John J Glassford

District 9700 Conference at Young

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Thank you to our District Governor Ian Simpson and his wife Jean Simpson for an excellent conference in Young.  Also many thanks to the Rotary Club of Young for all their hard work in organising the conference.  Some very good speakers and a great band on the Saturday night.  However the best part as always was fellowship and that was abundant and catching up with fellow Rotarians is always a high light of any conference.

Here are some photos of the weekend in Young thanks to PDG John Egan for these photos.

Busy Rotary Week

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It has been a very busy week for Rotary at Coolamon with the District Conference and the visit of the GSE Team from Scotland.  I will upload stories on all the fun times we have had over the past 7 days as soon as I recover!

Sasa Designs

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Sasa Designs is a jewelry business employing and providing fair wages to Deaf artisans in Kenya.With an estimated unemployment rate of 85% among the Deaf in Kenya, few will have an opportunity to discover their potential, work in dignity and earn a fair wage. Employers are simply not willing to deal with the communication issues of working with the Deaf.  After waiting for so long for an opportunity to appear, many Deaf people have lost hope.

Often Deaf mothers struggle to provide food for their family. Clean water and sanitary home conditions in the slums are often out of their reach. One way out of poverty is education, but Deaf families struggle to pay school fees, provide books or purchase the required school uniforms for their children.  Sasa means “now” in Swahili.  We believe that “Now is her time to shine.”

Sasa Designs gives Deaf artisans the chance they’ve been waiting for – the chance to learn new skills, to discover what she is capable of and to feel productive.The income these artisans earn gives them a way to support their families — to send their children to good schools, to provide better nutrition and healthcare for them.  Instead of always feeling like a burden to the family, she moves to a position of respect as one who contributes to the household income.

As she comes to work each day, she also enjoys the fellowship of other Deaf artisans with whom she can easily communicate through Kenyan Sign Language.  D.O.O.R. (Deaf Opportunity OutReach) International, in partnership with One Maker, has launched Sasa Designs in response to the overwhelming poverty and joblessness among Deaf people in Kenya.  Creating opportunities for the Deaf through this business is a tangible expression of God’s love for them.

Contact Megan MacDonald or John Glassford:   john at glassford.com.au

Dolly’s Imagination Library puts books into the hands of children – Rotary Voices

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The wonderful partnership between Dolly Parton and Rotary International continues to flourish in communities both large and small all across the USA, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
Although every community approaches the program in its own way, one thing impresses me much more than dollars raised or even time invested –and this is the enormous influence Rotarians exert in their communities..

Dolly Parton and Rotary International from Rotary International on Vimeo.

On many occasions, we have witnessed how Rotarians use their influence to leverage support from both the public and private sector. Rotarians bring instant credibility to the table and consequently, local, state and provincial governments are eager to join forces with Rotary and Dolly to bring the Imagination Library to their children. Likewise many Rotary clubs have been successful in teaming up with United Way to launch the program in their communities.

Influence is an earned commodity and we are fortunate that the decades of good will and great work of Rotary now benefits the children of the Imagination Library.