2017-11 November

rthe otarian www.rotary.org November 2017 Earthquakes in Italy Rotary scholars in action

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DEAR FELLOW ROTARIANS, I n many ways, The Rotary Foundation is an invisible presence in our clubs. ON THE WEB Most of what we do in our clubs and our districts, on a weekly basis, we do without the active involvement of the Foundation. But our Foundation is invis- Speeches and news from ible in our clubs in the same way the foundation of a building is invisible when RI President Ian H.S. Riseley at you’re in it: Just because you don’t see it doesn’t mean it’s not holding you up. www.rotary.org/office-president The Foundation that enabled Rotary to take on polio is, in many ways, the foundation upon which our Rotary service is built. For 100 years, since it came into existence with a first donation of $26.50, the Foundation has supported and strengthened our service, enabled our ambitions, and allowed us to be the orga- nization that we are. Because of the Foundation, Rotarians know that if we have the ambition and put in the work, very little is truly beyond us. It is an incredibly effective model that we have here in Rotary, one that no other organization can match. We are completely local and completely global: We have local skills, connections, and knowledge in over 35,000 clubs, in nearly every country of the world. We have a deserved reputation for transparency, effectiveness, and good business practices, and because we are highly skilled professionals as well as volunteers, we achieve a level of efficiency that very few other organizations can approach. To put it simply, a dollar given to The Rotary Foundation has a great deal more muscle than a dollar given to most charities. If you want to spend a dollar on Doing Good in the World, you can’t do better than to spend it with the Founda- tion. That is not just me speaking out of pride; it is verifiably true and is reflected in our rankings by independent organizations. In the Foundation’s centennial year, Rotarians surpassed our goal of raising $300 million. If you were part of that achievement, you have been part of something tremendous. Somewhere in the world, someplace you have probably never been, people you may never meet will lead better lives because of you. Ultimately, it is our Foundation that lets us make good on our core beliefs: that we can make a difference, that we have an obligation to do so, and that working together, as well and as efficiently as we can, is the only way to effect real and lasting change. I A N H.S. R I S E L E Y President, Rotary International



november contents Vol.196 No.5 FEATURES 22 Italy’s disappearing villages Earthquakes and emigration are draining the life out of rural communities. Rotarians are giving young people a reason to come back. By Diana Schoberg 32 The future of buildings A program created by Rotary scholar Marco Faggella is training engineers around the world to make buildings safer in earthquakes. By Diana Schoberg 42 On the tracks of the Beast In Mexico’s migrant shelters, a Rotary scholar puts his education into action. By Levi Vonk 48 Fantastic voyage Deborah Walters, Maine’s “kayaking grandma,” embarked on an epic paddle to help children in Guatemala. By Shirley Stephenson DEPARTMENTS COLUMNS 6 Letters 1 President’s message 9 Up front The Foundation of our service efforts • Safe water, brighter future 8 Editor’s note • Trekking to the top 19 Culture of the world Could be worse • Trans-Atlantic support for a girl with big dreams 57 Trustee’s message 58 Crossword 18 Calendar 64 Last look 55 Insider • A new partner for peace • Rotary leaders selected • Foundation award winners and Arch Klumph Society inductees ON THE COVER Rotarians in Italy are building business incubators to help revive earthquake-ravaged communities such as Arquata del Tronto. (Photography by Gianluca Cecere) LEFT Deborah Walters’ journey by kayak raised awareness and funds for people eking out an existence in a Guatemala City landfill. (Photography by Michael D. Wilson)

rtheotarian General O cers of Rotary International ® 2017-18 JOHN REZEK Editor in chief President JENNIFER MOODY Art director IAN H.S. RISELEY Sandringham, Australia JENNY LLAKMANI Managing editor President-elect BARRY RASSIN East Nassau, Bahamas GEOFFREY JOHNSON Senior editor Vice President HANK SARTIN Senior editor HENDREEN DEAN ROHRS Langley Central, B.C., Canada DIANA SCHOBERG Senior sta writer Treasurer MIKAEL AHLBERG Ölands Södra, Sweden VANESSA GLAVINSKAS Contributing editor Directors NANCY WATKINS Copy editor GÉRARD ALLONNEAU Parthenay, France MARC DUKES Production manager JORGE AUFRANC Guatemala Sur, Guatemala BASKER CHOCKALINGAM Karur, India JOE CANE Design & production assistant CORNELIU DINCĂ Craiova, Romania MARK DURAN Research editor JAMES RONALD FERRILL Martinsville, Va., USA CYNTHIA EDBROOKE Senior editorial coordinator PETER IBLHER Nürnberg-Reichswald, Germany KEIICHI ISHIGURO Tsuruoka West, Japan MAY LI Circulation manager ROBERT C. KNUEPFER JR. Chicago, Ill., USA JOHN C. MATTHEWS Mercer Island, Wash., USA JWK MEDIA GROUP Advertising representatives EUNSOO MOON Cheonan-Dosol, Korea Ad inquiries: [email protected] TADAMI SAITO Toyota, Japan JWK MEDIA GROUP FLORIDA - 954-406-1000 BRIAN A.E. STOYEL Saltash, England 212 SE Eighth St., Suite 101, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33316 NOEL J. TREVASKIS Bega, Australia JWK MEDIA GROUP NEW YORK - 212-292-3718 GREGORY F. YANK O’Fallon, Ill., USA 1271 Avenue of the Americas, 43rd floor, New York, NY 10020 PAULO AUGUSTO ZANARDI Curitiba-Cidade Industrial, Brazil Send ad materials to: Marc Dukes, The Rotarian, One Rotary Center, 1560 Sherman Ave., 14th floor, Evanston, IL 60201; phone 847-866-3092; JOHN HEWKO General Secretary email [email protected] Kyiv, Ukraine Media kit: www.rotary.org/mediakit To contact us: The Rotarian, One Rotary Center, 1560 Sherman Ave., Trustees of The Rotary Foundation Evanston, IL 60201; phone 847-866-3206; email [email protected] Website: therotarian.com 2017-18 To submit an article: Send stories, queries, tips, and photographs by mail or email (high-resolution digital images only). We assume no responsibility Chair for unsolicited materials. PAUL A. NETZEL Los Angeles, Calif., USA To subscribe: Twelve issues at US$12 a year (USA, Puerto Rico, and U.S. Virgin Islands); $16 a year (Canada); $24 a year (elsewhere). Contact the Circulation Chair-elect Department (phone: 847-424-5217 or -5216; email: [email protected]) RON D. BURTON Norman, Okla., USA for details and for airmail rates. Gift subscriptions available at the same rates. To send an address change: Enclose old address label, postal code, and Vice Chair Rotary club, and send to the Circulation Department or email [email protected]. BARRY RASSIN East Nassau, Bahamas Postmaster: Send all address changes to Circulation Department, The Rotarian, One Rotary Center, 1560 Sherman Ave., Evanston, IL 60201. Trustees Call the Contact Center: USA, Canada, and Virgin Islands (toll-free) 866-976-8279. ÖRSÇELIK BALKAN Istanbul-Karaköy, Turkey Elsewhere: 847-866-3000, ext. 8999. Unless otherwise noted: All images are copyright ©2017 by Rotary International WILLIAM B. BOYD Pakuranga, New Zealand or are used with permission. BRENDA M. CRESSEY Paso Robles, Calif., USA MÁRIO CÉSAR MARTINS Santo André, Brazil Published monthly by Rotary International. The Rotarian® is a registered trademark of Rotary International. Copyright ©2017 by Rotary International. All rights reserved. Periodicals postage paid at Evanston, Ill., USA, DE CAMARGO and additional mailing offices. Canada Publications Mail Agreement No. 1381644. Canadian return address: MARY BETH GROWNEY SELENE Madison West Towne-Middleton, Wis., USA MSI, PO Box 2600, Mississauga ON L4T 0A8. This is the November 2017 issue, volume 196, number 5, of The Rotarian (ISSN 0035-838X). Publication number: USPS 548-810. SUSHIL GUPTA Delhi Midwest, India GARY C.K. HUANG Taipei, Taiwan 4 THE ROTARIAN | N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 7 SEIJI KITA Urawa East, Japan K.R. RAVINDRAN Colombo, Sri Lanka KENNETH M. SCHUPPERT JR. Decatur, Ala., USA MICHAEL F. WEBB Mendip, England YOUNG SUK YOON Seoul Hoehyon, Korea JOHN HEWKO General Secretary Kyiv, Ukraine

