional locations on the Kenai Peninsula will be added throughout the year
Developmental Checks
By Age 3
Count to 3
Speak to most adults and be understood
Build a tower of at least 8 blocks
Walk up and down stairs
Run without falling very often
Follow simple directions
Repeat simple sounds or rhymes
Match colors and shapes
Put on some clothes without help
Point to 6 parts of the body (hair, nose, eyes, feet, hands, mouth)
Name several objects (chair, box, ball, etc…)
Imitate drawing a circle (even if it is not quite round)
By Age 4
Count to 5
Speaks in sentences of about 5 words
Asks “how” and “why” questions
Cuts with scissors
Stands on one foot without falling
Catch and throw a ball
Holds crayons with fingers, not fist
Answers simple question like: “What do you do when you are hungry?”
Recognize and name 3-4 colors
Enjoys playing with other children
Dresses self completely (with help on pullover shirts and sweaters)
By Age 5
Count 5 objects
Explain what objects are used for
Understand the concept of “yesterday”, “today”, and “tomorrow”
Climb a ladder to a slide
Cuts with scissors on a straight line
Copy a picture of a circle and a square
Understand words like “on”, “under”, and “behind”
Match colors and shapes
Go to the bathroom without help
Free Developmental, Vision & Hearing Screenings for Preschoolers
A new report from the Institute for Economics and Peace highlights grave ecological threats around the world — and suggests ways advocates can nurture a more benign environmental future.
by Miles Howard
At first glance, the Jaguar cacao fruit resembles a glowing green orb wrapped in earthen brown roots. But the fruit’s value lies within: a multitude of edible seeds that, when roasted and ground into powder, give chocolate a nuttier flavor profile.
The fruit grows in a few ecosystems in Central and South America, such as the foothills of southeastern Colombia. There, in the Amazon River basin, Rotary Peace Fellow Lorena Rodriguez has played a pivotal role in seeding this rare crop and quite a few others. During her fellowship, Rodriguez spent time in rural Colombia conducting field research on food sovereignty, which prioritizes the needs of the people who grow and otherwise produce food over the demands of the markets and corporations that distribute it. In 2019, she joined forces with friends and launched La Realidad, an NGO that helps communities in the Putumayo region of Colombia grow their own fruit and vegetable crops using regenerative agriculture practices — such as crop rotation, composting, and cover cropping — that help create a more nutrient-rich soil and reduce excess carbon in the atmosphere.
“Putumayo has been highly affected by the armed conflict in Colombia, by narco traffic, and by the structural violence that arises from the gap between urban and rural societies,” Rodriguez says. “A lot of the elders there were leaving, and their kids cannot sustain their lives doing agriculture the way their parents did, using pesticides and heavy chemicals to produce bigger yields of corn or sugarcane for the global market. It’s not sustainable economically or environmentally.”
In recent years, Putumayo has also felt the scourge of deforestation inflicted by loggers and cattle ranchers. That’s the fractious backdrop against which La Realidad partners with Putumayo residents to grow sustaining crops that are endemic to the Amazon belt — cultivating a food source that can ultimately bolster the security of rural communities. Ecological degradation, including the burning or uprooting of forests, can undermine a community’s resiliency, especially when it comes to food security. In the worst cases, it can sow the seeds of conflict and fuel a relentless cycle of collapse and violence.
The relationship between ecological shocks and conflict isn’t speculation. It’s the latest finding from the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), a partner of Rotary International. Founded in 2007 by Australian software entrepreneur and philanthropist Steve Killelea, the IEP uses data from global and national indices to explain why some regions of the world are enjoying peace and prosperity while others are mired in or on the brink of conflict. This data often pertains to issues such as resource availability and economic power. But the IEP’s second Ecological Threat Report, released in October, zooms in on the symbiotic relationship between conflicts and ecological calamities such as droughts, record-breaking storms, and temperature changes.
According to Michael Collins, the IEP’s executive director in the Americas, the Ecological Threat Report can function as something of a blueprint not only for recognizing ecological vulnerability at both local and regional levels but also for improving societal resilience in vulnerable countries and, hopefully, averting conflict. “Climate change can certainly act as an aggravator of issues such as food insecurity and water stress,” says Collins. “But some ecological threats are going to happen independently. They’re the next step of what any country could be ‘attacked’ with.”
So how does the report score the severity of the ecological threat facing 178 independent countries and territories? It focuses on five things that can endanger the ecological stability of a society: food risk, water risk, rapid population growth, temperature anomalies, and natural disasters. The report also uses the IEP’s Positive Peace Index, which identifies the attitudes, institutions, and structures that ultimately create peaceful societies. Conversely, the absence of societal bedrock — such as an equitable distribution of goods, a well-functioning government, or a healthy business sector — can leave nations primed for conflict, to the point where all it takes is one final shock to ignite relentless violence. The report shows that ecological shocks can be that incendiary spark.
“Indicated throughout this report is the deep, deep cyclical relationship that exists between ecological degradation and levels of conflict around the world,” says Collins. He also notes that once violence has begun, it can actually worsen the ecological problems, like food or water shortages, that predated the conflict. “Eleven of the countries with the report’s worst scores are now in conflict,” says Collins. Most of these countries are located in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, and the report highlights one particularly profound driver of their conflicts — food insecurity.
Since 2014, global food insecurity, which had been lessening for decades, has risen an alarming 44 percent, a situation further aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Its steady resurgence didn’t occur in isolation; it was sometimes fueled by natural events, such as insufficient rainfall, or in many cases by sectarian conflicts. In South Sudan, these forces merged and have exacted a terrible toll. By 2018 — half a decade after civil war erupted between the South Sudanese government and insurgents — an estimated 190,000 people had been killed through direct warfare, and an additional 193,000 are believed to have died as a result of disruptions to the country’s fragile food production and health systems. Their food systems were already vulnerable to droughts and flooding, and they still haven’t recovered. As recently as 2020, about 85 percent of South Sudan’s population was struggling to find sufficient food on a daily basis.
Without intervention, global food insecurity is expected to get much worse over the next three decades. The Ecological Threat Report projects that by 2050, the number of people who are experiencing undernourishment — not getting enough food to sustain day-to-day physiological health — could rise by a staggering 45 percent. The broad global demand for food could also grow by more than 50 percent within this time frame. As ecological events like rising temperatures, earthquakes, or hurricanes exacerbate resource scarcity in vulnerable countries, the risk of conflict and societal collapse becomes more severe, and more liable to spill beyond borders.
This can already be seen today in the rate of forced displacements and migration occurring around the world. The report’s researchers found that in 2020, 82.4 million people were displaced — the highest number of global displacements on record, 1 in 94 people. It’s a tremendous shift from 2000, when 1 in 161 people worldwide had been displaced. But like the recent rebound of food insecurity, this surge also didn’t happen overnight. Forced displacements have been rising over the past nine years, as hot spot regions, identified by the report, reckon with worsening ecological deterioration, resource deficits, warfare, and, in several cases, significant population growth.
In the face of such massively worrying trends, how can one begin to promote peace and sustainability at a local level, let alone a regional one? Collins is quick to spotlight two of the Ecological Threat Report’s most salient policy recommendations for humanitarian agencies and organizations: thinking about ecological risk as a systemic problem, and empowering communities in ecologically vulnerable nations to become more resilient. This can be done through collaborative grassroots projects that focus on intersectional issues such as agriculture, economic prosperity, and human security.
Collins comes from a family of construction professionals, and before joining the IEP, he applied his family trade to humanitarian projects in developing nations, including Indonesia and Haiti, often in the wake of natural disasters. “Initially, a lot of this revolved around training programs for people who are seeking to enter or already in the construction sector,” he says. “Due to a number of social and institutional issues, construction quality is extremely low in a number of developing countries.” In Padang Alai, a town on the outskirts of West Sumatra’s capital city of Padang, Collins addressed this problem by working with community members to create a brickmaking cooperative, owned and managed by its members.
Rodriguez would adopt a similar approach in 2020 when building La Realidad. As she and her friends converted the setup of their Putumayo cacao orchard into an organic production, neighbors would drop by and ask why the group was doing all the “hard work” of regenerative growing techniques. Why not just spray the cacao trees with pesticides that would work faster than organic alternatives? “These questions created a conversation about why it was important for Putumayo residents to prioritize their homeland and not the global market,” Rodriguez recalls.
Global undernourishment, 2005-20Source: IEP’s Ecological Threat Report 2021
The farmland on which La Realidad hosts several regenerative agriculture projects — including a food forest (a diverse, multi-layered blend of edible plants and trees) — was acquired through this community outreach. “The owner was selling her land,” Rodriguez recalls. “She met us and said, ‘I really want to leave the land to someone who appreciates this ecosystem. I don’t want to just give it to another person who will put cows here.’”
Whether the product at the heart of a community resiliency project is organic fruits and vegetables or stronger building materials, the best results come when the project is conceived and launched in close partnership with residents who will manage the work long term. The way Collins sees it, members of Rotary are uniquely well-positioned to step up and invest their knowledge and labor into these collaborations. “One of the amazing things about Rotary is the ability of every club and every district to contribute,” he says. “Because Rotary is made up of community members, you have this grassroots network of individuals throughout the world who can develop a variety of different projects that are very well-tailored to the community in question — because a lot of Rotarians are actually from those communities.”
Recently, Rotary has taken two big steps to catalyze more projects that address the intersection of ecological degradation and conflict. In 2020, it added a new area of focus — protecting the environment. (More than $18 million in global grant funding from The Rotary Foundation had already been allocated to ecological projects in the five preceding years.) Also in 2020, working with the IEP, Rotary launched the Positive Peace Activator Program. The program already has trained 90 peace activators, who are also Rotary Peace Fellows (such as Rodriguez) or members of Rotary, and those activators have since taught more than 50,000 people in North America, South America, and Europe about the tenets of the Positive Peace Index — the same framework that underlies the Ecological ThreatReport. “Rotary’s key strengths lie in our ability to convene and mobilize communities both locally and globally,” says Rebecca Crall, Rotary’s area of focus manager for peacebuilding and conflict prevention. “Merging with the empirical research and analysis of the IEP is a potent force for creating good in the world.”
For a literal taste of that good in the United States, look to the vacant lots of Atlanta, where urban farmers are growing fruits and vegetables that find their way into refrigerators and pantries across the city. Atlanta’s recent urban farming boom is partially the result of the city’s AgLanta initiative. Its goal is to put fresh produce within half a mile of 85 percent of Atlanta’s population by the end of this year by offering residents the education and resources they need to get involved with urban farming.
Resettlement and naturalization of refugees, 2000-20 Source: IEP’s Ecological Threat Report 2021
As the number of urban farmers swelled, it became clear that AgLanta needed a framework for settling disputes between growers. The city turned to Kate Keator, a Rotary Positive Peace Activator specializing in conflict resolution. Through her conversations with urban farmers and AgLanta leaders, Keator identified two things that could help keep the peace: virtual gatherings in which growers could connect and foster a foundational culture of dispute resolution, and access to an informal mediator when necessary.
Atlanta might seem a world apart from the regions spotlighted in the Ecological Threat Report, where ecological degradation and conflict are more severe. But peacemaking and community empowerment can be applied, at scale, anywhere that conflict arises.
In an era of climatological changes that will reshape the way billions live, there can be an enduring glint of hope in this potential for collaboration. “One of the things that I learned through community development is that people are people,” Collins says. “The same solutions don’t work for everybody, but there are synergies. There are many, many ways.”
• This story originally appeared in the February 2022 issue of Rotary magazine.
Rotary International partners with the Institute for Economics and Peace and other organizations.
These precautions are to help safeguard the health of our staff, patients and visitors during this time, and will change based on the level of community spread of COVID-19.
South Peninsula Hospital Covid-19 Information 1/26/2022
RI President-Elect Announces 2022-23 Presidential Theme
by Ryan Hyland
Rotary International President-elect Jennifer Jones wants members to imagine the possibilities in the change they can make to transform the world.
Jones, a member of the Rotary Club of Windsor-Roseland, Ontario, Canada, revealed the 2022-23 presidential theme, Imagine Rotary, as she urged people to dream big and harness their connections and the power of Rotary to turn those dreams into reality.
“Imagine, a world that deserves our best,” Jones told incoming district governors on 20 January, “where we get up each day knowing that we can make a difference.”
Jones, who will make history on 1 July by becoming Rotary’s first female president, gave a live online address to precede Rotary’s annual training event for district governors from around the world, the International Assembly. The assembly was rescheduled because of the COVID-19 pandemic and will now be held virtually 7-14 February.
Jones told the incoming governors about a chance she took when a member asked for assistance in getting a young peace activist out of Afghanistan during the U.S. troop withdrawal last year. At first unsure how she could help, she relied on “that certain Rotary magic” and contacted a former Rotary Peace Fellow she had met a few years earlier. Less than 24 hours later, the activist was on an evacuation list, and soon she was on her way to Europe.
Engaging members through meaningful responsibility
To better engage members, Rotary needs to “adapt and retool,” Jones said, using her hometown as an example. Windsor was once the automotive hub of Canada. But after plant closings left thousands without work, the city needed to retool, in the same way an auto plant would, preparing for new parts or a new model. Now, Jones said, Windsor is a leader in agribusiness and medical and aerospace technology.
For Rotary, “finding the right ‘part’ to engage each member should be our core function,” Jones said. “It comes down to the comfort and care of our members.”
Engaging members is crucial to retaining members, she said, adding that we need to ask members what they want to get from Rotary and give them meaningful responsibilities.
“It is our offer of hands-on service, personal growth, leadership development, and lifelong friendships that creates purpose and passion,” Jones said.
Imagine, a world that deserves our best where we get up each day knowing that we can make a difference.
RI President-elect Jennifer Jones
Embracing change also means embracing new club models, Jones said, as she asked the incoming governors to form at least two new innovative or cause-based clubs during their term. “Let’s make sure we engage our members so they love their clubs and their Rotary experience,” she added.
Jones also announced the appointment of a Rotaract member as a Rotary public image coordinator and said that she has included Rotaractors on several committees and will assign some Rotaractors as president’s representatives.
“We have been entrusted with leadership in our great organization,” Jones said. “Now it is up to us to be brave and intentional in our actions, and let others help us lead.”
Jones noted that Rotary has little time left to achieve the RI Board of Directors’ goal of having women make up 30% of Rotary’s members by 2023. Rotary has achieved this in more than 110 countries, she said, but it has a long way to go. She pointed out that Rotaract has already achieved 50% female members.
To raise Rotary’s profile, Jones plans to hold a global impact tour that will include talking with leaders about working together to address the world’s most pressing challenges. “Rotary opens these doors and we need to harness our connections, to deepen these relationships and create new partnerships,” Jones said. “And the best part is, this can happen at every level of leadership.”
Jones closed her address by saying that although we all have dreams, acting on them is a choice we make. When an organization like Rotary dreams about big things like ending polio and creating peace, she said, it becomes our responsibility to make them happen. “You don’t imagine yesterday,” Jones said, “you imagine tomorrow.”
Jennifer Jones Imagines Rotary Fulfilling Big Dreams
COVID-19 Alaska Weekly Case Update: January 9 – January 15, 2022
Alaska DHSS sent this bulletin at 01/21/2022 11:32 AM AKST
Alaska Department of Health and Social Service Weekly COVID-19 and Influenza Update January 9 – January 15, 2022
Key Findings
COVID-19 cases are rising very rapidly across most of Alaska, the great majority of which are likely due to the Omicron variant.
Appreciable levels of influenza transmission began occurring in mid-December and have continued since then.
Other respiratory viruses are circulating in addition to SARS-CoV-2 and influenza virus.
COVID-19
COVID-19 Case Trends
High levels of COVID-19 transmission are occurring throughout much of Alaska and the pandemic is on a rapid upward trajectory in Alaska. Hospitalizations are increasing as well.
15,145 cases were reported in Alaskans the week of January 9–January 15. This is a 97.4% increase from the number of cases reported the week before. This increase in cases is the largest week-over-week increase recorded in Alaska in terms of the absolute number of cases and is also among the largest in terms of the proportional increase.
The number of reported COVID-19 cases last week was substantially higher in all 5 of the most populous boroughs compared to the previous week.
The intensity of COVID-19 transmission varies between communities outside the largest boroughs, but many boroughs and census areas have seen recent and large increases in COVID-19 cases, and some have reached levels of weekly case counts not previously seen in the pandemic.
Community transmission of the Omicron variant has been confirmed in multiple regions across Alaska. Laboratory evidence indicates that the Omicron variant has become the dominant SARS-CoV-2 variant in Alaska and is driving the sharp acceleration of the pandemic in Alaska. Visit Alaska’s SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Dashboard to learn more.
To learn more about COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths due to COVID-19 in Alaska, visit the Cases Dashboard or the monthly report. The cases dashboard includes demographic information on cases and the monthly report includes demographic information on hospitalizations and deaths.
Subject: Rotary International and The Rotary Foundation’s Position Statement on COVID-19 Vaccination
Date: December 16, 2021 at 04:31:35 AKST
Reply-To: "RI President Shekhar Mehta & TRF Chair John Germ" <RI.comms@rotary.org>
Dear District Governors and Club Presidents,
We see the decision to vaccinate as a civic and humanitarian imperative. Rotary is not a political or religious organization, it is a service organization and this is the lens through which we are advising you of our position.
Global vaccination is the path to ending the pandemic and the emergence of new variants. Rotary endorses and strongly encourages vaccination for all individuals including our members who are currently able to be vaccinated against COVID-19. In areas where COVID-19 is surging, communities are facing extreme challenges, health systems are overwhelmed, and contentious rhetoric is dividing us. It is critical that the virus be contained so that the world may begin to heal. To that end, the purpose of this statement is to reinforce Rotary’s position.
Misinformation has become an “infodemic” that hinders the fight against COVID-19. In line with our Four-Way Test, Rotary International and The Rotary Foundation are committed to providing our members with science-based information.
Rotary International staff at One Rotary Center were required to be vaccinated by 10 October 2021, as a criterion for employment after that date. RI’s employee vaccination rate stands at over 99 percent.
Globally, Rotary is actively engaged in assuring equity in vaccine access to all people. Our efforts have included advocacy with the G-20, and a proof-of-concept program with GAVI/COVAX to leverage our frontline experience with polio eradication to facilitate vaccine delivery in several low- and middle-income countries where Rotarians are active. While we know many clubs are already deeply involved in COVID-19 prevention, we are working on additional strategies to multiply our collective efforts. GAVI/COVAX is a partnership including WHO and UNICEF focused on global access and delivery of COVID-19 vaccines.
Those children for whom vaccines are not currently available are at significant risk. Until vaccines are available for all children, the vaccination of adults is the best way to protect children who cannot be vaccinated. Pediatric admissions for COVID-19 are rising precipitously in areas of low vaccination.
Rotary salutes health care workers everywhere as they continue to provide lifesaving services. Local recognition of these heroes by each of our clubs can help to encourage them to continue their important work. Rotary abhors any harassment and attacks on healthcare workers.
Rotary and Rotaract clubs are encouraged to
set good examples by being exemplary role models;
redouble their efforts to support COVID-19 treatment, prevention, and vaccination efforts.
Vaccines have proven to be one of the greatest advances of modern medicine. The World Health Organization estimates that vaccines save between 2 to 3 million children’s lives each year, and the Global Polio Eradication Initiative estimates the polio vaccine has saved more than 19 million children from paralysis. Vaccines are safe, effective and are responsible for eliminating or controlling many other vaccine-preventable diseases such as smallpox, measles, rubella, and Ebola. And now, there is the opportunity to end the COVID-19 pandemic through vaccines.
The eradication of polio remains a goal of the highest order for Rotary. We can apply the lessons we have learned in fighting polio to the efforts in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Regards,
Shekhar Mehta John Germ President, Rotary International Chair, The Rotary Foundation
CC: RI Board of Directors & Directors-elect, TRF Board of Trustees and incoming Trustees, District Governors-elect, Club Presidents-elect, Regional Leaders, COVID-19 Task Force, International PolioPlus Committee, Communications Committee
To help prevent the spread of Covid-19 to others, PLEASE wear cloth face coverings or procedure masks, get vaccinated if you can, stay away from others when sick, and get tested if you have been exposed or have symptoms.
Vaccines for Adolescents and Children 5-11 years old
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), with unanimous support from the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), recommends that children 5 to 11 years old be vaccinated against COVID-19 with the Pfizer-BioNTech pediatric vaccine, made available by FDA Emergency Use Authorization. (Read more about Emergency Use Authorizationshere.)
Appointments are available for children ages 5-11 years old on Wednesdays and Saturdays at the Vaccine and Test Clinic at 4201 Bartlett Street. These appointments are for the first of a pediatric two dose series of Pfizer-BioNtech. A parent or guardian must be present at the appointment and sign the consent forms. The child should not come if they are experiencing any sudden or unexplained COVID-like symptoms, or if they have recently been exposed to someone with COVID-19. An appointment for the second dose of this two dose series will be made during the time of the first visit. Scroll down to make an appointment
Anyone who is six months or more after their initial series of the Pfizer or Moderna series
Anyone who is at least two months after their Janssen vaccine
Eligible individuals may choose which vaccine they receive as a booster dose. Some may have a preference for the vaccine type they originally received, while others may prefer to get a different booster.
Where can I get my vaccine booster?
Set an appointment with your primary care provider
Set an appointment at the SPH Test and Vaccine Site (see below)
COVID Clinic at 4201 Bartlett Street
Pfizer and Moderna vaccines – available 7 days a week
Janssen vaccines – available Sundays and Tuesdays
Pediatric/adolescent Pfizer vaccine – available Wednesdays and Saturdays
Walk-ins welcome from 9am-5pm daily, or click below to make an appointment
Third dose for immunocompromised individuals can be done by provider referral (sent a day in advance of your vaccine visit) or by completing the attestation of conditions.
Why it’s important to consider gender at all levels of eradication work
by Heather Monnet, External Relations Officer and Gender Focal Point for Polio Eradication, World Health Organization
How do issues surrounding gender create barriers to polio eradication?
Our ultimate objective is to reach every last child with a polio vaccine. The role of the mother and father in reaching those children is very important, and we must understand the dynamics between them in order to achieve our goal. For example, a mother may want to have her child vaccinated, but that would require her to spend a day walking to a health center or market — and she might not be able to do that unless she gets permission from her husband. Or if her child falls ill and experiences paralysis in the arm or leg, the mother might have to seek permission from her husband to take the child to the health center. There could be a delay of several days that would affect our ability to take stool samples and determine whether that child has polio or not.
Do more boys than girls receive vaccines?
On a global level, there is very little discrepancy between reaching boys and girls. You also see a more or less equal distribution of cases of polio between boys and girls. But the global statistics can mask disparities at the local level. We know that we have communities that are not being reached; we need to understand why we’re not reaching them. Gender plays a huge role in both supply of and demand for immunization. Who is providing the immunization — a man or a woman? Who is the decision-maker — mom or dad? And how do the immunizer and the decision-maker work together?
What are the key points in the gender strategy you helped develop for the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI)?
The polio program has typically engaged women as frontline health workers because in some cultures, mothers are more likely to open the door to a female vaccinator. But women should not just be part of the delivery of the program. They should also be part of its design; they should be supervisors and team leads, and hold positions at the district level to make sure we are meeting the needs of communities. We also need to understand why we have trouble retaining female vaccinators. We want them to keep working with us.
We must look at our data in a way that allows us to understand the program better and to see where there may be gaps. Collecting and analyzing sex-disaggregated data will help us to understand if gender-related barriers are preventing us from reaching zero-dose children — children who have not received any vaccines — and to refine the way we plan campaigns in those countries.
The GPEI’s new strategy places a huge focus on community engagement. We’re looking at the supply and demand sides in communities. How do we create a demand that ensures that parents want to take their children to be immunized? We need to make sure that the offered immunization services are acceptable to parents.
Besides gender, are there strategies that focus on other types of diversity?
We’re also looking at engaging people with disabilities. And gender also covers economic status: A lot of gender disparities are much more pronounced at different economic levels as well as in different ethnic and age groups. For example, the decision-making power of women in developing countries who are not educated is more limited, which will impact their ability to make health care decisions for the family. All of those things interact.
In the last mile of eradication, we need to leave no stone unturned to understand which children we are missing and why. Looking at gender is one more way to make sure that we’re reaching all children. Fathers have just as much of a role to play as mothers. How do we overcome barriers, so that men are engaged in the decision-making process and so that they allow their children to be immunized?
Rotary is so well-positioned to be a lead on gender. It isn’t a women’s issue — it’s everybody’s issue.
This story originally appeared in the December 2021 issue of Rotary magazine.
Gender roles and norms are powerful determinants to health outcomes and the fight to end polio.
Announcing a school closure or two-hour delay start in a timely manner for our students, families, and staff is important to KPBSD administration. Timing of the decision is crucial so we can notify transportation before busses begin their routes, employees head to work, and students and families prepare for a school day, potentially waiting at bus-stops. The decision to close school for the day or institute a two-hour delay start is the responsibility of the Superintendent of Schools.
KPBSD is committed to school safety, and educating every student. An involved process takes place early in the morning before the decision is made to close, or delay the start of school by two-hours. Additionally, if a school make-up day is necessary, several factors contribute to determine the date for one or more make-up days of school.
If school remains open, and you as a parent or guardian do not believe it is safe for your child to travel to school based on conditions in your area, please use your best judgment to decide what is safest for your family. Please notify the school if your child will not attend; absences will be excused.
How things work Determine and communicate school closure or two hour delay start
Is school open? Communication to Public
KPBSD district office communications will post two-hour school delays or closures, and subsequent updates, usually starting by 5:30 AM. If nothing is announced, assume schools are open on a normal schedule.
KPBSD Mobile Apppush notification (Kenai Peninsula Borough SD)
Local media including: radio stations, television stations, newspaper online sites
How-to calculate a two-hour delay start time
Add two hours to normal school start time
Add two hours to normal bus pick-up time. Thus, students are picked-up two hours later than their normal scheduled bus pick-up time
KPBSD employees may arrive two hours later than normal work-day morning schedule
Schools will dismiss at the normal time unless announced otherwise
Is school closed or delayed? Decision Making Process
The Director of Planning and Operations and the Assistant Superintendent gathers information, beginning as soon as accurate information is available. Most of the time this begins very early in the morning. If a significant storm is expected, a decision might be made the night ahead of time, but this rarely happens. Consultation and assessment may include:
District transportation staff
Apple Bus Company
Alaska State Department of Transportation (DOT)
Alaska State Troopers (AST)
Central Emergency Services (CES)
Kenai Peninsula Borough Office of Emergency Management (OEM)
Homer Electric Association (HEA) and utility providers
Weather services
Onsite school district employees
The Assistant Superintendent contacts the Superintendent to give an update about specific conditions and offer a recommendation for a two-hour delay start* or school closure. (Delay starts are always two hours.)
The Superintendent of Schools makes a final decision to delay start by two hours, or close schools.
School principals are contacted with the decision and supporting information*
Principal contacts school staff
School may implement automated call system, social media post, or other type of contact message to parents if applicable
*KPBSD may be briefed with information that helps to determine that a two-hour delay start will result in school being in session for the day. At other times, the two-hour delay allows time to assess the evolving conditions, before making the decision to close school for the day. If the roads are impassable due to inclement weather, a two-hour delay will give road crews additional time for sanding and plowing. Updates are posted as soon as decisions are made.
Make-up Instruction Days
If school is closed for the day, by state law, a make-up day must be scheduled. KPBSD does not build additional days into the annual calendar for potential inclement weather or school closures that may or may not occur.
A make-up day is generally scheduled on a vacation day, or after the official school calendar ends in May. One day is built into the calendar—typically the third Friday in the last quarter—and is often used as the first option for a make-up day.
Factors to consider when a make-up day is scheduled for one or more schools in KPBSD:
Coordinated bus transportation
Student nutrition services breakfast and lunch programs
Staffing
A few school facts in Alaska
State law mandates a school term of 180 days with up to ten of these days used for teacher in-service.
Per state law, all students must attend school for the minimum of 170 student contact days.
KPBSD teaching contract is 188 days (also includes orientation days and 7 mandated holidays.) Teacher in-service days are part of Professional Development and required by contract. Flexible work days are most often utilized at the front end of the school year (August) in preparation for the school year.
Closing school for the day or instituting a two-hour delay start is a complex decision, with several factors involved. Every effort is made to keep school in session.
If school remains open, and you as a parent or guardian do not believe it is safe for your child to travel to school based on conditions in your area, please use your best judgment to determine what is safest for your child and family. Please notify the school if your child will not attend; absences will be excused.
###
How It Works: Weather Related School Delays or Closures
KPBSD schools in the Anchor Point, Homer area*, and Ninilchik will open with a TWO-HOUR DELAY START on Thursday, December 9, 2021, in response to weather and road conditions.
If weather and road conditions warrant a full closure for any schools, that announcement will be made about 7:00 AM. If you don’t hear anything, the two-hour delay start remains in effect. All Pre-K sessions—both morning and afternoon—at these schools are cancelled during a two-hour delay start.
A two hour delay means that morning buses run two hours later than normal, school begins two hours later than normal, and Pre-K sessions are cancelled. The school day ends at the normal time.
Nanwalek, Port Graham, and Susan B. English schools will open on a normal schedule.
Be safe. Parents and guardians, if school is open and you decide to keep your child at home based on weather and road conditions near you, absences or late arrivals will be excused.
TWO-HOUR Delay Start on 12/9 in Homer/Ninilchik Area
Brenda Shelden District Governor Nominee Designate 2024-25
Dear Alaska Rotary Club Presidents and Rotary members:
On behalf of District Governor Cheryl Metiva, this e-mail is notification that on Monday October 11, 2021, the 2021-22 District 5010 Governor Nominating Committee selected Brenda Shelden to serve as District Governor for D5010 in 2024-2025. The requisite challenge period has passed with no Clubs challenging the selection.
A past President and member in good standing of the Palmer Rotary Club, Brenda holds a Doctor of Physical Therapy. Her current Rotary roles include D5010 Assistant Governor (2018-2022), D5010 RYLA Chair, Excess Reserves Committee Member, D5010 PETS Trainer, and Mat-Su Valley Interact Club Advisor (2020-2022) in addition to many other roles in past years.
Brenda and her husband, Troy, moved to Alaska in 2000, and in January will celebrate their 29th anniversary. Their daughter, Mason, is a junior in college and son, Ryan, is a senior in the Mat-Su Valley. The family loves Alaska and makes time to fish, camp, hike and travel. Brenda says “We are dedicated to serving others and collectively have hundreds of hours of community service."
Please join me in congratulating Brenda as our new District Governor Nominee Designate. We look forward to a strong future of the District under Brenda's leadership.
I would like to thank the other members of the nominating Committee, PDG Brad Gamble (Susitna), PDG Joe Kashi (Soldotna), PDG Maynard Gross (Homer-Kachemak Bay), Jamie Letterman (Juneau 58 (Degree) Innovators)), Jo Kuchle (Fairbanks), Jack Timm (Susitna), and DG Cheryl Metiva (Ex Officio).
Sincerely Yours in Rotary Service,
Diane
N. Diane Fejes
D5010 Governor Nominating Committee Chair for 2021-22
District Governor Nominee Designate 2024-25 Selected!
We are conducting an International motorcycle ride/four wheel drive event called Ride for Rotary.
The last 4 editions of Ride for Rotary was a great success to which 90 participants from 15 different countries attended and had a wonderful experience. We have contributed close to $100,000 to TRF from last 4 editions
This year we are planning to make it bigger and better by adding a luxury bus as well. Our aim is to promote International fellowship, exchange of Rotary views & the funds raised by this event will go to The Rotary Foundation.
Event will be from 15th to 30th January 2022.
