Retina SA, Wheel Chairs and a Rotary Club in Ramallah.

 A very interesting talk by Rob Kershaw of Retina SA about hereditary diseases that affect the retina and the work of his organisation.  Jenine Coetzer had a lot of fun photographing our members looking through glasses that give an idea of tunnel vision and peripheral vision and it really did demonstrate what problems with sight means in terms of mobility and many other factors.  Rob was unable to show his presentation that just emphasised the need for two up-to-date laptops that are necessary for the marketing side of the organisation. He has subsequently sent through the necessary specifications for the laptops that are required.  Incidentally a couple of members mentioned to me afterwards that the tunnel vision glasses made absolutely no difference at all to the way they normally saw things.

This week our speaker is Luschka Dearle, a rehabilitation physiotherapist of Rita Henn and Partners, Physical Rehabilitation & Therapy Practise.  She'll be talking about, and showing pictures, of our Wheel Chair Project.  This Project is organised by Lucille Blumberg who unfortunately will not be at the meeting this week.  It really has been extremely successful because the control of wheel chair deliveries ensures that they go to the right people and they remain with them.  The child's wheel chair and crutches in the photograph with Lucille and a member of Rita Henn & Associates has just been handed back to us as the child, who was run over by a car, no longer needs them and they have been immediately given to another child who does need them.  Luschka will give you a full picture of how the project is going and this is in addition to the 20 wheel chairs that we have donated to Woodside Sanctuary.

This is part of the Project Committee's decision to show our members what is actually being done with Projects and in January we will having a Rotary Breakfast at Woodside Sanctuary.

Here are some happy snaps from last week's meeting...and our congratulations to Allan & Sue on their marriage last Saturday.  Unfortunately we have lost Sue Peiser as a member but we have gained a new member in Sue Beuthin.

Remember to bring 2 Packets of Biscuits for CCCCC's and any toys for our Interact Club's Project.


Thursday is the CCCCC's Loo Improvement Dinner.  Mike Vink and President Graham Donet will be cooking away from 15,00hrs on Wednesday Afternoon.  There may be a few seats available so please try and snap them up by contacting Mike Vink asap!

A Rotary Club in Ramallah.

They’re typical Rotarians: lawyers, engineers, architects, and physicians. A software entrepreneur and an economist are on the roster. Several are women, and the members are of different religious affiliations.

This is the new Rotary Club of Ramallah, the first club chartered in territory under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority. And while its members may be typical Rotarians, the club’s journey was hardly ordinary. Rotarians in neighboring Jordan cosponsored the club. Israeli Rotarians supported its establishment. And from thousands of miles away, Rotarians in Colorado Springs, Colo., USA, played a crucial role.

The RI Board voted to charter the Ramallah club on 18 May. In June, at the RI Convention in Montréal, Québec, Canada, the Palestinian flag appeared in the flag ceremony for the first time.

At the 2009 convention in England, recalls Colorado Springs Rotarian Craig Engelage, “a Londoner sitting next to me leaned over and remarked that Rotary really should be in Ramallah.” His reply: “You won’t believe this, but our club is cosponsoring a club there.”

Engelage, the 2009-10 club president, once might also have required some convincing. “The idea that our club would join with a Jordanian club in cosponsoring a Palestinian club seemed far-fetched,” he says.

But his fellow club member Ted Beckett had other ideas. As cofounder and chair of the Center for Environmental Diplomacy, Beckett travels frequently to the Middle East and had long sought to establish a club in Ramallah. The Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit helps communities in the region develop sustainable environmental services.

Getting Israelis and Palestinians to cooperate is no small achievement, but Beckett says he’s discovered a technique for moderat-ing his business meetings: Whenever rancor threatens, he says,“I recite my mantra: ‘This is about pollution, not politics.’ It works every time.”

The effort to charter a club took off when he invited Jeffrey Behr, the center’s chief executive officer, to speak at a Colorado Springs club meeting in 2009. Behr, an environmental engineer, had worked in the Middle East for seven years and established the organization’s Ramallah office.

Though Behr spoke primarily about the region’s pressing environmental issues, he also expressed his gratitude to Rotary. “I was the recipient of a Rotary Yoneyama Memorial Foundation scholarship [funded by Japanese Rotarians], which enabled me to complete my studies in Tokyo,” he recalls. “I wanted youth in Ramallah to have the same opportunity.”

Interest in Rotary

Behr, an honorary Rotarian, had traveled to Ramallah on one of his frequent business trips. He spent time inquiring about interest in Rotary among business leaders, academics, and nongovernmental organization personnel, as well as among men and women who had met with the intent of establishing a club. “I found a group of professional people similar to any such group in the U.S. and Europe,” he says. “They just have great ideas.”