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letters Eight little words RI President Ian H.S. Riseley expressed his concern, in the August president’s message, that we have “had a difficult time conveying the scope of our work.” Later he asks,“What does Rotary do?” I’d like to offer an answer in just eight words. The compact re- sponse is derived from posing three questions: What do we do? Where do Your choice – eight or six and water cleaner, and past investments in all the words – in our continuing greatly decrease the carbon areas of focus and deliver we do it? How do we do it? effort to assert the essence dioxide levels in the atmo- more successful projects in of Rotary. sphere. It is known as the future.   Consider: What do we carbon fee and dividend, Joseph J. Kovarik or carbon dividends. Two Kathleen A. Brazaitis do? Improve people’s lives. Cottage Grove, Minn. organizations, the nonparti- Stevens Point, Wis. Where do we do it? Locally san Citizens’ Climate and globally. Clear focus Lobby and the conservative   Climate Leadership Council, How do we do it? Through I find it very encouraging acting as strategic partners, Greener solutions service. that RI President Ian Riseley advocate for this market- has highlighted climate based, revenue-neutral With respect, I would like Such a mission-minded change and environmental strategy. An excellent to suggest that Anthony sustainability. The global 13-minute description of Terrasi reconsider the claim underscores our action effects of environmental the strategy can be found May article “Your Health Is degradation are serious in a TED Talk on YouTube at Risk” [Letters, Septem- orientation. We just observe threats to everyone. The by Ted Halstead of the ber]. We can, and should, thought of what life on earth council. It is well worth respond to health challenges that we are a leadership will be like for future your time to explore after they have taken generations is disturbing.   this strategy. place. But the causes of organization with a decep- those health risks often do Some feel it is not Climate change accep- require political action tively singular focus: Improve possible to mitigate climate tance and action definitely or advocacy. people’s lives, locally and change without negatively pass The Four-Way Test. globally, through service. affecting the economy. Any measure one would take I remember being in Fortunately, this is not true. to mitigate climate change Ecuador working in a health We can reduce our There is a proposed strategy would guarantee Rotary’s clinic in a village near a that would grow the econ- cement factory. We had a statement to six words if we omy, create jobs, make the air much higher incidence than normal of upper respiratory adopt the portmanteau word disease. We could treat the used by Atlanta’s mayor, Kasim Reed, in his speech at the Rotary International Convention: “glocal.” Our alternate six-word definition of Rotary could read: Improve people’s lives, glocally, through service. 6 T H E R O T A R I A N   | N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 7

letters symptoms to a degree, but moment almost daily. I am reconsider that concept in The first moves to bring it was only after the village learning a lot about why the context of today’s Rotary to Russia actually organized to protest the I am the way I am and how world is worthy of consider- preceded the end of the air pollution and the I’ve attached feelings and ation. I don’t know whether Soviet Union. In 1988, company changed that the experiences of childhood to conscious capitalism shall three Rotarians from health of the village im- my adult life. It’s fascinating. actually have a definite Sweden asked the Soviet proved immensely. function on the development ambassador to Sweden for Eve M. Puhalla of society. In my opinion, an audience so that they Such environmental Pennsburg, Penn. the theme is certainly a could speak about the issues are often the bed- stimulating one for the Rotary movement. Many rock of community health, Conscious capitalism Rotarian audience, Rotarians from around the just as global warming whatever the conclusion world pushed to bring and its effects are and I was agreeably surprised to could be. It would, at Rotary to the USSR. will be. Approaching the read “Can Capitalism Save least, remind us that Eventually our district, 5010, bigger problem with the World?” by Andrew humanitarian action, included Alaska, the Yukon, political solutions will be Baker [ July]. Though at the center of our and Russia. Talk about necessary to make a allergic to the current strategic plan, opens up working toward world peace! lasting difference. custom of “telling stories,” new prospects and is Around the same time, the I found in this case that not limited to mere charity. first “friendship flight” from Timothy Carson the “epiphany” story was a Alaska to Russia took place. Rocheport, Mo. useful introduction to Giuseppe Viale About 70 Alaskans were the prospect of modern Genova, Italy aboard that flight, one of   capitalism as a model the major cultural exchanges of purpose-driven Bridges of friendship conducted during the Soviet  ‘Aha’ moments and value-based business, glasnost period that trans- rather than a source for I moved to southeast Alaska formed the USSR. This 18 I am a new Rotarian who charitable donations. in 1985 and immediately October marked 150 years found great wisdom in the became a Rotarian. Since since the transfer of Alaska words of Steve Almond’s Engagement in improving that time, I have learned how to the United States. “The Mind’s I” [August]. As material and ethical stan- important Alaska has been a “recovering teacher” (aka dards in society is familiar to U.S. global relations. Jeff Budd someone trying to figure out to Rotarians. In 1907, the Several things come to mind, Sitka, Alaska what to do next with her third object of Rotary was starting with the original life), I am trying to purge drafted: the advancement of reason for the transfer of The editors welcome comments on teaching from my system by the “best interests” of the Alaska from Russia to the items published in the magazine but keeping a journal. When community and “the spread- United States by then- reserve the right to edit for style and thoughts of teaching pop ing of the spirit of civic pride Secretary of State William length. Published letters do not into my head, I jot down the and loyalty.” Since then, and Seward. It’s less known that necessarily reflect the views of the topic, and as I am writing, I over many decades, Rotary’s this was in part an attempt editors or Rotary International let my thoughts run wild. civic work, made by an elite to build a bridge with leadership, nor do the editors take I am learning a lot about group of business and Russia, as it was such a responsibility for errors of fact that myself, teaching as a profes- professional people, has close neighbor. may be expressed by the writers. sion, colleagues, students, my represented the most marked family – lots of stuff. feature of our association at Follow us to get updates, share stories with your networks, Almond’s insight into the the local, national, and and tell us what you think. unconscious mind hit the global levels. nail on the head for me as The Rotarian, One Rotary Center, 1560 Sherman Ave., Evanston, IL 60201 USA I dive into this stream-of- The concept of conscious consciousness process. I capitalism, coined in recent WEBSITE therotarian.com twitter.com/therotarian find that writing, trusting, times, actually has its roots EMAIL [email protected] facebook.com/therotarianmagazine and having the courage to in a rather remote past. explore beyond the surface Nevertheless, a call to are leading to an “aha” N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 7  | THE ROTARIAN 7

editor’s note SERVICE ABOVE SELF Of all Rotary’s investments, perhaps the most effective The Object of Rotary are the ones it makes in young people. Rotary Founda- THE OBJECT of Rotary is to encourage and foster tion scholarships allow students to pursue degrees in the ideal of service as a basis of worthy enterprise and, in particular, to encourage and foster: fields that dovetail with our areas of focus. is month, FIRST The development of acquaintance the magazine is celebrating their work. as an opportunity for service; On page 11, you will read about global grant SECOND High ethical standards in business and professions, the recognition of the worthiness of all scholar Lusiné Mehrabyan, who is researching the useful occupations, and the dignifying of each Rotarian’s occupation as an opportunity to serve society; corrosive effects of corruption on politics and civil THIRD The application of the ideal of service in each society. She earned a master’s degree from the London Rotarian’s personal, business, and community life; School of Economics and interned with the Organization for Economic FOURTH The advancement of international understanding, goodwill, and peace through Co-operation and Development in Paris. Using guerrilla-style lectures aimed at a world fellowship of business and professional persons united in the ideal of service showing people how to be engaged and hold politicians accountable, she’s trying The Four-Way Test to add some spontaneity to economic understanding. OF THE THINGS we think, say, or do: Levi Vonk, another global grant scholar, earned his master’s in the anthropol- 1) Is it the TRUTH? 2) Is it FAIR to all concerned? ogy of development at the University of Sussex, England, and then worked with 3) Will it build GOODWILL and migrants in Mexico. His first-person account, “On the Tracks of the Beast,” in- BETTER FRIENDSHIPS? 4) Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned? troduces us to Central Ameri- Rotarian Code of Conduct Of all Rotary’s cans who are fleeing drug investments, perhaps violence and gang warfare – and The following code of conduct has been adopted for to the difficulties and dangers the use of Rotarians: the most e ective they face. AS A ROTARIAN, I will are the ones it makes Of the 60,000 people killed in young people. 1) Act with integrity and high ethical standards in natural disasters annually, in my personal and professional life most die because they are caught 2) Deal fairly with others and treat them and their in collapsing buildings. Rotarian occupations with respect Marco Faggella, who survived a catastrophic earthquake as a child, is working to 3) Use my professional skills through Rotary to: mentor young people, help those with special reduce the risks posed by devastating seismic events. A former Rotary scholar in needs, and improve people’s quality of life in my community and in the world San Diego, he now does research in seismic engineering at Sapienza University 4) Avoid behavior that reflects adversely of Rome. In “ e Future of Buildings,” you’ll read how Faggella is seeking ways on Rotary or other Rotarians to improve the structural integrity of buildings – and passing along that expertise to architects and engineers in other quake-prone countries. Deborah Walters is also a scholar and a Rotarian, though not a Rotary scholar. One of Rotary’s 2015 Global Women of Action, she’s a retired neuroscientist whose dedication to the families who live off the enormous garbage dump in Guatemala City – and to Safe Passage, an organization formed to support them – is evident in the epic feat she undertook. In“Fantastic Voyage,” you’ll read about how this grandmother of four decided to kayak from her home in Maine to Guatemala to spread the word about, and raise funds for, Safe Passage. is kayaking grandma has a flair for the dramatic that will amaze and inspire you. JOHN REZEK 8 THE ROTARIAN | N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 7