A 12 days event commencing from Mangalore (India) that can either be a motorcycle ride, a four wheel drive or travel in the bus. The ride will cover 4 Rotary Districts, many Rotary Clubs and the route map will be starting from Mangalore - Kundapura - Dandeli - Goa - Hampi - Shimoga - Hassan - Kushalnagar - Mysore
Below are the Event Highlights
Motorcycle participants will be provided with riding jackets, gloves, knee guards along with motorcycles & fuel.
Participants will have to carry their own helmets, as size varies and may not be comfortable with the ones provided here.
Mahindra Scorpio or equivalent to it will be provided for four wheel participants along with fuel. 2 participants will have to share the drive.
A luxury bus with A/C Coach will be provided for participants who opt for Bus travelling along with Motorcycles & Car convoy.
3 Star plus Hotels / Resorts with well sanitized rooms will be provided as accommodations along the route.
Food will be provided in clean, sanitized places with a combination of both continental & local food delicacies .
The route is very well planned to cover various landscapes like world famous Beaches, Hill stations, World heritage Sites, Temples, Churches, Reserve Forests etc .
Folk music, dance and other cultural activities will be arranged to showcase Indian culture & heritage during the evening meets.
Various Rotary clubs & service projects will be involved & showcased to exchange Rotary views & vision.
A Qualified Medical Assistant will be part of the crew with 24×7 medical assistance available throughout the event.
Certified Mechanics will be part of the crew for any automobile breakdowns.
All Covid norms will be strictly followed throughout the event.
All Crew & Committee is Vaccinated
In case of event cancellation, complete fee will be refunded deducting the applied tax.
Participation Fee includes:For Motorcycle: Food, Stay, Riding gears, Motorcycle with fuel | For 4 wheel Drive: Food, Stay, Vehicle with fuel | For Luxury Bus: Food, Stay, Bus travel
We have already 13 Participants regsitered from UK, France, Poland & US.
We request you to register for this event and make the event a great success.
In December 2017, on his first night as a Peace Corps volunteer in the ancient North Macedonian city of Štip, Cal Mann was welcomed with a raucous party at a rustic cabin far outside of town. There was an abundance of food and drinks, and a boom box blared local music. As the party raged well past midnight, Mann watched, beer in hand. “I’m like, I can’t do this for two years, that’s for sure,” he recalls.
So you can understand his trepidation the next day when he found out a barbecue was in the works. Being a good sport and new to the city, he opted to go — a pivotal decision, it turns out. At the barbecue he struck up a conversation with a man named Zoran Kolev, who spoke English. As talk came around to Mann’s work as a Peace Corps volunteer, Kolev mentioned that there was a new service club in the city: the Rotary Club of Štip.
Rotary Club of Štip members review Rotary-donated English-language children’s storybooks with representatives from the Goce Delčev-Štip primary school.
Photo courtesy of Cal Mann.
“He told me they had just started the club a few months before,” Mann says. “They didn’t really know what Rotary was, but someone had told them it was a good thing to do.” This was great news to Mann, who had been a Rotary member since 2004 (and who currently belongs to the Rotary E-Club of Silicon Valley).
“I was thrilled to have met someone involved in Rotary so I could tap into my experience there. And they were happy to have someone who knew what Rotary was.”
Mann’s primary assignment with the Peace Corps was to work with a legal clinic for Roma residents, but volunteers are encouraged to take on a side project. Rotary became his. “I had just linked up with a club of people with big networks in the community, and most spoke English,” Mann says. “I may be dumb, but I’m not stupid. I figured that’s a pretty good opportunity. I better jump on it.”
Mann connected the club with a youth group and worked on small projects such as litter cleanups. When two Peace Corps volunteers in Štip who were teaching English needed more books, Mann talked to the club about finding a local distributor and also reached out to his friends at the Rotary Club of La Jolla, California, where he’d been a member previously, to connect them with the Štip club so that they could work together on the project.
Mann’s supervisor at the Peace Corps took notice. By the end of 2019, Peace Corps Northern Macedonia had placed four Peace Corps volunteers with Rotary clubs in the country. “The clubs loved it because they got volunteers who were really knowledgeable in the area of community development and who had a lot of ideas, energy, time, and skills,” Mann says. “The volunteers loved it because Rotary clubs immediately gave them a good connection to their community and a natural circle of friends.”
It was a match made in heaven. Rotary and the Peace Corps seemed meant for one another — as subsequent developments would demonstrate.
It was an impromptu speech by John F. Kennedy, just weeks before the 1960 presidential election, that catapulted the idea of a volunteer corps of Americans into public consciousness. Speaking from the steps of the student union at the University of Michigan, he challenged students, who had been waiting until well after midnight for his arrival, to contribute part of their life to service. The idea took hold, and hundreds of students signed petitions pledging to volunteer. In March 1961, President Kennedy signed an executive order creating the Peace Corps. “‘Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country’ was very real for me,” says Ted Bendelow, a member of the Rotary Club of Mead, Colorado, who joined the Peace Corps six months after Kennedy’s assassination and served in Liberia from 1964 to 1966.
In the 60 years since its creation, more than 240,000 Americans have served in the Peace Corps. Chances are there might be a returned Peace Corps volunteer (known as an RPCV) in your club or district. “They pop up in Rotary more than you might think,” says Charlie Hunt, a member of the Rotary Club of Denver Lodo, who served in Vanuatu from 2006 to 2008. Hunt recalls attending a Rotary club meeting while traveling to another part of the United States and hearing an opinionated academic speaking about Iran. “A Rotarian took her to task,” Hunt says. “He said he had spent two years in Iran. He had been a Peace Corps volunteer.”
Charlie Hunt (center) and his wife, Nancy Cole, greet his host father, Pastor Kaltang Kai, as they end their Peace Corps service in Vanuatu.
Photo courtesy of Charlie Hunt.
Hunt attending a chiefs’ meeting; he was given the name “Masilae” when he arrived on the island of Émaé. “‘Silae’ means ‘man who helps’ and ‘Ma’ means ‘chief,’ so technically I am a chief on the island,” he explains.
Photo courtesy of Charlie Hunt.
Ted Bendelow with his friend Flumo, whom he met while serving in the Peace Corps in Liberia.
Photo courtesy of Ted Bendelow.
The relationship between Rotary International and the Peace Corps, made official with a 2014 partnership agreement, has its foundation in the organizations’ shared values. The mission of the Peace Corps — “to promote world peace and friendship” — is one Rotary has embraced for more than 100 years. And the Peace Corps’ chief areas of focus — agriculture, community economic development, education, environment, health, and youth in development — have much in common with Rotary’s.
The Peace Corps has three goals: providing training for men and women in interested host countries; helping people in those countries to better understand Americans; and helping Americans to better understand other peoples. Service, therefore, is meant to continue once volunteers return home. “The third goal is not necessarily just about telling stories about your Peace Corps experience,” Hunt says. “It’s about being active in your community and how you can best take the things you’ve done in the Peace Corps and apply them when you come back.”
Steve Werner, a member of the Rotary Club of Denver Southeast and a Peace Corps volunteer in Korea from 1976 to 1978, recalls a meeting in the early 1990s with JFK’s brother-in-law Sargent Shriver, who had served as the first director of the Peace Corps. Then the board chair for the National Peace Corps Association, Werner stopped by Shriver’s office to have him sign some fundraising letters, a task he thought would take only 15 minutes. But Shriver was in the mood to talk. “He told me that the vision was that once a Peace Corps volunteer, we would always be a Peace Corps volunteer,” Werner says. “We would continue to serve after we got home to be examples to our fellow Americans. It was a big part of my motivation for becoming a Rotarian.”
241,000
Number of people who have served in the Peace Corps over the past 60 years
3
Percent of volunteers over age 50
27
Average volunteer age
Werner served another tour as a Peace Corps volunteer in the country of Georgia in 2016, this time with Peace Corps Response. While similar in approach to the two-year traditional program, Peace Corps Response assignments are shorter (generally 9-12 months) and involve higher impact projects geared to volunteers with more technical expertise in a particular program area.
Elsewhere in 2016, Andy Lenec was listening to NPR with his son when he heard an interview with the oldest active Peace Corps volunteer at the time: 87-year-old Alice Carter, who had just finished her first year in Morocco. “I’d been a Rotarian for over 25 years and service is second nature to me,” Lenec says. “I looked at my son, and he said, ‘Go for it, Dad.’ The next thing I know, I’m filling out the Peace Corps application form online.”
Lenec was assigned to Truskavets, a small city in western Ukraine near the Polish border where a Rotary club had applied for a Peace Corps volunteer in partnership with the city government and library. The club was small but committed. “Because of economic struggles, Rotary in Ukraine can cost as much as one month’s salary for annual dues,” Lenec says. “Many just cannot afford it. So a club of what used to be 20 was down to maybe 4.”
Shannon Carter on an overnight train ride during a field trip with the young people of Zolotonosha, Ukraine, where she served as a Peace Corps youth development volunteer.
Photo courtesy of Shannon Carter.
Once in Truskavets, Lenec decided that he wanted his side project for the Peace Corps to involve young people. He proposed an international youth conference to the Rotarians, and they jumped at the idea, as did the city’s mayor. As Lenec traveled to other Rotary clubs to encourage them to support the conference, a Rotarian asked if the conference could be turned into a Rotary Youth Leadership Awards event, which was defunct in the country. Lenec had been involved in RYLA for years and had seen the impact it makes on youth. Now he had a new goal: “We were going to revive RYLA in Ukraine,” he says.
Unfortunately, Lenec became ill while planning the event and had to return to Colorado, where he is now a member of the Rotary Club of Denver Lodo. But another Peace Corps volunteer in Ukraine, Shannon Carter, stepped in and worked with Rotarians to keep the momentum going. During the summer of 2019, the RYLA took place; 17 young people from Ukraine, Japan, and Armenia participated. “It cemented faith in the program,” Carter says. Carter then helped organize a virtual RYLA in 2020 with more than 700 registered participants.
Unlike Lenec with his decades of Rotary experience, Carter had none. But she soon discovered how valuable the Rotary network would be, both with RYLA and her future projects. Following up on work Lenec had done to raise awareness of the RYLA project with clubs in North America, Carter was introduced to Gordon Crann, a member of the Rotary Club of Hamilton After Five, Ontario. Crann, who has an extensive global network as past chair of both the Rotary Action Group for Peace and the Rotary Action Group for Community and Economic Development, offered to help Carter promote RYLA. Then he went one step further: He suggested she also apply for a Rotary Peace Fellowship.
Some of the young people who Carter worked with decided to go out into the community and give hugs to people. “They saw it on social media and wanted to do it,” she says.
Photo courtesy of Shannon Carter.
“I was very impressed by Shannon and her organizational ability,” Crann says. “She was the key person in bringing everything together, and this was an interna-tional effort. Peace Corps volunteers have shown they have a commitment to Service Above Self by taking time off [for public service], when they could be making a lot more money in jobs in the United States.”
Carter applied, and today she is a Rotary Peace Fellow at the University of Bradford, England, and a member of the Rotaract Club of Lviv International, Ukraine. “I went into RYLA anticipating personal growth, but I didn’t foresee the international network I would gain that would provide future opportunities like the Rotary Peace Fellowship,” Carter says. “My experience as a Peace Corps volunteer cemented my confidence in myself and made me realize we are fully able to do what we want in life.”
One of the driving forces behind the Rotary-Peace Corps partnership at the international level is a group of returned Peace Corps volunteers from Colorado who named themselves the “Tiger Team,” after a dog owned by one of its members. The group began meeting in November 2009 at the instigation of Sue Fox, a past president of the Rotary Club of Denver and a returned Peace Corps volunteer who served in Liberia from 1968 to 1970. Fox recognized the potential for the two groups; as she told a local business magazine at the time, “RPCVs and Rotarians are kindred spirits, seeking the same goals embodied in Rotary’s motto, Service Above Self.”
Students register for the regional English-language spelling bee in Štip. Nationwide, more than 3,000 students participate in this highly competitive contest, which is facilitated by volunteers from the Peace Corps and Rotary.
Photo courtesy of Cal Mann.
The Tiger Team expanded to include other Rotarians as well as returned Peace Corps volunteers who were not affiliated with Rotary. Their group, which became the organization Partnering for Peace, proposed to Rotary International and the Peace Corps administration that a formal alliance be established between the two organizations. That step was taken in May 2014, and the partnership was recently renewed for another three years.
The transmission rate of Covid-19 on the southern Kenai Peninsula is at an all-time high. If you are sick, please get tested and call your healthcare provider. Treatment is available! Do not delay! To help prevent the spread to others, PLEASE wear cloth face coverings or procedure masks, get vaccinated if you can, stay away from others when sick, and get tested if you have been exposed or have symptoms.
Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 Booster AuthorizedPlease talk to your healthcare provider about whether getting a Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 booster shot is appropriate for you. Learn more at covidvax.alaska.gov.Who can get a Covid-19 vaccine booster? Anyone who is at least six months after their second dose of the Pfizer vaccine series,and falls into one of these categories:
people 65 years and older;
residents aged 18 years and older in long-term care settings;
people 18 to 49 who are at high risk for severe COVID-19 due to certain underlying medical conditions may receive it based on their individual benefits and risks; and
people aged 18-64 years who are at increased risk for COVID-19 exposure and transmission because of occupational or institutional setting may receive it, based on their individual benefits and risks. This includes first responders (healthcare workers, firefighters, police, congregate care staff); education staff (teachers, support staff, daycare workers); workers in food and agriculture, manufacturing, corrections, U.S. Postal Service, public transit and grocery store workers.
Where can I get my vaccine booster?
Attend the mass Pfizer booster vaccination event on Friday, October 15 at Homer High School.
Make Appointment Here NOTE – If you received your second dose on or before April 17, you qualify.
Set an appointment with your primary care provider.
At the SPH Test and Vaccine site (see below).
Pfizer booster doses are only recommended for certain individuals who have received two doses of Pfizer vaccine. Those who got the Moderna or Johnson & Johnson vaccines are not authorized for booster at this time.
COVID Clinic at 4201 Bartlett Street
Pfizer vaccines – available 7 days a week.
Moderna & Janssen vaccines – available only on Tuesdays and Fridays
Walk-ins welcome from 9am-5pm daily, or click below to make an appointment
Third dose for immunocompromised individuals can be done by provider referral (sent a day in advance of your vaccine visit) or by completing theattestation of conditions.
Information to Consider Before Taking Part in this Research Study
Title:Groundwater Vulnerability in Coupled Human-Natural Systems.
Study # 002870
Overview:You are being asked to take part in a research study. The information in this document should help you to decide if you would like to participate. The sections in this Overview provide the basic information about the study. More detailed information is provided in the remainder of the document.
Study Staff: This study is being led by Edgar J. Guerron Orejuela who is a PhD candidate at the University of South Florida in the School of Geosciences. This person is called the Principal Investigator. He is being guided in this research by Dr. Mark Rains, Dr. Kai Rains, and Dr. Shawn Landry. Other approved research staff may act on behalf of the Principal Investigator.
Study Details: This study is being conducted in the Kenai Peninsula Lowlands. The purpose of the study is to document what residents of the Kenai Peninsula Lowlands value about living in this geographic area, assess their knowledge and understanding of groundwater systems in their region, and record their perceptions of groundwater vulnerability due to anthropogenic impacts in the Kenai Peninsula Lowlands. To obtain this information, research staff will conduct a 13-question survey targeted to all members of each of the following stakeholder groups: Resources managers, environmental NGOs, landowners, and industry representatives of the Kenai Peninsula lowlands.
Participants: You are being asked to take part in this study because you identify yourself as a member of at least one of the stakeholder groups mentioned above. We are interested in learning about the perceived value of groundwater for members of these stakeholder groups in the Kenai Peninsula Lowlands.
Voluntary Participation: Your participation is voluntary. You do not have to participate and may stop your participation at any time. There will be no penalties or loss of benefits or opportunities if you do not participate or decide to stop once you start. Your decision to participate or not to participate will not affect your job status, employment record, employee evaluations, or advancement opportunities.
Benefits, Compensation, and Risk: We do not know if you will receive any benefit from your participation. There is no cost to participate. You will not be compensated for your participation. This research is considered minimal risk. Minimal risk means that study risks are the same as the risks you face in daily life.
Confidentiality: Even if we publish the findings from this study, we will keep your study information private and confidential. Anyone with the authority to look at your records must keep them confidential.
Why are you being asked to take part?
Given the low-regulatory landscape in the Kenai lowlands, it is imperative that members of the stakeholder groups collaborate to share and exchange their knowledge and priorities, as well as make common information accessible to all stakeholders to facilitate fruitful conversations and allow for better and more-informed local decision-making.
Study Procedures
If you take part in this study, you will be asked to answer a survey that contains 13 questions. The survey will be conducted online using Qualtrics software and is expected to take the participants between 20-30 minutes to complete the survey. Data collected in this survey is anonymous.
You do not have to participate in this research study.
You should only take part in this study if you want to volunteer. You should not feel that there is any pressure to take part in the study. You are free to participate in this research or withdraw at any time. There will be no penalty or loss of benefits you are entitled to receive if you stop taking part in this study. Decision to participate or not to participate will not affect your job status.
Benefits and Risks
We are unsure if you will receive any benefits by taking part in this research study. This research is considered to be minimal risk. Compensation
You will receive no payment or other compensation for taking part in this study.
Privacy and Confidentiality
We will do our best to keep your records private and confidential. We cannot guarantee absolute confidentiality. Your personal information may be disclosed if required by law. Certain people may need to see your study records. The only people who will be allowed to see these records are:
· The research team, including the Principal Investigator, study coordinator, and all other research staff.
· Certain government and university people who need to know more about the study. For example, individuals who provide oversight on this study may need to look at your records. This is done to make sure that we are doing the study in the right way. They also need to make sure that we are protecting your rights and your safety.
· Any agency of the federal, state, or local government that regulates this research. This includes the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and the Office for Human Research Protection (OHRP).
· The USF Institutional Review Board (IRB) and its related staff who have oversight responsibilities for this study, and staff in USF Research Integrity and Compliance
Your information or samples collected as part of the research, even if identifiers are removed, will NOT be used or distributed for future research studies.
It is possible, although unlikely, that unauthorized individuals could gain access to your responses because you are responding online. Confidentiality will be maintained to the degree permitted by the technology used. No guarantees can be made regarding the interception of data sent via the Internet. However, your participation in this online survey involves risks similar to a person’s everyday use of the Internet. If you complete and submit an anonymous survey and later request your data be withdrawn, this may or may not be possible as the researcher may be unable to extract anonymous data from the database.
Contact Information
If you have any questions, concerns or complaints about this study, call Edgar J. Guerron Orejuelaat 941-713-2606. If you have questions about your rights, complaints, or issues as a person taking part in this study, call the USF IRB at (813) 974-5638or contact the IRB by email atRSCH-IRB@usf.edu.
We may publish what we learn from this study. If we do, we will not let anyone know your name. We will not publish anything else that would let people know who you are. You can print a copy of this consent form for your records.
I freely give my consent to take part in this study. I understand that by proceeding with this survey, I am agreeing to take part in research, and I am 18 years of age or older.
by Aidan O’Leary Illustration by Viktor Miller Gausa
“There’s something about the whole idea of eradicating polio that grabs the imagination,” says Aidan O’Leary. “Most people talk about making steps toward achievements, and it’s almost always into the never-never. Eradication is a zero-sum game; anything short of zero is failure. You keep getting closer and closer, but ultimately the only number that actually matters is zero.”
Although O’Leary, the polio eradication director for the World Health Organization, is speaking from his home in Galway, against the verdant backdrop of western Ireland, his focus is on war-torn Afghanistan and the parched and dusty plains of Pakistan — the last two places on the planet where wild polio still thrives.
Even during a pandemic, even as grim realities confront him, O’Leary conveys a sense of optimism about the possibility of finally eradicating polio. “Particularly in the days of COVID-19, there is something that really resonates about snuffing out a highly communicable infectious disease,” he says. “As COVID has taken off, it has also led a lot of people to better understand why now is the time to finish this job with polio.”
Yet O’Leary’s optimism is shaded with a sense of urgency and pragmatism. “There is absolutely no case for complacency here,” he says. “What is really important is that we double down on reaching the persistently missed children who are a top priority for our program.”
O’Leary, who began his tenure as WHO’s polio chief in January, came into the job knowing the terrain well. He formerly led UNICEF’s polio eradication efforts in Pakistan and was the head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen, organizing the UN’s emergency response during crises.
O’Leary says he understands the difference Rotary can make — both in a community and in the global fight against polio. In Galway, a local tradition involves kicking the limestone wall at the end of a 2-mile stroll on the Salthill Promenade along Galway Bay (the reason for doing so has been lost in the mists of time). In 2012, O’Leary explains, the Rotary Club of Galway-Salthill installed on that wall a box that bears the slogan “Small Change, Big Impact” and encourages walkers to leave a small donation, with all money collected going to local charities and institutions.
In July, weeks before the dramatic turn of events in Afghanistan, O’Leary joined Rotary magazine senior staff writer Diana Schoberg and Dave King, editor of Rotary magazine for Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland, on a Zoom call to discuss the new strategy of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) and the new polio vaccine, and how they will be used to eradicate polio — once and for all.
What is the latest update on wild poliovirus?
The numbers are extremely encouraging. We’ve gone over a very bumpy road during the last two years. We had a fivefold increase in cases between 2018 and 2019, when we saw 176 cases, and we had 140 cases in 2020. But we’ve recorded just two cases this year [as of 27 July] — one each in Afghanistan and Pakistan. [Both cases were in January.]
The particularly encouraging part right now is that the program has a very elaborate network of environmental testing sites for sewage — almost 100 sites in Afghanistan and Pakistan that cover all of the major population centers. In 2020, almost 60 percent of the monthly test samples came back positive for poliovirus. This year to date, that percentage is probably around 15 per-cent. We have been unable to detect any wild poliovirus in Afghanistan since 23 February, and we’ve seen just five isolates in Pakistan since 12 April.
Why do you think that is? Given that some polio immunization campaigns had to be suspended last year, you’d think the numbers would have gone in the other direction. Is it because so many elements of society were shut down due to the pandemic?
While conditions in 2020 were certainly adverse both for surveillance and for the campaign operations, there are two areas that are helping us this year. One is reduced mobility — both within Afghanistan and Pakistan, and across the borders. When you look particularly at the experience in India, with the explosion of COVID cases in the first and second quarters of 2021 — and what were some very shocking images of funeral pyres — I believe that the drop in mobility has had an impact. There has also been a change in social norms, very simple things like social distancing and hand washing. Maybe that has made some impact, as well. But those are short-term changes.
With the conflict in Afghanistan, we don’t believe that the benefits we’re seeing from reduced mobility will continue indefinitely. We need to continue to prepare for the possibility of large-scale displacements across borders. We need to grab the opportunity that we have.
Now we’re coming into the high season for polio transmission, so we’ll continue to wait and see. There’s certainly no complacency from our program.
"The single most important relationship that the program has is between a frontline vaccinator and the caregiver who answers the knock at the door."
Vaccines are on everyone’s mind because of COVID. Has that affected acceptance of the polio vaccine?
For me, the more fundamental issues in Afghanistan and Pakistan center around household and community confidence and trust. If you get the basics of that right, you are 80 to 90 percent there. The challenge has always been reaching the other 10 to 20 percent.
The key issue is broader — the marginalization of communities. That’s not something that can be addressed just at the household and community level. It requires a systemic engagement to try to make sure that we properly understand the community’s actual needs and then that we connect those dots in a more reliable way.
The single most important relationship that the program has is between a frontline vaccinator and the caregiver who answers the knock at the door. That caregiver is usually the mother, and what’s really important for our success is that the frontline vaccinator is a local woman who is well-trained and motivated to do what she’s doing. If that relationship of confidence and trust is developed, then you’re able to vaccinate all of the children inside the house.
Because of the suspension of house-to-house vaccination campaigns in 2018 in areas of Afghanistan controlled by the Taliban, more than 3 million children routinely miss vaccinations. Do you think that polio eradication is possible while the security situation in Afghanistan is so unpredictable?
We continue to speak with all parties. Our priority is the protection of children, and that requires engaging with all stakeholders. We have an agreement with the Taliban to conduct mosque-to-mosque campaigns, which we hope we’ll be able to initiate in the coming months. In some cases, we’ll be reaching children for the first time in several years. We’d like to build on those opportunities toward resuming house-to-house vaccination campaigns.
We don’t have an all-or-nothing situation. Let’s seize the opportunity to reach 40 to 50 percent coverage before we start talking about 100 percent. Will the campaigns in July and August be perfect? No. They’re taking place against the backdrop of a growing full-scale conflict, so we have to make sure that we find appropriate ways of making that work.
There will be risks. Eight frontline workers were killed in eastern Afghanistan earlier this year in various targeted killings. In these contested areas, the de facto authorities on the ground shift. We need to make sure that we navigate these areas as sensitively as we possibly can.
We are also working on financing essential immunization coverage [universal access to all relevant vaccines], particularly in the provinces of the southern region of Afghanistan. We recognize that it’s not just a polio gap. There’s a much broader gap.
The other point that I would highlight is the importance of the surveillance system. Although we have not been able to reach all children with vaccinations, our surveillance system is continuing to pick up all the acute flaccid paralysis cases. There is a basic system in place that allows us to properly understand what’s going on. We want to build incrementally and in a sustainable way to make sure that we have access in all of these areas for the purposes of our immunization programs.
What about in Pakistan, where 81 percent of the cases are among the Pashto-speaking population, who make up 15 percent of the overall population. Why are the cases so concentrated within that group, and what is the program planning to do to address it?
It’s often presented as a vaccine acceptance issue, but I think it’s much broader than that. Because of economic migration, among other reasons, you have this massive influx of Pashto-speaking people from across Afghanistan and Pakistan into Karachi. You’re seeing this huge explosion of settlements — formal, informal, and everything in between. These settlements tend to be highly underserved. There can be issues between the state and provincial administrations and these minority communities. There’s a wider issue around community acceptance, confidence, and trust.
The polio eradication program is one of the few programs that reaches these communities, but their needs go way beyond polio vaccines, including clean water and sanitation, nutrition, basic health services, and education. So when you are trying to access these informal settlements, you have this big residue of issues that polio essentially becomes the proxy for.
These issues are not strictly within the control of our program, but we recognize that to build the acceptance and trust of these communities, we’re going to have to make a much more sustained effort than we perhaps may have been doing in the past. The idea on our side is to move from patchy and ad hoc initiatives to something much more comprehensive and systemic.
In places like Karachi, Pakistan, Aidan O’Leary says, the most successful “frontline vaccinator is a local woman who is well-trained and motivated.” Khaula Jamil/Courtesy of Rotary International
The new strategy talks about “zero-dose children.” What does that term mean?
Zero-dose refers to any child who has never had a vaccine. We want to make sure that they not only get the oral polio vaccines but also as many other essential immunizations as is feasible. It’s not just a question of a fixed, static target of high-risk children in core reservoirs — those areas with persistent wild poliovirus transmission. There is a rolling target that we have to stay on top of. We’re in a race against time with newborns. There are between 7 and 8 million babies born every year in Pakistan. So we need to make sure that within the first months of those babies’ lives, we’re reaching as large a proportion of them as we possibly can.
What’s your best guesstimate of your target?
Every time we do a national immunization campaign in Pakistan, which are house-to-house campaigns, we target more than 40 million children under age 5. When we go to Afghanistan, that number is between 9 million and 10 million. It continues to be very humbling to see what frontline workers are doing during a pandemic.
We’re dealing with two issues here, aren’t we — wild poliovirus and the circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus. What is the difference between the two?
The wild poliovirus is essentially as its name describes. It’s the original of the species. It has evolved over centuries and millennia, and it has continued to evolve.
The oral polio vaccine contains a live but weakened virus, which can circulate among under-immunized or unimmunized populations for a long period of time, usually for years. And eventually, it can revert to a form that causes paralysis. That is circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus [cVDPV].
Viruses require an immunity gap. They need susceptible children. Anywhere there are zero-dose children, you’re going to find these diseases taking off. When we map where these children are, we keep coming back to the same locations again and again. That’s why we really have to double down and make sure that these zero-dose children are our very top priority to get covered by vaccination.
The new eradication strategy includes improving surveillance and integrating polio vaccines into health programs. Khaula Jamil/Courtesy of Rotary International
Globally, how widespread is cVDPV?
There have been 1,800 cases since 2016. Between 2018 and 2019, there was a tripling of cases, and then there was a further tripling between 2019 and 2020. The total number of cVDPV cases in 2020 was 1,103. So far in 2021 [as of 27 July], there have been 179 cases. We’ve seen real progress as immunization campaigns have resumed. The number of countries with cases has decreased from 27 last year to just over a dozen.
These cases happen where children miss vaccinations. When children are fully vaccinated, cVDPV is not a problem. These cases are highly concentrated, with Afghanistan and Pakistan making up 40 percent of cases in 2020. If you look at the situation in Afghanistan, which was the country with the greatest number of cVDPV cases last year, more than 90 percent of those were concentrated in the areas that were inaccessible due to the Taliban banning house-to-house polio campaigns.
So again, the challenge for us is to protect through vaccination. You create a risk by not building up the immunity levels as high as they could or should be. As a program, we are trying to get back to a stage where we’re going after the root cause of the problem — which means making sure that we are fully vaccinating all of these zero-dose children.
As COVID-19 vaccinations are administered around the globe, you’ve probably seen your social media feeds fill up with joyful vaccine selfies and excited appointment updates. Chances are, you also have someone in your life who’s skeptical. Most of us do — and that has public health officials concerned.
Vaccine hesitancy is often fuel for heated public debate, but conversations about vaccines don’t have to be contentious. In fact, being willing to have them is one of the most impactful ways we can influence global health. As with many emotionally-charged topics, knowing how to start the conversation can be the hardest part. These tips may help you open up a dialogue and get your loved ones thinking differently about being vaccinated.
Find shared values. We all want similar things — healthy families, thriving communities, and a sense of control over our health. Demonizing vaccine-hesitant individuals only creates further division and exacerbates an “us vs. them” mentality. Try explaining why you choose vaccinations. Is it to protect the most vulnerable members of your community? To shield your children from preventable disease? Relatable motivations like these can help forge a human connection and get to the emotional heart of the issue.
Seek to understand. Just as there are many reasons to be vaccinated, there are many reasons a person might feel dubious. A prevalent one is misinformation, which is more contagious than ever in our digital age. Others are more complicated and riddled with an ugly history. Marginalized communities have spent centuries being mistreated by the medical establishment. Expecting these communities to immediately trust the same institution to have their best interest at heart is unfair and dismissive of historic trauma.
Know your “C’s.” The World Health Organization (WHO) has outlined three “C’s” that contribute to vaccinate hesitancy: complacency, convenience, and confidence. We could also add a fourth: culture. Rates of vaccine hesitancy, as well as contributing factors, vary widely based on a person’s location, background, and community. Being cognizant of these differences can prevent us from making incorrect assumptions. If someone is skipping recommended vaccines due to religious beliefs, opening a conversation with safety statistics may not be helpful or relevant to them.
Lead with facts. Mythbusting can be tempting, but did you know that repeating misinformation can actually give it more weight? Instead of focusing on why that meme or blog post is incorrect, stick to simple statements of fact. For example: “large-scale scientific studies find no link between the HPV vaccine and auto-immune symptoms.”
Be the voice of the majority. Social norms are an incredibly powerful force, but the key is to keep it positive. If you try to convince someone that not enough people are receiving vaccines, they may feel that their hesitancy has been validated by others. A more effective approach is to focus on how many people are choosing to vaccinate and why. Remind them that large-scale inoculation is a group effort and we want them on the team.
