Campbell River Daybreak Rotary

THE SPINNING REEL Jan 28th,2020 MHC.

Attendance:

Daybreak Members Present: 36

Number of Makeups: 35

Total: 71

Current Membership: 57

Attendance Percentage: 125%

♦ Meeting Officially Called to Order: Fish

♦ Meeting opened – busy day.Mitch called upon to lead us in Oh Canada, after it was noted Mark B was again dodging the duty ♦

♦ Guests: Lisa Ettor (last time as guest!), Katy Etter (soon to be Outbound), Ian Baikie,Lindsey Hoedel, Sam Tucker (another Outbound), Jacqueline McAdam and Good Ole Mike Rushton.

Fining Sargent: Kevin – on jobs: First, Best, & Worst Kevin had us bare past work experiences amongst table mates, then called out for great (and not so Great) experiences. Couple Riverboat Captains in the room, plus several ex-latrine scrubbers....a raspberry picker for a day (who got fired for eating more than he picked).....selling RV's (remembered that from last Week).....being a dentist, and being the dentist's lawyer (names concealed to protect the innocent!).... trumped by 'being a Grandma is the best job in the world'.Scariest (for several of us) was Barry on heat seeking missile maintenance. Group fine was for everyone who hadn't read for “Rotarians Read” last week – it was awesome.

Happy/Sad bucks: Susanne G had 2 happy bucks – enroute to Scotland to curl in the Beefeate open, secondA request for bottle caps to be worked into table decorations for Tapas+. Ian B away next 6 weeks, initially onWater & sanitation projects in Cambodia, followed by medical camp work in Nepal (Whoo-hoo!). Diana G is headed off to Mexico to help build houses, and asked for a few bucks towards house ware for those families.Barry P is off to Mexico with a smile. Sandra R started training for Riding with Hospice (=170k!). Bruce I wanted to thank all who read last week. Thanh T wished us a Happy Lunar New Year. Harold H (and it turns out Urb too) are celebrating 30 yrs with Daybreak Rotary (yee-haa!) - and it's not over yet!

Birthdays = George Lambert, Marsha Peters, Wendy Murdock and Secretary Kelly Herself!

Secretary`s Report: Kelly Fisher ♦

♦

Rotary Four Way Test 1. Is it the truth?

2. Is it fair to all concerned?

3. Will it build goodwill and better friendships?

4. Will it be beneficial to all?

♦ Inducting New Member – Lisa Etter

Craig G stood to introduce ANOTHER new Member (Whoo-Hoo!), Lisa Etter, sponsored by Fish, mentored by Sandra R .- Lisa & husband Mark moved to Campbell River in 1975, and are the proud parents of two – Katy & Nolan. Katy will be our Outbound to Denmark next year!

You might recognize Lisa from the airport, where she had a car rental franchise that she began on her 25th birthday....and sold in 2013, when she went to work for CIBC in Commercial banking. Mark worked for Canfor for over 20 years.Lisa loves the beauty of Campbell River combined with all it's accessible trails, enjoys working with people, and admires others who have the ability to perform captivating speeches – as such, she joined Toast Masters last year, to upgrade her own speaking skills.

Passions for life: being out in nature, hiking with Mark, her kids – and their dog Milo.One of her favourite places is Paradise Mountain – she enjoys yoga, jogging, skiing and reading non-fiction.

Asked why are you joining Rotary? Lisa responded that she'd like to be a community citizen, and felt the best way to do so was through Rotary's service above self.

Even before being inducted, Lisa has already stood up to take over the short term exchange program for the whole Island – so she's already leading her first committee.

Another much welcomed addition to Rotary!

Craig G, Lisa Etter, RYE Outbound Katy Etter, Sandra R, & the Honorable Prez Fish.

Program – Tracy B introduced Guest Speaker Dr Jacqueline McAdam, of Resilient Generations

Dr Jacqueline has an amazing history of living and working in some of the most challenging areas of Africa - her parents went to work for Cuso in Africa in 1967 and took Jacqueline & her brother with them. That 2 year stint obviously shaped the rest of her life.

Following completion of an undergraduate degree in Child Youth Care, with extensive work with street youth in home town Victoria, Jacqueline's own first role in Africa was in 1991, with Canadian Crossroads, in Kenya. That developed into her focus on the issues of African youth on the street, evolving into entrepreneurship within the 'informal' segment of the African economy.