up front Safewater, brighter future DIEGO IBARRA SANCHEZ JAMIL MOUAWAD Rotary Club of Zgharta-Zawié, Lebanon When young Jamil Mouawad of Lebanon was in school studying the hospitality industry in the Dominican Republic, he joined the Rotary Club of San Juan de la Maguana. Mouawad became club president at age 27 in 1981. In 1996, he returned to Lebanon, a country devastated by a 15-year civil war.“The infrastructural situation of most schools in Lebanon is beyond catastrophic, ” says Mouawad, now owner and general manager of the Ehden Country Club. “Especially when it comes to the water quality. ” In 2011, water samples from schools throughout Lebanon showed disease- causing organisms. Two years later, dozens of students were hospitalized because of water contamination. “That’s when we declared that Rotar- ians are on the move! ” Mouawad says. The result was a large-scale project led by Mouawad, then governor of District 2452. The effort includes all of Lebanon’s Rotary clubs as well as outside partners and Lebanese ministries. The project, with significant funding from The Rotary Founda- tion, has installed new tanks and water filters at over 700 schools. The goal is to provide clean water in the roughly 500 remaining schools in Lebanon by 2018, Mouawad says. The water project has taken an extra urgency with an influx of Syrian refugees, a half-million of whom are children.“Our projects are reaching out to both Lebanese and Syrian students, ” says Mouawad. – NIKKI KALLIO N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 7  | THE ROTARIAN 9

up front CONVENTION DISPATCHES Notable Trekking to the top of the world neighborhoods T hough he grew up in the Netherlands, a nation that lies partly below sea level and has no mountains, Olivier Vriesendorp has long dreamed of high-altitude climbing. As a teen he was I f you’re planning to attend inspired by a National Geographic article about a Himalayan expedition.“I was very impressed the 2018 Rotary Interna- by the men who climbed under extreme conditions where few people had ever been,” says Vriesen- tional Convention in Toronto from 23 to 27 June, you’ll dorp, who in May successfully completed an expedition to the top of Mount Everest. want to experience the city’s colorful neighborhoods. For A member of the Rotary Club of Amstelveen, Vriesendorp, 47, didn’t just climb Everest; by those on a tight schedule, here are some top picks. summiting the world’s highest peak, he reached his goal to climb the highest mountain on each Less than a mile northwest of the world’s continents, known as the Seven Summits. of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre (MTCC), The father of two was already in excellent shape from climbing the first six summits, but he you’ll find Queen West, a lively neighborhood that has dozens upped the training for Everest. For eight months he did daily cardio and core work, and on of boutiques and restaurants. Cross Bathurst Street into weekends typically hiked 15 miles with a heavy backpack. For six weeks before the journey, West Queen West, and you’ll see dozens of art galleries and Vriesendorp slept every night in a special tent breathing oxygen-reduced air to minimize the bars with live music. risk of altitude sickness during the climb. In nearby Chinatown, the streets are packed with people He traveled to Tibet in early April. The expedition team spent weeks adjusting to the moun- shopping for inexpensive housewares, fruits, and vege- tain’s low oxygen conditions. Summit Day (21 May) lasted 18 hours and was the most challeng- tables. The restaurants are a big draw, especially if you love ing part of the climb, with extremely steep, exposed sections.“It’s super cold and you really need dim sum and dumplings. to be careful that fingers and toes don’t freeze,” he explains. Walk northwest a few min- utes from Chinatown and Vriesendorp, who had Rotary patches sewn to his down suit, also carried a Rotary Founda- you’ll end up in centuries-old Kensington Market, which has tion flag and took it out when he reached the summit, where he enjoyed 15 minutes standing vintage clothing stores, grocers, eateries, and other shops. on top of the world. (He couldn’t leave the flag because it would have been blown away or A short cab ride from destroyed by 125 mph winds that whip the summit most of the year.) the convention venues, the Distillery District has many Says Vriesendorp of his latest accomplishment: “As a father of eight-year-old twin boys, cafes, restaurants, and shops housed within heritage I hope that what I did will inspire them and make them see that if you set a clear goal – any buildings of a 19th-century distillery. This pedestrian-only goal, it doesn’t need to be climbing – and you are determined to achieve it and prepared to work area has the largest and best-preserved collection of hard for it, you can.” –ANNE STEIN Victorian-era industrial archi- tecture in North America. 29,035 400 4,469 – RANDI DRUZIN Feet above sea level at the Estimated climbers who have Climbers who have summited summit of Everest reached all Seven Summits Mount Everest through 2016 Register for the 2018 Rotary Convention in Toronto at riconvention.org. 10 T H E R O T A R I A N   | N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 7

up front tion in the public sector. I also created an index to measure conflict of interest and differ- ent trends, such as whether there’s more conflict of interest or less if you are very punitive as a country. TR: What did you learn? MEHRABYAN: I realized we need to look at different methods and different approaches to measure corruption. I’m doing research to see whether cor- ruption is intuitive or deliber- ate. This is a question that has not been explored, and it is a critical question. If corrupt be- havior is intuitive, you can change the environment in small ways. But if you learn that corrupt behavior is actu- ally deliberate, then you have to do more of the traditional policy approach, which is sanctioning and punishing people who do corrupt work. TR: What would you like to THE TALENT AROUND THE TABLE do next? Measuring and stopping public corruption MEHRABYAN: Since I moved G lobal grant scholarship recipient Lusiné Mehrabyan is working toward solving one of here, Brexit happened, and I the most difficult and pervasive world ills: government corruption. Mehrabyan, a native of Armenia who was raised in Ithaca, N.Y., recognized the plague of corruption in her home realized that a lot of people felt country but also in the U.S. public sector. “I think it’s common in every country, and it’s something that should be addressed,” she says. “It’s very difficult, because it’s hard to measure.” alienated from the discipline Mehrabyan hopes to establish better ways to do that. She recently earned a master’s degree from the London School of Economics (LSE) and further developed her interest in fighting of economics. I’m trying to bring corruption while working with the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Paris in the summer of 2016. economics to the public sphere, using a touch of mysterious- ness and a touch of spontaneity and fun to make it interesting to people. The idea is to use a guerrilla-style lecture format – I guess you could call it“pop- up economics.” The location is THE ROTARIAN: How did fight- ways to measure corruption is MEHRABYAN: I worked in the secret, the topic is secret, the ing corruption become an im- to do a survey, and that is a division called Public Sector portant focus for you? very flawed way of trying to Integrity. Because of the quan- occasional guest speakers MEHRABYAN: For a policy proj- measure corruption because titative skills I obtained at ect for LSE, I looked at cor- people can lie on surveys. LSE, my task was to help with are secret. In a very engaging, ruption in Estonia – specifically, That’s why I approached the the empirical evidence in their how anti-corruption legisla- OECD. research. I worked with my immersive way, people are tion would affect corruption TR: What was the focus of supervisor to show what levels. The patterns did not your internship with the happens to productivity levels going to be introduced to dif- make sense to me. One of the OECD? in a country if there’s corrup- ferent economic concepts. The MONICA GARWOOD main aim is to get people to be more engaged citizens and to hold our politicians more accountable. –NIKKI KALLIO N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 7  | THE ROTARIAN 11