Identify the problem and the solution. If you’ve ever stood at the edge of a diving board, unable to move, you know that fear can be paralyzing. Fear of severe illness can have similar effects. When we talk about vaccine-preventable disease, simply scaring someone is likely to backfire. Instead, it’s important to acknowledge two facts simultaneously: these diseases are serious and being vaccinated is a simple and effective countermeasure. Help put power back into their hands by identifying an action they can take — being vaccinated!
Vaccines bring us closer to a world where everyone thrives, but it’s a team effort. By having conversations, you can bring your friends and family along on our global health journey.
The transmission rate of Covid-19 on the southern Kenai Peninsula is at an all-time high. If you are sick, please get tested and call your healthcare provider. Treatment is available! Do not delay!To help prevent the spread to others, PLEASE wear cloth face coverings or procedure masks, get vaccinated if you can, stay away from others when sick, and get tested if you have been exposed or have symptoms.
Moderna & Janssen vaccines – available only on Tuesdays and Fridays
Walk-ins welcome from 9am-5pm daily, or click below to make an appointment
Third dose for immunocompromised individuals can be done by provider referral (sent a day in advance of your vaccine visit) or by completing the attestation of conditions.
Get $40 in Homer bucks with every vaccine (while supplies last). Already received a vaccine? Alaskan residents who have already received a Covid-19 vaccine can put their name into a drawing for $100 and $250 gift cards to local businesses. Winners will be drawn every other Thursday, and your name will stay in the pot throughout the month of September for up to five chances to win! Stop by the Covid Clinic at 4201 Bartlett Street to enter your name in the drawing.
Pfizer vaccine is now authorized for individuals 12 years of age and older. Moderna and Janssen vaccines are authorized only for individuals 18 years of age and older Who is eligible?Anyone 12 and older. Vaccine Information: Information about COVID-19 vaccines approved by FDA Emergency Use Authorization:
It is with great sadness that we mourn the loss of our longtime member, Will Files on July 27, 2021. Will was a devoted husband and father. Will was a constant champion for our community and raised thousands of dollars for youth programs such as the SPARC. Will was a 2017 Recipient of Rotary's Service Above Self Award. Our thoughts are with Martha Ellen and the family during this difficult time.
A medical assistant administers a coronavirus test last week in Los Angeles. COVID-19 cases are on the rise as the highly transmissible delta variant has become the dominant coronavirus strain in the United States.
Mario Tama/Getty Images
While the delta variant of the coronavirus has quickly become the dominant strain in the United States, it's not the only variant circulating in the population.
The lambda variant, first identified in Peru, is also making headlines as it has started to be identified in several states. Houston Methodist Hospital reportedits first case of the variant this week. Scientists at the Medical University of South Carolina recently announcedthey had found the variant in a virus sample taken in April.
According to a database for scientists tracking coronavirus variants, fewer than 700 cases of the lambda variant have been sequenced in the U.S. so far out of more than 34 million coronavirus cases reported to date. But the U.S. has sequenced only a tiny fraction of its cases, so that number does not reflect the actual number of lambda cases in the country
.
Fewer than 1% of U.S. cases in the last four weeks have been identified as the lambda variant, according to GISAID, a repository for genome data.
So do we need to add lambda to our list of big worries in the U.S.? Not yet, according to public health officials and experts.
The delta variant, which is more than two times as transmissible as the original strain of the coronavirus, now accounts for 83%of new coronavirus cases in the United States. Delta continues to be the central concern for public health officials.
What we know about the lambda variant
The lambda variant was first identified in Peru in August 2020,accordingto the World Health Organization. Cases with the variant have now been identified in 28 countries, according to GISAID — though many of those have identified only a handful of lambda cases.
Dr. Stuart Ray is a professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, where he specializes in infectious diseases. Ray opened one of the first COVID-19 wards at Johns Hopkins in March 2020, and he has also overseen Johns Hopkins' COVID-19 sequencing efforts.
He tells NPR that lambda is "sort of a cousin of the alpha variant" — one of the earliest identified variants of concern.
Lambda spread until it became a dominant sequence in people with COVID-19 in Peru. The WHO noted last month an elevated presence of lambda in other South American countries, including Argentina, Chile and Ecuador. And now we know it's present in the United States.
The lambda variant carries a number of mutations with suspected implications, such as potential increased transmissibility or possible increased resistance to neutralizing antibodies, the WHO says. But it says the full extent of those mutations' impact isn't yet well understood and will need further study.
While there hasn't been clear head-to-head data, the evidence so far does not suggest the lambda variant has any great advantage over the delta variant, Ray says.
"Delta is clearly dominating right now. And so I think our focus can remain on delta as a hallmark of a highly infectious variant. And there's some evidence that it might cause greater severity per infection, although that's still a developing story," he says.
A doctor checks a lung X-ray while visiting a patient with COVID-19 in Comas, in the northern outskirts of Lima, Peru.
Ernesto Benavides/AFP via Getty Images
The COVID-19 vaccines work well against variants
There isn't yet full data on vaccine effectiveness against the lambda variant. But so far, studies have found that the vaccines available in the U.S. provide protection against the major strains of the virus, including the highly transmissible delta variant.
"We know that vaccination almost uniformly protects people," Ray says.
Studies have found that the vaccines are less effective at generating neutralizing antibodies against the variants of concern than against the original strain of the virus. But T cells also play a significant role in the body's immune response, and T cell response isn't measured in neutralizing-antibody clinical tests — meaning that the vaccines could be more effective against the variants than is suggested by tests of antibody response alone.
WHO says lambda is a variant of interest. CDC does not
The WHO now assigns Greek letters to strains of the coronavirus that are classified as variants of concern or variants of interest. A variant of concern is one that has characteristics such as being significantly more transmissible or more virulent.
The alphabetical order of the variants' Greek-letter names indicates the order in which they were identified as potentially important — they are not in any particular alphabetical order of severity.
The alpha, beta, gamma and delta variants are all considered variants of concern by the WHO.
The WHO classifiedlambda last month as a global "variant of interest" — a step below variant of concern. That means it exhibits genetic changes suspected of affecting its transmissibility and disease severity and has been identified as causing significant community transmission or multiple COVID-19 clusters.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention keeps its own list of variants of concern and interest within the United States. Notably, lambda is not on the CDC's list as being a variant of interest, concern or high consequence.
Ray says tracking variants is important so that we don't get blindsided by one's sudden arrival.
"We have to be vigilant for these new variants and track them. Genomic epidemiology remains an important activity for us to understand this epidemic," Ray says. "But I think right now lambda is a variant of interest, and we'll see whether it becomes a variant of concern."
The things we need to do to counter new strains are the same things that we already know to do to against the coronavirus — and the stakes are high because delta is so transmissible.
That means vaccination is more important than ever, Ray says: "As the variants become more infectious, then the proportion of vaccinated people required to control the epidemic increases."
COVID-19 case numbers are surging upward in the state causing the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services to put Alaska back in High Alert status. KBBI's Kathleen Gustafson has the story.
KBBI's Kathleen Gustafson and Derotha Ferraro, spokesperson for South Peninsula Hospital - COVID Update, broadcast on KBBI on Tuesday, July 20, 2021.
"Three patients over the last three and a half days have been delayed in their transfer to a higher level of care to an Anchorage hospital. But, all three of those patients have been transferred," Ferraro said.
SPH testing data is currently showing an 18%, positivity rate along with an increase in COVID tests performed. At the end of last week, the SPH Test and Vaccine Clinic collected between 50 and 60 swabs.
"And, yesterday we did 83 total tests and today we've already exceeded that by two o'clock. I did the math over the last six days which is when volume really started picking up - 70 positives out of 389 swabs," said Ferraro.
As of this week, South Peninsula Hospital is prohibiting visitors to the hospital and long term care facility.
State data show 52% percent of Alaskans have received the COVID-19 vaccine. Vaccine is available seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and COVID-19 tests are available seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the COVID Test and Vaccine Clinic at 4201 Bartlett Street. Local health care providers and Safeway pharmacy are also administering the vaccine.
For information about COVID-19 vaccine and testing, go to South Peninsula Hospital's website, or if you want to speak to the hospital's 24 hour, on duty COVID Nurse, call 235-0235.
COVID Update: Anchorage Hospitals Fill With Patients as Local Positivity Rate Jumps to 18%
COVID-19 positivity rates continue to climb and demand for tests at South Peninsula Hospital's Vaccine and Test Site has more than tripled in the last 7 days. KBBI's Kathleen Gustafson has this update.
From July 13-19, 531 test swabs administered through South Peninsula Hospital resulted in 91 positive cases identified or a 17% positivity rate.
That's up from about a 3% positivity rate this time last month.
On Tuesday the 20th, 158 total swabs yielded 14 positive cases of COVID-19.
SPH has hospitalized four patients so far in July for COVID, and four monoclonal antibody infusions have been administered to COVID patients this month.
The infusions are currently done in the hospital's emergency room but SPH is preparing to administer infusions outside of the hospital through home health nurses.
Due to high COVID transmission rates, visitation is closed at South Peninsula Hospital and long term care. Exceptions include end of life, pediatrics, surgery and obstetrics patients.
Universal masking is still required at the hospital, regardless of vaccination status.
SPH spokesperson Derotha Ferraro said anyone with COVID symptoms, travel plans, pre-hospital procedures, or possible exposure to the virus should come in for a test.
If you have visitors in your home or work with people who travel from out of state, they might not be aware that testing is readily available.
"Testing is free and it's fast and it's for anybody, pretty much, for any reason. Because we have so many summer residents, so many visitors as well as the 14,000 of us that live here."
Ferraro said there is some vaccine breakthrough in positive cases, so even people who are vaccinated, should get tested if they show any symptoms of illness. State data show that fully vaccinated people do not show symptoms as severe as unvaccinated people.
"A fully vaccinated person might have a runny nose or might have a headache and think - it's no big deal, I'm vaccinated. Still pay attention to your symptoms. This is not just a message for the unvaccinated," Ferraro said.
49 vaccines were administered in the last week at the COVID Vaccine and Test Site at 4201 Bartlett Street, bringing the total to: 7,969. Statewide, 52% of Alaskans are fully vaccinated.
Vaccines are offered daily, 9am-5pm. Testing is offered daily, 9am-6pm.
Vaccines are also available from your family's health care provider and from your local pharmacy.
For more information, go to the hospital website, sphosp.org.
If you have questions about testing, vaccines or if you want to speak to the 24-hour COVID nurse on duty for any reason, call the South Peninsula Hospital COVID Careline at (907) 235-0235.
We are off to a great Rotary year. I appreciate each of you and your dedication to our community. I want to commend prior President Lori Evans for her hard work this past year. Lori's leadership was instrumental for our club during a difficult year and her approach and dedication made this difficult job look easy. A big thank you you to Craig Forrest for his years of service as the editor of the newsletters. Craig's energy and dedication to our club is infectious and I appreciate his service.
Committee Chairs have been appointed. If you are interested in serving on a committee please contact the chair listed below.
Summer has arrived. The great potato contest is underway. Don't forget to feed, water and fertilize those spuds. We will also kick off our Peony Sales on Saturdays in July.
This Week's Speaker -- Rick Abboud, City Planner, City of Homer
Next Week's Speaker -- Doug Waclawski, Principal, Homer High School
Speakers and Invocators are needed - contact me with your recommendations
South Peninsula Hospital is working closely with the State of Alaska Department of Health and Social Services and other state and local agencies in our response to the outbreak of COVID-19.
To help prevent the spread of COVID-19, you are encouraged to maintain a physical distance from others of at least 6 feet, practice frequent hand washing, clean regularly used surfaces, wear cloth face coverings while in public, stay home when sick, and get tested if you have been exposed or have symptoms.
Vaccines are now offered during your appointments at Homer Medical Center and the SPH Family Care Clinic. Inquire at time of your appointment.
Getting your second dose? Call 235-0235 for questions or if you need to cancel or reschedule.
NEW!!! Pfizer vaccine is now authorized for individuals 12 years of age and older. Moderna and Janssen vaccines are authorized only for individuals 18 years of age and older Who is eligible? Anyone living or working in Alaska is eligible. Vaccine Information: Information about COVID-19 vaccines approved by FDA Emergency Use Authorization:
In 2009, Salvador Rico stood in the waters of the Russian River in Northern California with other members of the Rotary Club of South Ukiah. They were there for a river cleanup, during which they removed toilets, refrigerators, car parts, and garbage. That event led to an ambitious initiative called Cleaning the Rivers of the World.
After participating in the Russian River cleanup, Rico’s thoughts turned to the Ameca River, which flows past his father’s farm in western Mexico. That was where, he believed, his oldest sister contracted the poliovirus that killed her in the 1960s.
The Rotary clubs of Ameca, Mexico, and of Rohnert Park-Cotati and South Ukiah, California, clean up the Ameca River. “I always hoped that someday I could go home and do something to turn all the sewage into pristine waters,” says Salvador Rico, the Rotary member who organized the clean up.
“My older siblings would play in the river,” he says, “and that particular river carried sewage from the city of Tala.”
Rico also thought of another river, the Lerma, which runs near his old elementary school. His teachers would let children play in a pristine tributary that flowed from a canyon but not in the main channel of the Lerma, which carried trash and toxic waste from Guadalajara.
So when Rico’s district governor, Helaine Campbell, asked clubs to carry out a signature water-related project in 2013-14, Rico proposed a cleanup of the Ameca River.
With the help of Vicente Paredes of the Rotary Club of San Pedro de Tlaquepaque, Mexico, who connected people and worked on logistics, the Rotary clubs of Ameca, Mexico, and of Rohnert Park-Cotati and South Ukiah, California, carried out the first Ameca River cleanup day in April 2014. They have since organized more cleanups of the river.
That project eventually expanded to become Cleaning the Rivers of the World, which has challenged Rotary clubs across the globe to clean up a river. The initiative has been adopted by the Water & Sanitation Rotarian Action Group as part of the Annual World Water Day Challenge, as well as by the Environmental Sustainability Rotarian Action Group. Rotarians have organized cleanup projects in Colombia, India, Nigeria, Peru, Turkey, and Venezuela, as well as in other parts of Mexico and the United States.
In 2018, Rico joined his fellow Rotarians in a project on the Lerma River. “As a kid, I always hoped that someday I could go home and do something to turn all the sewage into pristine waters,” he says. “Now I can say, with a clear conscience, that I did everything I could to leave a better world for our kids.”
Each year, District 5010 honors significant achievement and efforts by our District Rotarians over our Rotary year and remembers those who have passed.
That is typically done at a District Conference, but as you all know, this year's District in-person Conference has been cancelled in line with Rotary International guidance due to Covid.
Instead, we'll honor many clubs and individuals in a May 13, 2021 Zoom meeting starting at 7pm. The link is below.
As promised at PETS, District 5010 is recognizing exceptional achievement and effort by awarding Paul Harris Fellowships for outstanding service! Combining my remaining PH points, those available to our District Foundation Committee and a generous points contribution by Foundation Committee co-chair PDG Ted Trueblood, we'll be awarding 12, yes 12, Paul Harris Fellowships on May 13, along with many other awards and thanks.
Despite the difficulties arising from Covid, our District Rotarians have risen to that challenge and have accomplished a great deal, and we want to publicly recognize their achievements and thank them.
In addition, six District Rotarians have passed so far this Rotary year, including PDG Bob Brodie, and we will remember them.
No long-winded speeches this year, just thanks and recognition to the many deserving Rotarians and a few non-Rotarians.
So, join us on May 13 at 7pm by linking to this Zoom:
Joe Kashi
(short-timer District Governor 2020-2021)
Rotary District 5010 is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
By building on a proven concept — such as efforts to stamp out malaria in Zambia — Rotary’s new multimillion-dollar Programs of Scale grants help make good better
by DIANA SCHOBERG and VANESSA GLAVINSKAS | illustrations by GWEN KERAVAL
AS PART OF THE POLIO ERADICATION campaign, Rotary and its partners have trained millions of health care workers and volunteers and vaccinated nearly 3 billion children. Polio cases have dropped 99.9 percent since Rotary took up the cause in 1985, and the number of countries with endemic wild polio has dropped to two: Afghanistan and Pakistan.
"What you’ve done with polio is remarkable," says Larry Cooley, a well-known international development consultant. "But it shouldn’t be a study of one."
Rotary is stepping up to that challenge through Programs of Scale, a new Foundation program awarding grants to Rotary clubs or districts with evidence-based interventions that are ready to scale. The first such grant, announced in February, will provide $2 million to Partners for a Malaria-Free Zambia, a member-led program focused on fighting malaria. Co-funders World Vision U.S. and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation are also involved in malaria mitigation efforts and will each contribute $2 million to the program. This $6 million program will train and equip 2,500 community health workers in Zambia to support the government’s work to eradicate malaria in that country. If all goes well, Rotary members hope to expand the effort to elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa.
The concept of Programs of Scale dates back to 2013, when global grants, introduced through The Rotary Foundation’s updated grant model, expanded the scope and size of Rotary projects with the aim of increasing their impact. After a 2016 evaluation of the grant model, the Foundation Trustees requested that a new grant type be developed that would fund "scalable" grant projects in the areas of focus — meaning projects that were planned in a way that allowed them to be expanded, built upon, and further developed. "Something between large global grants and PolioPlus was needed," says Francis "Tusu" Tusubira, a member of The Rotary Foundation Cadre of Technical Advisers and a past member of Rotary’s Strategic Planning Committee.
The Programs of Scale grants are the result: a way to fund large-scale, high-impact projects that can attract partners while tapping into Rotary members’ capacity and enthusiasm. "While global grants and district grants have been very successful, we want to give opportunities for projects with even more impact," says Foundation Trustee Sangkoo Yun, who was on the Programs of Scale selection committee. "We want to better quantify that impact and share what we learn with all Rotarians engaged in international service."
So what, in this context, does "scale" mean?
"It’s a simple question with a complicated answer," says Cooley, who is an expert on the topic. One way to think about it, he says, is that you are looking for a solution that matches the scale of the problem. If you define the problem in local terms, then the scale of the solution is local. If you define it as international, as with polio, then the scale of the solution is international.
"Problems have denominators," he says. "If somebody said, we helped distribute blankets to 10,000 villagers, I’d say, congratulations, but how many villagers needed blankets? If the answer is that it was 10,000 out of 15,000, I’d say, holy mackerel, that’s great. If it’s 10,000 out of 10 million, I’d say that’s still great, but that’s not the right strategy."
Clubs can think about scale whenever they’re developing a project, not only when they are aiming to apply for a Programs of Scale grant. Cooley suggests that rather than focusing on projects, Rotarians focus on problems. "Take on a problem and [don’t] let go until it’s solved, or materially improved, whether at the community or national level," he says.
When thinking about scaling up, Tusubira notes, you can take a successful project and add new aspects to it to deepen the impact. Or you can expand the project to reach more people, as is the case in Zambia, where Rotarians are building on successful global grants and other programs that funded training for community health workers in other parts of the country. The challenge, he says, is figuring out which are the unique environmental factors that are responsible for the success of a project in order to be sure you are scaling up the right things.
By 1 March 2020 — the application deadline for the first Programs of Scale grant — the Foundation had received more than 70 proposals representing programs across Rotary’s areas of focus to be implemented around the world. After a rigorous review process, those were narrowed down to a select group, and the clubs involved were invited to submit full applications. A team of Cadre members and staff experts conducted virtual site visits and evaluated the proposals based on readiness to scale up the project, readiness to learn and share results, and how well the clubs involved would work with local communities and partner organizations. Three finalists were recommended.
"I was bowled over by the quality and strength of the applications, and by the expertise and experience of Rotarians on the ground and the connections they have," says selection committee member Judith Diment. "What I really liked about [the malaria project in Zambia] was the partnerships and the collaboration they had established," adds Diment, who is also the dean of the Rotary Representative Network and a longtime polio advocacy adviser. "It had many parallels with the polio program."
Rotary’s success in the polio eradication program provides valuable lessons for clubs — not only those interested in applying for a Programs of Scale grant, but those planning any project.
One lesson, as Diment notes, is about the power of partnerships. The Global Polio Eradication Initiative is one of the most ambitious public-private health partnerships in history. "Collaborating with partners gives you a much bigger opportunity for large-scale change," she says.
A second lesson is the need for large-scale programs to grow out of Rotarians’ interests. Before polio was adopted by Rotary on a global scale, individual clubs were already tackling the disease through Rotary-funded projects, including a 1979 project to administer oral polio vaccine in the Philippines. Programs of Scale, Tusubira notes, will give Rotary members the chance to come up with ideas they can demonstrate will have a sustainable impact and bring partners to the table.
Another lesson is about deploying Rotary’s power of networks. Rotarians around the world have used their connections — local, national, and international — to draw attention to and garner support for polio eradication.
Cooley, the development consultant, says he’s fascinated by Rotary’s potential to scale up projects. "These are the most prominently placed people in a community, all of whom are trying to do something good," he says. "Look at Rotary as an asset. There are lots of problems Rotary could make a big difference on."
The new Programs of Scale grants will give Rotarians a way to do it.
Frequently asked questions
What is a program of scale?
The Rotary Foundation has introduced a competitive $2 million grant to provide Rotary members with resources to implement large-scale, high-impact programs in Rotary’s areas of focus while fostering policy development and sustainable programs. The grant will invest in promising, locally led interventions that have already demonstrated success. Throughout the life of the grant (three to five years), Rotary members must work with an implementing partner and be prepared to document the program’s success.
Why is the Foundation now awarding a $2 million grant?
To increase our impact. Through this grant, the Foundation will support high-quality, member-led programs that have proven outcomes. Lessons learned will be shared with clubs and districts everywhere to further strengthen our service projects.
What are the attributes of a strong implementing partner?
Implementing partners must have expertise, experience, and program management systems, and must be an active participant in carrying out program activities. Implementing partners may be international or local NGOs, government entities, private sector organizations, or other Rotary entities, such as Rotary Community Corps or Rotary Action Groups. A program may have more than one implementing partner.
Why is an implementing partner required?
Ideally, implementing partners will add value to the program by complementing the strengths of the Rotary members involved. Having a strong relationship with an adept and experienced implementing partner is critical. Also, in the first round of the Programs of Scale process, the Foundation encouraged co-funding from philanthropic, private, and other sources. Co-funding can help increase the number of beneficiaries as well as demonstrate the partner’s strong commitment to the program’s success. Though co-funding is now required, it does not have to come from the implementing partner.
What is Rotary’s role in a program of scale?
Rotary members have a unique role as trusted community members and neighbors, as well as leaders who are globally connected and who are committed to positive change. Whether Rotarians assume technical, programmatic, or advocacy leadership roles, applicants should demonstrate why Rotary members’ active engagement is essential to the program’s success.
What type of project has the best chance of being awarded a Programs of Scale grant?
The successful proposal will outline a longer-term project that:
Is evidence-based and can already demonstrate success.
Is locally relevant to the intended beneficiaries.
Is ready to grow because it has the right stakeholders and systems in place.
Monitors, evaluates, and shares data.
Employs the unique strengths of Rotary.
Who reviews the applications?
All completed concepts and applications go through a rigorous review by members of The Rotary Foundation Cadre of Technical Advisers, Rotary staff, and other experts. More than 25 Rotary members and staff contributed to the review and selection process for the first Programs of Scale award.
The April 27 final draft of our District's strategic plan for the next three years for discussion at the May 6 meeting is in an email to all members from District Governor Joe Kashi sent Tuesday May 4.
The DG Team has focused upon providing clubs with a short, clear consensus document that outlines the strategic direction and approach of our District through the 2023-2024 Rotary year and provides broad guidance, consistency and goals over the next several years. We hope that it will be practical and useful for you and your clubs in your Rotary efforts.
Please review the attached final draft and send us your thoughts, positive or negative. We learn from both.
Please attend the May 6 annual business meeting and tell your thoughts about the direction that Rotary should take in Alaska.
Our District's annual "business" meeting will occur on May 6, 2021 at 7pm via the Zoom link below.
Here's the final agenda:
1. Financial Statements: Discussion of the already- approved financial statements.
2. Recognition of incoming DG-Elect Michael Ferris and incoming DGN Michael Pollen.
3. Discussion of DG Cheryl Metiva's annual theme of “Serve to Change Lives”.
4. Cheryl’s District Conference will held at the Talkeetna Lodge May 13 – 15, 2022 and Mike’s will be held in Kodiak May 4 – 7 2023.
5. Membership discussion regarding our Strategic Plan, copy attached of the current final draft.
Rotary District 5010 is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
South Peninsula Hospital is working closely with the State of Alaska Department of Health and Social Services and other state and local agencies in our response to the outbreak of COVID-19.
To help prevent the spread of COVID-19, you are encouraged to maintain a physical distance from others of at least 6 feet, practice frequent hand washing, clean regularly used surfaces, wear cloth face coverings while in public, stay home when sick, and get tested if you have been exposed or have symptoms.
Vaccines are now offered during your appointments at Homer Medical Center and the SPH Family Care Clinic. Inquire at time of your appointment.
Getting your second dose? Call 235-0235 for questions or if you need to cancel or reschedule.
Note: Pfizer vaccine is authorized only for individuals 16 years of age and older, and Moderna and Janssen vaccines are authorized only for individuals 18 years of age and older.
Who is eligible?Anyone living or working in Alaska is eligible. Vaccine Information: Information about COVID-19 vaccines approved by FDA Emergency Use Authorization:
CDC and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommend use of Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen (J&J/Janssen) COVID-19 Vaccine resume in the United States, after a temporary pause.
Reports of adverse events following the use of J&J/Janssen vaccine suggest an increased risk of a rare adverse event called thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS). Nearly all reports of this serious condition, which involves blood clots with low platelets, have been in adult women younger than 50 years old.
A review of all available data at this time shows that the J&J/Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine’s known and potential benefits outweigh its known and potential risks.
However, women younger than 50 years old especially should be aware of the rare but increased risk of this adverse event and that there are other COVID-19 vaccine options available for which this risk has not been seen.
CDC and FDA will continue to monitor the safety of all COVID-19 vaccines.
If you have any questions or concerns, call your doctor, nurse, or clinic.
Seek medical care right away if you develop one or more of these symptoms.
There is a plausible causal relationship between J&J/Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine and a rare and serious adverse event—blood clots with low platelets (thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome, or TTS). However, after reviewing all available safety data, CDC and FDA recommend use of this vaccine resume in the United States given that the known and potential benefits outweigh the known and potential risks.
This adverse event is rare, occurring at a rate of about 7 per 1 million vaccinated women between 18 and 49 years old. For women 50 years and older and men of all ages, this adverse event is even more rare.
For three weeks after receiving the vaccine, you should be on the lookout for possible symptoms of a blood clot with low platelets. These include:
Severe or persistent headaches or blurred vision
Shortness of breath
Chest pain
Leg swelling
Persistent abdominal pain
Easy bruising or tiny blood spots under the skin beyond the injection site
Seek medical care right away if you develop one or more of these symptoms.
CDC Recommends Use of Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine Resume
Alaska Department of Health & Social Services Weekly Case Update April 18-24, 2021
Decreasing
Statewide transmission Rt 0.98
HIGH
Statewide alert status 21.8
Adequate
Hospital capacity
Moderate
Test positivity 2.79%
49.2% Alaskan 16 years and older vaccinated
Red- quickly increasing, Rt>1.2
Orange- increasing, Rt 1-1.2
Yellow-decreasing, Rt<1
Red- 14-day average case rate per 100,000 people >10
Orange- 5-10
Yellow- <5
Red- <3 weeks until beyond capacity
Orange- 3-6 weeks
Yellow- >6 weeks
Red->5%
Orange- 2-5%
Yellow- <2%
At least one shot Estimated AK population 16 and older of 569,699 from census.gov (American Community Survey 2019)
Brief Status Report
The statewide transmission rate and daily case rates decreased slightly from last week. Case rates more than doubled in Fairbanks but decreased in Anchorage, Matanuska-Susitna, and Juneau regions.
1,090 cases were reported in Alaskans last week. This was a 3.5% decrease from the week before. Case rates more than doubled in Fairbanks but decreased in Anchorage, the Matanuska-Susitna region, Juneau, the Northern Southeast, and Southwest regions.
Case rates increased in the Interior region, Northwest, Southern Southeast, and YK Delta regions compared with last week.
The estimated statewide daily growth rate as of April 25, 2021 is -0.42% and new cases are expected to halve every 164.2 days based on current modeling.
Regional Case Trends
Behavioral Health Region
Case rates Mar 14– Mar 20
Case rates Mar 21– Mar 27
Case rates Mar 28– Apr 3
Case rates Apr 4– Apr 10
Case rates Apr 11– Apr 17
Case rates Apr 18– Apr 24
Anchorage Municipality
16.6
22.0
25.7
22.8
21.0
17.2
Fairbanks North Star Borough
11.7
13.7
16.2
17.0
18.3
37.1
Interior Region except Fairbanks
47.1
40.9
30.0
16.6
17.1
20.7
Juneau City and Borough
4.3
3.8
5.4
8.1
9.4
7.4
Kenai Peninsula Borough
6.2
6.7
11.8
15.5
20.1
19.3
Matanuska-Susitna Region
36.7
40.9
49.2
46.9
48.2
40.6
Northern Southeast Region
6.0
6.3
7.4
8.1
11.6
9.5
Northwest Region
5.3
4.5
3.2
3.7
4.5
7.4
Southern Southeast Region
4.0
4.7
5.4
6.1
5.8
11.9
Southwest Region
5.3
5.6
5.1
10.1
9.3
5.1
Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta Region
34.1
26.4
25.9
20.1
11.6
12.4
Statewide
17.3
20.1
23.5
22.3
22.0
21.8
Vaccines Status Update
Reported vaccinations as of April 25, 2021.
Anyone 16 years or older who lives or works in Alaska is eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine.
South Peninsula Hospital is working closely with the State of Alaska Department of Health and Social Services and other state and local agencies in our response to the outbreak of COVID-19.
To help prevent the spread of COVID-19, you are encouraged to maintain a physical distance from others of at least 6 feet, practice frequent hand washing, clean regularly used surfaces, wear cloth face coverings while in public, stay home when sick, and get tested if you have been exposed or have symptoms.
Covid-19 Vaccines
April 28 Update
Walk-in Vaccine Clinic!
10am-2pm Friday, May 7
Homer Spit Boat House Pavilion, Near Ramp 2
Both Pfizer and Janssen offered
Make an AppointmentFor an individual appointment for Pfizer vaccination at the Covid Vaccine and Test Clinic on Bartlett street.
NEW!Walk-ins welcome daily 12pm-5pm at 4201 Bartlett Street, lower level.
Vaccines are now offered during your appointments at Homer Medical Center and the SPH Family Care Clinic. Inquire at time of your appointment.
Getting your second dose? Call 235-0235 for questions or if you need to cancel or reschedule.
Note:Pfizer vaccine is authorized only for individuals 16 years of age and older, and Moderna and Janssen vaccines are authorized only for individuals 18 years of age and older.
Who is eligible?Anyone living or working in Alaska is eligible.
Vaccine Information: Information about COVID-19 vaccines approved by FDA Emergency Use Authorization:
South Peninsula Hospital is working closely with the State of Alaska Department of Health and Social Services and other state and local agencies in our response to the outbreak of COVID-19.
To help prevent the spread of COVID-19, you are encouraged to maintain a physical distance from others of at least 6 feet, practice frequent hand washing, clean regularly used surfaces, wear cloth face coverings while in public, stay home when sick, and get tested if you have been exposed or have symptoms.
Covid-19 Vaccines
April 19 Update
Watch here for upcoming dates and times for special vaccine events.
Note: Pfizer vaccine is authorized only for individuals 16 years of age and older, and Moderna and Janssen vaccines are authorized only for individuals 18 years of age and older.
Who is eligible?Anyone living or working in Alaska is eligible. Vaccine Information: Information about COVID-19 vaccines approved by FDA Emergency Use Authorization:
If you already got your first dose at a mass vaccination event, there is no need to make another appointment. You reserved your appointment when you got your first dose.