However, he adds, “Palestinians are stressed. Israeli checkpoints have quelled suicide bombers, but people’s lives can be disrupted. They may be unable to get to work or even to kids’ birthday parties. Plus, the government has to support people at the refugee level. There is such a need there for what Rotary can do.”

In fact, Rotary has a history in the area. Clubs were active there before 1948, during the years of British control. A club in Ramallah was chartered as part of Jordan in 1966 and terminated in 1980. And the new club’s charter president, Nader Dajani, has a close relative who was president of the Rotary Club of Jerusalem 
in 1944-45. Rotary also has a strong presence in both Israel and Jordan today.

When Beckett raised the issue of a Ramallah club with his fellow Rotarians, the board of the 94-year-old, 140-member Colorado Springs club agreed to be a cosponsor, along with the Rotary Club of Amman-Petra, Jordan. 

Past club president Wally Miller worked with RI headquarters in Evanston, Illinois, while Beckett and Behr pursued results in Ramallah.

Miller knew that starting a new club overseas would be a tough task, complicated by the lack of a Rotary presence in the Palestinian territories. He discovered that his advocacy for Ramallah “some days turned into a full-time job.” For example, when Behr requested Rotary documents – bylaws, training manuals, and such – in Arabic, Miller had to turn to a district governor of Lebanese ancestry with Middle Eastern contacts who could locate the translated material.

“And we’d be a little closer to the goal,” Miller says. His work on the Ramallah club eventually generated a 5-inch-high stack of paper documents and “twice that much information in computer files.”

Throughout 2009, Ramallah was a regular topic at club meetings in Colorado Springs, as the reality of the new club became “less far-fetched,” Engelage says.

“As cosponsors, we’d coach the Palestinians, answer their questions,” he explains. And, mindful of critical security issues, “we’d ask them about their meeting place: Is it safe and accessible? Can Rotarians from far away find it?”

Miller, in the meantime, resorted to a typical Rotarian method for advancing the effort: He contacted a Rotarian he’d met at a multidistrict gathering. In Philip J. Silvers, 2008-10 RI director, he found both a resource and an advocate.

Silvers had been involved with the Middle East since 1967. He had participated in forums there with Israelis and Palestinians. A former college administrator, he was well versed in the region’s history. He also had relevant experience, having helped to establish Rotary clubs in former Soviet republics.

After Miller made his case, Silvers traveled to Ramallah in November 2009 to explore the plan’s viability. “I found a well-prepared group,” he says. “They met regularly and were well grounded in Rotary. There’s a business and professional bloc in Ramallah and East Jerusalem, and I was impressed by their standing in the community.”

Final piece

A final piece fell into place when then-RI President John Kenny visited with the Colorado Springs club in January. “Here we are, in the middle of the United States, and Kenny wants to talk to a couple of our guys about Ramallah,” Engelage recalls.

Kenny asked about the prospective club’s security, logistics, and meeting venue. “Everyone concerned wants to see Rotary make a difference in the Middle East,” Silvers says. “People understand that Rotary can rise above sometimes unfortunate political developments.”

The vote of the RI Board reflected Silvers’ assessment.

In late May, Kenny and Silvers flew into Ben Gurion Airport, near Tel Aviv, Israel, where Palestinian Rotarians had arranged for a VIP reception. In Ramallah, the pair met with Salam Fayyad, the University of Texas-educated prime minister of the Palestinian Authority. The authority’s second-ranking official after President Mahmoud Abbas, “he’s credited with bringing peace and stability to the West Bank,” says Silvers. “He’s been talking to Rotarians since age 23 and was eager for Rotary to come to Palestine.

“We visited a refugee settlement set up in 1949,” Silvers recalls. “Twelve thousand people live there in cinderblock houses that replaced the original tents. There’s a health clinic with just one doctor. Right now there’s just a small playground. The needs are overwhelming.

“The Ramallah club will form a partnership with the Palestinian Authority to construct 100 playgrounds designed for safe play. The prototype will have access for disabled kids, and the goal is to replicate the design.”

Reflecting on the Ramallah club’s road to charter, Behr observes, “It’s most satisfying to see the sincerity of the Palestinian men and women who became Rotarians. Their hopes and aspirations represent opportunity for the Palestinian community.” 

Says Engelage: “Sponsorship is finished. Now we’re available for ongoing assistance. I hope we will partner in some way with Ramallah. ”

At the Ramallah club’s standing-room-only charter ceremony, Kenny was presented with a hand-crafted Palestinian flag, and both Kenny and Silvers received plaques. “I have many plaques,” says Silvers. “But this one is solid marble from the Bethlehem quarry. It weighs over 13 pounds.”

The veteran Rotarian and student of the Middle East now owns a symbolic piece of the region’s history: enduring stonework.