up front World Roundup Rotary projects around the globe 1 ] NEW ZEALAND 2 Nearly 500 billion plastic drinking After reading a newspaper article about 20 “water walls” with colorful bottles were sold an Auckland play center retiring a funnels, chutes, and magnets globally in 2016. 44-year-old sand pit digger designed for attached to steel-plated plywood. That number is children’s play, David Hutcheson, presi- The walls allow children, tapping expected to climb dent of the Rotary Club of North Harbour, their nascent engineering acumen 20 percent by 2021. procured the discarded digger and, and teamwork, to direct the water using its pieces as templates, devised flow. The Rotarians also had plenty 3 a safer version with no screws or nails. of fun, notes Hutcheson. Six years later, Hutcheson and more than half of his club’s 50 members have labored thousands of hours and used mostly donated timber, nuts, bolts, laser-cut buckets, paint, and shop space – with contributions from Rotarians in neighboring clubs – to fabricate 30 diggers for early childhood facilities. Hutcheson and his fellow Rotarians did not stop with the kids’ construction equipment. By mid-2017 they had moved on to improving more than by BRAD WEBBER 12 T H E R O T A R I A N | N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 7

up front 2 ] CANADA 3 ] ARGENTINA For more than six decades, the Rotary Club of Stettler, Alta., has honored its livestock ranchers, The Rotary Club of Bell Ville Ideas Unidas has grain growers, and dairy farmers with an annual dinner. About 250 people gathered on transformed nearly 100 tons of discarded 19 June, says Kathie Hankins, an event organizer and club past president. Local businesses plastic – largely drink bottles – into “ecological that cater to the industry sponsored tables of eight – with most inviting three farming couples bricks” used in local schools, government housing, as their guests – and the event raised about $7,000. The profits support four college art installations, and other structures, and as scholarships of $800 each for students pursuing agriculture-related degrees, as well as pavers for playgrounds. Three club members the participation of high school students in the Adventures in Technology program at the regularly oversee the grinding machinery and the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon. mixing of the aggregates into a concrete mixture that is formed into sturdy bricks and pavers. The About 1 in 100 initiative, begun in 2011, has recruited local high children is born school students to the cause of collecting recycla- with a congenital bles and has increased awareness of environmental heart defect. protection in the community, say Rotarians. 4 5 5 ] MADAGASCAR 1 Villagers in a remote area of northeastern Mada- 4 ] PHILIPPINES gascar were granted identification papers after the Rotary Club of Lac Alaotra and their counterparts in The Rotary Club of Cebu stepped up its work to provide operations for children with heart disease a local Soroptimist Club interceded to prompt local by organizing races that earned more than $42,000. “We did our first Run for Gift of Life and the court officials to process government documenta- Rotary Corporate Triathlon on 7 May and 11 June, respectively,” says Angel Ruben “Bing” Mar- tion. Some 250 children and adults from Manakam- tinez, club president. More than 2,000 runners took on courses of 3, 8, or 16 kilometers for the bahiny were treated to a daylong ceremony hosted by run, while 345 athletes participated in the triathlon, both to benefit the long-standing Rotarian- the clubs in February. “Rural people in general often based Gift of Life effort. Over the past decade, about 60 heart operations have been performed. have difficulty getting birth certificates due to lack of knowledge, a fear of administration officers,” and the arduous steps to obtain the ID papers, says Lac Alaotra Rotarian Seheno Rajaobelison. The creden- tials have eased access to education for the children and to the ballot box for the adults. N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 7 | THE ROTARIAN 13

up front Trans-Atlantic support for a girl with big dreams Megan Sadler dreams of wear a restrictive body brace for known worldwide as a pioneer Shriners offered to perform DAVE HARADON becoming a competi- up to 23 hours a day. “I don’t for an innovative surgical pro- the operation and treatment tive gymnast one day. like my brace, especially when cedure called vertebral body free of charge, but there were But for the 10-year-old from it is tight,” she said earlier this tethering (VBT). In this pro- still major costs for flights the Welsh coastal town of year.“It’s uncomfortable.” cedure, screws are placed in and accommodations. And Milford Haven, those ambi- each vertebra and connected to Megan, whose spine was tions have seemed a long Megan’s story inspired a a flexible cord that holds the curved more than 60 degrees, way off. partnership between Rotary spine in a straighter alignment, first needed to undergo tests clubs on both sides of the somewhat like the wire on den- at Shriners to determine “I love gymnastics, ” she Atlantic. tal braces. This allows the spine whether she was a good can- says. “I’d like to be able to do to correct as the patient grows. didate for the surgery. a back handspring, but it’s The traditional treatment hard at the moment. I want to for a case like hers would The surgery enables The Rotary Club of Milford do competitions and win involve surgeries to insert rods patients to maintain flexibility Haven learned of the family’s medals, and one day I would in her spine. After she stops and lessens the chance of need- plight and sprang into action, like to be a gym coach.” growing, doctors would then ing multiple surgeries. Once initially raising about $1,300 fuse her spine, severely limit- the curvature is beyond 70 through a special concert. This Megan suffers from severe ing her flexibility. degrees, however, the VBT was further boosted by a fund- scoliosis, a curvature of the surgery is not an option. raising effort by Rotarians in spine, which meant she had to The Shriners Hospital for Children-Philadelphia is 14 T H E R O T A R I A N   |   N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 7

up front Wales. Social media posts drew OPPOSITE: Doug Klepfer (from left), Helena Tucker, Paul Quintavalla, Julianna Blazey, and Cynthia Rugart were wider support. part of the welcoming committee that met Megan Sadler and her family at the Philadelphia airport. Megan got celebrity treatment, with a local television news crew covering her arrival. THIS PAGE, FROM LEFT: Megan meets More than $9,000 was with Dr. Steven Hwang, who performed the surgery; an X-ray shows the curvature of her spine before the procedure. raised to help Megan’s family COURTESY OF ROTARY DISTRICT 7450 travel to the United States for est in Megan’s story.“This is a But I want to go to America “We didn’t expect anything the initial tests. This included true sign of Rotary serving because I want to get my – maybe that they would meet nearly $2,000 from the Mil- humanity,” he said at the time. life back.” us at the airport,” says Phil. ford Haven Gymnastics Club, Eve Conway, then president of “But everyone has been so kind where Megan is a member. Rotary International in Great In late May, the family and helpful.” Britain and Ireland, also returned to Shriners for Just before the Sadlers trav- wished Megan well with her Megan to have the operation Megan is steadily gaining fit- eled to Philadelphia in Febru- treatment. and then recuperate in Phila- ness at home with her family. ary for tests, Steve Jenkins, delphia before flying back to She will return to Philadelphia then governor of District 1150 With the tests completed, the UK in late June. in December for the first of a (Wales), contacted Dave thoughts turned to the life- series of semiannual checks. Haradon, his counterpart in changing operation in May. A Trevorrow and his Rotary District 7450 in Pennsylvania, fresh round of fundraising and team were once again out in The fundraising will con- to ask whether Rotarians there cooperation by Rotarians force to support the Sadlers tinue – not only for Megan, but could support the family when raised additional funds, bring- through their monthlong stay. also for the Shriners Hospital they arrived.   ing the total to about $26,000. and for other children in the “Everything went fine, and UK who might need financial The response was immedi- What lay ahead was a gru- Megan has now grown 4½ support to make the trip to ate, with the two district gov- eling six-hour operation dur- inches,” says her father, Phil. Philadelphia for treatment. ernors joined by Rotarians ing which Megan’s lungs “The surgery went really well, Mike Peake from Milford would be deflated and some of better than they expected, and “ The surgery is going to Haven and Ted Trevorrow her ribs removed to allow sur- they have reduced the curva- change Megan’s quality of life from the Rotary Club of geons to work on her spine. ture of the spine to 40 degrees. completely,” says Laura. “It Longwood in Chester County, As Megan grows, the curvature means that she will only have Penn., to organize the effort. “I’m excited about the oper- will become even less severe.” to wear a brace at night rather ation,” she said in the spring than for 23 hours a day. It will When the Sadler family after returning home between Phil and Laura are grateful give her some normality for a arrived at Philadelphia Inter- the consultation and the pro- for the generosity of Rotarians few years as she grows, and we national Airport in February, cedure. “ The tests were a on both sides of the Atlantic hope it will allow her to con- 30 Rotarians were waiting bit scary, and I didn’t like hav- who made the surgery possi- tinue with her gymnastics.” with flags and welcome signs, ing to breathe into a machine. ble, as well as the businesses carrying practical gifts includ- that contributed. –DAVE KING ing food, toys, and a smart- phone loaded with $200 in credit. The Philadelphia Rotarians organized transport from the airport and to the hospital for Megan’s consultation. “It was so overwhelming, they were absolutely brilliant,” recalls Megan’s mother, Laura. “We couldn’t thank the Rotar- ians enough because they did everything possible to take care of us. It was lovely.” The story struck a chord with Rotarians around the globe. Then-RI President John F. Germ took a personal inter- N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 7  | THE ROTARIAN 15