If you have questions about your second dose appointment, or need to cancel, call 235-0235.
Vaccines are not available at Homer Medical Center or South Peninsula Family Care Clinic at this time. Check back here for regular updates. See the map of vaccine locations statewide
South Peninsula Hospital Covid-19 Updates -- April 19, 2021 Updates
Through the years, Rotary has carried out thousands of projects to protect the environment. In just the last five years, we’ve allocated $18 million to projects that help our planet. Members have even more opportunities to focus on issues that are important to them, now that the environment is one of the causes we focus on.
Here are ways Rotary members are already supporting the environment.
Recycling
Brazil
In Campo Mourão, Brazil, only 5 percent of garbage is recycled, and workers at the local recycling facility lacked the equipment needed to increase productivity. Without a conveyor belt, they had to sort recyclable materials at tables and move them by hand, requiring extra time and effort. And their outdated press was slow and created bales of recyclables that were smaller than standard for the regional market.
Working with a local environmental program that coordinates the recycling cooperative, the Rotary clubs of Campo Mourão and Little Rock, Arkansas, developed a project to increase workers’ capacity to separate and process recyclable materials, providing both economic and environmental benefits. The project funded equipment to improve worker safety and efficiency and provided environmental and financial training. Workers sorted an additional 2.63 tons of recyclables per month after the grant project was implemented, and their income increased nearly 25 percent per month.
• This story originally appeared in the March 2021 issue of Rotary magazine.
People and the planet are inextricably linked. You must care for both.
Jennifer Scott Member of Club of Central Blue Mountains, Australia and former adviser to the Australian Minister for the Environment
Switzerland
Every year, more than eight million tons of plastic waste, also known as plastic soup, end up in the oceans. Sea birds die from ingesting phone parts, turtles believe plastic bags to be jellyfish, and fish mistake pieces of plastic for plankton. Microplastic enters the human food chain via these fish.
Swiss Rotary members created an association, “Mare Nostrum – End Plastic Soup,” to organize efforts around reducing the amount of plastic waste in the world’s waterways. Several times a year, volunteers remove plastics from rivers and lakes. The group has also developed a campaign to teach businesses how to dispose of plastic waste properly.
“The protection of rivers, lakes, and seas is a major global undertaking, as water is an elementary part of life,” says Marie-Josée Staff-Theis, member of Rotary Club of Arlesheima and co-president of the association.
This story originally appeared in Rotary Suisse.
Solar Lights
Kenya
In the remote villages of Ndandini and Kyaithani in eastern Kenya, families live on less than $1 per day, and their homes are not connected to any electrical grid. Most cannot afford kerosene or paraffin to light their homes, which means students cannot see to do their homework in the evenings. The Rotary clubs of Sunshine Coast-Sechelt, British Columbia, and Machakos, Kenya, learned about the problem while working in the area on other projects. In 2014, the Rotarians embarked on a project bring environmentally friendly solar power into homes and schools.
About 1,500 students attending local schools were each provided a solar light under a rent-to-own program; students pay $1 per month, less than the cost of paraffin, for eight months, after which they own the light. The proceeds are used to provide another student with a solar light the following year. Project partner Kenya Connect, noting that the time students spend reading has tripled with the introduction of the solar lights, described the program as “a game changer in our efforts to improve the quality of education for rural schools.”
The project also included the construction of computer labs at two schools and a solar system to provide enough power for the entire setup. More than 200 teachers received training on digital learning and ways to better make use of computers in their teaching.
This story originally appeared in the March 2021 issue of Rotary magazine.
Water Diversion
India
Residents of two communities near Aurangabad, India, get their water from wells that are recharged annually by monsoon rains. But within a few months after the rains end, the wells run dry, and community members either must go further afield to fetch water or must buy it, which many cannot afford.
The Rotary clubs of Aurangabad East and Chatswood Roseville, Australia, collaborated on an eco-friendly solution using a simple, traditional technology: check dams. These small dams are constructed across gullies to control the rate of stormwater flow. They decrease erosion and increase the amount of water that percolates into the ground. More than 200,000 check dams have been built across India for this purpose; a check dam constructed in India in the second century is one of the world’s oldest water diversion structures still in use.
In Aurangabad, the monsoon rains flow via a channel across a government-owned sports training center toward the sewage-contaminated Kham River. Rotary members funded the construction of two concrete check dams on the campus. The increased percolation of the monsoon rains into the ground is expected to lengthen the period each year during which the area’s 20,000 residents can obtain water from their wells. The dams have an anticipated life span of 75 years and require little maintenance.
This story originally appeared in the March 2021 issue of Rotary magazine.
Philippines
In 2020, seven Rotary clubs in the Philippines hosted a webinar, Logging for Good, to discuss the threat of illegal logging, and how it can erode an important natural protection against cyclones and tropical storms.
Conrad Vargas, Executive Director of Save Sierra Madre Network Alliance, Inc., spoke about the importance of the Sierra Madre Mountain Range and the threat from illegal logging. He also spoke about the needs of the indigenous people, quarrying, and the hazards that have been caused by dams in the area.
This story originally appeared in the February issue of Rotary Philippines magazine.
Water Conservation
Our vision is to start a forest that will be able to be enjoyed by our grandchildren’s grandchildren.
Israel
The Rotary clubs of Haifa, Israel, and Coral Springs-Parkland, Florida, are using an environmental education program to unite students of different cultures and beliefs around a topic of mutual importance in the desert region: water conservation. Students from 60 schools participated in the second phase of the project.
Schools selected research topics of interest related to water conservation or technology, such as desalination, rainwater harvesting, or water leaks. The teachers and students were supported in their science projects through equipment and connections with experts such as engineers, biologists, or physicists. More than 150 teachers received training in 26 training events.
Most schools in Israel are separated by culture or religion, whether Jewish, Muslim, Christian, or Druze. Through the cross-cultural component of the global grant project, students visited one another’s schools to see the research projects and came together for joint field trips to visit industry facilities or to hear related speakers, giving an opportunity for interaction that they didn’t have otherwise.
This story originally appeared in the March 2021 issue of Rotary magazine.
Sustainable Farming
Mexico
The Indigenous Tarahumara people live on the remote slopes and canyons of Mexico’s Sierra Madre mountains, growing ancient varieties of corn and beans for sustenance. But the seeds for these plants, handed down through generations, were wiped out by a prolonged drought. In the wake of the resulting widespread hunger, many young people and women with children left their homes to beg on city streets.
The Rotary clubs of Chihuahua Campestre, Mexico, and St. Augustine Sunrise, Florida, worked with a nongovernmental organization called Barefoot Seeds to facilitate community discussions with Tarahumara leaders to come up with solutions. Community leaders said they wanted seed banks and improved water storage to support continued subsistence farming.
As an environmentalist and proud Rotarian, having Rotary’s attention directed to the environment fits exactly within my interests.
Wijdan Alsharif Member of Club of Ramallah, Palestine and co-founder of the Palestine Green Building Council
The project established seed banks, demonstration farms, and plots to grow additional seeds using sustainable farming methods; reintroduced goats to improve soil fertility; installed rainwater harvesting equipment; and provided training. The project also provided solar-powered chest freezers to further extend the shelf life of stored seeds. At least 500 Tarahumara farmers received seeds, goats, or improved water access the first year.
This story originally appeared in the March 2021 issue of Rotary magazine.
India
In response to the devastation of hurricanes Gaja and Thane and the Nivar cyclone, Rotary members in the agricultural region of Tamil Nadu, India, planted over one million square feet of saplings in 100 days. The tree planting projects follow the style established by Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki, in which trees can grow 10 times faster.
Volunteers dug a hole three feet deep, mixed in manure and soil around a sapling, and then built fencing to protect the young tree. Water is provided through irrigation channels from nearby wells.
“The clubs left no stone unturned in approaching landowners, institutions, campuses, and organizations in fulfilling their mission,” says club member R Balaji Babu.
The protection of rivers, lakes, and seas is a major global undertaking, as water is an elementary part of life.
Australia
The Rotary clubs of Plimmerton and Porirua, New Zealand, have planted 5,000 species of wetlands trees and plants and plan to plant an additional 5,000 in 2021 to protect a wetland near Plimmerton in hopes of creating a forest of peace and remembrance. It is part of a New Zealand wide
Our Rotary Club has a team in the Homer Steps Up Challenge.
Our team name is: Rotary Club of Homer-Kachemak Bay
Please join the challenge! We may win a prize!
Register at homerstepsup.com. Or go to the Homer Chamber of Commerce sign up event on April 24, 11am - 2pm and they can help you.
Be sure to join OUR team!
This is the description from the Steps Up Challenge website:
This is a team event. Small teams are 5 – 24 members, large teams are 25+ and each team is competing for a Homer Steps Up! trophy in their "size division".
And:
As part of your free registration you will receive a participant keychain:
You can pick up a keychain at the upcoming in-person sign-up event outside of the Homer Chamber of Commerce on Saturday, April 24th from 11am-2pm, or you can contact us at wellness@sphosp.org and we will be organizing a few pick-up locations before the challenge starts.
Use your keychain to identify yourself as a Homer Steps Up! 2021 participant at a local business displaying the Homer Steps Up! 2021 sign.
Here’s how joining a Rotary club helped enhance Ashley Holmer’s work
Ashley Holmer is a member of the Rotary Club of Lewis River (Battle Ground), Washington
Photo by Fritz Liedtke
Looking for a meaningful year-abroad experience, Ashley Holmer decided to teach in Tanzania. The former college soccer star coached and taught English in a Maasai community in 2005.
But Holmer soon became more deeply involved in education in Tanzania. She co-founded the Indigenous Education Foundation of Tanzania (IEFT), which established a school in the village of Orkeeswa in 2008. In 2011, the leaders of Mungere village asked Holmer to help build its first community high school. That was the beginning of the Red Sweater Project, named for the color of the school uniforms. Since then, the Mungere School — and education — has been a central part of Holmer’s life.
The Red Sweater Project focuses on three main areas: quality education, gender equality, and responsible innovation. In Tanzania, many children — especially girls — leave school around age 12, in part because of costs for uniforms, school supplies, meals, and transportation. To keep students in the classroom, the project makes education affordable by reducing those ancillary costs.
In 2013, Holmer, who still spends about half her time in Tanzania, was invited to a meeting of the Lewis River Rotary club. She was struck by the way her values meshed with those of Rotary but was unable to join at the time because of attendance requirements. In January 2017, with those requirements having become more flexible, she became a member.
The club has embraced Holmer’s work and sponsors scholarships for six students each year to attend the Mungere School. “We have students whose parents are illiterate,” Holmer says. “One of my students just finished her teacher training. It’s coming full circle.”
— NIKKI KALLIO
Did you know there are Rotary clubs all over the world?
Alaska Department of Health & Social Services Weekly Case Update March 28-April 3, 2021
Increasing
Statewide transmission Rt 1.03
HIGH
Statewide alert status 23.5
Adequate
Hospital capacity
Moderate
Test positivity 3.0%
45.23% Alaskan 16 years and older vaccinated
Red- quickly increasing, Rt>1.2
Orange- increasing, Rt 1-1.2
Yellow-decreasing, Rt<1
Red- 14-day average case rate per 100,000 people >10
Orange- 5-10
Yellow- <5
Red- <3 weeks until beyond capacity
Orange- 3-6 weeks
Yellow- >6 weeks
Red->5%
Orange- 2-5%
Yellow- <2%
At least one shot Estimated AK population 16 and older of 569,699 from census.gov (American Community Survey 2019)
Brief Status Report
Virus transmission increased for the second consecutive week with higher case rates and test positivity. Anchorage, Fairbanks, and the Matanuska-Susitna regions saw a sustained rise in case rates, while Juneau, Kenai Peninsula, Northern Southeast, and Southern Southeast regions had higher rates than last week.
Anyone 16 years or older who lives or works in Alaska is eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. Alaska was the first state to offer vaccines to everyone over a certain age without prerequisites.
More vaccinations lead to fewer COVID-19 infections, illnesses, hospitalizations, and deaths. Vaccinations are the key to ending this pandemic.
DHSS encourages all Alaskans who are currently eligible for COVID-19 vaccination to make appointments as soon as possible by visiting covidvax.alaska.gov or by calling 1-907-646-3322. The call line is staffed Monday-Friday from 9AM-6:30PM and 9AM-4:30PM on weekends. The call line can also be used to answer general questions about vaccine safety and to request appointments to receive a specific type of vaccine. Alaskans receiving health services through a Tribal Health Organization or the Department of Defense should contact those organizations directly to determine their eligibility.
One new case of a COVID variant of concern was detected in Alaska during the past week.
What Alaskans Can Do
Every Alaskan who chooses to get vaccinated, wear a mask, stay 6 feet from others, and avoid indoor gatherings helps protect themselves and the health of all Alaskans. These are our best tools to decrease the chance of a new variant entering Alaska and spreading.
Fully vaccinated people can visit with other fully vaccinated people indoors without wearing masks or socially distancing. They can also visit with unvaccinated people from a single household who are at low risk for severe COVID-19 without wearing masks or socially distancing. Vaccinated people can also refrain from quarantine and testing following a known exposure to someone with COVID-19 so long as the vaccinated person is asymptomatic. We expect that CDC guidelines for people who have been vaccinated will continue to be updated as new evidence becomes available.
To stop COVID-19, including new strains of virus, from coming into Alaska and spreading, testing within 72 hours before returning to Alaska or on arrival and then strict social distancing until the test result is available is recommended. A second test 5-14 days after arrival is also recommended if the traveler is not fully vaccinated. As of Jan 26, 2021, the CDC requires international travelers to show proof of a negative test from within the last 72 hours on arrival back in the US.
CDC guidelines recommend regular asymptomatic testing for critical infrastructure workers and other groups at higher risk for COVID-19.
Alaskans should get tested immediately at the first sign of any symptoms. Tests work best when obtained promptly after symptoms start. Testing early helps people know if they are positive quickly and helps prompt them to take immediate precautions to minimize the risk of transmitting the virus to others.
Most Alaskans get COVID-19 from a friend, family member, or coworker. Many Alaskans who are diagnosed with COVID-19 report that they went to social gatherings, community events, church services, and other social venues while they were contagious but before they knew they had the virus.
Case Trends and Predictions
1,160 cases were reported in Alaskans last week. This was a 6.2% decrease from the week before, however it is the second straight week of rising rates in the Anchorage, Fairbanks, and Matanuska-Susitna Regions.
14-day average daily case rates were similar or higher in most regions of Alaska compared with last week. The Anchorage case rate increased from 22.0 last week to 25.7 this week. This is the highest case rate since mid-January. Fairbanks North Star Borough increased from 13.7 to 16.2 this week. Case rates in Matanuska-Susitna Region continued to rise to 49.2, the highest level this region has seen in 2021.
The Northwest Region decreased to from 4.5 to 3.2. The Interior Region except Fairbanks decreased from 40.9 to 30.0.
Case rates increased in Kenai Peninsula Borough, from 6.7 to 11.8, Northern Southeast Region from 6.3 to 7.4, Southern Southeast Region from 4.7 to 5.4, and Juneau City from 3.8 to 5.4. Case rates slightly decreased in Northwest Region from 4.5 to 3.2.
The Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta Region daily case rate decreased for a second week to from 26.4 to 25.9.
The estimated statewide daily growth rate as of April 5, 2021 is 0.9% and new cases are expected to double every 77.2 days based on current modeling.
Media contacts: Clinton Bennett, DHSS, 907-269-4996, clinton.bennett@alaska.gov Public inquiries: State COVID-19 Vaccine Helpline, 907-646-3322
Administration of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine paused for national safety review; mRNA vaccine administration will continue in Alaska and nationally
April 13, 2021 ANCHORAGE – Out of an abundance of caution, vaccine providers in Alaska have been asked to pause all use of the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) COVID-19 vaccine (Janssen) immediately, in accordance with a joint announcement from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration this morning.
All upcoming appointments with the J&J vaccine are being canceled in Alaska. This is because CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) is reviewing six cases of a rare and severe type of blood clot in women aged 18-48 years after vaccination with the J&J vaccine. Symptoms in these patients began 6-13 days following vaccination.
ACIP will meet tomorrow, April 14, to review the relevant data. Meanwhile, administration of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines will continue both in Alaska and nationally. The Pfizer and Moderna mRNA vaccines are considered extremely safe and effective.
Anyone who was scheduled to receive the J&J vaccine in Alaska this week should be aware that their appointment will be canceled or postponed. If you need help rescheduling your appointment to instead receive one of the mRNA vaccines (Pfizer or Moderna), please call the Alaska Vaccine Helpline at 1-907-646-3322 or toll-free 1-833-4-VAXLINE (1-833-482-9546).
“We take every vaccine adverse event seriously. This pause is an important part of the process that ensures the safety of the COVID-19 vaccines,” said Dr. Joe McLaughlin, Alaska’s state epidemiologist. “This is how our safety checks work. DHSS is notifying vaccine providers via email and phone calls this morning and is also providing information to all health care providers. Alaskans should also know this appears to be a very rare event, with six cases out of 6.8 million doses of J&J vaccine administered to date.”
As of April 12, there have been 11,178 Johnson & Johnson vaccine doses administered in Alaska out of 35,500 doses allocated in the state. This vaccine has been delivered to a number of sites in Alaska, including pharmacies, outpatient clinics, federally qualified health centers and local public health authorities.
The six U.S. cases were flagged in the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS), a component of national post-licensure vaccine safety monitoring. None of these six cases occurred in Alaska. Anyone who has received the vaccine who develops severe headache, abdominal pain, leg pain, or shortness of breath within three weeks after vaccination should contact their health care provider or seek medical care.
Health care providers are asked to report adverse events to VAERS.
# # #
Administration of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 Vaccine Paused for National Safety Review
South Peninsula Hospital is working closely with the State of Alaska Department of Health and Social Services and other state and local agencies in our response to the outbreak of COVID-19.
To help prevent the spread of COVID-19, you are encouraged to maintain a physical distance from others of at least 6 feet, practice frequent hand washing, clean regularly used surfaces, wear cloth face coverings while in public, stay home when sick, and get tested if you have been exposed or have symptoms.
Covid-19 Vaccines
April 13 Update
WALK-IN COVID-19 VACCINATIONS PFIZER VACCINE Saturday, April 17th at Homer High School 9:00am-11:00am, no appointment necessary. Second doses will be scheduled for around 21 days after first doses
For an individual appointment for Pfizer vaccination at the Covid Vaccine and Test Clinic on Bartlett street. Several dates available.
Note: Pfizer vaccine is authorized only for individuals 16 years of age and older, and Moderna and Janssen vaccines are authorized only for individuals 18 years of age and older. Who is eligible?Anyone living or working in Alaska is eligible. Vaccine Information: Information about COVID-19 vaccines approved by FDA Emergency Use Authorization:
If you already got your first dose at a mass vaccination event, there is no need to make another appointment. You reserved your appointment when you got your first dose.
If you have questions about your second dose appointment, or need to cancel, call 235-0235.
Saturday April 17 is the second dose clinic at Homer High School for those who got their first dose on Saturday, March 27.
Vaccines are not available at Homer Medical Center or South Peninsula Family Care Clinic at this time. Check back here for regular updates. See the map of vaccine locations statewide
South Peninsula Hospital - Covid-19 Vaccine Update - April 13, 2021
The Israel-based charity ‘Save A Child’s Heart’ reaches across conventional political boundaries for the welfare of children. Watford Rotarian, David Silverston, a trustee of Save A Child’s Heart UK, describes the amazing work which is taking place.
By David Silverston
Published Date: April 7, 2021
Among the many causes which Rotary supports, none illustrates three of our missions better than the charity ‘Save A Child’s Heart’. The health of children, the training of doctors and working towards making the world a more peaceful place, are all fulfilled by this work.
It is a little-known fact that one child in 100 is born with some form of heart disease. The generic name is Congenital Heart Disease (CHD).
In developing countries, due to a complete lack of paediatric cardiologists and facilities, children born with CHD are likely to live very short, painful and debilitating lives, rarely making it past their teens.
Save A Child’s Heart – SACH for short – has a mission to tackle CHD in children from developing countries.
It does so by bringing the children to hospital in Israel for surgery, and sending medical missions to these countries to train doctors.
Based at the Edith Wolfson Medical Center in Tel Aviv, SACH has treated children from 62 countries in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Europe and South America.
SACH has also trained over 120 medical professionals in Israel, sent out more than 100 medical missions, where they work with doctors with no cardiology training, and been afforded special consultative status by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
Rotary first got involved with SACH very early on through Walter Felman from Mill Hill Rotary in North London.
A Rotarian for more than 40 years, Walter became involved with SACH when it was founded in 1995 by Dr Amram Cohen. In 1999, he involved Rotary by sourcing a grant for medical equipment. Since then, through Global Grants, Rotary has donated a number of items of medical equipment to the hospital, which can be easily identified by the acknowledgement plaques on them.
"It is a little-known fact that one child in 100 is born with some form of heart disease.”
Items such as a heart lung machine, revitalisation kits, electronic ventilators, dialysis machines, monitors, plus funding of surgeries have all been donated by UK clubs like Mill Hill, Edgware and Stanmore, Wembley and Willesden and Watford, plus clubs from France, Romania and Israel.
SACH achievements are significant, having carried out more than 5,700 surgeries on children from 62 countries, half of them on children from Gaza and the Palestinian territories, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.
Stepping aside from the political complexities of seriously ill children being treated in Israel, this completed the third element of the charity’s mission, Mending Hearts – Building Bridges.
If you were to visit the Edith Wolfson Medical Center, you would find an Israeli child in a bed next to a child from Gaza, or the West Bank, from Syria, Iraq, Kenya, Ethiopia or Tanzania.
Members of the children’s families are there. With interpreters available, they talk to each other, bridges are built, friendships made and the barriers come down.
"SACH achievements are significant, having carried out more than 5,700 surgeries on children from 62 countries, half of them on children from Gaza and the Palestinian territories, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.”
After all, they all have the same thing in common; the health of their children.
Patients are not charged for their treatment and the team of 80 surgeons and clinicians volunteer their time.
But, there are other costs to cover, such as patients’ transport to Israel, plus pre- and post-operative care, medical missions, medical equipment and training. These costs are met by fund-raising around the world from organisations such as Rotary.
The training of doctors rates as highly as the actual surgeries carried out on children. By training a doctor so they can return to their country to carry out surgeries, means they become less reliant on charity. In turn, they will train other doctors in paediatric cardiology.
It’s the old saying: ‘give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime’.
The medical missions to developing countries help resolve a number of issues. SACH can send a fully-equipped operating theatre, plus surgeons, to a country where they can operate on children who would be considered too ill to travel.
"Patients are not charged for their treatment and the team of 80 surgeons and clinicians volunteer their time.”
This allows surgeons to carry out many more surgeries in a short period of time, while also training doctors in situ and thus reducing costs.
The medical missions also allow the clinicians to check up on children who they have previously operated on, as well as examining children with CHD to put them on a list for future surgeries.
Any readers with students at university looking to do voluntary work during their gap year?
The children’s house where the children stay prior and post-surgery is always looking for volunteers. It is an amazing experience which will stay with them for the rest of their lives.
This year, SACH is celebrating its 25th anniversary. Both Watford and Hemel Hempstead Rotary Clubs are planning to work together to buy medical equipment for the new International Paediatric Cardiac Center.
Eventually the center will enable SACH to double the surgeries carried out and double the number of overseas doctors trained.
Rotary honored six members as People of Action: Champions of Health on World Health Day 7 April, in recognition of their work to improve the foundation of good health at home and across the globe. The work of these members proved especially important and challenging due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
They will also be recognized at the 2021 Virtual Convention for their outstanding contribution to health.
Rohantha Athukorala
Rotary Club of Colombo Reconnections, Sri Lanka
In April while Sri Lanka was on lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Rohantha used his time in isolation to rally other members across Sri Lanka and create Stop the Spread, a comprehensive effort to reduce new infections through behavior changes. The program brought the country's top athletes together with some 15,000 Rotarians, Rotactors, and Interactors to create awareness of health protocols and behavior change that can slow the spread of the disease. They also created a certification program for businesses that met new health and safety protocols addressing the spread of the virus. More than 300 businesses have been certified including schools, supermarkets, hotels, and tea and apparel industries. Read more about the project.
Julie Dockrill
Rotary Club of Timaru, New Zealand
In 2013, Dockrill and other midwives introduced a Maternal and Infant Health Education program in Mongolia that has been adopted by the Ministry of Health. They created a "train the trainer" curriculum and made numerous trips to the country to help educate healthcare workers, university students, and expectant mothers about safety practices and protocols of childbirth. Since the program was launched in Mongolia, the mortality rate among pregnant mother and newborns has decreased by 60%.
James Ham
Rotary Club of Honolulu Sunset, Hawaii, USA
The Homeless Outreach & Medical Education (H.O.M.E.) Project has provided free medical services through weekly clinics in nine sites across Oahu, Hawaii. Ham, an emergency physician in Honolulu and an assistant clinical professor at the University of Hawaii's school of medicine, began volunteering with the project four years ago. Ham's Rotary club purchased and stocks a mobile clinic that expands the project's reach. To address the COVID-19 pandemic, Ham organized 12 Rotary clubs to provide hot meals and masks and hygiene kits to a quarantine camp for homeless people, as well as PPE to the volunteers who offer frontline care.
Mohan Kumar
Rotary Club of Bangalore Prime, India
Since 2007, Kumar's Reach the Unreached organization, has led efforts to provide prosthetic hands to more than 20,000 people in mostly economically-challenged communities of Africa and South Asia. He credits volunteers with leading him to the people who most needed help: among them, a mother who can now hold her baby, a barber able to resume his profession, and a boy who lost both hands in an electrocution accident. According to Kumar, accidents often lead to amputation among the more than two-thirds of India's 1.3 billion inhabitants who live in low-income rural areas.
Isabel Scarinci
Rotary Club of Birmingham, Alabama, USA
Scarinci, a polio survivor, has been a strong advocate for polio eradication. She is now leading efforts to eliminate another disease: cervical cancer. Funded by a Rotary Foundation global grant, the Rotary clubs of Birmingham and Colombo (Sri Lanka) have joined with the Sri Lankan Ministry of Health and the O'Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Alabama-Birmingham, where Scarinci is a behavioral scientist, to vaccinate girls in Sri Lanka against the human papillomavirus and to screen women for the disease at ages 35 and 45.
Scarinci contracted polio as an infant in Brazil in 1963. She recovered, and together with her mother, has become a strong advocate for polio vaccination.
Teguest Yilma
Rotary Club of Addis Ababa Entoto, Ethiopia
On World Polio Day last October, Yilma, chair of Ethiopia's PolioPlus committee, collaborated with the Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization to conduct a high-level panel discussion that addressed the problems COVID-19 created for ongoing polio eradication efforts. The media attention that event received helped people understand the importance of continuing National Immunization Days and spurred the government to continue providing polio and measles immunizations throughout the pandemic.
Join us on April 8 at 6:30pm to hear retired USMC Gunnery Sergeant Jeff Shilanski discuss his personal experiences and innovative approach to helping veterans cope with post-deployment stresses and trauma. Jeff spent 20 years in deployments I've heard Jeff's presentation and it is powerful, compelling, and innovative. Suicide prevention will be a District priority. I hope to see you on April 8. The Zoom link is below. You may invite others known to you if you wish.
Thanks and best regards
Joe Kashi
DG 2020-2021
Rotary District 5010 is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: Suicide prevention, a frank conversation with Jeff Shilanski, Gy Sergeant, USMC, retired
South Peninsula Hospital is working closely with the State of Alaska Department of Health and Social Services and other state and local agencies in our response to the outbreak of COVID-19.
To help prevent the spread of COVID-19, you are encouraged to maintain a physical distance from others of at least 6 feet, practice frequent hand washing, clean regularly used surfaces, wear cloth face coverings while in public, stay home when sick, and get tested if you have been exposed or have symptoms.
Covid-19 Vaccines
April 6 Update
Check back here Friday at noon for appointments for Janssen vaccine to be administered on April 17 at Homer High School.
For an individual appointment for Pfizer vaccination at the Covid Vaccine and Test Clinic on Bartlett street. Several dates available.
Note: Pfizer vaccine is authorized only for individuals 16 years of age and older, and Moderna and Janssen vaccines are authorized only for individuals 18 years of age and older. Who is eligible? Anyone living or working in Alaska is eligible.Vaccine Information: Information about COVID-19 vaccines approved by FDA Emergency Use Authorization:
If you already got your first dose at a mass vaccination event, there is no need to make another appointment. You reserved your appointment when you got your first dose.
If you have questions about your second dose appointment, or need to cancel, call 235-0235.
Saturday April 10 is the second dose clinic at Homer High School for those who got their first dose on Friday March 12.
Saturday April 17 is the second dose clinic at Homer High School for those who got their first dose on Saturday, March 27.
Vaccines are not available at Homer Medical Center or South Peninsula Family Care Clinic at this time. Check back here for regular updates.
Masks will be optional for students for outdoor recess. Masks will also be optional for outdoor classroom activities like PE, walking field trips, etc., if 6ft physical distancing can be maintained.
Staff, volunteers, and visitors are required to wear masks at all times. Handwashing and 6ft physical distancing should continue to be taught and emphasized in all grades.
Note: If a school is experiencing in-school transmission or high levels of COVID-19 community transmission, this option may be temporarily suspended, and masks will be required at all times.
Sports, MOA’s and facility usage agreements require individual mitigation plans approved through the KPBSD Planning and Operations Department (find the update: KPBSD SmartStart plan pages 8-9)
The race that is summer in Alaska has started. I hope you have your running shoes on, your to-do list in hand and are ready to hit all those projects and fun things that compete for our attention this time of year. In the midst of the busy season, I hope all of you take time to enjoy all the reasons you live in Alaska.
Still needed on May 15: At least two more Rotary volunteers to help with traffic/pedestrian flow at the annual Safe and Healthy Kids Fair from noon-2 p.m. this Saturday at Homer High School. These are outdoor positions, rain or shine. There are plenty of COVID-safe protocols in place for event, including it’s all outdoors; there will be mandatory masking; it’s shorter than in past years; there will be COVID screening at the entrance; and there will be generous space between booths. Many thanks to Vivian and Clyde for volunteering!
Rotarians will serve as friendly traffic directors for pedestrian flow, helping show participants the best way to get to where they need to be.
If you could let me know at Thursday’s meeting if you are available, it would be appreciated. As all of you know, among the great things about volunteering at these events is that not only do we help our community partners, but we also get to visit with each other and our neighbors who attend. I’m grateful the service and social aspects of Rotary are so tightly woven together it’s impossible to separate them.
Homer Steps Up Challenge: As of the morning of May 11, our team in the Homer Steps Up Challenge had logged 1,346,192 steps, with Sue Clardy leading our team of 12 with 97,070 steps. Way to go, Sue, and Team Rotary!
A reminder: Each year, Rotary District 5010 honors significant achievement and efforts by District Rotarians during the past year and remembers those who have passed. This will happen during a Zoom meeting that starts at 7 p.m. Thursday, May 13. (Spoiler alert: One of our members will be honored.)
This Week's Speaker -- Representative Sarah Vance, Legislative Update
Invocation -- Mike Miller
Speakers and Invocators are needed from May through June! Including next week!
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Regular Meeting Thursday Noon May 13, 2021 Using Zoom or in Person
First, there's still a need for at least two more volunteers to help with traffic/pedestrian flow at the annual Safe and Healthy Kids Fair from noon-2 p.m. Saturday, May 15, at Homer High School. These are outdoor positions, rain or shine. There are plenty of COVID-safe protocols in place for event, including it’s all outdoors; there will be mandatory masking; it’s shorter than in past years; there will be COVID screening at the entrance; and there will be generous space between booths. Please let me know if you can help. Vivian and Clyde, thank you for volunteering!
