Toast to King, Canada, and Rotary by President Courtney
Dhanni introduced Navine Yassa, a member of the Rotary Club of Scarborough since 1999
Her passion is working with the International Group, where she was involved in various Global Grants between the Rotary Club of Scarborough and various districts worldwide.
Navine was instrumental in establishing the Canadian charity ROOTA (Rising Out Of The Ashes), whose main objective is to elevate poverty and enhance education in a marginalized community of trash collectors in Egypt called the Zabaleen. A project our club has been supporting since 2018. Navines first contact with Rotary was through ROTARACT in Cairo, Egypt, where she translated the Rotaract constitution from English to Arabic, published and distributed in the Middle East in 1983.
Outside of Rotary, Navine obtained a degree in English literature from the University of Alexandria and another in simultaneous translation from the American University in Cairo. In addition, Navine's extensive work as a fashion coordinator with the wool house in Egypt allowed her to travel worldwide, attending fashion shows. This allowed her to share her knowledge with the Egyptian private and public sectors.
Navine first showed us two videos of interviews with Zabaleen people benefiting from ROOTA.
She explained the design of the logo. The colors; are yellow for happiness, brown for earth, and green for new beginnings. The Zabaleen came from southern Egypt. They were evicted at least eight times along the way but ended up settling in the hills in a Suburb of Cairo. ROOTA's mission is to help with education and revenue-generating projects. The children are malnourished, and ROOTA is helping provide proper meals for them. The boys mainly sift through the garbage and, in doing so, can get sick. ROOTA is now providing them with gloves which are helping. Navine mentioned that we have helped over the years, and she wanted to show us the impact our help is providing. They are offering the condensed literacy program, which Rotary initially presented in 1983. she showed us the diplomas women have earned, which enables them to continue in higher studies. ROOTA is sponsoring them. Some of the women are attending university. The women are now working with looms, using fabric factories have donated. Sixty-eight women are working in glass recycling, using furnaces donated by Rotary clubs, ourselves included. Included with the furnaces were five hundred to help the children with their education.
In the recycling project, the men go out at 2 am to sift through the garbage, which is then given to the women to sort. Education for the boys suffers because they would rather be working to help out. These are people that we help to help themselves.
The link to the videos Navine presented is here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/8eip9h76p02wahx/Zabaleen.mp4?dl=0
Toast to the King, Canada and Rotary: Led by President Courtney
Attendance:11 members plus Basil’s guest Dorothy Evans and on line Peter’s guest Joan Masson
2 guest speakers today, Ally Ladak and Paul Bolton.
President Courtney opened the meeting calling upon Peter Masson to introduce today’s speaker.
Peter introduced Ally Ladak who has been an active member of the SPO for more than three decades and is now a Board member and Diversity Lead for the Scarborough Philharmonic Orchestra, and Paul Bolton who also represents the SPO and has been on or off Their Board since 2002. Paul was the winning bidder to conduct the orchestra and he has been involved in diversifying the funding of the orchestra over the years. Ally and Paul gave us updates on how the SPO coped during the pandemic and how are things now coming out of it and going forward.
Ally on behalf of the SPO thanked all the members of the North Scarborough Rotary Club and appreciate the funding support given to the SPO in the past and the present.
Following their presentation, Ally and Paul distributed pamphlets of the 2022/2023 Season Concert programs also available at www.spo.ca please follow this link to find the dates and location of the various concerts and to purchase tickets of your choice on line.
Questions and Answers followed Ally’s and Paul's presentation.
Frank Allison thanked Ally and Paul for the update on SPO and assured them that the North Scarborough Rotary Club is always proud to support the SPO.
Please follow the www.spo.ca link to listen to their presentation,
Announcements:
Gordon announced that Rita Assad is now officially a member of our Club.
Also Gordon announced that the fireside is scheduled for September 21st 6:30 PM at Gerd’s office, Gordon is sending out the invite with details.
Dave Hardy announced that September 15, Scarborough is/was celebrating the 2022 Scarborough Walk of Fame and that SCRO is now the proud owner of the Scarb. Walk of Fame.
Barry reminded us the Foundation Walk is on Sept 25th, make your pledge if you haven’t yet.
Basil’s updated on the Scarborough Ribfest, our share of proceeds are on the way.
Arthur announced there will be a Community Services Group meeting next Tuesday
Sergeant at Arms
Gordon Brown fined anyone who didn’t have a rotary pin on, then asked for Happy Bucks.
Gordon donated $20 for his 20th year he was inducted in the NS Rotary Club. Congrats Gordon!
Arthur enjoyed the SPO presentation and told us he got selected to sing in a church choir once.
Dr. Beauty, was happy to attend in person meeting today.
.png)
Announcements:
Sergeant at Arms