Chartered March 9, 1961

OTHER ITEMS OF INTEREST:

Sri Lanka Relief Efforts
Check this link for an entire list of donors, including Bellevue Rotary.

Click here to read Rob Rose’s Foundation article in the March 2005 monthly newsletter of The Rotary Foundation.

Check out the list of the best books of 2004!

Vietnam Water Project

Nepal Projects Log

WCS Projects Approved by Committee

WEEKLY BULLETIN

FEATURED MAY 3, 2005

Eduardo R. Gomes
Visiting Professor
"Brazil's Challenges After the
Political & Economic Reforms"

Eduardo Gomes is the current Fulbright Scholar in Residence, Division of Social Sciences, at Bellevue Community. He graduated with a PhD in Political Science from the University of Chicago in 1998.

Professor Gomes' activities at the Universidade Federal Fluminense, Niteroi, RJ, Brazil, include Associate Professor of the Department of Political Science and of the Graduate Program of Political Science; Adjunct Faculty of the MA Program of Business Administration, in the area of Corporate Social Responsibility; co-editor of Antropolitica, Journal of Contemporary Anthropology and Political Science, UFF Press; and areas of teaching, research and advising: Comparative Politics, Interest Politics and Political Economy

Professor Gomes has previously held visiting positions as the Elena Verson-Diaz Amos Eminent Scholar In Latin American Studies, Columbus State University; Visiting Fellow, Institute of Political Science, Tuebingen University, Germany; Visiting Adjunct Professor, Illinois Wesleyan University; and Visiting Adjunct Instructor, University of Alabama, Birmingham.

Professor Gomes is also a published author of various books, book chapters and articles .

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Five Year Plan Retreat
Thursday, May 19, 5:00-9:00 pm
Overlake Hospital Conference Center

In preparation for review and discussion of the Club’s Five Year Strategic Plan on May 19, a brief questionnaire has been prepared. Please print out this questionnaire, complete, and return it to Laurie Larson at your earliest convenience. Responses are completely confidential; only one response per member.

Thank you in advance for your interest and assistance in planning the future of the Rotary Club of Bellevue (BRC).

Please note: This survey is located in the Members Only area of the BRC website. You will need your user information to print this PDF file.

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BRC Scholarship Opportunities

The Bellevue Rotary Club is making available tuition scholarships for graduating seniors of Bellevue High School and the International School. Other local Rotary Clubs are serving graduating seniors of other eastside schools.

Applications must be mailed by the
submission deadline of May 6.

Click here for more information on this program.

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Water for Ethiopia
Ethiopia needs safe water and Bellevue Rotary turns on the tap with record raffle revenue!

THE BRC RAISED $24,010!

A 50% Matching Grant from RI may
raise the total to $36,000.

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BCC Rotaract Club Receives Greetings from Nepal
Photo/Article by Rob Rose

Rotarian Robert Rose presented a letter of greetings and a gift to Daniel Done, President of the BCC Rotaract Club, from the Rotaract Club of Dilli Bazaar in Nepal. The Rotaractors in this Nepali Club hope to foster international friendship between the two clubs by continuing to work together on projects in the Phutong district area of Nepal, just outside of the capital city, Kathmandu.

The Nepali Rotaract Club has been a very active participant in helping out the Nandu Maya Orphan Home, site of several projects that our club has participated in.

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Let's Keep the Hosting Spirit Alive!
Nancy Pasternak

The Bellevue club has been especially active and supportive of the Youth Exchange Program this year, reaping the benefits of enjoying the companionship of Sol Rengel from Argentina. Many of us have learned what a pleasure it is to enhance the experience of a young foreigner in America.

We are hoping to line up three host families by the end of this school year (June 30). Next year’s student is Stefi Rios Baltierra from Cuautitlan Izcalli de Mexico. Newport High seems to be the best school for her. She has played soccer since a wee one, is head of the Mathematics group and an avid reader, and wants to be a lawyer and help her country. She is rated outstanding by her school and seems mature, outgoing, and ready to go along with the needs of her host family (She rides the bus to school in Mexico).

Host families do not need to be Rotarians, so, in addition to yourselves, please think about your neighbors, children’s friends, families, church and community people you know who would love to host Stefi for three months time.