Second, we hope you can join us either in person at the Best Western Bidarka or via Zoom to hear Rep. Sarah Vance give us a legislative update at this week's regular meeting of the Rotary Club of Homer-Kachemak Bay. Chef Mike always prepares some extra food, so if you haven't RSVP'd to let me know you'll attend in person, please feel free to join us anyway.
Topic: Legislative update Time: May 13, 2021 11:45 AM Alaska
Meeting ID: 841 6965 9551 One tap mobile +13462487799,,84169659551# US (Houston) +16699006833,,84169659551# US (San Jose)
Dial by your location +1 346 248 7799 US (Houston) +1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose) +1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma) +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago) +1 929 205 6099 US (New York) +1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC) Meeting ID: 841 6965 9551 Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kdztqZVnjR
Thank you all for your involvement in Rotary and in your community. Hope to see you all on Thursday.
I want to spread the word about how District 5010 Rotarians are substantively delivering upon our promise to help Alaska's communities, despite the impediment of Covid this year. Rotary in Alaska is truly Service Above Self.
In this Email, I'd like to highlight a few of District 5010's substantive District-wide projects around the state, service about which virtually every Rotarian in our District has helped in some manner and about which we can all be justly be proud. There are so many such projects across our District that I know I've missed many. Email me with your Club's activities so that I can share them with all of our Rotarians!
This Email discusses some of our current in-state projects. In a later message, I'll detail some innovative international projects being done by our District Rotarians.
Food Security- Covid 19 has been a severe blow to many Alaskans, putting a higher proportion of Alaskans at risk for hunger, even in a relatively rich state like Alaska. Over the past year, PDG Andre` Layral, in concert with Anchorage Downtown Rotarian Diane Kaplan of the Rasmuson Foundation, has raised more than $75,000 to help local food banks feed Alaskans.
The Kenai Rotary club under President Scott Seitz organized a peanut butter challenge where clubs around Alaska and a few out-of-state Rotary clubs pitched in to provide pallet loads of highly nutritious, low cost peanut butter to local food banks.
Many other clubs such as Anchorage East, Anchorage Downtown, Anchorage South and Soldotna have long-standing food security projects, including mobile pantries, support for the Children’s Lunchbox program, anonymously-donated Fred Meyer cards, and other food security related projects throughout Alaska.
Similarly, Fairbanks, Kenai and some other Rotary clubs have announced clothing drives to help economically distressed Alaskans over the winter .
Rotary Cares For Kids is a now-classic district-wide project started by PDG Harry Kieling to assist children who are often left bewildered and clinging a black garbage bag of hastily-gathered clothes and personal care items when OCS is forced to remove them from their home due to abuse or danger. Many clubs currently participate in support Rotary cares for kids and it has been very active this year. New clubs have signed on to actively participate in the coming year.
Grassroots Community and Economy Building: The District and several Rotary clubs are now bringing no-cost rural community and economic development expertise to smaller areas in our state that have been negatively impacted by the slowing of Alaska's economy over the past five years. Very recent State of Alaska employment statistics show that Alaska has lost 7% of its employment compared to just before Covid and those earlier low employment levels reflected already-diminished employment over the prior four years of recession.
Supported by a small District Excess Reserves grant, District 5010 is working with the USDA-supported Western Rural Development Consortium headed by our eClub Rotarian Professor Don Albrecht. The Consortium has developed an award-winning process that helps local communities take charge of their own community and economic destinies, identify and better-use under-utilized local economic resources to build stronger communities and local economies, and to access the Consortium's extensive rural community and grassroots economic development expertise. This is particularly pertinent in more rural Alaska communities.
District 5010 has already started that grassroots community-based process in Nenana, Minto, and Haines. In Kodiak, a very strong Rotary-based working group has formed, involving both Kodiak Rotary Clubs, Kodiak's Chamber of Commerce ( headed by Kodiak Rotarian and Chamber Director Aimee Williams) and Anchorage Rotarians like our past Foundation Chair Woody Angst.
Through the good offices of another Anchorage Rotarian, we've also been in contact with the Alaskan Native Village Corporation Association about making a presentation about Rotary District 5010 and this District-wide project to the ANVCA conference late this summer and further extending this project to the most heavily impacted rural parts of Alaska. If you would like to know more, check out our District's YouTube channel at:
Safe water is one of Rotary's traditional areas of focus and such problems are not confined to far-away developing world countries. Every year in Alaska, emergencies and natural disasters affect community water supplies across our state.
So far this winter, six villages have lost their water systems due to fire or other disasters. Of course, the same can occur in our urban areas struck by natural disasters like earthquakes, tsunami, and severe storms. Some of these Alaska water system losses, such as the recent Tuluksak water facility loss, repeatedly made national news in publications like the New York Times and the Washington Post. Buying bottled water and flying that water into stricken areas is cost-prohibitive and not sustainable in any event.
DGN-D Mike Pollen and a Delta-area water engineer have a better idea, devising a very cost-effective, highly portable emergency water system that can be promptly taken as needed within Alaska by readily-available helicopters or small cargo planes. The systems are suitable for Arctic conditions and fit on an 8 foot square aluminum pallet, while producing several thousand gallons of safe water every day. Two or three such emergency systems that can run for the duration of a disaster would cost less than the amount of money that was recently spent flying a limited amount of bottled water into Tuluksak.
This is a technology demonstration project - the same design can be reproduced by the State of Alaska, FEMA or Rotary International's WASRAG safe water group and can provide a highly portable, flexible and cost-effective approach to providing safe water after disasters in many parts of the world.
District 5010 needs help devising and implementing a hybrid multi-source fundraising effort to fund this safe water project, raising funds from both traditional Rotary sources as well as more recent avenues such as GoFundMe. Please Email DG Joe Kashi at kashi@alaska.net if you're interesting in helping.
New and Interesting on District 5010's Website and YouTube Channel:
1. A conversation about effective club leadership: Effective, motivating leadership depends primarily upon your interpersonal skills.
Join Past District Governor Harry Kieling, Bernie Griffard, and 2020-2021 District Governor Joe Kashi for a conversation between them about how anyone become a more effective Rotary Club leader by developing the interpersonal skills that help your members feel positively upon their involvement with Rotary, reach consensus, feel energized, and WANT to work with you. Like any organization, Rotary clubs thrive when the club’s leaders develop their leadership skills. PDG Harry Kieling and Homer-Kachemak Bay Club Past-President Bernie Griffard have taught those skills for decades to new leaders. https://youtu.be/1Dd4pCuYd8A
2. A frank conversation about PTSD, alcohol abuse, and preventing suicide: Retired US Marine Jeff Shilanski (ironically, no known relation to our own Floyd Shilanski) came to the brink as a result of 20 years deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan during the global war on terror. That inevitably takes a total on every person. Jeff’s lively and intense presentation to the District 5010 eClub looks squarely at that toll and how it nearly cost him his life. He now helps similarly affected veterans in an innovative manner. https://youtu.be/Yh14tiXjTgs
3. In the next several days, we hope to post Anchorage Downtown Rotary Club's recent program by the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce about why improving Diversity, Equity, and Inclusiveness is good both for the community and for business.
Thank you and best regards to all District 5010 Rotarians
Joe Kashi
District 5010 Governor 2020-2021
Rotary's Helping Our Alaskan Communities - Some Recent Highlights
A long time ago, (actually a year and three weeks after I was born), President Franklin Delano Roosevelt founded the March of Dimes, on January 9, 1938, with the goal of ending infantile paralysis -- Polio.
Thousands of people mailed cards and letters, each containing a dime, to the White House.
The theme "March of Dimes" was inspired by screen and radio star Eddie Cantor. Cantor's appeal collected more than $85,000 in what the press called "a silver tide which actually swamped the White House."
"During the past few days bags of mail have been coming, literally by the truckload, to the White House," Roosevelt said during his birthday celebration broadcast on January 30, 1938. "Yesterday between forty and fifty thousand letters came to the mailroom of the White House. Today an even greater number — how many I cannot tell you — for we can only estimate the actual count by counting the mail bags. In all the envelopes are dimes and quarters and even dollar bills — gifts from grown-ups and children — mostly from children who want to help other children get well. … It is glorious to have one's birthday associated with a work like this."
FDR's personal secretary Missy LeHand with 30,000 letters containing ten-cent contributions to the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis that arrived at the White House the morning of January 28, 1938. Courtesy of Wikipedia.
A "March of Dimes" funded polio research. And we all know the huge contribution that Rotarians made to the effort to End Polio. Pink ribbons have raised millions for breast cancer. An Ice Bucket Challenge did the same for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. We need similar efforts that will translate into tangible progress to end Parkinson's Disease.
Unlike COVID-19 there is no downward trend in the curve of deaths from Parkinson's. But there are real things that turn the tide. And we need to start at the top. And that is the President. We want to flood the Whitehouse with Red Letters containing a dime, and these words:
DEAR MR. PRESIDENT
IN 1938 FDR AND MILLIONS OF
AMERICANS LED A MARCH OF DIMES TO
END POLIO.
TODAY PARKINSON'S IS THE WORLD'S
FASTEST GROWING BRAIN DISEASE,
AFFECTING 1.2 MILLION AMERICANS.
WE GIVE A DIME ABOUT
PARKINSON'S AND TOGETHER
WE CAN END IT.
My Rotary friends, if you are willing to mail a Red Letter to the White House I will get the pre-addressed letter into your hands. All you have to do is sign it, and perhaps add a personal note, and mail it.
If you can do that, just reply to this email... "I give a dime".
I thank you,
Maynard Gross
If you want to know more, or if you want to do more, I suggest starting at this web site:
50 appointments for Johnson and Johnson single dose COVID-19 vaccinations, to be administered on Saturday, April 10 at Homer High School mass vaccination clinic.
For an individual appointment for Pfizer vaccination at the Covid Vaccine and Test Clinic on Bartlett street. Several dates available.
Note: Pfizer vaccine is authorized only for individuals 16 years of age and older, and Moderna and Janssen vaccines are authorized only for individuals 18 years of age and older.
Who is eligible?Anyone living or working in Alaska is eligible.
Vaccine Information:
Information about COVID-19 vaccines approved by FDA Emergency Use Authorization:
If you already got your first dose at a mass vaccination event, there is no need to make another appointment. You reserved your appointment when you got your first dose.
If you have questions about your second dose appointment, or need to cancel, call 235-0235.
Saturday April 10 is the second dose clinic at Homer High School for those who got their first dose on Friday March 12.
Saturday April 17 is the second dose clinic at Homer High School for those who got their first dose on Saturday, March 27.
Vaccines are not available at Homer Medical Center or South Peninsula Family Care Clinic at this time.
Rotarians, Rotaractors, and Interactors worked together in a nationwide project that promoted behavior change and initiated safety standards for businesses
by Ryan Hyland
Rohantha Athukorala felt helpless. It was April 2020 when Sri Lanka was on lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic, and he wanted to do something immediately to help the country slow the spread of virus.
“The lockdown was so sudden and absolute. It was hard not being in control of what you can and can’t do,” says Athukorala, a member of the Rotary Club of Colombo Reconnections, Sri Lanka. “Especially for us Rotarians who pride ourselves on helping our communities in desperate times.”
But sheltering in place had its advantages, he says, providing the time and opportunity to connect with fellow members online. Their discussions sparked ideas about what they could do to help people understand how to stay safe from the coronavirus.
Promoting safety though social media
Athukorala started by contacting club and district leaders, talking with government officials, and listening to business leaders. In late April, he launched Stop the Spread, a comprehensive effort to reduce new infections through behavior changes.
Our Interactors have been fantastic and made a real difference in getting crucial information out to the public.
Rohantha Athukorala Rotary Club of Colombo Reconnections
He asked the more than 5,000 Sri Lankan Interactors to lead the campaign and be community advocates for specific behaviors such as wearing masks, washing hands, and social distancing. Interactors used their social media networks to blast daily messages about staying safe from the virus, and posted relevant communications from the Ministry of Health.
To complement the Interactors’ communication, Athukorala worked with the country’s Ministry of Sports and the National Olympic Committee to get top athletes to become ambassadors for Stop the Spread. More than 280 athletes — including stars in cricket and rugby, as well as Olympians — participated in videos and graphics that were posted on social media.
Stop the Spread also promoted safety protocols through a certification process for businesses. Athukorala and fellow Rotary members created the certification with the Sri Lanka Standards Institution that enabled companies that are compliant with certain safety guidelines to be certified as a COVID-19-controlled environment. Protocols such as mandatory mask wearing, temperature checks, and social distancing had to be in place in order to receive the certification. Nearly 300 businesses, educational institutions, supermarkets, and other retailers have passed the program’s rigorous audits and received certification, allowing customers and students feel safe while supporting these businesses.
When the lockdown order was lifted in early May, Interactors fanned out across their communities to visit businesses, homes, and public transport to give people educational materials and safety guidance. They became leaders in helping schools implement COVID-19 safety protocols, which allowed schools to open in early July.
“Our Interactors have been fantastic and made a real difference in getting crucial information out to the public,” Athukorala says, who was chair of the Sri Lanka Tourism Bureau and served as the chief business development officer for Sri Lanka at the United Nations.
Interact clubs bring together young people ages 12-18 to connect with leaders in your community and around the world. Rotary and Rotaract club sponsor mentor and guide Interactors as they carry out projects and develop leadership skills.
To encourage hand washing, local Rotary clubs worked with S-lon, a plastic water pipe company, and PickMe, a transportation organization, to build nearly 2,000 mobile hand washing units that attach to three-wheel bikes. Riders are encouraged to wash their hands before and after using the bikes. The aim is to promote hand washing hygiene in public spaces and increase hand washing rates, which is one of the best protections against COVID-19 infection.
The Rotaract Club of Kelaniya created a mobile app, Track the Spread, that allows Sri Lankans to log symptoms and register positive tests. The app is integrated with local hospitals and health centers so medical professionals can identify hotspots and communicate with people about their symptoms. It also allows people to purchase goods online from grocery stores, pharmacies, retail shops, and even pay utilities with the app, while allowing people to stay home and thus contain the spread. “This is helping commerce continue,” Athukorala says.
The government of Sri Lanka is now testing the app for widespread adoption across its health departments.
The next phase
As vaccinations are increasing in the country, more than 800,000 doses have been administered so far, Rotary clubs have also worked with local health officials to support vaccine sites including logging data.
Clubs worked with the World Health Organization and Ministry of Health to develop a booklet for parliament representatives and religious and community leaders to facilitate a successful vaccination program. The printable booklet has information on different vaccines, safe practices, and key messages that leaders can use to better inform people about the COVID-19 vaccines.
More than 88,000 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed as of mid-March, with over 530 deaths.
“We have done a great job at keeping COVID-19 at bay, but our next focus is making sure Sri Lanka can adequately provide vaccinations to its people,” Athukorala says.
Three vaccine clinics in the KPBSD, 320+ shots, first dose 2-26-21, and second dose 3-19-21
“Many staff have asked, ‘When will we be able to be vaccinated?’ It was complete sweetness when I could answer, ‘now.’ It gives light at the end of the tunnel that has taken a year to get through. Covid-19 is so much more than physical illness; it is mental and emotional as well. As a school nurse, the mental and emotional aspect that I have seen and experienced has come from not only students, but their parents and guardians, and from our staff. Working the clinic on Friday was amazing! Each person who came in showed excitement, relief, joy and of course, a few with anxiety, as they took what they feel is the first step to normalcy. A KPBSD teacher and his wife told me, ‘We truly felt that the experience was well-run, instilled confidence, and dripped of professionalism both from the staff and toward the patients.’”
–Dixie St John, RN, Kenai Middle School Nurse
Pegge Erkeneff, KPBSD Director of Communications, Community, and Government Relations reflects:
“This afternoon, Friday, February 26, 2021, across the Kenai Peninsula, about 320 school staff received their first vaccine, which will be followed up in three weeks by dose two, on March 19, 2021. Two weeks after that, they will be considered fully vaccinated. Three clinics were happening simultaneously in Seward, Soldotna, Homer. After school hours. At the central peninsula clinic, at old Soldotna Prep school, some thoughts from me:
♥️ Friday afternoon, sleet turns to snow, school nurses, city of Soldotna staff, office of emergency management friends, the local pharmacist, volunteers, all coordinated, and now welcome people who’ve been showing up for a year to keep teaching our next generation, and schools operating. People who choose to receive their first vaccine dose arrive
♥️ to the right of me the parking lot is full on busy with arrivals and departures
♥️ one year ago I could never have imagined this scenario. For me, for many years, this parking lot has been a place of school visits, and stories. Or daily fire briefings at incident command in summer months
♥️ I received Pfizer vaccine dose one ten days ago, so today I showed up to be a witness and storyteller, and celebrate a community of effort
♥️ I stood here, slung my big camera over my right shoulder (first time in nearly 10 months), unzipped my pocket to iPhone catch this snowy sign
…
and walked into a place of hope.”
Central Kenai Peninsula vaccination clinic, old Soldotna Prep School, February 26, 2021
“Because natural immunity cannot be proven past 90 days except in cases of severe disease, herd immunity will only be achievable when enough people get vaccinated. As with pandemics in the past like small pox and polio, vaccination is a key tool in stopping this Covid19 pandemic. The challenge now is getting people vaccinated quickly, before the virus can produce any more new variants that might be resistant.
Thirty-five of our employees signed up for the vaccination clinic in Seward on Friday. Everyone over age 50 was able to get into a previous clinic.
In Homer, we had about 87 people register for the February 26, 2021, clinic. Several of our school nurses will be staffing that clinic. I sincerely thank South Peninsula Hospital for their excellent effort to vaccinate people, and offer clinics.
Homer High School students and alumni support Homer’s Unified Command at the COVID19 mass vaccination event Friday, February 26, 2021, at Homer High School
In the central peninsula, ten nurses and three other staff will help at the Soldotna Prep clinic. And nurse friends are joining in like Nurse Tami from Public Health, and Nurse Tracy who retired from Soldotna High School, and Nurse Jane from the Allergy clinic. We will have nine vaccinating stations, and City of Soldotna volunteers are assisting in the observation room (everyone needs to stay for a minimum of 15 minutes after their vaccination) helping people to schedule their follow-up appointment in three weeks. On Thursday, we had 197 people signed up for our central peninsula vaccine clinic. Some staff who had signed up were able to receive the vaccination early after 42 doses needed to put in arms by 10:20 in the morning earlier this week. In addition, I have heard nearly 100 staff have had earlier opportunities to be vaccinated.
With the new variants popping in, it will probably take a higher number of people to be vaccinated in order to achieve herd immunity. And, the longer the virus can spread freely, the more opportunity for mutations that turn into new variants. Vaccination, masks, physical distancing, hygiene, contact tracing. That is what is going to end the pandemic. I feel like our school district is significantly contributing to the effort so from the bottom of my little nursing heart, I thank everyone so much for their willingness and support.”
February 26, 2021 vaccine clinic
The Kenai Peninsula Borough School District is committed to make it as easy as possible for everyone who wants to receive the vaccine to get it. The KPBSD does not require the vaccine, and is not tracking who has received it, or who has not, unless someone replied to an email last fall indicating that they wanted to receive the vaccine when it became available. The clinics are designed to be offered during times that work well with the schedules for staff and students.
For a Pfizer vaccine to be administered at the Saturday, March 27 mass vaccination clinic at the Homer High School.
Appointments are full at the Covid Vaccine and Test Site on Bartlett Street.
Check back regularly as appointments are added based on availability.
Note: Pfizer vaccine is authorized only for individuals 16 years of age and older, and Moderna and Janssen vaccines are authorized only for individuals 18 years of age and older.
Who is eligible?Anyone living or working in Alaska is eligible.
Vaccine Information:
Information about COVID-19 vaccines approved by FDA Emergency Use Authorization:
If you already got your first dose at a mass vaccination event, there is no need to make another appointment. You reserved your appointment when you got your first dose.
2nd dose clinics are by appointment only. No walk-ins.
If you have questions about your second dose appointment, or need to cancel, call 235-0235.
Friday, March 19th is a second-dose clinic at Homer High School for those who got their first dose at Community Christian Church on Friday, February 26th.
Vaccines are not available at Homer Medical Center or South Peninsula Family Care Clinic at this time.
COVID-19 vaccines commonly cause pain and swelling in the arm where you got the shot and can cause fever, chills, tiredness, and headache. These are short-term side effects that may occur in the week after you receive your shot.
Although these symptoms go away on their own, you can talk to your doctor about taking over-the-counter medicine like ibuprofen or acetaminophen after you receive your vaccine. Do not take extra medicines before the shot because it is not known if this could make the vaccine less effective at protecting you. It is okay to take your usual daily medications.
Some people have the same or worse side effects with the second shot, but these side effects also go away on their own. If you do not have side effects, it does not mean that the vaccine is not working. Some people have no side effects at all, and the vaccine is still effective.
To reduce the pain and discomfort where you got the shot
Apply a clean, cool, wet washcloth over the area.
Use of exercise your arm.
To reduce the discomfort from fever
Drink plenty of fluids.
Dress lightly.
If you have pain or discomfort, talk to your doctor about taking an over-the-counter medicine, such as ibuprofen or acetaminophen.
V-safe is CDC’s smartphone-based, after-vaccination health checker for people who receive COVID-19 vaccines. V-safe uses text messaging and web surveys from CDC to check in with vaccine recipients following COVID-19 vaccination. V-safe provides second vaccine dose reminders if needed, and telephone follow up to anyone who reports medically significant adverse events.
Note: V-safe cannot schedule vaccine appointments, including second doses of COVID-19 vaccines. If you need to schedule, reschedule, or cancel a COVID-19 vaccination appointment, contact the location that set up your appointment or a vaccine provider in your area.
V-safe is CDC’s active monitoring system for COVID-19 vaccine safety. It is available for every vaccine recipient and encourages people to check in regularly. V-safe works alongside existing robust systems designed to monitor vaccine safety, including VAERS, which alerts the CDC of adverse events. Milder side effects are also helpful to learn about, so when you participate with v-safe you’re supporting vaccine safety with the additional information you provide to the CDC.
The Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, or VAERS, is one way the CDC monitors vaccine safety. Anyone may submit a report to VAERS about a medical event after vaccination, even if they aren’t sure if it is related to vaccination. Vaccine providers are required to report all severe or unexpected events after vaccination, regardless of whether they think the event could have been related.
All deaths occurring after vaccination must be reported, even if they were expected or due to other causes. The information in each report is not checked before it is posted for public viewing on the VAERS site, although identifying details are removed. CDC has a team of clinical specialists that investigate each safety event reported to VAERS; deaths are investigated within 24 hours.
Investigation of vaccine safety reports takes place on a federal level. This means that while CDC’s team investigates VAERS reports, in particular any reports of serious or unexpected events, the State of Alaska does not have access to this information and does not conduct a separate investigation. Vaccine safety events are not reportable to the State of Alaska and instead are reported to federal systems only. For questions about specific VAERS reports, please contact CDC.
The CDC follows cases of anaphylaxis reported to VAERS or another reporting system, including v-safe, VAERS, CISA, Vaccine Safety Datalink, ongoing clinical trial data in partnership with the FDA, and the National Healthcare Safety Network. There are several published reports regarding CDC findings around cases of anaphylaxis occurring after COVID-19 vaccines:
Of note, both of these studies highlighted that there was no geographic predominance among anaphylaxis cases, meaning that there is no reason to think that people in a certain state or area are at higher risk.
The CDC and the FDA also look at events occurring in people over the course of their lives among both groups that have received a vaccine and groups that have not. Fortunately, no serious medical problems have been found to be more common in people who have had the vaccine. So far, the groups getting COVID-19 vaccines have had fewer overall medical events than similar groups of people who haven't had the vaccine, and this analysis does exclude medical problems caused by unvaccinated people getting COVID-19. If serious safety issues are found, these are made public and vaccination could be paused. No serious safety issues have been found with the COVID-19 vaccines.
When evaluating VAERS data, it is important to understand the strengths and limitations. VAERS data contain both coincidental events and those truly caused by vaccines.
Strengths
VAERS collects national data from all U.S. states and territories.
VAERS accepts reports from anyone.
The VAERS form collects information about the vaccine, the person vaccinated, and the adverse event.
Data are publicly available.
VAERS can be used as an early warning system to identify rare adverse events.
It is possible to follow-up with patients to obtain health records, when necessary.
Limitations
It is generally not possible to find out from VAERS data if a vaccine caused the adverse event.
Reports submitted to VAERS often lack details and sometimes contain errors.
Serious adverse events are more likely to be reported than mild side effects.
Rate of reports may increase in response to media attention and increased public awareness.
It is not possible to use VAERS data to calculate how often an adverse event occurs in a population.
For individual appointments at the SPH Covid Vaccine and Test Center on Bartlett Street. March 18th.
Please check back daily for updates!
Coming Soon! 350 appointments for Pfizer vaccines later this month (the only approved vaccine for 16-17 year olds).
Who is eligible?Anyone living or working in Alaska is eligible.
Note: Pfizer vaccine is authorized only for individuals 16 years of age and older, and Moderna and Janssen vaccines are authorized only for individuals 18 years of age and older.
Vaccine Information:
Information about COVID-19 vaccines approved by FDA Emergency Use Authorization:
If you already got your first dose at a mass vaccination event, there is no need to make another appointment. You reserved your appointment when you got your first dose.
2nd dose clinics are by appointment only. No walk-ins.
If you have questions about your second dose appointment, or need to cancel, call 235-0235.
Friday, March 19th is a second-dose clinic at Homer High School for those who got their first dose at Community Christian Church on Friday, February 26th.
Vaccines are not available at Homer Medical Center or South Peninsula Family Care Clinic at this time.
COVID-19 vaccines are effective at protecting you from getting sick. Based on what we know about COVID-19 vaccines, people who have been fully vaccinated can start to do some things that they had stopped doing because of the pandemic.
We’re still learning how vaccines will affect the spread of COVID-19. After you’ve been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, you should keep taking precautionsin public places like wearing a mask, staying 6 feet apart from others, and avoiding crowds and poorly ventilated spaces until we know more.
Have You Been Fully Vaccinated?
People are considered fully vaccinated:
2 weeks after their second dose in a 2-dose series, like the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, or
2 weeks after a single-dose vaccine, like Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen vaccine
If it has been less than 2 weeks since your shot, or if you still need to get your second dose, you are NOT fully protected. Keep taking all prevention steps until you are fully vaccinated.
What’s Changed
If you’ve been fully vaccinated:
You can gather indoors with fully vaccinated people without wearing a mask.
You can gather indoors with unvaccinated people from one other household (for example, visiting with relatives who all live together) without masks, unless any of those people or anyone they live with has an increased risk for severe illness from COVID-19.
If you’ve been around someone who has COVID-19, you do not need to stay away from others or get tested unless you have symptoms.
However, if you live in a group setting (like a correctional or detention facility or group home) and are around someone who has COVID-19, you should still stay away from others for 14 days and get tested, even if you don’t have symptoms.
What Hasn’t Changed
For now, if you’ve been fully vaccinated:
You should still take steps to protect yourself and othersin many situations, like wearing a mask, staying at least 6 feet apart from others, and avoiding crowds and poorly ventilated spaces. Take these precautions whenever you are:
In public
Gathering with unvaccinated people from more than one other household
You should still avoid medium or large-sized gatherings.
You should still delay domestic and international travel. If you do travel, you’ll still need to follow CDC requirements and recommendations.
You should still watch out for symptoms of COVID-19, especially if you’ve been around someone who is sick. If you have symptoms of COVID-19, you should get tested and stay home and away from others.
You will still need to follow guidance at your workplace.
What We Know and What We’re Still Learning
We know that COVID-19 vaccines are effective at preventing COVID-19 disease, especially severe illness and death.
We’re still learning how effective the vaccines are against variants of the virus that causes COVID-19. Early data show the vaccines may work against some variants but could be less effective against others.
We know that other prevention steps help stop the spread of COVID-19, and that these steps are still important, even as vaccines are being distributed.
We’re still learning how well COVID-19 vaccines keep people from spreading the disease.
Early data show that the vaccines may help keep people from spreading COVID-19, but we are learning more as more people get vaccinated.
We’re still learning how long COVID-19 vaccines can protect people.
As we know more, CDC will continue to update our recommendations for both vaccinated and unvaccinated people.
Until we know more about those questions, everyone — even people who’ve had their vaccines — should continue taking basic prevention stepswhen recommended.
March 9, 2021 (Juneau, AK) – Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy today announced effective immediately the COVID-19 vaccine is available for all individuals who live or work in Alaska and are age 16 and older, making Alaska the first state in the nation to remove eligibility requirements.
“This historic step is yet another nationwide first for Alaska, but it should come as no surprise. Since day one, your response to the pandemic has been hands-down the best in the nation,” said Governor Mike Dunleavy. “I couldn’t be prouder of Alaska’s response. From being the first state to offer widespread testing, to maintaining one of the lowest mortality rates in the country, to rolling out vaccinations to every willing Alaskan, we got here by working together.”
“It is a great day for Alaskans wanting to receive the COVID-19 vaccine,” said Adam Crum, Commissioner of the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services. “I want to thank Governor Dunleavy for this opportunity and if Alaskans had any questions about vaccine eligibility and criteria, I hope today’s announcement clears it up for you, simply put, you are eligible to get the vaccine.”
The Pfizer vaccine is available to individuals who are 16 and older, while the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and the Moderna vaccine are available to individuals who are 18 and older. All three authorized vaccines have shown to be very effective at preventing severe illness, hospitalization, and death caused by COVID-19.
Regions including Kodiak Island, the Petersburg Borough, and the Kusilvak Census Area are nearing or exceeding 90% vaccination rates among seniors. In the Nome Census Area, over 60% of residents age 16 and over have received at least one shot, and roughly 291,000 doses have been administered statewide.
“A healthy community means a healthy economy. With widespread vaccinations available to all Alaskans who live or work here, we will no doubt see our economy grow and our businesses thrive,” said Governor Dunleavy.
Visit covidvax.alaska.govor call 1-907-646-3322 for more information and to sign up for a COVID-19 vaccination.
Dunleavy Announces COVID-19 Vaccine Available to All Alaskans
The Rotary Foundation is giving a significant boost to the fight against malaria in Zambia with a new $2 million Programs of Scale grant that will scale an already successful program model. Partners for a Malaria-Free Zambia is a Rotarian-led effort that will use a community health worker model proven to effectively respond to cases of malaria and prevent transmission. The program aims to help reduce malaria cases over time by 90% in 10 target districts in two of the country’s provinces.
Malaria, a preventable disease caused by a parasite spread through the bites of infected mosquitoes, continues to be one of Zambia’s leading causes of illness and death, especially infant and maternal deaths.
The grant will allow Partners for a Malaria-Free Zambia to strengthen the country’s health system by working with Zambian health officials at all levels and training 380 health facility staff members, as well as training and equipping more than 2,500 new community health workers. This will increase access to malaria diagnosis and treatment for the more than 1.3 million people in heavily affected areas in the Central and Muchinga provinces and greatly contribute to the national effort to eliminate the deadly disease.
Rotary club-led Partners for a Malaria-Free Zambia program will help reduce malaria cases by 90% in 10 target districts in two of the country’s provinces.
Sponsored by the Rotary Club of Federal Way, Washington, USA, the program brings together local Rotary members and partner organizations who share a goal to combat malaria in Zambia. In addition, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and World Vision USA will co-fund the program with $2 million each, bringing total funding to $6 million.
“This project complements and builds upon the leadership of the government of Zambia in working to eliminate malaria from the country,” says Philip Welkhoff, director of the Malaria Program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “We are thrilled to expand on our longstanding partnerships with Rotary and World Vision to advance progress in hard-to-reach communities and to realize the goal of ending malaria for good.”