up front and India (1.3 billion) lead the way, followed by the U.S. (324 million), Indonesia (264 million), Brazil (209 million), Pakistan News, studies, and recent research (197 million), and Nigeria (191 million). Experts estimate we’ll add around 1 billion more people by 2030. American 19-year-olds are as inactive Giving veggies enticing descriptions in a college as the average 60-year-old, according to findings in Preventive Medicine. Researchers analyzed data from more than 12,000 cafeteria increases vegetable consumption, according to a participants, ages six to 84, who wore tracking devices for seven Stanford University study. Each weekday for several months a days. In the 12-to-19 age group, more than 50 percent of males vegetable was labeled in one of four ways: Indulgent (twisted and 75 percent of females didn’t meet World Health Organiza- citrus-glazed carrots), Basic (carrots), Healthy Restrictive tion recommendations of 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous (carrots with sugar-free citrus dressing), or Healthy Positive physical activity daily. (smart-choice vitamin C citrus carrots). Each dish was identically prepared, but vegetables labeled Indulgent were chosen by 25 About half of Earth’s 7.6 billion inhabitants call one percent more people over Basic; 41 percent more over Healthy Restrictive; and 35 percent more over Healthy Positive. of seven nations home, according to the United Nations’ 2017 Revision of World Population Prospects. China (1.4 billion people) Intermarriage rates have increased more than fivefold since the 1967 Supreme Court decision Loving v. Virginia, which struck down laws banning marriage across racial lines. Fifty years ago, 3 percent of newlyweds were married to a spouse of a different race; that number increased to 17 percent in 2015, according to the Pew Research Center. ZULEMA WILLIAMS A 2017 Pew survey also found that since 2010, the number of adults saying the increasing interracial marriage rate is good for society rose 15 points, to 39 percent. –ANNE STEIN AD Advertise in The Rotarian To Be Determined ½ h - 7\" × 4.4375\" [email protected] 17 MARCH 2018 (954) 406-1000 Florida SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA DISTRICT 9675 & ROTARY CLUB OF SYDNEY (212) 292-3718 New York rippc2018.com.au %$' 6 7 ($06 (%$ < ECONOMIC AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT (9$ 7($6(7 1$3( / ( 7 , 163 , 5$ 7 , 21 The economic implications of conflict touch every aspect of a community. 7 5$ , 3 6 ( 5$052'6 Hosted by District 9675 and the Rotary Club of Sydney, this conference will consider the link between economic development and peace. '(('6 7(( It will examine how opportunities are affected by root causes of conflict, $5281' 23(1 %$ 7 such as poverty; disease; lack of water, food security, and education; and %281' (0$* 32/2 limited human rights. Join academics, activists, and political, business, $ 7 71 (9(5< $521 and community leaders to explore building peace and to discuss 7272 0$+ , '521( opportunities for collaboration to create more stable and prosperous (5$ 5(12 &251(5 communities locally and internationally. 6 , 5 :$+22 FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT 3+272 , ' 1257+(5 rotary.org/presidential-conferences 5 ( * , 6 7 ( 5 1 2: ( * 2 ( $51 86 $86 $ $*2 35(. 6 , 6/(< 727

CLUB A group for new INNOVATION members puts out the welcome mat Rotary Club of Fair Oaks, Calif. I N NOVAT I O N : MEMBERS: 83 This club started a “honeymooners group” for new members New members in 2017: 11 to share ideas, concerns, questions, bafflement at acronyms, In 2016: 6 and all the other things that new Rotarians experience. The In 2015: 13 group, open to members in their first two years, is a place to learn about Rotary, but the emphasis is on fellowship and fun. H I S T O RY : values and goals through education and involvement.” The group was such a success that at the end of the first year, The club was founded in 1946. Members are active in their community, co-sponsoring a Little League team, the Rotary River Dogs (with the many members wanted to stay. So they simply changed the rules Rotary Club of Orangevale); doing park maintenance and road cleanup; to permit membership for two years. That also gives the group and hosting the annual Crab Feed. Through the Fair Oaks Rotary some continuity from year to year. And of course it’s voluntary. Foundation, they have supported distribution of dictionaries to schoolchildren and monetary awards for graduates of local high A different member hosts each gathering, which starts with schools, sponsored a speech contest, and funded improvements to a socializing over a meal. The group has between a dozen and 20 local amphitheater that is home to the Fair Oaks Theatre Festival. people on the mailing list at any given time, but five to 12 mem- bers attend a typical event. From the moment she joined Rotary in 2015, Mary Cate In addition to fellowship, the gatherings offer a chance for new Gustafson-Quiett was thinking about how to retain new mem- members to test out new ideas. Sometimes, Gustafson-Quiett notes, all the experience of Rotarians can be a bit intimidating. bers. She attended a board meeting of the Rotary Club of Fair Among fellow neophytes, people feel free to pitch an idea and see what the smaller group thinks. Oaks to hear about membership, and the brainstorming began. The honeymooners also invite some experienced Rotarians Knowing that some Rotary clubs have groups for new members, to visit their gatherings, including club board members.“For ex- ample,” says Dunbar,“I invited a former board member to discuss she spearheaded the drive to start the “honeymooners group” The Rotary Foundation and our club foundation. The focus on this kind of club education is important to encouraging members for Fair Oaks to help with retention.“We chose the name honey- to feel and be involved.” mooners because we thought that your first year in marriage, The group helps new members get used to participating in the club at large. “We ran some of the club’s weekly meetings,” that’s your honeymoon year,” explains Gustafson-Quiett.“This says Gustafson-Quiett of her time leading the honeymooners. “We planned it out at a honeymooners gathering.” is your honeymoon year of Rotary.” Dunbar sees the group benefiting both new members and the Gustafson-Quiett stresses that the group is about fun and Rotary club.“New members get answers to their questions that are consistent across our group’s membership. This educational fellowship.“Our Rotary club is a fairly large club, with 80-some process accelerates their assimilation into the club and gets them involved in our projects and events more quickly. We get good members. So it’s easy to feel ideas coming out of the honeymooners as well. This dynamic makes the Rotary Club of Fair Oaks stronger in terms of the like you get lost in the crowd. projects we pursue and the members we can attract and retain.” We thought that this would What is your club doing to reinvent itself? Email [email protected]. be a good way for new mem- bers to get to know each other.” At the same time, notes current group facilitator Den- nis Dunbar, the group “bridges that gap between a Top: Club members ride to raise new member’s wide-eyed en- money for cancer research; bottom: thusiasm and a more seasoned painting Little Free Libraries. understanding of the club’s N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 7  | THE ROTARIAN 17

