Amerok Society

Anthem:  Jacob Lakirovich
Grace:  Mike Mushet
Toast: Gerd Wengler

In attendance:       22     (including guests)
Guests:  Earl Creighton immediate past President of the Rotary Club of St Vincent south

Mike Conway from the Agincourt Rotary Club

Deepak Gupta and Amit Lahiri from Centennial College who are working with us on the creation of a new Roteract club

 

 

Madhavi reminded us about the TV Auction - we need to get things going. All Rotarians need to get involved and start bringing in items and sponsorships.

 

Kevin Manuel announced the TV Auction item numbers input as 307 items including 45 from our Club, which is very low to date.

 

President Gerd read a letter from one of our PH Scholarship recepients thanking the club.

 

President Gerd recited a story from a recent dinner where he encountered a Rotarian from Bangladesh.

 

Dhanni Ramdeen reminded all of the International Service mtg after our meeting.

 

Mike Conway of the Agincourt Club announced that they are not having their regular meeting on Nov 3 but are joining the Scarborough club for their lunch meeting in support of the new Scarborough basketball program.

 

Gerd also announced a directors Meeting next Monday night at Donna Salamalay’s house at 6:30.

 

 

Marbelous draw conducted by Doug Strype was drawn by Earl Creighton and won by Jim Boyko.

 

The mutant marble was not found and the $5 consolation prize was awarded.

 

Sergeant at Arms. Basil Dias

 

Fines:  Basil fined all and sundry who could not recall the RI president, incoming president and several other such questions.

 

Happy bucks were provided by: Madhavi for a new job and Jack Holman for joining the 1% club. Jim Boyko contributed his winnings.

 

Today’s speaker, Gem Munro, of the Amerok Society, was introduced by Al Meredith and he spoke about the work of the Society in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nigeria, that we have supported, through our International Service Group.

 

Amerok teaches local mothers how to act as teachers. Initially this was debunked but they persevered and after ten years they are successful. He showed a video from one of the women showing how she has succeeded. This experience has been repeated now on many occasions.

 

A trigger for these women tends to be their own children who they want better lives for. Each mother teaches 5 kids, including their own. It is very difficult for these women to get the opportunity to learn to teach, let alone to then teach others. English is also taught as it is necessary to advance further.

 

Teaching the women provides them with a release from their lifestyle which is more akin to slavery than to a life. As such, this is a remarkable accomplishment on its own, which is then passed on to their students and children.

 

Our support of his organization has helped them in their activities. Much more help is needed. What is needed is more educated mothers, who inherently resist extremists, who can then teach their children to do the same. Now this program is multigenerational with the daughters of the first teachers now beginning to teach themselves. They currently have 24 schools in three countries.

 

Gem was thanked by Gordon Brown for his presentation and presented with an Operation Eyesight Certificate.