To diagnose and treat community members, health workers will be supplied with rapid diagnostic test kits, anti-malaria medicine, lancets for finger pricks, and educational materials. They’ll also receive bicycles and mobile phones, allowing them to reach communities and regularly report cases and share malaria data within the national health system. Making sure local and national information is integrated and providing ongoing support for the community health worker network are essential to the program’s goal of strengthening provincial health services for long-term success fighting malaria.
By empowering these volunteers, who are selected by their fellow community members, the project connects people in areas with limited access to health care with trusted members of their community, says Bill Feldt, a member of the Federal Way club.
This proven health care delivery model is effective and financially sustainable and will bring lasting protection by reducing and eliminating this disease at the local level.
— Bill Feldt, member of the Rotary Club of Federal Way
"This proven health care delivery model is effective and financially sustainable and will bring lasting protection by reducing and eliminating this disease at the local level,” says Feldt, who has been involved in Rotary’s efforts to control malaria in sub-Saharan Africa for more than 10 years.
John Hasse, World Vision’s national director in Zambia, says it’s leveraging the strength of local community health workers that’s most appealing about the program.
“We’ve learned from our experience the importance of bringing healthcare closer to those who need it,” says Hasse.
Hasse adds, “Such an effective, proven and local strategy is exactly what is needed to reduce the dreaded disease of malaria and move us closer to malaria elimination in Zambia.”
With COVID-19 still a health threat around the world, the program’s leaders are prepared to ensure a safe environment for health workers and community members. Training of community health workers will follow COVID-19 protocols, including social distancing. Training class sizes will be limited according to guidelines from the World Health Organization and Zambian government. Personal protective equipment will also be provided. And when a COVID-19 vaccine becomes available in Zambia, community health workers will be well-positioned to mobilize communities to receive the vaccine.
Scaling proven methods
Partners for a Malaria-Free Zambia is the first recipient of the Foundation’s Programs of Scale grant. Programs of Scale will award $2 million annually to expand a well-developed service program that is led by a Rotary club or district and has demonstrated success in effecting change. The funding enables evidence-based programs that align with one of Rotary’s areas of focus to scale over three to five years to help larger populations of people and foster policy development to increase sustainability. Programs of Scale will expand Rotary members’ ability to implement large-scale, high-quality programs with experienced partners — and share their program knowledge and results with other Rotary clubs.
“Rotary’s Programs of Scale is encouraging our members to think big and to work with other organizations to find comprehensive solutions to large-scale issues,” Rotary Foundation Trustee Chair K.R. Ravindran says. “The power of Rotary is greatly magnified when we partner with like-minded organizations.”
Read more about Programs of Scale and descriptions of this year’s finalists.
Fighting malaria has long been a priority for the Federal Way club. For more than 10 years, club members have been building relationships and working with international partners, including Zambian Rotary clubs, Malaria Partners Zambia, Malaria Partners International, PATH’s MACEPA project (Malaria Control and Elimination Partnership in Africa), the Ministry of Health’s National Malaria Elimination Centre, provincial health leaders, World Vision, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and other nongovernmental organizations.
Since 2011, the Federal Way club has worked with its partners and several Rotary clubs to distribute tens of thousands of mosquito bed nets, drug treatments, and testing kits across Zambia’s Copperbelt province. In recent years, clubs in the U.S. and Zambia used Rotary Foundation global grants to train and deploy more than 1,500 community health workers in target Copperbelt districts, after seeing this model help reduce malaria cases in Zambia’s Southern province.
Building on this evidence and their experience and commitment, Federal Way members saw Programs of Scale as an opportunity to work with The Rotary Foundation to make an even greater impact in Zambia. Using the latest research in malaria and combining the strengths and resources of each partner organization, they developed Partners for a Malaria-Free Zambia to bring lifesaving care to more communities.
Martha Lungu, a member of the Rotary Club of Ndola, Zambia, and executive director for Malaria Partners Zambia, says volunteer community health workers are paid small stipends and work long hours. The driving force behind their dedication is knowing that they are making a difference.
“They are well-respected in their community,” Lungu says. “It’s prestigious to be trained. If you ask them why they really stay on, they talk about the people they’re helping, the mothers and children. They are looked up to by their community.”
She thanks her fellow Rotary members for their commitment to the program and role in facilitating trainings and building relationships with rural health centers and government leaders.
“Every day I witness firsthand the effects of malaria,” says Lungu. “This program demonstrates that Rotary members are true partners in our communities and focused on supporting community health workers to help loosen the grip malaria has on the Zambian people.”
New Rotary Foundation Grant Supports Scaling Proven Malaria Program in Zambia
500+ appointments at a mass vaccination clinic on Friday, March 12 at Homer High School
Individuals booking here must be available on Saturday, April 10 for second dose.
Individual appointments at the covid vaccine and testing site on Bartlett street are currently full.
Please check back regularly for updates as additional dates may be added.
Appointments full?Click here to add your contact information to be on our waitlist to be notified for day-of cancellations.
Check here Monday, March 15 for 40+ appointments for Janssen (Johnson and Johnson) vaccine.
Who is eligible?Anyone living or working in Alaska is eligible.
Note: Pfizer vaccine is authorized only for individuals 16 years of age and older, and Moderna and Janssen vaccines are authorized only for individuals 18 years of age and older.
Vaccine Information:
Information about COVID-19 vaccines approved by FDA Emergency Use Authorization:
If you already got your first dose at a mass vaccination event, there is no need to make another appointment. You reserved your appointment when you got your first dose.
2nd dose clinics are by appointment only. No walk-ins.
If you have questions about your second dose appointment, or need to cancel, call 235-0235.
Friday, March 12th is a first and second-dose clinic at Homer High School, second dose for those who got their first dose on February 12th or 13th at Community Christian Church.
Friday, March 19th is a second-dose clinic at Homer High School for those who got their first dose at Community Christian Church on Friday, February 26th.
Vaccines are not available at Homer Medical Center or South Peninsula Family Care Clinic at this time.
Spring break is here! If your family or student travels outside the state, the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District recommends travelers get a COVID-19 test within 72 hours of returning to Alaska, and practice social distancing until you receive the results. Free testing is also available at the airport upon arrival. Have fun – and stay safe!
200+ appointments at the SPH Covid Vaccine and Test Center on Bartlett Street March 9th, 10th, 11th, 16th and 17th. Additional dates will be added as needed.
We are expecting additional vaccine supplies soon. Check back regularly for updates as additional dates may be added.
If you already got your first dose at a mass vaccination event, there is no need to make another appointment. You reserved your appointment when you got your first dose.
2nd dose clinics are by appointment only. No walk-ins.
If you have questions about your second dose appointment, or need to cancel, call 235-0235.
Friday, March 5th second-dose clinic at Homer High School is for those who got their first dose on February 5th or 6th at Community Christian Church
Friday, March 12th is a first and second-dose clinic at Homer High School, second dose for those who got their first dose on February 12th or 13th at Community Christian Church.
Friday, March 19th is a second-dose clinic at Homer High School for those who got their first dose at Community Christian Church on Friday, February 26th.
Vaccines are not available at Homer Medical Center or South Peninsula Family Care Clinic at this time.
Randall Butler is the chair of the peacebuilding committee of a club with more than a century of dedication to fostering peace
by Geoffrey Johnson
Randall Butler, Rotary Club of Boulder, Colorado, USA
Photography by Matt Nager
“I’ve been in conflict resolution my whole career,” says Randy Butler, the founder and CEO of the Institute for Sustainable Peace. A former trial lawyer, Butler abandoned the courtroom to focus on using mediation to resolve disputes and training others in the use of mediation. “I’d found my passion,” he says.
In 2018, he led a workshop to “build the skills necessary to overcome the polarization we are experiencing in the United States.” When Butler reached out to the peacebuilding committee at the Rotary Club of Boulder, he met Gary Kahn, who asked him: “Why are you not a member of Rotary?”
Attending a meeting of the Boulder club, he says, “it was amazing to look at all these people around the room — the district attorney; medical professionals and successful businesspeople; college professors — and realize that here was a club that had brought all these individuals together and that they make a real difference in what they’re doing.”
It was Butler’s Rotary epiphany. “I suddenly saw this network forming all over the world: people who knew how to get things done and knew people they could get things done with.”
Today he’s the chair of the peacebuilding committee of the 101-year-old club, which has dedicated its second century to fostering peace. “We remind our club members that all of our projects that help to build Positive Peace involve collaborations at the community level, even across traditional divides,” he says, noting that they look forward to using the vast Rotary network to build even more “bridges of understanding.”
Note: Vaccine managed by the Alaska Tribal Health System, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the U.S. Department of Defense may have different eligibility criteria.
Who is eligible now?
Alaska uses a phased approach to make the vaccine available. Vaccine supply is very limited at first, and it will gradually be available to more Alaskans over time.
People 65 years and above People who assist someone 65 years of age or older in getting a vaccination are eligible to be vaccinated at the same time. Both the senior and the person providing assistance will need to schedule an appointment at the same location and time. The person assisting does not need to meet other eligibility requirements to receive the vaccine.
People 50 years and above who have any of the following high-risk medical conditionsknown to be risk factors for severe COVID-19 associated illness:
People living or working incongregate settings not covered in Phase 1a, limited to:
Acute psychiatric facilities;
Correctional settings;
Group homes for individuals with disabilities or mental and behavioral health conditions;
Homeless and domestic violence shelters;
Substance misuse and treatment residential facilities; and
Transitional living homes
Note: Congregate settings may include people working in any system whose job responsibilities require them to interact with individuals residing in congregate settings (e.g. people who work in the judicial system).
Includes Skilled Nursing Facilities, Assisted Living Homes, and Dept of Corrections infirmaries providing care that is similar to an assisted living facility
Particularly includes those performing the highest risk procedures or who spend extended periods of time bedside and whose absence from work would compromise the ability of the hospital to continue functioning. Personnel in this category include, but are not limited to: ICU and COVID unit nurses, LPNs, CNAs and patient care technicians; ICU and COVID unit physicians; Inpatient physicians caring for COVID patients, including hospitalists; Respiratory therapists; Emergency department personnel; Personnel working in operating and other procedural rooms in which aerosol generating procedures are conducted.; Other hospital staff working in COVID units such as PT/OT/ST therapists, phlebotomists, etc.; Environmental services personnel; and Facility security personnel
Particularly those personnel whose absence from work would compromise the ability of these critical medical services to continue. This Tier includes personnel in certified ground-based and air medical services. This Tier also includes community health aides/health workers providing EMS services.
Community Health Aides/Practitioners
Pandemic response staff who may come into contact with the SARS-CoV-2 virus during outbreak response activities.
Have direct human patient contact, or have direct contact with infectious materials from patients, AND
Provide essential services in a hospital, clinic, home, or community-based setting that cannot be offered remotely or performed via telework; AND
Provide essential health care service in a health care setting that cannot be postponed without serious negative impact to the patient's health
Note: Workers in health care settings includes people who stay home to provide healthcare for a medically fragile person. Eligible individuals provide daily support related to an individual’s activities of daily living (i.e., bathing, dressing, eating) and instrumental activities of daily living (i.e., shopping, laundry, light housework).
Who is eligible soon?
Not yet open (Phase 1b Tier 3). Timeline to be determined.
People 55 years and above
People 40 years and above who have a high-risk medical condition
People 16-49 who are frontline essential workers with a high-risk medical condition
People 16 years and above who live in a multigenerational household with 3 or more generations, or “skipped” generations (e.g., a grandchild living with an elder).
People 16 and above who live in communities where at least 45% homes have not been served either via pipe, septic tank and well, or covered haul system.
Not yet open (Phase 1c). Timeline to be determined.
We’re working to provide additional information, as it becomes available. Vaccine supply is very limited at first, and it will gradually be available to more Alaskans over time. Alaska uses a phased approach to make the vaccine available. The State of Alaska COVID-19 Vaccination Plan: Allocation Guidelines (PDF) explain the process.
200+ appointments at the SPH Covid Vaccine and Test Center on Bartlett Street March 9th, 10th and 11th. Additional dates will be added as needed.
We are expecting additional vaccine supplies soon. Check back regularly for updates as additional dates may be added.
Who is eligible?
Newly added:
People who stay home to provide healthcare for a medically fragile person. Eligible individuals provide daily support related to an individual’s activities of daily living (i.e., bathing, dressing, eating) and instrumental activities of daily living (i.e., shopping, laundry, light housework).
People who assist someone 65 years of age or older in getting a vaccination. Both the senior and the person providing assistance will need to schedule an appointment at the same location and time. The person assisting does not need to meet other eligibility requirements to receive the vaccine.
If you already got your first dose at a mass vaccination event, there is no need to make another appointment. You reserved your appointment when you got your first dose.
2nd dose clinics are by appointment only. No walk-ins.
If you have questions about your second dose appointment, or need to cancel, call 235-0235.
Friday, March 5th second-dose clinic at Homer High School is for those who got their first dose on February 5th or 6th at Community Christian Church
Friday, March 12th is a first and second-dose clinic at Homer High School, second dose for those who got their first dose on February 12th or 13th at Community Christian Church.
Friday, March 19th is a second-dose clinic at Homer High School for those who got their first dose at Community Christian Church on Friday, February 26th.
Vaccines are not available at Homer Medical Center or South Peninsula Family Care Clinic at this time.
Official Insights from the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services
Sign up for insights into DHSS's COVID-19 response
Subscribe to DHSS Insights for behind-the-scenes news about Alaska’s COVID-19 response and other efforts to protect the health and well-being of Alaskans. Stay strong, be safe, and protect yourself and others by following the current Health Advisories. Together we can stay on top of COVID!
Event organizers join weekly public meetings to share creative ways for hosting safer gatherings during the pandemic
FEBRUARY 26, 2021 — Organizers are taking creative approaches to continue holding events in ways that prevent spreading COVID-19 during the pandemic. They turned previous in-person events into virtual celebrations. They’ve taken one large event and split it into smaller events to reduce crowd size. They’ve taken something that typically happens indoors and moved it outside. During the past year, organizers have worked with the Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) to share ideas with other event planners and communities of faith to help people continue gathering in safer ways.
The new Plan Safer Events project makes sharing ideas easier. The project is a partnership between DHSS and Denali Daniels and Associates. It gives organizers resources that help decide if or how to host events. The project’s staff can connect event organizers with advisors who offer tailored guidance and assistance to plan events in ways that prevent the spread of COVID-19 during the pandemic.
Alaska Botanical Garden splits large summer event into smaller picnics
Mike Monterusso, the Botanical Garden’s executive director, described the COVID-19 safety protocols used during events in the garden. Monterussa recalled asking himself a question: “What is your mitigation plan for these scenarios?” During the Jan. 4 meeting, Monterusso said physical distancing still needs to happen at outdoor events to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
“When you get a certain number of people in a spot, it doesn’t matter if you are indoors or outdoors. You’re still easily within six feet of each other,” Monterusso said. He later emphasized organizers have to figure out a way to manage events to ensure that at least six feet of physical distancing is possible at events.
Monterusso decided he needed to shrink the size of popular events after examining the large number of people who typically attend. Smaller numbers of attendees would be needed to follow social distancing guidelines. Despite the garden being an outdoor venue, it still included places where visitors could get in close proximity of one another.
The garden’s staff looked for ways to spread out the number of visitors across different times and days. Staff also started limiting the number of tickets sold on a given day.
Monterusso came up with a new approach to the garden’s annual summer gala. Last summer, he decided to hold multiple weekly picnics instead. This required more staff to manage traffic flow and ensure that social distancing was practiced by all visitors. Even so, Monterusso decided he preferred this change and said he will likely continue holding weekly picnics instead of the summer gala in the future.
Seward event organizers convert indoor event to outdoor celebration
Jenny Rutledge and Jose Vacabustamante with Seward’s Sports and Recreation team shared their experiences planning and hosting events during the pandemic. Before the pandemic, the two ran a facility that included a gym, workout room, sauna and racquetball court. The facility closed in March 2020 due to the pandemic. Since its closure, Rutledge and Vacabustamante have held one event: The Halloween Spooktacular. This Halloween event is usually an indoor carnival with about 200 participants. In 2020, they held a much smaller event outdoors to make it safer. Staff posted signs encouraging social distancing, and attendees wore masks. Staff made sure family groups were six feet apart when lining up at booths, and volunteers from the local fire department helped with traffic flow to minimize close contact with others.
The team in Seward also discussed their plan to host another carpool movie night that requires all attendees to pre-register and park six feet apart. Rutledge described the success of the Dec. 12, 2020, carpool movie night in an Alaska Recreation Parks Association article.
“It was nice to see the community out and about enjoying themselves, and we can’t wait to continue this event, if Alaskan weather will allow it,” she said in the article.
Rutledge and Vacabustamante highlighted the importance of thinking creatively during the pandemic and overcoming the challenges that arise when needing to do things differently. Looking for solutions was necessary so Rutledge and Vacabustamante could offer the community safer events and ways to continue connecting with others and having fun.
Find more resources for planning gathering and events, and for communities of faith
Monterusso, Rutledge and Vacabustamante shared their ideas during a regular Monday Zoom meeting organized by DHSS, the Plan Safer Events project, and the University of Alaska Anchorage’s (UAA) Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes (ECHO) team. This partnership runs these live ECHO sessions through Zoom. The Events and Faith ECHOs are recorded for later viewing and listening. During 2021, DHSS will work with UAA’s ECHO team to virtually connect event organizers and communities of faith with a panel of professionals to discuss several strategies to safely gather during the pandemic.
To hear recommendations from other event organizers and state representatives, please register for the Events and Faith ECHOs below:
In a challenging time, Rotary members and partners have shown drive in overcoming challenges
by Diana Schoberg Image credit: Andrew Esiebo
It was May 1997, and Sam Okudzeto, then a member of the African Regional PolioPlus Committee from Ghana, was flying to Sierra Leone for what he anticipated would be a routine annual meeting about polio eradication in Africa. But when his plane touched down and he looked out the window, he saw that soldiers, guns drawn, had flooded the tarmac.
As Okudzeto made his way to passport control, he asked an airport official what was going on. “Listen carefully,” he was told. “You can hear the guns.” There had been a coup that morning.
“All we heard was boom, boom, boom,” Okudzeto recalls. “Then I realized that the aircraft that had brought us had gone.”
With no taxis running, Okudzeto and the other meeting participants who had been on the plane walked to a nearby hotel. “We all went to our rooms and put our luggage down and then went to the restaurant,” he recalls. “I asked for the biggest and juiciest sole fish I had ever had in my life, because it might be my last supper.” (Luckily it wasn’t, and four days later, Okudzeto and the others caught a helicopter out of the country.)
“There is an enemy in life — and it’s fear,” he says now. “For those who are not afraid, it’s amazing what you can do. It’s fantastic to see the result now: Africa is [wild] polio-free.”
Rotary members around the world have contributed nearly $890 million toward eradicating polio in the African region. Learn more about Rotary’s work to eradicate polio, and consider donating at endpolio.org.
In August 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) certified the African region free of wild poliovirus, the culmination of a decades-long effort involving millions of Rotary members, health workers, government officials, traditional and religious leaders, and parents. Since 1996, a year when wild polio paralyzed an estimated 75,000 children across Africa, health workers have given more than 9 billion doses of the oral polio vaccine, preventing 1.8 million wild polio cases.
“Everybody chipped in,” says Gaston Kaba, longtime chair of the Niger PolioPlus Committee (he retired from the position in June 2019). “Volunteers, town criers, many other people were involved. Nobody knows about them. They worked quietly to get the job done.”
Last recorded Cases of endemic wild polio in countries in the WHO African region 1980s: Cabo Verde, São Tomé and Príncipe, Kenya Botswana, Mauritius, Comoros, Seychelles, South Africa, Lesotho, Eswatini 1990s: Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea, Mauritania, Mali, Algeria, Togo, Gabon, Cameroun, Equatorial Guinea, Uganda, Eritrea, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Namibia, Madagascar 2000s: Burkina Faso, Côte D’Ivore, Ghana, Benin, Niger, Chad, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Angola 2010s: Nigeria
The 47 countries that make up WHO’s African region are home to nearly 1,400 Rotary clubs and 32,000 members, many of whom have dedicated time and resources to the effort. Rotary members around the world have contributed nearly $890 million toward eradicating polio in the region, advocated for support from their governments, mobilized communities around National Immunization Days, and held events for World Polio Day to raise public awareness.
The legacy of those efforts is a health care infrastructure that is playing an important role in the COVID-19 pandemic and is poised to respond to future public health emergencies. The laboratory and surveillance networks developed to track the poliovirus are being used to monitor other diseases. Polio workers bolster an array of routine immunizations, deliver deworming medicines and oral rehydration salts, and provide other health services. And they continue to vaccinate children against polio, because until the virus is eradicated from the earth, it remains a threat everywhere. “Being declared free of polio is an amazing success,” says Teguest Yilma, Ethiopia PolioPlus Committee chair. “I am happy — but I’m still not relaxed.”
In a time of extraordinary challenges, we can celebrate the eradication of wild polio in the African region. Here are just a few of the stories of the drive and determination Rotary members and our partners have shown in overcoming challenges and setbacks.
Boko Haram was against immunizations in the first place, so many health facilities were destroyed. Immunization was not even something you could think about.
Tunji Funsho, PolioPlus Committee chair
In February 2005, as civil war raged through Côte d’Ivoire, Marie-Irène Richmond-Ahoua entered the heart of rebel-held territory. Then the national PolioPlus committee chair, Richmond-Ahoua joined representatives from Rotary’s partners on a United Nations (UN) flight to Bouaké, where the rebels were based. “We met with rebel chiefs to beg them to make immunization days safe,” she recalls, asking for their cooperation in providing soldiers to protect the vaccinators. “They did it. For five days, it was easy to reach children.”
Over the years, security was one of the biggest challenges to the polio eradication effort in Africa. Rotary and its partners worked to negotiate truces and military protection to make sure that health workers could reach every child in conflict areas. In 1994 and 1996, the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army and the Sudanese government agreed to honor “corridors of peace” where vaccinators could travel safely, and two years later, a PolioPlus grant supported the airlifting of vaccines into villages that hadn’t seen a government health worker in 15 years. In 1985 in Uganda, the government and the National Resistance Army agreed to permit UNICEF flights into rebel-held territory after the civil war cut off a third of the population from government serv-ices. And in late 1999, then-UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan negotiated a nationwide truce in Sierra Leone so that National Immunization Days could be held.
But at times, bloodshed still derailed polio eradication efforts. Nigeria thought it had seen its last case of wild polio in July 2014. But then the militant group Boko Haram kept vaccinators out of its strongholds in Borno state in northeastern Nigeria for several years. “Boko Haram was against immunizations in the first place, so many health facilities were destroyed. Immunization was not even something you could think about,” says Tunji Funsho, who has served as Nigeria PolioPlus Committee chair since 2013. Polio was festering, undiagnosed, in the areas of Borno where children hadn’t received their vaccines, and in 2016 the country recorded four cases.
Rotary and its partners worked to negotiate truces and military protection for health workers in conflict areas.
Credit: Tony Karumba/AFP via Getty Images
But the Nigerian government — as well as Rotary, its partners, and health workers and volunteers — never gave up. The Nigerian Army became a key participant in vaccination efforts. At first, it would secure an area, and vaccinators would spend two days or less quickly immunizing children before leaving, a strategy called “hit and run.” Later, armed local militia members would escort vaccinators to unsafe areas. Today, army medical corps members carry the vaccine to settlements that remain unsafe for civilians to enter and vaccinate children themselves. “The military knows how to take care of themselves,” Funsho says.
Funsho recalls visiting the home of the child who had the last case of wild polio in Nigeria, another innocent victim of the insurgency. “The potential for a three-year-old girl in Borno state to achieve the best that is possible for her life is already very low — educationally, socially, in all aspects of human endeavor,” he says. “Add polio paralysis to that, and what is the hope for that child? It is heart-rending.”
The challenge: Rumors
In Nigeria, another significant obstacle was the persistent rumors about the safety of the oral polio vaccine that spread in the northern part of the country in the early 2000s, Funsho says. Skeptical political and religious leaders told parents to refuse vaccinations, combining rhetoric of the anti-vaccine movement with conspiracy theories about a Western plot to sterilize Muslims. “This rumor was not homegrown. It came from abroad and found local weapons to energize it,” Funsho says. “It led to vaccination becoming a political thing rather than a means to protect our children against paralysis.”
The situation deteriorated. Several states in northern Nigeria canceled all immunization activities until officials could show proof that the vaccine was safe, and the country went 14 months without a National Immunization Day. The Nigerian government, strongly committed to polio eradication, set up a committee that included key Muslim leaders to verify the vaccine’s safety. They toured vaccine manufacturing sites and produced a report that satisfied all except political and religious leaders in Kano state, the epicenter of the rumors. Officials there sent their own committee of health experts and religious scholars to Indonesia, where they reconfirmed the safety of a vaccine manufactured in a Muslim country.
Rotary members in Nigeria advocated with government leaders and educated the public to dispel persistent myths about vaccine safety.
Credit: Diego Ibarra Sánchez
Meanwhile, Rotary members continued to engage in advocacy and in educating the public. Ado Bayero, the late emir of Kano, was a supporter of the Rotary Club of Kano, and Funsho was his personal physician. One of the country’s most influential Muslim leaders, the emir “was a great friend of Rotary,” Funsho says. “He knew Rotary would not bring anything harmful.” The emir demonstrated his faith in the oral polio vaccine by personally immunizing his grandchildren in his palace. “We used that to a lot of our advantage in the media.”
In neighboring Niger, a country whose population is 99 percent Muslim, then-President Mamadou Tandja pushed back against the persistent rumors in a key speech that launched a 2004 immunization campaign. He gave the speech in Hausa, a language widely spoken in Niger as well as Nigeria, which made his message about the importance of vaccination all the more effective. “Tandja was very strong on the message he delivered,” says Kaba, the former Niger PolioPlus Committee chair. “He referred to the Quran. You don’t joke with the Quran.” A month later, Rotary presented Tandja with a Polio Eradication Champion Award.
Polio cases in Africa had been trending down until the early 2000s. But the rumors and missed immunizations led to the exportation of the virus from Nigeria to almost 20 countries. “As soon as we overcame that, the graph just went gradually down and down until we got to zero,” Funsho says.
The challenge: Hard-to-reach children
Nearly 800,000 refugees live in Ethiopia, most of them from Eritrea, Somalia, and South Sudan. “Our borders are very porous. A lot of people come in and out from neighboring countries,” Yilma says. So the government coordinates cross-border vaccination campaigns with surrounding nations to ensure that the virus isn’t brought in over the border.
To eradicate wild polio in Africa, health workers had to vaccinate hard-to-reach children such as those at this camp for internally displaced people in northern Nigeria.
Credit: Andrew Esiebo
The country has some of the most rugged terrain in Africa — from mountainous highlands to vast desert plains that sit hundreds of feet below sea level. There are some places where health workers have to walk hours to reach a single family, and others that are so densely populated that ensuring that every child is vaccinated can be difficult. “Ethiopia didn’t face a situation like in Nigeria where people outright refused to be vaccinated,” Yilma says. “The problems in Ethiopia are that it’s a large population that is mobile and that the topography of Ethiopia makes them very difficult to reach.”
Throughout the African region, millions of health workers have traveled by foot, boat, bicycle, and bus during the decades-long eradication campaign.
Throughout the African region, millions of health workers have traveled by foot, boat, bicycle, and bus during the decades-long eradication campaign. Grants from The Rotary Foundation have supported them along the way. In 2000, Africa’s first synchronized multicountry
All of Phase 1a* Please note:The State of Alaska DHSS has clarified “health care setting” for vaccine eligibility as follows: Workers in health care settings can include someone who stays home to care for an elderly family member. Eligible individuals provide daily support related to an individual’s activities of daily living (i.e., bathing, dressing, eating) as well as instrumental activities of daily living (i.e., shopping, laundry, light housework). These may be paid, unpaid, or contracted positions. This may also include teachers or other school staff that provide health care activities for students including tube feedings, suctioning, and other hands-on healthcare.
If you already got your first dose at the Feb 5 / 6 event, you already have your 2nd dose appointment for March 5. If you have questions about your appointment on March 5, click here or call 235-0235.
Vaccines are not available at Homer Medical Center or South Peninsula Family Care Clinic at this time.
The Rotary Foundation is the best steward for your money. Here’s why.
In 2016, The Rotary Foundation received the highest possible score from Charity Navigator – 100 of 100 points – for its strong financial health and commitment to accountability and transparency.
It was the ninth straight year the Foundation earned a four-star rating from the independent evaluator of charities across the U.S., a distinction only 1 percent of charities have attained.
The Association of Fundraising Professionals likewise named the Foundation the World’s Outstanding Foundation for 2016, an award previously given to other familiar names such as Kellogg and MacArthur.
These organizations agree: When you donate to The Rotary Foundation, you’re investing wisely. We followed your money from start to finish to discover how the Foundation ensures that your gift makes an impact for years to come.
Directing your donation
There’s a reason Rotarians donate to The Rotary Foundation: It’s a simple way to achieve your philanthropic goals – whether it’s supporting clean water, the eradication of polio, or a particular global grant.
Any gift can be donated to a specific fund – End Polio Now, an individual global grant, or one of Rotary’s areas of focus.
Illustrations by Gwen Kereval
“Even the smallest of gifts can be donated to a specific fund – a global grant, polio, or an area of focus within the World Fund,” says April Jensen, a member of the Rotary Club of Evanston, Illinois, USA, who works in fund development for the Foundation. You can also leave your gift unrestricted so that the Foundation has the flexibility to use the money where it is needed most.
Do you ever wish you could set up a scholarship or your own family’s foundation but don’t want the headache of administering it? Let The Rotary Foundation handle it. When you make a gift over $25,000, you will receive personalized reports detailing the projects you are supporting. You can make your gift in the way that suits your financial situation best – such as cash, stocks, or bequests.
Investing your money
In 2015-16, 91 percent of the money the Foundation spent went to programs and grants, with only 9 percent of expenses going toward administration. How does the Foundation make sure that the bulk of your donation supports the sustainable programs you want it to?
“To ensure that the funds for the project are there when needed,” says past Rotary International President Ron D. Burton, chair of the Foundation’s Investment Committee, “all contributions to the Foundation’s Annual Fund are invested for three years.”
After three years, the investment earnings on your gift go toward the operating expenses of the Foundation.
The Investment Committee includes three Foundation trustees and six Rotarians who are professionals in the field, who make sure that your money is invested responsibly during this period.
When the three years is up, the investment earnings on your gift go toward the operating expenses of the Foundation.
“I don’t know of any other organization like ours that has a system like this,” Jensen says. “It’s brilliant.”
Your principal is split 50/50, with half going to your District Designated Fund and half going into the World Fund, a pool that the Trustees of The Rotary Foundation use to match grants where they are most needed.
Awarding grants
When the Foundation awards a grant to fund a project, how does it ensure that your money will have lasting impact?
“Sustainability begins with the community assessment,” explains Philip J. Silvers, a past RI director and chair of the Foundation’s Cadre of Technical Advisers.
Six elements of sustainability must be addressed in the design of a global grant project:
Before Rotarians design projects, they talk to people in the community – fathers, mothers, children, elders, political leaders – to understand the broader context behind what the community needs.
“Then whatever project emerges, the community can see their fingerprints on it,” he says. “It’s not buy-in you want. We all know about buyer’s remorse. What we really want is community ownership right from the beginning.”
Six elements of sustainability must be addressed in the design of a global grant project: start with the community, encourage local ownership, provide training, buy local, find local funding, and measure your success.
These ensure that the project provides long-term solutions that the community itself can support after the grant ends.
Project sponsors don’t have to figure out all this on their own. The Rotary Foundation provides staff to help with your project design – grant officers are knowledgeable about regional and cultural issues, and area of focus managers have significant field experience in their specialties.