up front November 4th 11th CRAFT BREWS EAT, DRINK, AND BE MERRY EVENT: Suncoast Food and Wine Fest EVENT: Tonka Brew Fest HOST: Rotary Club of Lakewood Ranch, Fla. HOST: Rotary Club of Mound/Westonka, Minn. WHAT IT BENEFITS: Local charities WHAT IT IS: Held at the Sarasota Polo Club at Lakewood Ranch, WHAT IT BENEFITS: Local charities this 16th annual food and wine festival features WHAT IT IS: Local craft beer is all the rage in the libations world, and there is plenty of the Minnesota variety delicious eats from dozens of local restaurants and to taste at this craft brew festival at scenic Gale more than 100 wines from around the world. The Woods Farm. Add food and live music, and you event also features cooking demonstrations and live have a fall celebration that cannot be missed. entertainment. Don’t love wine? Craft beer tastings will be on-site, as well. 10th- 12th 18th EARLY HOLIDAY ART STARS EVENT: Southern Christmas Bazaar EVENT: Art Under the Stars HOST: Rotary Club of Maitland, Fla. HOST: Rotary Club of Alabaster-Pelham, Ala. WHAT IT BENEFITS: Local charities WHAT IT BENEFITS: Local charities WHAT IT IS: A tradition since 1976, this three-day art festival WHAT IT IS: Get into the holiday spirit even before Thanksgiving. invites patrons to sip a glass of wine while perusing More than 50 merchants from Alabama and art for sale and listening to music during the evening. neighboring states sell their wares at this annual More than 130 artists – painters, sculptors, jewelry bazaar. Bring the kids – Santa will be on hand makers, photographers, graphic artists, and more – for photo opportunities, and refreshments and will display their work. concessions will keep the crankiest shoppers happy. 23rd JOG, THEN GOBBLE EVENT: Surfside Rotary Turkey Trot HOST: Rotary Club of Surfside Area, S.C. WHAT IT BENEFITS: Local charities WHAT IT IS: Every Thanksgiving it’s the same story: Eat a huge dinner and then curl up on the couch and take a giant nap. This year, why not run a race first and earn your spot at the dinner table? This annual event offers 5K, 10K, and one-mile distances, as well as a tot trot for kids that is free. Tell us about your club’s event. Write to [email protected] with “calendar” in the subject line. 18 T H E R O T A R I A N | N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 7

column C U L T U R E Could be worse When the story seems grim, rewrite the ending by FRANK BURES DAVE CUTLER L ate last year a woman I know writer Jia Tolentino put it in The New to be solved and that solving them tweeted: “Great – subzero Yorker, “There is no limit to the amount is our job. Since our country’s temps next week. Let’s just of misfortune a person can take in via the founding, America has been a get this out there – 2016 has been Internet, and there’s no easy way to prop- can-do place, a place of possibility. the worst year ever! ” erly calibrate it. … Our ability to change Our creed has always been a cer- things is not increasing at the same rate tain sometimes naive faith that Honestly, I wasn’t crazy about as our ability to know about them. ” things will work out for the best. 20 below zero either, but in Min- And for the most part – believe it nesota, putting on a jacket and hat Whatever the reason, the downbeat or not – they have. hardly seems like the end of civi- trend has accelerated among people of all lization. More recently, I saw an- political stripes, and it is noteworthy be- Contrary to what you might other post on Twitter in which the cause it goes directly against the strongest think, violence is at all-time lows, writer said, “I’m just always mad current in American culture: our opti- as is the rate of global poverty. War now. Everything is garbage and it mism, our sense that problems are meant deaths are fewer than ever in his- doesn’t need to be. ” tory. On most indicators where you might think progress is not The idea that 2016 was the being made, the opposite is prob- worst year ever started circulating ably true. Nicholas Kristof re- after several celebrity deaths cently pointed out in a column in (Prince, David Bowie, Leonard The New York Times:“2017 is likely to be Cohen) were followed by an election that the best year in the history of humanity. ” did not go the way many people wanted He continued: “Every day, another it to. After that, the worst-year-ever meme 250,000 people graduate from extreme became unstoppable, and in 2017, the poverty, according to World Bank figures. drumbeat of decline has not stopped. About 300,000 get electricity for the first time. Some 285,000 get their first access Offhand, I can think of a lot of things to clean drinking water. When I was a that are worse than a cold winter day: the boy, a majority of adults had always been 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the 1929 illiterate, but now more than 85 percent stock market crash, the Bataan Death can read. ” March. But it’s true that things do feel Likewise, in 2011 Steven Pinker worse than they actually are. Part of the pointed out in The Better Angels of Our reason lies in the 24-hour news cycle and its never-ending flow of bad news. As N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 7  | THE ROTARIAN 19

AD Toronto, Canada column C U L T U R E to attend the Nature that the world is not more violent, To RBoetaDryeItneterrmnaintioendal 2018 Convention more racist, more genocidal, or more un- ⅔ v - 4.4375\" × 9.P5\"re and Post Convention just than in the past. He documented long-term declines in homicides, war Tours including… deaths, executions, and lynchings, as well as massive gains in education, health, and Prince Edward Island Halifax wealth. He showed that diseases are not Quebec City Montreal spiraling out of control. And humanity is Rocky Mountaineer not (yet) devolving into a Hobbesian state Train Travel Vancouver of nature. None of which is to say that to Calgary, etc. things are perfect or that our progress is Roundtrip Airfare permanent. But the world is far more per- fect than it used to be. Rotarian owned and operated with decades of experience taking Rotarians to Rotary Conventions Yet many of us have given in to a pes- simism, a hopelessness, a sense that things 516 Grand Ave., Oakland, CA 94610 USA are going from bad to worse. Minnesota winters notwithstanding, it was shocking (800) 475-2260 toll free (510) 834-2260 how many people rushed to declare 2016 [email protected] www.HowardTours.net the worst year ever, when in fact it was www.facebook.com/HowardTours CST: 1015206-10 one of the best. Celebrating 70 Years - We Look Forward to Traveling with You This disconnect between perception FREE and reality was noted by sociologist Barry Glassner in his 1999 book, The Culture iPhone App of Fear: Why Americans Are Afraid of the NOW Wrong Things. In it he explored the grow- ing distance between the things we fear SEARCH KEYWORD and the reality of those threats. Through- out the 1990s, people became more afraid “ZobristCube” of crime, even as crime rates were falling. Other threats, such as road rage and child Android version is coming soon! abduction, proved wildly overblown, while others – the satanic cult scare and Game-in-a-box is still Y2K, for instance – turned out to be en- available on Amazon or tirely fictional. ZobristCube.com Why this divergence? Why don’t we see things as they are? Glassner attributed 1 (855) 962-7478 www.ZobristCube.com Ages 6 - Adult this in part to “premillennial tensions.” But now the turn of the millennium is long past, yet the tensions remain. Another explanation is that this grow- ing sense of decline is caused by some- thing within us. Humans, as scientist and writer E.O. Wilson has observed, are the storytelling species. When we think about the past, we do not think in a steady stream of time. Rather, we think in terms of “episodes” that we link together, each one causing the next, like dominoes. This is true whether we are thinking about our life, our country, or our planet. 20 T H E R O T A R I A N | N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 7