I will be in Banda Acehm, Indonesia serving as a trauma relief worker for the month of May. In my absence, please communicate with Youth Exchange Co-Chair Katherine Michaud, and please do continue to host Sol for dinner, a walk in the park, any activity. She is game for everything!

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Prosperity Rings Reports on the Application of Bellevue Rotary Funds
Nancy Pasternak

The World Community Service Committee (WCS) expressed an interest in having an article in the bulletin about my husband Derick’s and my recent monitoring visit to recipients of Prosperity Rings funding in India. WCS has given grants to Prosperity Rings with which these micro credit efforts are made possible. Derick and I toured parts of Southern India where we visited three micro credit facilitators — SRI in Palakkad to whom we have already given $4,500, and PSA and Shepherd in Trichy who are potential recipients of our funding. Trichy is a drought-prone area that is economically depressed.

In anticipation of having some of our interested donors join us on the next trip, we included in our itinerary “extracurricular activities” such as an overnight houseboat and country boat tours of the rustic life in the backwaters of Kerala; romantic Ooty in the Nilgiri Hills at a charming British-style homestead hotel with a roaring fireplace in each bedroom; Dravidian Hindu temples and ashrams; Kathakali and classical dances; two treks to tribal villages; and wild life and tea/spice/rubber plantation tours.

Here are excerpts from the report I sent our Board members:

• SHEPHERD

Peter, the director, is an excellent administrator with an MA in Social Work and an MBA. His thinking is creative, with sound judgment and an eye to growth projection into the future. He did not accompany us on the visits to the villages and the surabis (borrower groups). The branch manager, two male and two female staff went along, and, although the translation of the borrower's statements seemed to match the questions, the branch manager tried to interpret at times making us wonder about the translation. We visited three village groups of borrowers, and I attended special meetings Peter called of staff and “federation” leaders, the leaders of the surabis.

One group was of three year veterans. The women greeted us with flowers and put red and yellow powder on our foreheads. Each group we visited began with a group oral pledge. When asked about changes in their lives, some expressed that they used to not go anywhere because they were depressed and could not afford to participate in festivities, but now they go out into the community and join in. One woman's explained that her husband left her, but she is raising her two daughters on her own very well with loans from Shepherd.

• PSA

Johnny is modest, intelligent, and has a great relationship with Selvi, his chief financial officer and micro credit coordinator. He knew many of his borrowers. He and Selvi always accompanied us into the field, and Johnny even led some of the motivational songs that the borrowers had learned and sang. We visited a Milk Society established in 1991. This SHG of very low income women has been taking out loans for five years. They had truly raised their standard of living with better homes, some had latrines, all sent their children to school; one's daughter sat with us who is going to college. Many told how their life had changed. They are able to go to the city; feel confident about taking a loan; have fought for the location to collect their milk for pick up by the factory processing truck; and fought against a “toddy (alcohol) still” in the neighborhood which created the opportunity for their men to get drunk. All the women in the group have a “milch animal” business, but many also cultivate peanuts, vegetables, rice, etc. No one has dropped out of the program. The women stated they used to just go about their business independently, but now have the fellowship and support of all the women together. It was obvious they felt this way. One woman's husband died in a fall picking tamarind from a tree top, and she is raising a son and two daughters on the land she has bought. One borrower showed us her well built house with mud packed walls covered with manure and a tile roof. Her improvements as a result of the loans include furniture, a fan, stainless pots and pans. She was cultivating a kitchen garden.

• SRI

Dr. Prabhakar, the Director, spent many years as a professor in the U.S., and has the approach of aspiring to total self sufficiency for his members. He is thoroughly dedicated to his mission (to the point of being an ascetic in his lifestyle) and very involved on a personal level. Out of pride and enthusiasm SRI staff had us tightly scheduled to see as much of their operations as possible. We visited two women who bought an electric heat pressing machine to make dining plates from aurecanut leaves, and a borrower who makes brass ceremonial vessels/pitchers from the lost wax method along with her husband, both of whom were raised in families that practiced the same trade. It is grueling work and makes them very little money as demonstrated by the rudimentary way they lived. The last morning of our visit we had a two and a half hour visit with the 32 Prosperity Rings funded borrowers (31 were present) in the village of Appupillayur inside of a large roofed chicken yard. The ladies, sitting in a circle, one by one introduced themselves and their livelihood as we clapped for each one. After I explained the significance of Prosperity Rings to them and their special role as our borrowers, they readily answered questions I asked about changes in their lives. Some of their husbands did not cooperate with repaying the loans at first, but now support them. Some husbands even help with their enterprises. One lady admitted her husband is an alcoholic and causes problems. Another’s husband abandoned her, but she is the one who has taken the initiative to collect money to improve the water situation in the community. They agreed that they like being disciplined to pay back the loans. In that way they have a deadline and an end to each debt rather than staying in constant debt as the government and money lenders allow them to do.