By connecting clubs with local and regional experts for guidance on developing sustainable, large-scale global grants early in the planning process, Rotary is committed to funding projects with lasting impact in communities.
Your district’s international service chair, a Rotarian appointed by your district governor, can help you connect with a network of local Rotarian experts – such as members of Rotarian Action Groups, Rotaractors, and peace fellows and other alumni – who have volunteered to help with projects and global grant planning.
Ensuring strong grant projects
The Rotary Foundation has a network of Rotarian volunteers available to provide expertise and advice, called the Cadre of Technical Advisers. With a database of 700 experts in Rotary’s six areas of focus as well as other specialties – mediators, diplomats, obstetricians, engineers, bankers, and agronomists, for example – there is sure to be someone who can help if an obstacle comes up.
Cadre members play an important role in ensuring that donors’ funds make a long-term impact. On behalf of The Rotary Foundation, cadre members do a technical review of the feasibility of larger grants before they are awarded and perform site visits to evaluate how the grants are being carried out. “Rotarians want to know if something is not working out or if they can do something better,” says Francis “Tusu” Tusubira, a member of the cadre from the Rotary Club of Kampala-North, Uganda. “The cadre is there to give as much support as possible.” Cadre members also perform random financial audits to help the Foundation ensure that grant funding is being used as approved.
“The cadre provides accountability and quality assurance in general, and protects our investors – the people who donate – and also the beneficiaries,” Silvers says. “In doing that, we also protect the Rotary brand. We make a commitment to our beneficiaries; we want to make sure this is high quality. Our name – and more than our name, our commitment – is at stake.”
Monitoring success and sustainability
Monitoring and evaluation of grants are built in through the project design. “From the community assessment, we learn what kind of lasting change we can create together,” Silvers says. “How can we measure that? How do we know that change will continue? How can we show our donors and our beneficiaries that we really made a difference?”
Anyone who knows Rotarians sees how we give of our time and resources. They know their money is in good hands.
Eric Kimani, regional Rotary Foundation coordinator
Rotary Family Health Days have been recognized as a Rotary Foundation noteworthy global grant project. They are held in several countries in Africa where both incidence of HIV/AIDS and the stigma surrounding being tested for the virus were great.
Built into the project was a follow-up step in which Rotaractors and Rotary Community Corps members called patients who had received health care through the project. Explains Silvers: “They’d ask, ‘What brought you to Rotary Family Health Days this year?’ It might have been that they needed a tooth pulled. ‘Anything else?’ From that sequence of questions, 71 percent of respondents said they got checked for HIV. That’s a huge cultural turnaround.”
Project sponsors write a final report when their grant closes. This includes initial measures of impact. Because Rotarians design sustainability into a project at the very beginning, its benefits are ongoing.
Just as the Foundation asks project sponsors to monitor the impact of their grants, the organization also performs a triennial evaluation of its grant model. Foundation Trustees are using the feedback from the most recent evaluation, conducted in 2015-16, to adjust the grant process in ways such as improving how clubs and districts find partners, evaluating requirements for the community needs assessment, and helping project sponsors scale up their efforts with support from the cadre and other partners.
For everything the Foundation does to ensure that gifts make a lasting impact, the greatest check and balance of all may be Rotarians themselves, says Eric Kimani, regional Rotary Foundation coordinator for Zone 20A and a member of the Rotary Club of Nairobi-Muthaiga North, Kenya. “When you have good Rotarians, it is your best measure of stewardship,” he says. “Anyone who knows Rotarians sees how we give of our time and resources. They know their money is in good hands.”
For the 13th consecutive year, The Rotary Foundation has received the highest rating — four stars — from Charity Navigator, an independent evaluator of charities in the U.S.
The Foundation earned the recognition for adhering to sector best practices and executing its mission in a financially efficient way, demonstrating both strong financial health and commitment to accountability and transparency. Only one percent of the organizations Charity Navigator evaluates have received 13 consecutive 4-star evaluations.
"Your achievement and 4-star rating will enhance your organization’s fundraising and public relations efforts,” says Michael Thatcher, president and chief executive officer of Charity Navigator. "This exceptional designation sets the Foundation apart from its peers and demonstrates to the public its trustworthiness."
The rating reflects Charity Navigator's assessment of how the Foundation uses donations, sustains its programs and services, and practices good governance and openness.
The Rotary Foundation transforms your gifts into service projects that change lives both close to home and around the world.
Since it was founded more than 100 years ago, the Foundation has spent more than $4 billion on life-changing, sustainable projects.
With your help, we can make lives better in your community and around the world.
Our mission
The mission of The Rotary Foundation of Rotary International is to enable Rotarians to advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace through the improvement of health, the support of education, and the alleviation of poverty.
What impact can one donation have?
For as little as 60 cents, a child can be protected from polio.
$50 can provide clean water to help fight waterborne illness.
$500 can launch an antibullying campaign and create a safe environment for children.
Financial structure
The Rotary Foundation is organized as a public charity operated exclusively for charitable purposes and governed by a Board of Trustees. The operations of Rotary International, a member organization, are overseen by its Board of Directors.
The headquarters of Rotary International and The Rotary Foundation are in Evanston, Illinois, USA. We have associate foundations in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Japan, and the United Kingdom.
Check here Friday morning, Feb. 19 at 10am for a limited number of appointments for a small Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine clinic taking place on Friday, February 26th. For those not connected online, there is an informational recording at 435-3188, and that phone line will be answered starting at 10am Friday for assistance with appointments. A wait list of 100 names will be taken for this event once appointments fill.
A large-scale mass vaccination clinic will take place in early March. Check here on Monday, March 1st at 12pm noon to make your appointment for that event.
All of Phase 1a* Please note:The State of Alaska DHSS has clarified “health care setting” for vaccine eligibility as follows: Workers in health care settings can include someone who stays home to care for an elderly family member. Eligible individuals provide daily support related to an individual’s activities of daily living (i.e., bathing, dressing, eating) as well as instrumental activities of daily living (i.e., shopping, laundry, light housework). These may be paid, unpaid, or contracted positions. This may also include teachers or other school staff that provide health care activities for students including tube feedings, suctioning, and other hands-on healthcare.
If you already got your first dose at the Feb 5 / 6 event, you already have your 2nd dose appointment for March 5. If you have questions about your appointment on March 5, click hereor call 235-0235.
Vaccines are not available at Homer Medical Center or South Peninsula Family Care Clinic at this time.
Vaccine managed by the Alaska Tribal Health System, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the U.S. Department of Defense may have different eligibility criteria. Vaccine doses will be distributed throughout Alaska in a series of phases. Over time, everyone who wants to be vaccinated will be able to get vaccinated.
People 16 years and above who live in a multigenerational household with 3 or more generations, or “skipped” generations (e.g., a grandchild living with an elder).
People 16 and above who live in communities where at least 45% homes have not been served either via pipe, septic tank and well, or covered haul system.
Phase 1c: Not yet open. Timeline to be determined.
We’re working to provide additional information, as it becomes available. Vaccine supply is very limited at first, and it will gradually be available to more Alaskans over time. Alaska uses a phased approach to make the vaccine available. The State of Alaska COVID-19 Vaccination Plan: Allocation Guidelines (PDF) explain the process.
2. Frontline essential workers are defined as people who are working in sectors essential to the functioning of society and are at substantially higher risk of exposure to SARS-CoV-2 because their work-related duties must be performed on-site and involve being in close proximity (<6 feet) to the public or to coworkers. For further criteria, see the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) advisory list (PDF). Including, but not limited to:
Law enforcement, public safety, and other first responders
Education (including people not covered in Phase 1b Tier 2)
Food and Agriculture (Food manufacturers, distributors, restaurant workers, seafood workers, grocery store workers)
Energy (electricity, petroleum, Natural Gas, utility and power workers)
Water and Wastewater
Transportation and Logistics (Public transit workers, aviation workers, taxi drivers, port workers, bus drivers, U.S. Postal Service workers and mail carriers, warehouse operators)
Public Works and Infrastructure Support Service
Critical Manufacturing
Communications and Information Technology
Other Community-or Government-Based Operations and Essential Functions
Critical Manufacturing
Hazardous Materials
Financial Services
Chemical
Defense Industrial Base
Commercial Facilities
Residential/Shelter Facilities, Housing And Real Estate, and Related Services
3. Working in congregate settings includes people working in the judicial system whose job responsibilities require them to interact with individuals residing in congregate settings.
1. Long Term Care facilities included Skilled Nursing Facilities, Assisted Living Homes, and Dept of Corrections infirmaries providing care that is similar to an assisted living facility.
2. Particularly those performing the highest risk procedures or who spend extended periods of time bedside and whose absence from work would compromise the ability of the hospital to continue functioning. Personnel in this category include, but are not limited to:
ICU and COVID unit nurses, LPNs, CNAs and patient care technicians
ICU and COVID unit physicians
Inpatient physicians caring for COVID patients, including hospitalists
Respiratory therapists
Emergency department personnel
Personnel working in operating and other procedural rooms in which aerosol generating procedures are conducted.
Other hospital staff working in COVID units such as PT/OT/ST therapists, phlebotomists, etc.
Looking for a Covid-19 vaccine? Although SPH has none available at this time, we hope to learn from the State soon what our next allocation will be, and the expected date of arrival. We are obligated to offer the vaccines to anyone in the eligible groups (see below), and cannot prioritize within that for the large-scale vaccine events. As vaccines become more available we do plan to offer them by appointment on a regular basis, in addition to the mass events, but have no idea at this time when that might be. Our goal is to vaccinate the most number of people in the quickest and safest amount of time.
The wait list for the Feb. 12 and 13 clinic is full. There are no additional call lists at this time for Covid-19 vaccines from South Peninsula Hospital. Please check back to this page regularly for updates as we receive them. And for those not connected online, there is an informational recording at 435-3188 that will be updated as more information becomes available.
All of Phase 1a* Please note:The State of Alaska DHSS has clarified “health care setting” for vaccine eligibility as follows: Workers in health care settings can include someone who stays home to care for an elderly family member. Eligible individuals provide daily support related to an individual’s activities of daily living (i.e., bathing, dressing, eating) as well as instrumental activities of daily living (i.e., shopping, laundry, light housework). These may be paid, unpaid, or contracted positions. This may also include teachers or other school staff that provide health care activities for students including tube feedings, suctioning, and other hands-on healthcare.
If you already got your first dose at the January 15/16 event, you already have your 2nd dose appointment for Feb 12/13. If you have questions about your appointment on Feb. 12 or 13, click here or call 235-0235.
Vaccines are not available at Homer Medical Center or South Peninsula Family Care Clinic at this time.
Some appointments will be available for the vaccine clinic this Friday and Saturday, Feb. 12 and 13. Though designed mostly as an event to administer the second dose to those who already got vaccinated on January 15 and 16, we will also be offering first dose appointments to those in the eligible groups.
Please note:the State of Alaska DHSS has clarified “health care setting” for vaccine eligibility as follows: Workers in health care settings can include someone who stays home to care for an elderly family member. Eligible individuals provide daily support related to an individual’s activities of daily living (i.e., bathing, dressing, eating) as well as instrumental activities of daily living (i.e., shopping, laundry, light housework). These may be paid, unpaid, or contracted positions. This may also include teachers or other school staff that provide health care activities for students including tube feedings, suctioning, and other hands-on healthcare.
If you already got your first dose at the January 15/16 event, this event is NOT for you. You already have your 2nd dose appointment forFeb 12/13. If you have questions about your appointment on Feb. 12 or 13, click here.
Vaccines are not available at Homer Medical Center or South Peninsula Family Care Clinic at this time.
We don’t need to trade a healthy environment for a thriving economy.
by Jonathan Foley
To some people, the term “environmentalist” seems to be a dirty word. In their minds, it denotes starry-eyed zealots who chain themselves to trees.
Or perhaps they envision out-of-touch elites who care more about spotted owls and humpback whales than people, self-centered activists who want to tell others how to live their lives, run their towns, and operate their businesses.
But that’s a wildly out-of-date assumption. Today, environmentalism has evolved into a much more helpful and engaging field. It’s a diverse community that looks to improve the lives of everyday people, as well as safeguard the natural world and our collective future. In addition, over the past couple of decades, rather than merely harping on the environmental problems facing the world, environmentalists have shifted more of their attention toward practical solutions. And they have done that by keeping the focus on people and their collective well-being.
Caring about the environment goes toward our ultimate mission, and we should give it the importance it deserves. As a humanitarian organization, we’re obligated to talk about it.
While it’s important to recognize the challenges facing the environment — and there are many — it is even more important to shine a light on the potential solutions to those challenges, especially those solutions that can benefit society by creating jobs, improving health, and making people more prosperous and resilient. That’s where the future of environmentalism lies. For example, addressing climate change will spur deep investments in energy efficiency, renewable energy, improved transportation systems, smarter buildings, better materials, a healthier food system, and more sustainable forms of agriculture. All of these have the potential to create new jobs, foster new economic opportunities, and generate huge savings and new sources of income.
In the future, as we address our environmental challenges, we can build smarter, more efficient ways of doing everything. We can build more efficient homes that save energy and money for everyone. We can design smarter and more efficient vehicles that emit no pollution; save fuel and money; and are safer, cheaper to run, and more fun to drive. We can reduce food waste, promote healthier diets, and help farmers become more sustainable and more profitable, even as we help to repair our broken food system and curtail its negative impact on the environment.
The idea that we need to trade a healthy environment for a thriving economy is simply wrong. In the future, we can improve the environment and the economy through bold new thinking, innovation, and collaboration. It’s essential that we do that. As Gaylord Nelson, the former senator and governor of Wisconsin who founded Earth Day in 1970, famously said, “The economy is a wholly owned subsidiary of the environment.”
Nelson was absolutely right. At the most fundamental level, our economic systems are built on the environment. Clean water, breathable air, a stable climate, abundant resources, places free from toxins: These are all requirements for a healthy economy. A world where water and air are polluted, or where storms, fires, and heat waves are frequent, or where basic natural resources — water, food, fiber, and fuel — are running out, is a world headed to economic ruin.
Rotary has a new area of focus: protecting the environment. Learn more about our commitment to keeping our planet and its resources safe.
Illustrations by Greg Mably
Improving the environment is crucial not only to the well-being of the planet but to the health of the billions of people who inhabit it — another shift, over the past few decades, in the focus of environmentalists. Let’s step away from our focus on solutions for a moment and look at some examples of the tremendous challenges we face as we move into the 2020s. Look at the impact of the recent fires in California and Australia on the health of tens of millions of people, forcing entire families to take shelter inside for weeks as a precaution against dangerous air pollution levels. Or consider the devastating toll that toxic drinking water can take on all the residents of a single town, as we saw — and continue to see — in Flint, Michigan. And look at the effect of severe and prolonged heat waves on our most vulnerable neighbors, particularly the elderly and those with underlying health conditions.
A degraded environment doesn’t just degrade our health; it also undercuts our security. In a world where extreme weather events and natural disasters are more common and more lethal, growing environmental pressures, including those resulting from climate change, may force large numbers of people into extreme poverty or send them fleeing from their homes into other countries as environmental refugees. Such shocks could overwhelm entire nations and cause severe instability in numerous parts of the world.
In short, without a healthy environment, and without a long-term commitment to maintaining that healthy environment, we cannot have a healthy and thriving society. But let’s take a positive approach to this: If we are smart about it, addressing the most critical environmental issues facing us today is an opportunity for us to reinvigorate our economy and our communities. As Rotarians embark on a bold program of new environmental initiatives, it is crucial to keep this in mind. Solving environmental problems is a welcome chance to fix some of our out-of-date and broken systems and replace them with ones that are safer and fairer. In the process, we can create a world that is healthier and more prosperous for us and our children. Can there be any better future than that?
Jonathan Foley is the executive director of Project Drawdown, a leading resource for climate solutions. A climate and environmental scientist, educator, writer, and speaker, he was the 2014 recipient of the prestigious Heinz Award for the Environment.
Read more perspectives about where Rotary may be headed — and what to expect when we get there.
The water systems humans have created and rely on will look inadequate in the face of climate change
by Charles Fishman
I was in Charleston, South Carolina, to talk about water, and a university faculty member there explained how dramatically life has changed in the past few years in that beautiful waterfront city.
As recently as the early 2000s, she said, Charleston had experienced a few flooding events a year — eight or 10. Not even one a month.
But in the past few years, Charleston has annually had 40 to 50 intrusive flood events. The flooding is so common and so disruptive, the woman explained, that she and her husband had to plan their lives around it. Their kids went to day care in one part of the city; they worked in another part. When the low-lying streets and intersections filled with seawater — as happens on average three times a month now — they were cut off from their children.
Half of the world’s hospital beds are occupied by patients suffering from waterborne diseases. More than a billion people don’t have access to clean drinking water. That’s very disturbing in the 21st century.
“We have to watch the weather, we have to watch the tides, we have to talk to the people at the day care,” she said. “Because we could easily end up at the end of the day with no way to get the kids.” There have been occasions when they didn’t take the children to day care, because flooding was predicted during the day.
You don’t have to imagine the future of water: It’s here. It’s happening right now, all around us.
That’s the most obvious lesson from the flooding in Charleston, a single problem in a single U.S. city: The flooding is not devastating, but it is sudden, it’s new, it’s relentless, it’s hugely disruptive, and it’s not going away. When it comes to water, we aren’t ready for what’s happening to us right now. So we certainly aren’t ready for the future.
In the past decade, we have made dramatic progress in water. In the 10 years between 2005 and 2015 (the most recent year for which there is U.S. data), the typical American went from using 100 gallons of water per day at home to using 83 gallons. If we were still consuming water at the rate we did in 2005, we would be using 5 billion more gallons of water a day than we are.
We’ve also made dramatic progress across the past 50 years. The United States today uses less water every day, for all purposes, than it did in 1965. We have tripled the size of the U.S. economy in that half-century without using a single new gallon of water. Which is to say, every gallon of water we use today does three times the work it did in 1965.
Learn more about Rotary’s efforts to provide clean water, and how you can get involved.
llustrations by Greg Mably
Farmers today use a little less water than farmers did in 1965 — but they irrigate 45 percent more land and raise twice as much food.
That’s all good news. If climate change weren’t transforming everything about who gets water, and how much, it would be great news — the foundation of a new water ethic. As it is, the progress we’ve made in the United States and around the world will cushion the impact of climate change. But that impact is likely to be so dramatic, we may not notice.
We don’t often connect the dots when we talk about the impact of climate change, but it is almost all about water. Rain that doesn’t fall anymore where we expect it. Rain that falls in fewer events — fewer rainy days and fewer storms — but with much more intensity and volume. Snow that now falls as rain, stealing from a kind of “water savings account” that whole regions rely on, where winter snows pile up in mountain ranges, then melt gradually through the spring and summer to provide a steady flow of water.
Every day we’re seeing the dawn of a kind of brutal intensity to the climate, and to the weather, that feels all new. Fueled by one record-dry summer after another, megafires rage across the American West. Nourished by unusually warm ocean temperatures, slow-moving hurricanes in the Atlantic and supertyphoons in the Pacific explode with power and intensity just before coming ashore, where they release torrential, flooding rains.
We’re used to separating out our experience of water, especially in the developed world. There’s the water we use every day at home, in offices and factories, on farms. And then there’s the water out in the environment — the water that either comes, sometimes in destructive torrents, or doesn’t come, for months that add up to drought.
Water woes
Should current trends persist without mitigation:
By 2030, annual global water requirements will exceed current sustainable water supplies by 40 percent.
By 2040, nearly 600 million children will live in areas of extremely high water stress.
By 2050, the number of people at risk from floods will increase to 1.6 billion from 1.2 billion.
SOURCE: National Intelligence Council; UNICEF; World Meteorological Association
Climate change is going to erase that convenient distinction. The human water systems we’ve created, and that we all rely on, are going to look brittle and inadequate in the face of what’s coming.
The most important principle for adapting to the new world of water is this: Water does not respond to wishful thinking. Water problems don’t get better on their own. Just the opposite: The longer you wait to tackle a water problem of any kind, from a leak in the ceiling of your living room to a sea-level rise in your city, the harder, and the more expensive, that problem is to solve.
That’s not just true directly. Well-managed water undergirds the entire economy. But we don’t appreciate that very often. A city that floods once a week, a city that has to ration drinking water, a city that has to brace for destruction with every hurricane season or every fire season: Those are not places with stable, appealing economic futures.
We need to adapt to a new world. And we need to appreciate two more key ideas when it comes to water. First, we know how to solve every water problem that exists in the world — in engineering terms. We don’t need a Manhattan Project or a moon shot to tackle water. But the hardest part of most water problems is the people part. It’s getting people to see the water situation in a clear-eyed way — with realism, not optimism. And then getting people to change their behavior.
The second thing to appreciate is that all water problems are local — and that’s where they must be solved. The United States is a perfect example of a rich, smart country with a wild array of water problems. Not only is there no active national strategy for tackling them; in most cases there isn’t even national guidance.
But that can be liberating for cities, for regions, for states. The smartest communities — in the United States and around the world — aren’t waiting to tackle water and climate change. They aren’t waiting for the alarm from Washington, or the guidance, or even the financing.
Especially in the developed world, we’ve had a century-long, highly engineered golden age of water, in which we left the management of it to the experts, and most of us never had to give water a thought. It was invisible in our daily life. We need to see the new age of water turbulence with realism, with urgency, and with a sense that water is something all of us are going to have to grapple with.
The golden age is over. Water isn’t going to be invisible anymore. The future of water is now.
Charles Fishman is a frequent contributor to Rotary. His most recent book is One Giant Leap: The Impossible Mission That Flew Us to the Moon. He is also the author of the bestselling The Big Thirst: The Secret Life and Turbulent Future of Water.
Read more perspectives about where Rotary may be headed — and what to expect when we get there.
The Kenai Peninsula Borough School District will continue to require face coverings for staff, students, guests, and at athletic events, in all COVID-19 risk levels (low, medium, high, extreme) until further notice.
Working together we can and will keep schools open and safe.
Visit the KPBSD Covid-19 Hub to navigate to the data dashboard, Smart Start Plan, sports and activities, and additional links to state and KPBSD information about COVID-19 operations and mitigation plans.
Rotary clubs partner with the Maya Health Alliance to help 140 Guatemalan mothers and children avoid malnutrition
by Annemarie Mannion
Most new parents mark their baby’s progress in a series of milestones: first smile, first word, first steps. But pediatricians are focused on a milestone that might be less familiar: the first 1,000 days.
The phrase is shorthand for the period between conception and a child’s second birthday, a critical time frame when nutrition, or lack thereof, can have lifelong consequences. Research in child development has shown that when mothers and infants are poorly nourished during this stage, the adverse impact on children’s physical and mental development can have ripple effects throughout their lives. And much of that damage can never be undone, even with later interventions.
One of Rotary’s areas of focus is saving mothers and children.
In 2010, with the support of the governments of the United States and Ireland, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and other organizations, a nonprofit called 1,000 Days was founded with the goal of making child nutrition and health a funding and policy priority around the world. Roger Thurow, a former reporter for the Wall Street Journal, also examined this concept in his 2016 book, The First Thousand Days. A senior fellow on global food and agriculture at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, Thurow says stunting is a complex problem that requires multipronged solutions. Even when food is plentiful, he says, poor sanitation or a lack of clean water can cause diarrhea or other illnesses that prevent a child from retaining nutrients.
In one mountainous, rural area of Guatemala, where staple crops (primarily corn) don’t provide sufficient nutrients, hunger and malnutrition are common. Around 1 million Guatemalan children under age five experience stunted development in their brains and bodies. Children are considered stunted when their height for their age is more than two standard deviations below the World Health Organization’s Child Growth Standards median, but the problem goes beyond simply being small for their age. “They are slower to walk, talk, and read,” says Anne Kraemer Diaz, the executive director of Wuqu’ Kawoq, also known as the Maya Health Alliance. “Stunting impacts their lifelong learning possibilities. It makes them prone to type 2 diabetes and to hypertension. They are looking at a lifetime of poverty and major impediments.”
Children who get the right nutrition in the first 1,000 days:
Are more likely to be born at a healthy birth weight
Have a lower risk of many conditions and diseases, including obesity and type 2 diabetes
Go on to be better learners with fewer behavior problems in kindergarten
Enjoy improved health and economic security as adults
In addition to persistent poverty, the effects include higher health care costs and weaker economies, according to Diaz. In 2010, the Maya Health Alliance started working specifically to help mothers and children avoid malnutrition.
The alliance sends health workers to the homes of more than 750 families — to interview them, measure and weigh their babies, and provide food, such as eggs and beans, deworming medication, education about healthy ways of living, and micronutrient packets.
“The impact of malnutrition on brain development is crucial in those first two years of a child’s life. That’s when massive brain development occurs,” says Joanne Rosener, a member of the Rotary Club of Rochester Risers in Minnesota, which is working with the Maya Health Alliance on an ambitious, long-term global grant project to improve nutrition for 140 Guatemalan families. More than a dozen Rotary clubs are involved.
The Maya Health Alliance and Rotary have helped Guatemalan families enjoy the benefits of raised-bed gardens, which can provide better drainage and a longer growing season, and require less weeding and maintenance, than a regular garden.
Courtesy of Maya Health Alliance
Steps toward improving nutrition can be as simple as encouraging people to plant gardens. The clubs have provided funding for raised-bed gardens that supply families with a range of healthful foods that they otherwise do not have access to.
Diaz describes the region as a food desert: “Even though there is food all around them, it is all one crop.” That crop is corn, which is a staple of the traditional diet but which alone does not provide enough of the nutrients a child needs to thrive.
The Maya Health Alliance works with the families to choose what they will plant and to help them build the gardens and learn to grow the crops. Health workers also teach them about sustainable practices such as seed saving and intercropping, a practice that involves growing different crops in close proximity to each other to produce a greater yield.
The Rotary clubs have covered the cost of materials and supplies for the gardens, the purchase and maintenance of a truck and a laptop computer, and the services of an agronomist and community health workers.
The gardens, which are located at the families’ homes, are designed to flourish with as little labor and expense as possible. “They are raised gardens, so they need less water and they aren’t so prone to weeds,” says Rosener, whose club connected with the alliance via a dietitian in Rochester who had learned about the problem of stunting while visiting Guatemala.
Diaz reports that their efforts are having a positive impact. The percentage of households that were likely to be food insecure fell from 51 percent of the baseline over the past year to 30 percent at a six-month follow-up, then rose slightly to 31 percent at the 12-month follow-up. “At six months after the gardens were initiated, families had more diverse diets and more frequent meals,” she says.
The 10 building blocks for nutrition during the first 1,000 days
A nutritious diet for mothers during pregnancy
Exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months
The right foods introduced to babies at the right times
Paid time off for working parents to care for their newborns
Consistent access to enough nutritious food for families of young children
Good care for all mothers during pregnancy
Nurturing, responsive care and feeding of babies and toddlers
A healthy and nutritious diet for babies and toddlers
The right knowledge and skills for parents and caregivers to properly nourish young children
Societal investments in the well-being of every baby and toddler
One of the participants in the program is Maria (not her real name), a mother of three young children, including an infant. She and her husband, a bricklayer, live with 14 members of their extended family. While Chuti Estancia, the small village in southern Guatemala where Maria lives, has many farmers, Diaz says most of the food grown there is for export, and farmers aren’t skilled in growing a variety of produce.
Speaking through an interpreter, Maria says the family’s new garden has helped her children in many ways. “They develop much better in height and weight,” she says. “They get sick less now, and I believe that’s because they are consuming more vegetables and healthier foods.”
The program also has helped the family save money on food. “We learn to produce and to harvest, and we consume everything,” Maria says. “We save money by not buying vegetables, and we are able to eat organically, as we do not use any chemicals.”
Rosener says the Rotary clubs involved are committed to supporting the Maya Health Alliance for the long haul, and she is pleased that the gardens have produced positive results. “We know the kids aren’t slipping,” she says. “We know they’re making progress. But reversing the effects of malnutrition doesn’t happen overnight.”
The problem of stunting is not limited to Guatemala. According to the Global Nutrition Report released in 2018, the countries with the most children who are stunted are India with 46.6 million, Nigeria with 13.9 million, and Pakistan with 10.7 million.
Roger Thurow applauds the Rotarians’ approach to addressing the problem of stunting in Guatemala. Gardens for the residents will help now and will continue to help into the future. By looking at long-term, sustainable solutions, he says, Rotarians will be “supporting a community, not just giving handouts.”
Learn about the work of the Rotary Action Group for Reproductive, Maternal, and Child Health, and get involved, at rifpd.org.
• This story originally appeared in the November 2020 issue of Rotary magazine.
Good Nutrition and Health Care Before a Child's Second Birthday Are Vital to Their Future
The people who fill the truly essential roles in society are often in short supply
By Joe Queenan Illustrations by Sébastien Thibault
From time to time, societies run low on the things — and the people — they really need. We wake up one day and realize that there are too few doctors. Or far, far, far too few nurses. Or it suddenly dawns on us that there aren’t enough teachers, engineers, or plumbers to go around. There are certainly never enough guys who work well with sheetrock.
Other professionals we have in spades. There are always more than enough landscapers, baristas, actors, masseurs, personal trainers, hairdressers, IT guys, and chefs. Nor are we ever in any real danger of running out of hedge fund managers, ballerinas, real estate agents, claims adjusters, standup comics, bartenders, aspiring singer-songwriters, or car salesmen. But the people who fill the truly essential roles in society are often in short supply.
Something like this may already be happening with Good Samaritans. From time to time, societies run desperately low on the kinds of devoted, implacable altruists who are always ready to pitch in and make the world a better place.
Did you know there are Rotary clubs all over the world? Find your local Rotary club, and learn more about joining.
Institutional altruism is rarely a problem. Plenty of churches, foundations, and government agencies are working night and day to help better society. These people do good for a living. But institutional philanthropy alone can’t handle a problem as large as the one created by the current pandemic. Societies always and everywhere rely on large numbers of those people sometimes derisively referred to as “do-gooders” to keep things running smoothly. And right now there aren’t enough do-gooders to go around. It doesn’t help that a lot of do-gooders are stuck indoors because of the pandemic.
The vexing problem of Good Samaritan Shortfall was driven home to me last February while I was visiting Washington, D.C. Strolling down M Street, I was approached by a young man in a red vest who was raising money for a worthy cause. I told him that I already contributed to the organization he represented, thanks to my wife, who regularly, reflexively, almost automatically sends checks to a large number of indisputably saintly enterprises. In other words, to use a reliable old phrase, I gave at the office. Well, she did.
The young man smiled amiably. He was not pushy. He was not judgmental. He did not try to embarrass me with that sneering “Have a nice day” that virtuous para-professionals so often employ when people start to drift away without opening their wallets. He thanked me for my generosity, or, to be perfectly accurate, for my wife’s generosity. He said that regular contributions by people like us were the very lifeblood of the organization. But in this case, he added, he was out raising money for a specific initiative.
I now tried to explain that asking me to give more to a cause I already supported seemed like philanthropic double dipping. It was like asking someone who was already writing checks to save endangered hippos to write a second check to save endangered rhinos. It was like asking someone who was already demonstrably a “good” person (or who at least had some sort of conjugal affiliation with one) to become an even better person. My question — a pretty obvious one, I thought — was: Why couldn’t somebody else carry the ball for a change?
The young man patiently listened, then waved away my protests. “We ask people who’ve already given to give again because we know that those people are generous,” he said. “Doesn’t it make more sense to target people who already think like us than to go after strangers?”
The deceptively cunning logic of his argument floored me. My feeling had always been that if we — as a family — had already given to the Fresh Air Fund and the Sierra Club, then we didn’t have to give to the Red Cross or the Salvation Army. In my mind, I had conflated all the organizations that were trying to make the world a better place into one monolith of merit. My wife, Francesca, didn’t look at things that way. In her view, just because you had already given to this didn’t mean you couldn’t give to that. The way she sees it, there is no ceiling for good works.
