January 20, 2011: Rotary Log (EFAC)

Portsmouth Rotary Club

Weekly Log for January 20, 2011                                                      

The meeting began with Neal introducing his two “guests”: John Hebert and Dan Hoefle. Neal’s “guest” happened to also be our Vocational Minute which appears to be renamed to “Resource Minute”. Dan introduced his vocation, almost shyly, as a lawyer. That was it. The whole thing. Dan set a record for the world’s shortest minute. It’s funny how lawyers write “briefs” that are anything but brief. If dan files a Motion electronically, is it E-Motion? Don’t know why Dan didn’t have a “suit” today. Enough of the puns. They have lost their appeal. The photo below has been photoshopped to reduce the glare from Butch's head.

Fine Master Neal fined Steve Parkinson for making employees work overtime. He also fined Ben for losing his badge, but made Peter pay the fine “because he brought it up”. President Diane notified us that we have Leo Gagnon, a real estate professional, being proposed for membership. The President also announced that the President of Rotary International will be speaking in Portland on February 22. This is a big event for Rotarians and you must obtain tickets in advance because none will be sold at the door.

THE PROGRAM

Lynn Del introduced Nancy Van Sciver, the founder and President of EFAC (Education For All Children). Nancy, a former teacher and Casa volunteer decided, along with her husband, to make a difference in people’s lives and three years ago took a trip to Kenya to consider getting involved with an organization designed to protect elephants. In the process, she and her husband concluded that they could be most effective helping children to get high school educations.

The mission of EFAC is:

To provide scholarships to exceptionally bright and underprivileged secondary and university students in the developing world. We believe that the only way to enable children to reach their potential and change the world is through education.

While grade school is provided to everyone in Kenya for free, high school costs $1000 per student per year. Nancy and her husband decided to focus on those who were very bright, but did not have the financial ability to pay for high school, either because they are orphans or children of very poor family’s or children of single parents. Of the $1000 the government charges for one year of high school, EFAC seeks to raise $750 of the cost with the additional $250 coming from grants. EFAC has partnered with the University of Nairobi to help identify students who should receive financial aid. EFAC is 30 months old now and has raised $600,000 with 300 donors and has already provided financial aid to 150 students.

One girl, in writing to her sponsor, explained that her parents did not believe in educating a girl. In her culture, a girl is believed to only be of benefit to her future spouse and the only benefit to her family is if she can be sold to buy more cattle. Another girl wrote that her father is despised in his own community for desiring to educate his daughter. The difference in the cultures of the United States and Kenya are sometimes hard to comprehend and this program opened our eyes to both differences and solutions.

The raffle today was won by a most deserving fellow: me.