column C U L T U R E Psychologists who study these things Does this matter? Does it affect anyone AD have identified patterns in the stories we but the storyteller? The answer is yes: see. In American culture, the dominant Stories are contagious, and negative sto- To Be kind are “redemption stories,” in which a ries even more so. But I think it matters Determined person faces loss, challenge, or difficulty, for other reasons too. One reason is that ⅓ v - 2.125\" × 9.5\"Keel-billed Toucan—Join the smart shoppers but overcomes it so that good emerges in a negative outlook doesn’t let us acknowl- the end. In his book The Redemptive Self: edge the accomplishments of those who & experienced travelers who rely on Caravan Stories Americans Live By, psychologist are doing good work: people fighting to Dan McAdams argued that telling re- eliminate polio, or end child marriage, or Costa Rica demptive stories about oneself is linked combat global warming, or conserve our to helping others. The opposite of re- water, or educate our children. 9-Days $1295 demptive stories are “contamination sto- ries,” in which things start out well, then But the most important reason that Volcanoes, Beaches, Rainforests something bad happens, after which ev- we shouldn’t let contamination narratives Fully guided tour w/ all hotels, all meals, erything goes from bad to worse. The end. infect the rest of our stories is the all activities, and a great itinerary. simple fact that no problem has ever been In a fascinating study called “The Po- solved by people who didn’t think it was Caravan Tour Itinerary litical Is Personal: Narrating 9/11 and possible to solve it. When we let the neg- Psychological Well-Being,” psychologists ative memes take over – when we con- Day 1. Your tour starts Jonathan Adler and Michael Poulin in- sume them over and over online – they in San José, Costa Rica. vestigated why some people see redemp- create a cage of despair from which we tion where others see contamination. can’t see an escape. And this poses a real Hike in Jungle Day 2. Explore the Poás They took accounts of nearly 400 people danger when it comes to problems such Rainforests Volcano, and view inside written two months after the 11 Septem- as climate change. It is a problem we the active crater. ber 2001 attacks. They analyzed these can solve, as long as we don’t allow the stories and compared them against the “worst year ever” meme to become a self- Day 3. Visit to a wildlife results of those subjects’ physical and fulfilling prophecy. rescue center. mental health questionnaires. What they found was that people whose stories of But we can influence both the stories Birdwatching Day 4. Rio Frio cruise. 9/11 included themes of redemption and we see and the stories we tell.“One of the Enjoy a relaxing soak in closure also had higher levels of psycho- empowering insights from the field of nar- volcanic hot springs. logical well-being and lower levels of dis- rative psychology,” says Adler,“is that we tress. People whose stories of 9/11 were are both the main character in our story Day 5. Hike the Hanging high in contamination – something bad and the narrator. So most of the day we Bridges, and continue on happened, then everything was garbage go around being the main character, do- to the Pacific Coast. – showed higher levels of internal distress ing the stuff of our life. But when we need and lower levels of psychological well- to, we can step out of being the main char- Day 6. Free time at your being. In other studies, Adler found that acter and be the narrator – and revise the beach resort & spa. redemption stories were linked to im- story if it’s not working for us.” provements in mental health over the next Day 7. Cruise on Tarcoles few years, while contamination stories This is not always easy, but it is pos- were not. sible. So when the flood of bad news River. Birdwatching and threatens to wash us away, remember that In other words, the stories we tell our- things are better than they seem. Step San Bada Hotel; crocodile spotting. selves matter, and what we see around us away from the flow of despair before it Directly Next to often says more about our inner world ruins not only your present, but your fu- Manuel Antonio Day 8. Explore Manuel than our outer one.“There’s nothing ob- ture. Look around you and write a new Antonio National Park. jective about a contamination sequence,” story that reflects the world as you want Adler told me. “All lives have positive it to be. n National Park Day 9. Return with great and negative things that happen in them. But it’s about how you parse time and Frank Bures is the author of The Geogra- memories! draw connections.” phy of Madness and a frequent contributor to The Rotarian. See Full Itinerary at Caravan•com Choose an Affordable Tour +tax,fees Guatemala with Tikal 10 days $1295 Costa Rica 9 days $1295 Panama Canal Tour 8 days $1195 Nova Scotia & P.E.I. 10 days $1395 Canadian Rockies 9 days $1695 Grand Canyon & Zion 8 days $1495 California Coast 8 days $1595 Mount Rushmore 8 days $1395 New England, Fall Colors 8 days $1395 “ ”Brilliant, Affordable Pricing —Arthur Frommer, Travel Editor FREE Brochure (800) CARAVAN, visit Caravan.com ® N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 7 | THE ROTARIAN 21

IItTaAlLyY’’sS dDiIsSaApPpPEeAaRrIiNnGg by Diana Schoberg | photography by Gianluca Cecere 22 T H E R O T A R I A N   |   N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 7

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A rquata del Tronto was to view this community where he and his sound of a large mirror crashing to the floor, never an easy place to family have lived for generations, which his parents yelling. He ran outside and saw live. Picturesque, yes: was reduced to rubble after three major his neighbors pouring out onto the street. The snowcapped peak earthquakes hit central Italy in 2016. He He went to help in Pescara del Tronto, an experienced the tragedy up close: Here in area village that was so devastated that the of Mo nte Ve tto re Arquata, he has been on the municipal mayor told the Italian newspaper il Giornale council for 11 years, while in nearby that it looked like Aleppo, Syria. forms the backdrop to this collection of Amatrice, which was also pummeled dur- ing the disasters, he is a police officer. “I “I saw people dead on the street who medieval villages sandwiched between was hit on all sides,” he says. had escaped from their homes but were hit by debris. I pulled somebody alive from two national parks in central Italy’s Ap- It’s a cool day in March, and the wind the rubble,” Paci says as we stand outside blows a shutter open and shut, revealing the the ruins.“It was really dark. Everybody penine Mountains. Tiny chapels line the plush headboard of a bed inside one of the was yelling. You didn’t know where to go still-standing buildings. We see a purple or who to help first.” local trails, and one village is known as ironing board peeking out of an upended roof, a squashed red car, mattresses, bed Nearly 300 people died in the 6.2 mag- the land of the fairies, a mythological frames, and bales of hay strewn about. nitude quake, including 50 in this area. place where shepherds were lured in by But we also see signs of hope. With the Previous pages: In villages damaged by a series of help of Rotarians, some people see a future earthquakes last year, Italian Rotarians are work- beautiful fairies with goat feet. But the for these abandoned towns. ing to help rebuild not only buildings but livelihoods. Above and right: The municipality of Arquata del municipality, which includes 15 villages, It was 3:30 a.m. on 24 August when the Tronto was still uninhabitable six months after the first earthquake struck. Paci awoke to the earthquakes because of continuing aftershocks. had a population of 1,200, and the near- est city is 15 miles away along the narrow, winding mountain roads. For a young person, for a young family, there was not much reason to stay. And that was before the earthquakes hit. Maurizio Paci explains all of this after he escorts us through an army checkpoint 24 T H E R O T A R I A N   |   N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 7

For a young person, for a young family, there was not much reason to stay. And that was before the earthquakes hit. N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 7   |   T H E R O T A R I A N 25

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MARINA MUUN ITALY Arquata del Tronto v Potenza v v Matera v Rome Two more earthquakes hit the region in morning of our visit), and its residents, group, prescient given what was to come. late October. The three in rapid succession including Paci, now live in hotels or with They signed a memorandum of under- left thousands homeless.   family somewhere safer. A tunnel that had standing with the national Department of connected Arquata to other towns col- Civil Protection in July 2016 in which Earthquakes are not unfamiliar to Ital- lapsed, and what had been a 15-minute Rotarians agreed to create a task force for ians. Two plates of the earth’s crust, the trip became two hours. “ The biggest disaster aid in each district. The groups African and Eurasian plates, are slowly problem is that people have left,” he says. would organize activities to use Rotarians’ colliding in northeastern Italy, a geologic “People are afraid to come back.” professional skills – technical, legal, medi- shift that created the Alps. Meanwhile, the cal, and industrial – to support civil entire area where that collision is happening In the weeks after the first earthquake, protection activities in both ordinary and is drifting southeast. The result is that the Rotarians began meeting with members of emergency situations. The project had to ground underneath the Tyrrhenian Basin the affected communities to find out what be put on hold as the government re- – the portion of the Mediterranean Sea they needed most.“The days following the sponded to the recent disasters. surrounded by mainland Italy and Sicily, earthquake were full of phone calls from Sardinia, and Corsica – is being stretched everyone who wanted to go help, who After an earthquake in L’Aquila in apart. It’s that stretching that is causing the wanted to collect materials and so on,” re- 2009, Rotarians had stepped in and raised tectonic activity in the Apennines. calls Paolo Raschiatore, 2016-17 governor €2 million to rebuild a wing of the school of Rotary District 2090, home to about 90 of engineering at the University of The last of the three earthquakes had percent of the communities damaged by the L’Aquila. But following the 2016 earth- a 6.6 magnitude, the strongest to hit Italy earthquakes. But too many well-intended quakes, the Italian government promised in 36 years. It created a huge crack in helpers jammed the mountain roads, making to reconstruct the buildings. So, instead of Monte Vettore and caused the land in a the work for emergency crews harder, he a construction project, members of District nearby village to drop 2 feet. Homes that explains.“It’s not only not necessary; it’s a 2090 decided to draw on their expertise as had survived the initial earthquake were problem. I asked them to stay home.” businesspeople to help the communities damaged. Arquata’s villages were declared rebound economically and give young uninhabitable because of the continuing Less than two months before the first people a reason to return. aftershocks (including one early in the temblor, Italian Rotarians had already embarked on a landmark earthquake ini- The district already had an active men- Left: Maurizio Paci is determined to return to tiative that was years in the making. The toring framework called the Virgilio Arquata and rebuild a strong community there. 2014-15 district governor-nominees had Association, named for Virgil, the guide Italian Rotarians will play a role by helping young decided to focus on earthquake safety as a in Dante’s Divine Comedy. Rotarians had entrepreneurs create thriving businesses. N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 7 | THE ROTARIAN 27