I disagreed. I even wisecracked that we should adopt a simple ethical cap-and-trade policy, stipulating that if we helped clean up the rivers, we didn’t have to help clean up the lakes. At least not both of us. She was having none of it. Who ever said that you were allowed to take a vacation from virtue? Bad people didn’t take sabbaticals from wrongdoing, so why should good people take a break from doing good? If you were altruistic, you were required to be uninterruptedly altruistic. In the parlance of her native England, if you were in for a penny, you were in for a pound.
There isn’t enough altruism to go around
This got me to thinking about the Good Samaritans I knew personally. At some point I realized that the high-profile do-gooders in my community almost never limited their good-doing to a single activity. If you saw them volunteering at the library book sale on Saturday, you would probably also see them at the Girl Scout bake sale on Sunday. If they were out brandishing petitions to save a historic building, you would probably also see them fighting to save a historic mural. At first I thought that people like this practiced virtue on such a large scale mainly because it made them feel better about themselves — which it indisputably does. But over the years I have come to realize that these neighbors do not necessarily engage in so many virtuous activities merely because they are good, caring people. It’s because they know that there aren’t enough good, caring people to go around.
It is often said that in the world of altruism, it’s the thought that counts. Incorrect. If you’re going to do the right thing, you have to do it the right way.
Baseball teams rely on a pipeline of minor league talent that eventually gets called up to the majors. I think that those who perform altruistic activities at the major league level could benefit from this kind of system. I’ve noticed that my wife, who runs a senior citizens center on a pro bono basis, ceaselessly cultivates civic-minded individuals who are roughly a generation younger than us. It’s not enough to be good. It really helps to also be young.
All of which suggests a rebuttal to the seemingly impregnable argument made by the young man in the red vest that I encountered on the streets of Washington. If you want to make the world a better place, you cannot keep raising money from the same people over and over, as he suggested, no matter how generous they are. Society cannot depend exclusively upon the pathologically altruistic or the congenitally compassionate to keep things going. There simply aren’t enough of them. Virtuous people need help. Virtuous people need to recruit new talent. All the time. This, in fact, is why Rotary clubs exist.
Good Samaritan versus the Intermittently Good Samaritan
At this point, it’s worth discussing the difference between the Good Samaritan and the Merely Adequate Samaritan. Like most people, I am not an inherently good person; goodness is learned behavior. Left to my own devices, I might eventually have morphed into a halfway decent human being. But I don’t think I would ever have gotten much further than that. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would ever flower into a paragon of virtue. The closest I could come to that was being married to a paragon of virtue. This is the opposite of guilt by association. It is guiltlessness by association.
When we first married, my wife and I developed a division-of-labor approach to civic-mindedness. She would handle all the volunteer work involving the schools, the community, the senior citizens, the underprivileged, the ozone layer, and the manatees, and I would buy the opera tickets. While she wrote checks to the Red Cross, Children’s Aid, Greenpeace, and Doctors Without Borders, I would buy tickets to the New York Philharmonic or the Tokyo String Quartet. I also purchased memberships to all the local museums. Thus, the good works practiced in our household were split right down the middle. She devoted herself to keeping society afloat; I devoted myself to keeping civilization afloat. Her job was a lot more time-consuming.
Since the coronavirus epidemic hit, as I have watched growing numbers of people who have never done anything civic-minded in their lives pitching in and helping, I have thought more and more about the essence of philanthropy. When all the good works are done by just a few people, which is almost always the case in small towns like the one where I live, it hurts the community, because people who do not regularly do good works either forget how to do them or never learn how in the first place. There’s an art to cleaning up polluted lakes or litter-strewn playgrounds. There’s an art to sitting patiently with people and helping them learn English as a second language. For that matter, there’s an art to going out into the street and asking complete strangers to fork over their money.
This is where the Good Samaritan and the Intermittently Good Samaritan part company. For a few years, my college-age son would help us deliver turkeys and groceries to needy members of our community at Christmastime. This was immensely satisfying work, because he could see how his efforts were brightening people’s lives, however fleetingly. Occasionally, other college students or retirees would offer to help. These individuals were fiercely well-meaning.
Virtuous people need help. Virtuous people need to recruit new talent. All the time. This, in fact, is why Rotary Clubs exist.
But when the chips are down and it’s time to drop off the Christmas baskets, well-meaningness isn’t enough. It is often said that in the world of altruism, it’s the thought that counts. Incorrect. If you’re going to do the right thing, you have to do it the right way. This is often impossible, because those who are only periodically virtuous are usually clueless. They give chickens to people who asked for turkeys and turkeys to people who asked for hams. They put too many Oreos in one bag and none in the other. At the end of those food runs, we invariably had to make a second trip to the supermarket because we always came up a couple of turkeys short. This was no way to run a railroad, much less a charity.
This gets to the crux of the matter: Good Samaritans are basically amateurs — but they shouldn’t be rank amateurs. Those who are going to get serious about altruism need to develop skills, to know where their talents are useful and where they are not. Virtue, like mastering the hammered dulcimer, requires practice. This is one of the few good things about the pandemic: It has given an awful lot of people who have never lifted a finger to help their fellow man a golden opportunity to learn the ropes, to go from bumbling amateurs to effective doers of good. People in my town who had never been especially altruistic now give big tips to those who work in the service industry, or they drop off food for those who cannot leave their homes, or they help clean up the garbage strewn along the riverfront. I never knew they had it in them.
In search of the next generation of do-gooders
But what of those who stubbornly refuse to lend a hand? I personally am not in favor of coercing people into doing good works, the way some progressive companies strong-arm their employees into doing community service in their free time. But I am not opposed to embarrassing people into doing good works. When I was growing up on the mean streets of Philadelphia — and yes, those streets were mean, and remain mean to this day — my parents were devout Catholics. They were also poor. The wolf was not always at the door, but it was usually somewhere in the vicinity. Yet no matter how bad things got, my parents always put something in the church collection basket on Sunday morning. They did not tithe, but they tried.
They did so by using envelopes sent by the church listing their name, address, and the amount donated each Sunday. Every month the church would publish a list of parishioner contributions. It was embarrassing when your name appeared next to a paltry $5. But it was better than not appearing at all.
I think society needs to try something like this. For years, I have watched the same do-gooders get older and older, waiting for the cavalry to arrive. And as they wait, the same people work at the polling stations, the same people visit the sick, and the same people staff the PTA. The simple as that. That’s why we might need public bulletin boards listing all the good works done only relief column these people are ever going to see is if every one of us voluntarily joins the cavalry. It’s as by local volunteers, with vast, blank spaces next to the names of those who have done nothing. Confrontational? Yes. Judgmental? Yes. But as the old saying goes: If you can’t beat ’em, browbeat ’em.
My daughter once dated a very smart young man whose specialty was economics. An implacable defender of the “rational actor” theory, he insisted that every human activity had some economic underpinning, that people who engaged in altruistic activities were secretly deriving some economic reward from doing so. This theory never made sense to me.
But now it does. Well, sort of. Helping your fellow man makes you feel better about yourself. It really does. And this helps cut down on expenses. In a society where all those Pilates classes, all those continuing education courses, all those self-help books and videos and boot camps are basically expensive, time-consuming, invariably unsuccessful ways to make you feel better about yourself, altruism is the obvious solution to your problem. No matter what the economists say, you can’t put a price on happiness. There aren’t any numbers that go that high.
• This story originally appeared in the December 2020 issue of Rotary magazine.
• Joe Queenan is a frequent contributor to Rotary magazine. Since March, he has written four one-act plays (all of which will be performed on Zoom), a screenplay, and a rock opera.
The Sad Truth About Altruism Is That There Aren’t Enough Altruists
DHSS today announced 226 new people identified with COVID-19 in Alaska. 178 were residents in: Anchorage (45), Wasilla (32), Palmer (24), Fairbanks (14), Eagle River (6), Bethel Census Area (5), Dillingham Census Area (5), Juneau (5), Tok (4), Ketchikan (3), Kodiak (3), North Pole (3), Sitka (3), Southeast Fairbanks Census Area (3), Valdez-Cordova Census Area - Copper River (3), Nome Census Area (2), Seward (2), Unalaska (2), and one each in Aleutians East Borough, Anchor Point, Bethel, Big Lake, Douglas, Homer, Houston, Kusilvak Census Area, Nikiski, Petersburg, Soldotna, Utqiaġvik, Valdez, and Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area.
Forty-eight new nonresident cases were identified yesterday in:
Anchorage: 21 in seafood industry and two with purposes under investigation
Aleutians East Borough: 15 in seafood industry
Unalaska: four in seafood industry and one with purpose under investigation
Kodiak: one with purpose under investigation
North Slope Borough: one with purpose under investigation
Location under investigation: three with purposes under investigation
Three resident cases were added and three nonresident case were subtracted from the dashboard due to data verification procedures bringing the total number of Alaska resident cases to 52,956 and the total number of nonresident cases to 1,864.
ALERT LEVELS – The current statewide alert level, based on the average daily case rate over 14 days per 100,000, is high at 20.68 cases per 100,000. Most regions of Alaska are in high alert status with widespread community transmission. Two regions are at intermediate alert status with moderate transmission and one regions is at low alert with minimal transmission.
High (>10 cases/100,000)
YK-Delta Region: 111.85 cases per 100,000
Southwest Region: 24.47 cases per 100,000
Matanuska-Susitna Region: 23.22 cases per 100,000
Other Interior Region: 20.72 cases per 100,000
Anchorage Municipality: 18.53 cases per 100,000
Fairbanks North Star Borough: 16.09 cases per 100,000
Northwest Region: 15.1 cases per 100,000
Juneau City and Borough: 14.96 cases per 100,000
Intermediate (>4.8-10 cases/100,000)
Kenai Peninsula Borough: 7.1 cases per 100,000
Other Southeast Region - Southern: 5.38 cases per 100,000
Low (0-4.8 cases/100,000)
Other Southeast Region - Northern: 4.89 cases per 100,000
CASES: HOSPITALIZATIONS & DEATHS – There have been a total of 1,182 hospitalizations and 277 deaths. One hospitalization was subtracted from the dashboard due to data verification and no deaths were reportedyesterday.
There are currently 40 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who are hospitalized and two additional patients who are considered persons under investigation (PUI) for a total of 42 current COVID-related hospitalizations. Ten of these patients are on ventilators. The percentage of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 is 4.3%.
CASES: SEX & AGES– Of the 178 Alaska residents, 96 are male and 82 are female. 15 are under the age of 10; 28 are aged 10-19; 31 are aged 20-29; 29 are aged 30-39; 31 are aged 40-49; 24 are aged 50-59; 10 are aged 60-69; eight is aged 70-79 and two are aged 80 or older.
TESTING – A total of 1,520,206 tests have been conducted, with 29,972 tests conducted in the previous seven days. The average percentage of daily positive tests for the previous seven days is 2.37%.
VACCINATIONS – Reported to date, there have been 98,265 dose #1 and 31,675 dose #2 COVID-19 vaccinations given for a total of 129,941 doses administered in Alaska. For more information, visit the Vaccine Monitoring Dashboard.
Notes: Reports are received electronically, by phone and by fax. Cases are verified, redundancies are eliminated and then cases are entered into the data system that feeds into Alaska’s Coronavirus Response Hub. When there is a high number of reports being received, this may cause delays in getting reports entered and counted. Personnel continue to focus on the effort to process and count reports and minimize the delay from receipt to posting on the hub.
This report reflects data from 12 a.m. until 11:59 p.m. on Feb. 2. There is a lag between cases being reported on the DHSS data dashboard and what local communities report. Each case is an individual person even if they are tested multiple times. Total tests are a not a count of unique individuals tested and includes both positive and negative results. The current number of hospitalized patients represents more real-time data compared to the cumulative total hospitalizations. Current hospitalizations are reported for all facilities, not just general acute care and critical access facilities, as is the default on the dashboard. Total number of hospital beds available fluctuate daily as the number of available hospital staff changes. All data reported in real-time, on a daily basis, should be considered preliminary and subject to change. To view more data visit data.coronavirus.alaska.gov; weekly and daily case summaries are archived at dhss.alaska.gov/dph/Epi/id/Pages/COVID-19/communications.aspx#updates.
Alaska Covid-19 CASE COUNT SUMMARY, Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2021
SPH expects 500 Moderna Covid-19 vaccines the first week of February.
A mass vaccination clinic will be held Friday and Saturday, Feb 5 and 6 at the Community Christian Church, under direction of Homer Unified Command.
This event is by appointment only – no walk-ins
If a person does not have access to internet or needs assistance in booking, call 235-0235 to make an appointment.
If a person was on the wait list for the January 15 and 16 clinic, they still need to make an appointment for this clinic. No names were forwarded to the February event.
There are no wait lists at this time.
If you already got your first dose at the January 15/16 event, this event is NOT for you. You already have your 2nd dose appointment forFeb 12/13. If you have questions about your appointment on Feb. 12 or 13, click here.
Vaccines are not available at Homer Medical Center or South Peninsula Family Care Clinic at this time.
News Release All KPBSD 7-12 grade students can attend school onsite five days a week beginning Monday, February 1, 2021
Soldotna, January 28, 2021—All 42 KPBSD schools will be open every day to the onsite at-school learning option for all grades, including 7-12 grade students, beginning Monday, February 1, 2021. The 100% Remote Learning choice is still available if a family chooses this option.
All PreK-12 grade students who want to attend school onsite every day are now able to do so! Working together, we can keep schools open when operating in Red, or High COVID-19 risk. So far, safety mitigation plans are working, so keep up the good effort during time at school, riding the bus, participating in sports, and with outside activities!
Enhanced Safety plans
Shift in 2021: Instead of broad regional decisions to extinguish the onsite learning option, the KPBSD district level team will work with individual schools when a positive COVID-19 case occurs in a school requiring student or staff quarantine, or results in staffing shortages. Thus, you may experience only a classroom or specific school shift to the 100% Remote Learning option
To keep onsite learning happening and schools open, it is key that everyone follow the plans for health and safety. Thank you for sticking to the KPBSD Symptom Free School protocol
Bus transportation is provided on a normal schedule, everyone must wear a face covering, and seating plans will be put in place
Staff and all ages of students wear a mask at all times
Mitigation plans at school sites must be faithfully and fully implemented
Pods orcohorts will be in consistent groups
6’ physical distancing needs to occur whenever possible. Physical distance will keep staff and students healthy in school, minimize in-school exposure or transmission, and reduce the number of people who need to quarantine when a positive COVID-19 case occurs
All Seward area 7-12 grade students can return to onsite-at-school learning on January 25, 2021
Soldotna, January 22, 2021—Good news: the community spread of COVID-19 is continuing to flatten on the Kenai Peninsula, and as more students return to onsite at school learning, if everyone follows the school mitigation plans, schools will stay open for the rest of the school year. Grades 7-12 have been attending on split schedules due to COVID-19 risk levels, and very soon all KPBSD students will have the option to attend school onsite five days a week. If you have questions or issues to solve, kindly call your school and talk to your principal, teacher, or school secretary.
Monday, January 25, 2021, Moose Pass and Seward schools will open for all 7-12th grade students to attend in-person, at school, every day
Monday, February 1, 2021, is the earliest possible date for: Central Peninsula (Kasilof, Kenai, Nikiski, Soldotna, and Sterling area schools) Southern Peninsula (Homer area, Nikolaevsk, and Ninilchik schools)
On or before January 28, 2021, KPBSD will provide an update with an official announcement about when central and southern peninsula schools will open onsite learning for all grades.
Enhanced Safety plans
Shift in 2021: Instead of broad regional decisions to extinguish the onsite learning option, the KPBSD district level team will work with individual schools when a positive COVID-19 case occurs in a school requiring student or staff quarantine, or results in staffing shortages. Thus, you may experience only a classroom or specific school shift to the 100% Remote Learning option
To keep onsite learning happening and schools open, it is key that everyone follow the plans for health and safety. Thank you for sticking to the KPBSD Symptom Free School protocol
Bus transportation is provided on a normal schedule, everyone must wear a face covering, and seating plans will be put in place
Staff and all ages of students wear a mask at all times
Mitigation plans at school sites must be faithfully and fully implemented
Pods orcohorts will be in consistent groups
6’ physical distancing needs to occur whenever possible. Physical distance will keep staff and students healthy in school, minimize in-school exposure or transmission, and reduce the number of people who need to quarantine when a positive COVID-19 case occurs
How will I know when grades 7-12 will be open every day to onsite learning at my school?
Parents, students, and families will receive a message from the district through School Messenger, and schools will also contact their families when this change takes effect. An announcement will be posted on KPBSD.org, the KPBSD mobile app, and on social media. The KPBSD team continues to monitor COVID-19 spread, health care capacity, and ability to staff and operate schools safely. Thank you for your good effort to open schools safely, and keep schools open! Monitor your school risk level on the COVID-19 dashboard.
SPH expects 500 Moderna Covid-19 vaccines the first week of February.
A mass vaccination clinic will be held Friday and Saturday, Feb 5 and 6 at the Community Christian Church, under direction of Homer Unified Command.
This event is by appointment only – no walk-ins
Appointments can be made online at www.sphosp.org starting Tuesday, Feb. 2 at 10am
If a person does not have access to internet or needs assistance in booking, call the City of Homer vaccine help line at 435-3188. It will open at 10am Tuesday Feb 2.
If a person was on the wait list for the January 15 and 16 clinic, they still need to make an appointment for this clinic. No names were forwarded to the February event.
There are no wait lists at this time.
Vaccines are not available at Homer Medical Center or South Peninsula Family Care Clinic at this time.
Hunger and malnutrition unleashed by COVID-19 could carry the impact of the pandemic far into the future
by Roger Thurow Illustrations by Phil Wrigglesworth
Late 2019, just before the coronavirus began its relentless march around the world, I joined a group of fourth graders in their crowded classroom in an Ethiopian village. Their teacher posed an adventurous question to the students: What would you like to be one day?
“I would like to be a nurse and help people.”
“A doctor!”
“A teacher or a businessman.”
They were answers you might hear in any fourth grade classroom, anywhere in the world. But this was no ordinary group of elementary school pupils, so I asked a follow-up question: How old are you?
The answers: 18, 18, and 21.
At the time of my visit, I saw this classroom — with half of its students aged 18 and older — as an indictment of humanity’s past neglect of nutrition and agricultural development, which had allowed hunger to persist in our world. Many of these students were young children in 2003 when, in the first great hunger crisis of the 21st century, 14 million Ethiopians, many of them children, faced starvation. For the children who survived, this severe early malnutrition often resulted in stunted bodies and brains.
In this classroom, I saw how stunting can become a life sentence of underachievement. It is highly unlikely that any of the students I met — teenagers and young adults just now learning simple math and struggling to read — will fulfill their ambitions of professional careers and their desires to help others. Lost potential is the consequence of a stunted generation: What might these young people have accomplished for themselves, their families, their community, their country — for all of us — had they not been malnourished as children?
Several weeks after my visit, the coronavirus pandemic shifted my perspective of what I had seen in this classroom. These students aren’t simply showing us the effects of past malnutrition. They are giving us a glimpse into our post-pandemic future, a view of how the hunger and malnutrition unleashed by COVID-19 could carry the impact of the pandemic far into the future.
The Food Plant Solutions Rotary Action Group is working on sustainable ways to end hunger and malnutrition. Find out more and get involved at foodplantsolutions.org.
These students are giving us a glimpse into our post-pandemic future, a view of how the hunger and malnutrition unleashed by COVID-19 could carry the impact of the pandemic far into the future.
The pandemic has changed how we see hunger today, both around the world and in the United States. The global health crisis became an economic calamity followed by a nutrition catastrophe. As businesses shut down, job losses mounted, supply chains shattered, and schools that had provided vital meal programs closed, access to food and nutrition was radically interrupted, and in many cases severely limited, for billions of people. The World Food Programme — the United Nations agency in charge of emergency food distribution as well as school meal programs in numerous countries — warned that an additional 270 million people were facing grave hunger, with children most at risk. Nutritionists predicted that stunting, which already affects nearly one of every four children in the world, would surely rise. Researchers, writing in the medical journal The Lancet, estimated that more than 6 million children would suffer wasting (severe underweight) and that as many as 10,000 children could die from malnutrition every month in the coming year.
The pandemic has made hunger and malnutrition more immediate, more urgent, more threatening. And that is not only happening in lower- and middle-income countries. It has also had a profound impact in one of the richest, most bountiful countries in the world, exposing a national oxymoron: hungry Americans.
Hunger has become more personal for many Americans than at any time since the Great Depression. As the pandemic paralyzed the economy and jobs and incomes vanished, we have seen massive demand at food banks and pop-up relief pantries — perhaps we have even been there ourselves or recognized our relatives, friends, neighbors, or co-workers in those crowds. We have seen highways come to a standstill with epic traffic jams at drive-through bread lines. We’ve seen the mad scramble to replace the subsidized breakfast and lunch programs once provided by now-closed schools. We’ve experienced the frantic dash to grab whatever food remains on the shelves of the grocery stores. At the same time, we’ve seen farmers plowing under crops and dumping milk and euthanizing livestock because their regular customers — the restaurants, schools, and businesses — have stopped buying.
We’ve seen all this and we are shocked. But we shouldn’t be.
Americans hold tight to the belief that ours is a land of everlasting bounty, with amber waves of grain stretching majestically across the fruited plain, from sea to shining sea. We sing of how “God shed his grace on thee” — on America. We believe ourselves to be the world’s breadbasket, with the richest soils, the best farmers, the most advanced technologies that allow us to feed the planet’s hungry, wherever they may be. We could imagine that a global health crisis would turn into a hunger crisis “over there” somewhere, in Africa or India perhaps. But in America? No way.
It is the lie we tell ourselves, blinding us to the 40 million fellow citizens who, even before the pandemic, struggled to come up with their next meal. But now we see. The pandemic has forced us to look. The truth is that while we may indeed feed the world, we don’t feed all our own citizens. It’s not that we can’t. It’s that we won’t. We allow hunger to abide.
The truth is that there have always been lines at food pantries, where the shelves are always in desperate need of replenishing; that the ceaseless wave across the fruited plain is one of schoolchildren heading to cafeterias for free meals; that the one thing that does stretch from sea to shining sea is a network of 60,000-plus food pantries and soup kitchens that outnumber McDonald’s restaurants by more than 4-to-1.
17 million
Additional Americans facing food insecurity in 2020 because of the pandemic
43 percent
Share of national food waste created by U.S. households
$218 billion
Amount spent annually in the U.S. on food that is never eaten
6 billion
Projected number of meals U.S. food banks will provide by the end of 2020
We see the Golden Arches everywhere, but do we see the food pantries? They are there, tucked away in community halls and church basements; many of them are served and supported by Rotarians. They are places of relief and salvation. But all too often they are also places of stigma and shame. Who are the people who need them, and what did they do wrong? To look closely would mean examining painful truths and asking, What did we do wrong?
How does this obscene oxymoron persist? How do we, in a wealthy country, a democracy that has been the envy of the world, tolerate it? Economists have advanced a theory that there can be no famine in a democracy; surely voters would oust any sitting government amid mass starvation. But America proves that you can have hunger — if not outright starvation — in a democracy. Before the pandemic, even with 40 million food-insecure citizens, hunger rarely rated a mention in any political campaign.
U.S. Representative Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, who is co-chair of the House Hunger Caucus, tells anyone who will listen that hunger is a political condition. But its consequences aren’t acute enough to prod lawmakers to take any kind of lasting, unified action to end it. There is rhetoric aplenty, and there are grand intentions. Most every politician can manage to summon a flash of righteous indignation against hunger — who could be for hunger? — but when it comes to spending political capital and actual money to eliminate hunger, there is eternal stinginess. When the purse strings do open, it is usually with a grudging motion and even a sneer: “Are they really hungry in this country?”
Over the years, U.S. legislators have enacted programs to provide nutritional aid: the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, commonly known as food stamps; the Women, Infants, and Children program, or WIC; school breakfast and lunch programs. But these initiatives are perpetually underfunded, underpromoted, and under attack. As the pandemic hit, 18 million American households relied on SNAP benefits (which, although meant to last a month, rarely stretch to two weeks). Government analysts acknowledge that millions more people are probably qualified to receive the benefits but are intimidated by the process of applying, or recoil with a sense of shame at the notion of receiving aid, or simply don’t know it’s available. And so hunger abides.
Rhetoric, like charity, is fleeting. We generously give our cans of vegetables, jars of peanut butter, boxes of pasta, and cash donations during food drives, particularly in times of natural disasters. But without decisive action to match those donations, without commitment to eliminate the problems that cause the need, the structures of inequality remain in place and, away from the spotlight cast by the emergency, the suffering continues. We have become comfortable with hunger in our midst, and, in a mockery of our displays of sympathy, Americans are the most profligate food wasters in the world: We throw away one-third of all food prepared for consumption.
We don’t even call it hunger. We use a euphemism: “food insecurity,” defined as a lack of consistent access to enough food and proper nutrients for an active, healthy life. According to the government’s measurements, about 11 percent of U.S. households were food insecure before the COVID-19 outbreak; by late April — within one month of the start of lockdowns and stay-at-home orders — the rate had doubled to 22.7 percent. Once the pandemic’s impact began spreading across the country, more than 17 percent of households with children under age 12 reported that their children weren’t getting enough food (compared with about 3 percent of families reporting such hardship in 2018). Feeding America, a network of 200 food banks, calculates that it is now serving 50 million people, up from 40 million pre-pandemic. That’s 10 million more people who likely never imagined they would be reaching out for benefits in a food line. What did they do wrong? A global health crisis closed their office, their factory, their school.
Will they — will we, as a nation — look at our hunger problem differently now? Will we summon the sense of shared purpose needed to conquer COVID-19, the passion required to confront racism, the energy demanded to eliminate hunger in our most bountiful land?
We have become comfortable with hunger in our midst, and, in a mockery of our displays of sympathy, Americans throw away one-third of all food prepared for consumption.
Is this a moment of reckoning for our American oxymoron, now that “over there” is happening here?
I had seen, once before, the tragic, perplexing phenomenon of food surpluses destroyed or spoiled because of broken supply chains and disrupted markets, even as demand for food assistance skyrocketed — in Ethiopia 2003.
I was a foreign correspondent with the Wall Street Journal then, covering development and humanitarian stories. A catastrophic progression of agricultural miscalculations, international water disputes, local market breakdowns, and drought had triggered widespread famine after two years of bumper harvests. Up on the Boricha plateau, south of the capital of Addis Ababa, I parted the flaps of an emergency feeding tent and stepped inside to a scene of utter horror.
Dozens of children were starving to death. Speechless, I moved through the tent until I came to Tesfaye Ketema, who was sitting on the floor, holding his son Hagirso. Tesfaye, all skin and bones himself, told me he had carried his boy for hours to the tent, hoping to save his life. Just a year before, he had carried his surplus crops to this very field, which was then a bustling market. When I met them, Hagirso was five years old and weighed 27 pounds. The doctors were telling Tesfaye they didn’t know if his son would survive, so severe was the malnutrition shock.
“A teacher or a businessman”: That was the ambition voiced in December by Hagirso, now 21 years old, sitting in the front row of that crowded fourth grade classroom. He had survived. But he clearly hadn’t thrived over the past 16 years: He was physically and cognitively stunted, still struggling to learn to do simple math, to read, and to write.
At home, on a small plot of land, Hagirso helps his father and his mother, Fikre, raise their crops of maize, potatoes, and kale, and tend to the family’s cow and calf. He pitches in on community tree-planting and rain-harvesting efforts. And he is a role model for his younger siblings, who scamper after him when he walks to school. The youngest, a four-year-old brother, is named Enough — a plea to God, Tesfaye explained, that he be their last child and their last worry about malnutrition and stunting.
Enough. Will we make it our plea as well, as we look ahead into our post-pandemic future? Will we decide that we have had enough, that our new normal, however it develops, will be one without hunger?
• This story originally appeared in the November 2020 issue of Rotary magazine.
• Roger Thurow is a senior fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. He has been writing about hunger and malnutrition for two decades, first as a foreign correspondent with the Wall Street Journal and now as author of three books. Parts of this story are adapted from his Chicago Council work, including an interactive feature on Hagirso and his fourth grade class
Hunger Hits Home: The Pandemic Reminds Us That Food Insecurity Isn’t Just ‘Over There’
Follow these steps to organize a food drive on your own, or with a local food bank
by Maureen Vaught
Master gardener Alex Portelli was having lunch at an elementary school in Marion, North Carolina, where he volunteers, when two students, brothers, sat next to him in the cafeteria. “One brother pulled out his lunch and started eating,” recalls Portelli, president of the Rotary Club of Marion. “I asked the other brother where his lunch was, and he said, ‘It’s not my turn to eat today.’ I thought, ‘Oh, no. Not during my lifetime.’ That’s the type of personal story that gets us involved.” Portelli is now the chair of his county’s local food advisory council, and he’s active in the Rotary Zones 33-34 Hunger Challenge.
Rotary members in many places hold collection drives to help people, particularly families with children, get the food they need. As the coronavirus pandemic continues to affect jobs and school food programs, that need is growing. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the COVID-19 pandemic could add as many as 132 million people to the total number of undernourished in the world this year.
Want to organize a food drive in your community? Here are some ideas and tips to help ensure success.
Step 1
Choose a group to support
If you’re not sure whom to help, contact your local food bank or pantry for suggestions. “In some cases, towns are too small to have a local food bank, but Rotary can connect them with a larger food bank,” says Billi Black, a Zone 33 assistant regional public image coordinator. Then work with the group to address its needs.
Step 2
Make a logistics plan
Form a committee to determine when, where, and how you’ll hold your drive. Get your members’ input and tap into their connections and expertise.
Step 3
Set a goal
And make it measurable: pounds of food collected, number of meals supplied, or dollar amount raised. Look for matching opportunities from other organizations that could double or triple your impact.
Step 4
Promote your event
The members of the Rotary Club of Prescott-Frontier, Arizona, considered their May food drive a success when they collected an estimated 3,000 pounds of food. But they stepped up their marketing when they held another drive in June. After the club contacted local media outlets and lined up news articles, social media posts, and radio interviews, it collected 38,000 pounds of food. “It was unbelievably successful,” says member Mike Payson.
Step 5
Track your success
Consider naming a “food champion” in your club or district whose responsibility is to help set goals and to promote and track their progress, and to make sure members record their volunteer hours and contributions in Rotary Club Central.
Step 6
Thank your donors
Even if you can’t thank each contributor individually, show your gratitude by posting photos from your event on your website and on social media.
million people in the U.S. who experienced low or very low food security in 2018
Work with a local food bank
Staffers at your local food bank have the experience and expertise to ensure that your food drive is a success. They know who needs what in your community and have conducted many food drives, so they know what works and what doesn’t. They can also:
Help with logistics, including publicity, choosing a location, and scheduling. “We just show up with the money, food, and manpower,” says Johnny Moore, an assistant regional public image coordinator for Zone 33.
Make better use of your funds. Because of their buying power, your dollar goes further.
Coordinate the distribution of food where it’s needed most.
Virtual food drives
If you’re looking for alternatives to an in-person food drive during a pandemic, organize a virtual one instead. Set up a page on your club’s or local food bank’s website to collect financial donations, track your group’s progress, and share updates with your supporters.
Students register for the regional English-language spelling bee in Štip. Nationwide, more than 3,000 students participate in this highly competitive contest, which is facilitated by volunteers from the Peace Corps and Rotary.
Eric Kimani, regional Rotary Foundation coordinator
Who is eligible now?
Barry Rassin | 2018-19 RI president
Fatima Lahmami Langlois | Rotary Club of Montreal
