Dale then called on Les Rosenbloom, the chair of the Paul Harris committee.  Les, with the help of Wendy Winnett, proceeded to introduce our newest Paul Harris fellow, Laura Matson.  Laura has dedicated many hours and her skills to the club.  As Wendy pointed out, she is overdue for this recognition.  Congratulations, Laura!

 

This was followed by the recognition of July birthdays George Welch, Jeff Ugoretz, Les Rosenbloom, and Pauline Emery.

 

Lunch was finally served.

 

Program - After lunch we heard from our speaker,  Brianna Friend, a pre-med recent graduate with a business she created --  "Sewn by a Friend".  She beings medical school next month.

You really need to see the video to appreciate the organization, drive and talent of Brianna -- as she creates a growing business while simultaneously being a successful student. Here's the video.

 

Meeting adjourned.

 

Complete Zoom Video Contents: 

00:00 - Start
00:25 - Opening
02:19 - Guests
03:59 - Scholarship Presentations
15:00 - Paul Harris
18:50 - Camp Star - You Can Help
20:10 - Upcoming Year Lunches
23:00 - Program - Sewn by a Friend

At Makerere University

This work began during my year-long Rotary Peace Fellowship in peacebuilding and conflict transformation at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda. It’s a requirement of the program that each fellow starts or expands on an initiative for positive social change. While visiting an informal urban settlement in Kampala with my fellowship class, I met a group of women working in a brothel. They expressed a strong desire to get out of the brothel and gain education and skills for safer livelihoods. I used my professional expertise and new partnerships gained during the fellowship to create an initiative to empower the women. We worked on resilience building through mindfulness, expressive arts, and leadership training with 70 women. The women were living in extreme poverty and facing pervasive sexual violence, human trafficking, food insecurity, HIV/AIDS, and unsafe housing.

What started as my fellowship project evolved into Magenta Girls Initiative, a nonprofit organization I founded with the help of local Rotarians in Uganda and support from Rotarians in my home state of Kansas. Next came a global grant project between the Uganda Rotary club that hosted me during my fellowship and an international partner in District 6080 in Missouri, USA, as well as support from both international Rotary clubs and clubs in my home district in Kansas.

Magenta Girls empowers at-risk women and girls through training and education, enabling them to work outside of commercial and coercive sex and support themselves and their children in safe and sustainable ways. We provide educational assistance, local mentorship, gender violence crisis response, improved food security, and psychosocial support.

[photo at right: From left: Gorett Komurembe and Jennifer Montgomery].

Ubuntu

Through the generosity of a few individual Rotarians, last year we enabled 10 women from the project community to receive training in tailoring and hairdressing. Each one of these determined women overcame serious life challenges to complete the six-month training program and graduate with a professional certificate. Magenta Girls will provide them with funds to start a small business to achieve self-reliance and economic independence.

At Magenta Girls, we’re guided by United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, including lifting women and girls out of poverty and unlocking their potential to be self-sufficient and productive members of their communities.

Ubuntu is the African concept of humaneness: putting yourself out on behalf of others, being vulnerable. It embraces compassion and toughness. It recognizes that my humanity is bound up in yours.

Let’s continue to work together as peace fellows and Rotary members to lead change and build peace through our compassion, action, and shared humanity.

Jennifer is the President and CEO of Magenta Girls Initiative and currently serves as a subject matter expert on human trafficking and Gender Based Violence with the Attorney General Alliance-Africa Programme, Africa Partnership for Justice. She served for 10 years as the director of human trafficking education and outreach for the Kansas Attorney General’s Office and chair of the Kansas Human Trafficking Advisory Board. She’s also a writer and film advisor with Capture Humanity, a collaborative of artists elevating the voices of victims of global human rights abuses.