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Russell Hampton
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 Amarok Society
Attendance: 14 including 1 guest (speaker).
 
President-Elect Mike opened the meeting
 
Anthem: Gordon
 
Grace: Roland (in ‘Swiss-German’!)
 
Toast to the Queen, Canada and Rotary – President-Elect Mike
 
Guests: No guests today other than our speaker.   
 
Announcements:
  • Dave Hardy announced that Hardy Stevenson is buying a table for 10 at the Scarborough Business Association Mayor’s lunch plus additional seats.  If you wish to join him, he is picking up the tab.  First come first served. The Mayor’s lunch is 11:30, Monday March 27th at the Delta East
  • Gerd announced that there was supposed to be a group meeting after lunch, but as there weren’t enough members he was cancelling it.
  • Dhanni announced that she is unable to host the Board Meeting next Monday. Gerd volunteered to have it at his office.
 
Marbelous Draw: Peter Masson and Sai-Foo asked our guest speaker – Gem Munro to draw the ticket which was claimed by Arthur, but he couldn’t find the mutant marble (there are only about 6 left) so was given $5 as a consolation.
 
Sergeant-At-Arms: Rocco was SAA today and as it was ‘a lovely day’ he was only asking for happy bucks. Rocco donated as it is his 52nd wedding anniversary. Jim Boyko donated as he was happy he was able ‘to get away from the office’ (tax season) and get to Rotary. Gerd told us that the inventor of the umbrella was going to call it ‘brella’ but hesitated as he said it (‘um’ brella)!!!! Arthur followed up by telling us that a Japanese car manufacturer were trying to find a name for their new line of cars – the president said they had until tomorrow to come up with a name and someone said “Dat soon” (Datsun)! Gerd and Arthur could be accused of what Donald Trump calls “false news”? Roland was happy as he had received some funds from China. Dave Hardy contributed as he had a good trip to Ottawa. Sai-Foo was happy as his grandson was going to be in an international ‘black belt’ karate competition in the US. Mike contributed as he met one of Gerd’s friends at the RCMI. Maddy was happy that we now had up to date technology and can use the ‘Square’ method of taking credit card payments.  
            
Speaker: Maddy introduced our guest speaker Gem Munro.
 
Gem has devoted his life and career to improving educational opportunities for disadvantaged people across Canada and abroad. Pursuit of this objective carried him into residence in unfortunate communities across most of Canada, before carrying him overseas. He is presently Director of Amarok Society, a registered Canadian charity that provides education programmes to the very poor in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nigeria. As well Gem is an author and artist whose current book is a bestselling collection of stories about some of the extraordinary people he has come to know in the slums of Bangladesh. The sale of his book is a major fundraiser for Amarok Society. For their work, Gem and his wife, Dr. Tanyss Munro, were recipients of Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medals.
Gem told us that Bangladesh has one of the worst school systems. Part of what the Amarok Society does is to build schools and teach mothers to teach.  Amarok opened a school in Bangladesh and taught mothers on condition that they then teach five children. Gem told us about one mother who had taught her daughter (and others) and her daughter now teaches other children as well as her grandfather. He also told us about a girl who saw people getting a newspaper and reading it. She couldn’t afford to buy one, but she asked members of her community to ‘chip in’ so she could buy one and now she reads the newspaper to the group. One of the results of the ‘mothers becoming teachers’ is that the women in the community have earned a lot more respect from the males in the community.
If you want more information the website is: www.amaroksociety.org.
 
 
Videos and photos shown on the presentation in order.
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Arthur thanked Gem for his presentation and gave him an Operation Eyesight certificate restoring the eyesight of a person in India.     
 
There being no further business President-Elect Mike closed the meeting.
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