We visited some of their modest homes and saw the work of one of the tailors, an older woman with a milch buffalo, a lady making baked goods and two ladies making clay pots, which is a lower caste trade. We asked Dr. Prabhakar whether it was a good idea to perpetuate this status by giving loans for these trades. SRI does not recognize or even ask about castes. Our borrowers are free to choose their enterprise, and these trades are passed along the generations in a family.

I felt a special kinship with these ladies and I believe they felt it too. Most gratifying and thrilling were their comments that the group meetings have contributed a sense of belonging, closer relationships and the knowledge of support from the others. In eight months (for the first ones) loans have improved their self esteem, helped them feel more empowered, and improved their lifestyle and facilities.

You may wish to read conclusions regarding future funding of these organizations, verified and agreed upon by our Board of Directors, and the detailed report of our visits by accessing our new web site (a work in progress): www.prosperityrings.info. Prosperity Rings will continue to fund SRI and will now fund PSA as a new recipient facilitator.

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Come to Camp Goodtimes this year on Wednesday, June 22. Plan to spend the day on Vashon Island. Bellevue Rotary members will once again put on a rip roaring, way cool, action packed carnival garnished at the end with lots of whipped cream. Sign up anytime with Charlotte Ellis, or check out the table flyers in late May/early June. Spouses and teens can help too.

Help us out! 

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Grants Approved by Board
Phil Bevan

The Board has approved the second and final round of grants for this year. They are:

Bellevue Rotacare Clinic, $5,000
for general funds, primarily prescriptions

Camp Goodtimes, $2,500
rental of carnival equipment

Congregation for Kids, $1,500
backpacks and school supplies for needy children in Eastside schools

Eastside Legal Assistance, $2,000
Russian and Spanish interpretation services

Olive Crest, $2,000
Summer camp for foster children

Public Safety Support, $2,000
Chaplains and support services for Eastside police/fire/ and citizens

Puget Sound Blood Center, $2,500
High School campaign for blood donors

Washington Community Alliance for Self-Help, $1,000
Training for startup businesses

YMCA, $1,750
Improvements for Camp Terry

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Next Meeting
May 3, 2005

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GREETERS
Debra Hauser

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NEWEST RED BADGERS
Rusty Cox

Tresa Leftenant

Jeremy Burnstein

Peter Wang

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MAY BIRTHDAYS

George Northcroft, 05/01

Ken Reid, 05/02

Judd Lees, 05/05

John Matheson, 05/06

Sandy Jeghers, 05/07

Dale King, 05/07

Steve Anderson, 05/15

Bruce Raskin, 05/18

Rondi Bennet, 05/24

Jason Weese, 05/24

John Lee, 05/26

Eva Chiu, 05/27

Ross Jacobson, 05/30

* * * *

Award Winning!
BELLEVUE COMMUNITY COLLEGE ROTARACT CLUB
Check out the website.

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Are you receiving The Rotarian Magazine?

If not, contact Laurie Larson or email The Rotarian Magazine.

* * * *

The permanent mailing address for Bellevue Rotary is:

Laurie Larson
Club Administrator
P.O. Box 523
Bellevue, WA 98009
bellevuerotary@seanet.com
Ph 425 451-3819
Fax 425 451-8025

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DISTRICT 5030 CLUB INFORMATION
Includes links to club websites and where and when other clubs meet.

AUCTION 2005:
AUCTION BENEFICIARIES | Fact sheet for the Raffle Beneficiary

CONTACT US:
CLUB ADMINISTRATOR  | WEBGRUNT