Her incredible work took Jacqueline throughout Africa, including Rwanda, immediately after the genocide. Finding youth who had lost their entire family yet retained a positive outlook, she delved into what allowed them to thrive. Her work in Canada was with kids that didn't the right jeans/phone/job; in Africa, the youth were living in cardboard houses with a dozen others – yet they were happy.In Rwanda, the youth had lost much – but they had hope, they were talking about how to rebuild their country – this is what ultimately lead Jacqueline down the path of studying their resiliency: what is the difference between those that choose to survive & thrive, vs those that struggle, in one facet of her work as a youth counsellor.

In Kenya, Rwanda, Ethiopia – violent histories, phenomenally poor, and yet the people have hope, and it's

Presenter Dr Jacqueline McAdam,Of Resilient Generations

that hope that provides the base for their resiliency.

The challenge is understanding Africa, it's multitude of issues, and ultimately how to help them grow into their hope.

One of the biggest issues is simple employment; huge resources have been poured into areas such as education, preparing youth to for jobs that unfortunately don't exist in their present economy – education is important, but just more education is not the answer.Even simple donations don't always help - in much of Africa, there are large used clothes markets, where a few sellers are employeed hawking volumes of clothes donated from North America – which has basically destroyed the local tailoring of native clothes. Rwanda stands out as having banded bringing in used clothing, leading to the ressurection of local weaving & tailoring, growing jobs that fit their economy.

Within all the above is the 'youth bulge' – Africa has one of the highest youth bulges in the world. Where North America has a preponderance of citizens above 45, with a declining birth rate. Africa (in this instance Rwanda) has of the highest youth populations in the world, with 78% of the population is under 30. Most young Africans strive to do better than their parents – which is proving almost impossible within their existing formal economy.

Announcments:- Fish – Executive Mtg, 5:30pm Feb 4th at Rosebowl, everyone welcome.- Tran T – Tapas meeting Feb 11th 5:30 at Amy's AND few tickets remaining for Chinese New Year dinner by the Noon Club on Feb 3rd. Looking to pull together 20 DayBreakers = 2 tables.- Craig G – membership meeting Jan 30th 5pm, Staff Room at Sandowne school.- Urb – WineFest meeting 5:00 Wed Jan 29th at Urb's - Fish – Feb 8th Hospital Foundation Trivia night – looking for a few fun people to join our table.

Next Meeting: WEDNESDAY, Feb 5th 6:45am @ MHC. Assembly Wednesday Feb 11th - remember Wednesdays!!! Still 6:45 at MHC

Speaker is our Own Glen Clark!

Wednesday Feb 18th – don't forget the shift!

♦ Reminders: • Missing a meeting, email: worksheet.rotary@gmail.com • Planning a meeting, email details to: meetings@duckdip.ca • Want to see the roster schedule, go to: http://duckdip.ca/member/

Just 16% of young people work in the private sector – that means that 84% of the working youth have household enterprises = family farms or the informal economy, the area that Jacqueline works to develop. The preponderance of that group is young rural women, because they are willing to work for less – they are driven to make money to feed their children. Examples of these small informal enterprises are roadside services – selling fruit, cutting hair, providing water, all with no storefront. Jacqueline realized the main challenge for the street youth she worked with was simply to get a job – her effort now goes into helping young people develop simple businesses that work within the informal African economy. Sometimes that involves small ($500) loans, other times helping them grow their product lines/markets, or to grow themselves - stereotypical roles are for girls to become hairdressers, boys carpenters. There's an over abundance of both, so times Jacqueline's role is to pressure them to look wider for products or services they could provide.

Resilient Generations is Jacqueline's Social Enterprise focused on business development – she works with either Africans under 30, or companies that employee significant numbers of Africans under 30, and has a particular interest in vulnerable populations. The reason Jacqueline is out making presentations such as ours is tied in with that – she's trying to make contact here with North American shops that will buy products hand fabricated in Africa by these enterprises. The samples she brought were of handwoven shawls, but other examples with shops that carry them, or direct buying, are accessible online through www.resilientgenerations.ca

Jacqueline is also always searching for fresh product ideas, or individuals interested in specific countries or helping with specific enterprises developing their business. She'll put on Parties with a Purpose, telling her story of being in Africa, and bringing enterprise products that support those efforts, plus always welcomes donations supporting needed training for youth within those enterprises.

An amazing lady with incredible time spent on the ground making a difference for youth in some of the most troubled areas of Africa, still working to improve the life’s of others.