Welcome Kate Henry. John Paisley on Madagascar and a Rotary Peace Scholar from Zambia.

John Paisley gave us a very interesting talk on Madagascar last week.  Just seeing the pictures made me want to go there.  The size of Madagascar is amazing!  I suppose we naturally think of it as a small island off the African coast.  I liked his comment on it being a destination for the non-fastidious tourist, non faint-hearted as well!   I was particularly struck by those strange limestone formations at Tsingy.  And I mustn't forget the beaches.












 
This week we have Kate Henry as our guest speaker.  She is the News Editor of the Killarney Rosebank Gazette and has really helped us a lot with publicity.  I don't know what she is going to talk to us about but it does give us the opportunity to say thank you for all the help she has given us in the past.


Next Saturday is the Club Assembly.  I'm sure President Graham will have more to say about it on Wednesday.  Don't forget that we have to find a President Elect for the Rotary Year 2011/12 and that nominations have to be in by Saturday Morning.  Mike Vink will no doubt tell us who has been nominated on Wednesday. 

The video bar has some interesting Beatles videos of "Let It Be" including a dreadful cover version by a Russian Navy group....enjoy it!

Protecting the World's Most Vulnerable People

by Dan Dixon

Francis Kabosha says that growing up in the southern African nation of Zambia has given him a heart for helping refugees.

“Zambia is poor, just like many other third world countries, but quite peaceful, with a long history of looking after those displaced by violent conflict,” he says.

A 2008-10 Rotary Peace Fellow, Kabosha recently began serving as an officer in the returns, reintegration, and recovery section of the United Nations Mission in Sudan, working in support of refugees and the internally displaced. Previously, he was a refugee officer with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Zambia.

“I have been a resource person on refugee protection and have conducted several workshops for government officials, NGOs [nongovernmental organizations], and UNHCR field staff,” Kabosha says. “I have done human rights and disaster management training, among other areas of humanitarian work.”

Kabosha is the first peace fellow to complete both the professional development certificate program and the master’s degree program offered by the Rotary Peace Centers. After earning his certificate at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand, in 2007, he worked for UNHCR with government and nongovernment representatives to repatriate refugees living in the Mwange camp along the Zambian border to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He was responsible for administration of refugee affairs in the camp and enforcing national, regional, and international conventions, statutes, and protocols for protecting refugees. He also trained refugee leaders in building and maintaining peace in their communities.

Kabosha says his experiences with UNHCR and the certificate program “triggered the desire for advanced training in conflict resolution and management,” leading him to study as a Paul and Jean Elder Endowed Rotary Peace Fellow at the University of Bradford in England, sponsored by the Rotary Club of Nkwazi, Zambia. During his applied field experience, he worked in joint peace-building efforts with the West African Youth Network in Sierra Leone and its partners, including the Ministry of Defense, Office of National Security, Special Court for Sierra Leone, and National Commission for Social Action.

His “desire to serve the needy has grown from one level to another,” Kabosha says, instilling in him a commitment “to protect the world’s most vulnerable persons: refugees, who as a result of violent conflicts, find themselves as ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances.”