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Less than two months before the first temblor, Italian Rotarians had already embarked on a landmark earthquake initiative that was years in the making. N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 7   |   T H E R O T A R I A N 29

founded the organization several years about 50 miles away with a university people sell their products.“The youth are prior to foster new economic activity in that will manage the programs to ensure waiting on us. We absolutely can’t fail,” the district. They decided to use the Vir- sustainability. Rotarian professionals will says Vincent Mazzone, president of the gilio Association to develop programs for handle the design and contracting for the Rotary Club of Ascoli Piceno, the nearest young entrepreneurs, including business construction of the facilities, which will club to Arquata. mentoring, marketing, and facilitating ac- cost an estimated €300,000 to €400,000 cess to bank credit. each.“If we want to maintain these places, At the trailer serving as Arquata’s it’s important to build new occupations town hall, Paci introduces me to Alean- In June, the district signed agreements for people, especially for young people,” dro Petrucci, the mayor of the munici- to build two business incubators, one in Raschiatore says. They call the initiative pality. Boxes are stacked along the floor Arquata and one in Camerino, a city Progetto Fenice – the Phoenix Project.  in the office, and a space heater helps warm the cool mountain air. Petrucci says Previous pages: Aftershocks continue to plague the As of the end of June, the district had he has three main goals: jobs, housing – area, often sending new rubble tumbling into raised €600,000 from Rotary members, “and churches, of course,” he says with a the roads and further destabilizing buildings. Below clubs, and districts in Italy and abroad for laugh – and bringing back youth, some- left: Giovanni Palaferri, who has begun raising cows the initiative, as well as a substantial por- thing he’s glad to have Rotary’s help with. on his family’s ancestral land, has joined with tion from non-Rotarian donors. They Just a few days earlier, Rotarians met to other young people to form a business group that is launched about 20 mentoring relation- talk about the project.“Rotary will bring receiving assistance through the Italian Rotarians’ ships, with another 20 in the works. structure that would not be there without project. Below right: Rotarians Vincent Mazzone Rotarians are also working to create an it,” he says. “ That will bring jobs and and Paolo Raschiatore talk with Aleandro Petrucci e-commerce website to help business- young people.” (right), Arquata’s mayor, about Rotary’s role in bring- ing young people back to the village. Rotarians drew on their expertise as businesspeople to help communities rebound and give young people a reason to return. 30 T H E R O T A R I A N   |   N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 7

Giovanni Palaferri is precisely the kind the area, he founded a business associa- see,” he says, gesturing to the mountain of enterprising young person the Rotari- tion to help increase production and view outside the barn door. ans are trying to keep in the area. Palaferri’s sales, which is receiving assistance from home was built with anti-seismic mea- the Rotarians’ project. “Rotary will let For Paci, whose girlfriend hopes to sures, so it is still standing. But since the this business go further,” he says.“I could launch a beekeeping business to sell honey area is deemed uninhabitable, he makes a go national.” and related products through the Rotary 40-mile daily round trip to care for the project, it’s even simpler. This is where his animals on his farm in Spelonga. A calf And that, he hopes, will make Arquata family has always lived.“I have the option born the previous night mews as we talk, a destination. “The ultimate goal would to leave; I have a job in Amatrice. I could the larger cows crunching on hay in a be that Arquata and all of the small vil- forget about it here. But I’m tied here temporary barn. lages in the area will compete with the because of my ancestry. famous centers around here,” he says. “If After spending time in his early 20s we can put Arquata on the map, it will “Before the earthquake you had to traveling Europe as a tour bus driver, attract more young people to come here.” have resolve to live here,” he says. “Now Palaferri returned to the area and started my resolve is even stronger. I feel moti- raising cows a year ago on property his But life is so tough here, why would vated not just about building a home, but grandfather had farmed. He wants to anyone want to come back? building a community.” expand his effort to making specialty cheeses and products with the chestnuts Palaferri left this rural area to seek a And that’s something Rotarians know he harvests from his and his neighbors’ better life elsewhere, but what he discov- how to do. n properties. With other young people in ered is that this is his home.“I love it, and for me it’s the best place in the world. It’s Translations by Francesco Bruno, RI almost like paradise when this is what you communications specialist/Europe-Africa. N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 7   |   T H E R O T A R I A N 31

The future of buildings A program created by Rotary scholar Marco Faggella is training engineers around the world to make buildings safer in earthquakes by Diana Schoberg | photography by Gianluca Cecere 32 T H E R O T A R I A N   |   N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 7

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W e’re in the car, and my the region. Coppola ended up sending a He looked to his experiences with traveling companion video message.   Rotary to come up with a plan. and local guide Marco Faggella is blasting the I’m here to find out more about an- At the University of Basilicata at Po- stereo. He wants me to other of his big ideas, this one in his tenza, where Faggella did some of his hear the music of a friend of his, who has professional life. Faggella, who was trained research, engineers have built a model reinterpreted southern Italy’s traditional through a Rotary scholarship, is a research house that they shake with hydraulic tarantella rhythms as intoxicating trance associate in seismic engineering at Sapi- pistons to simulate the effects of an earth- tunes. Over dinner the previous evening, enza University of Rome. He looks at how quake. It’s made of clay bricks with strong Faggella, a member of the Rotary Club of to construct buildings – or retrofit exist- floor beams but weak columns, the way Roma Nord-Est, filled me in on his Top ing ones – so that they don’t tumble down houses were built for thousands of years Secret Plan to get his friend to play at the if an earthquake strikes. It’s a passion that until modern building codes began to Burning Man art festival. In that conversa- makes sense given the earthquake risk in account for seismic activity in the first half tion, Faggella also educated me on the Italy, including in his hometown of Po- of the 20th century. “We’ve predicted finer points of Italian mysticism, Magna tenza, the city we are visiting at the instep extensively how this house will behave, ” Graecia, and Pythagoras. of Italy’s boot. Faggella explains as he stands in front of Faggella is full of grand plans: When Most of the 60,000 people who die in Previous pages: This elementary school in Potenza he launched a film festival in 2009 in the natural disasters every year are killed by a features braces that dissipate energy, one way to beach town of Maratea in partnership building collapse during an earthquake in retrofit buildings to make them safer during an with Rotary District 2100 (in part to a developing country. Instead of going into earthquake. Above: At the University of Basilicata show off the Oscar-nominated polio film reaction mode each time an earthquake at Potenza, engineers study the effects of simulated The Final Inch), he called Francis Ford strikes, Faggella thought, why not educate earthquakes on a model house. Right: Marco Faggella, Coppola, whose grandparents came from people to construct safer buildings so that who was left homeless by an earthquake as a child, fewer people are injured? inspects the model house. 34 T H E R O T A R I A N   |   N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 7

Why not educate people to N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 7   |   T H E R O T A R I A N 35 construct safer buildings so that fewer people are injured?

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the model. “The bricks will break. The Italian government passed guidelines to with the idea of returning to the old apart- columns will topple.” classify the seismic risk of buildings, along ment, so they built an earthquake-proof with tax incentives to promote retrofitting home in the countryside. Around the world, people still live in them with anti-seismic measures. A senior these unsafe structures. “If you look at official from Sapienza University of Rome Reconstruction after the 1980 quake Kathmandu, a lot of Kathmandu is like helped develop the rating system based on took years, and the work was plagued by this. If you look at Karachi, a lot of Karachi the work of the team of researchers to corruption and graft. Government money is like this,” Faggella says. “Houses like which Faggella belongs.   paid for roads to nowhere and factories these can accommodate a lot of people that never opened. Despite millions of quickly, but they account for a lot of the Faggella had a personal experience dollars spent in the region, 28,500 people earthquake risk in the world.” with all this at an early age. In November were still living in canvas tents a decade 1980, when he was five years old, he was after the earthquake. For example, on 26 December 2003, a watching a soccer game with his dad in 6.6 magnitude earthquake struck Bam, their third-floor apartment in Potenza. You can still see the effects of the earth- Iran, killing more than 30,000 people and “All of a sudden, everything started to quake nearly 40 years later. As we drive damaging 45,000 homes, many of which shake like crazy,” he recalls. “There was around the city, Faggella points out the were built with mud bricks and didn’t rubble coming down from the ceiling. We movie theater that never reopened and comply with regulations set more than a felt like the whole house was falling the clock on the town hall still stopped at decade earlier. Four days earlier, a 6.5 apart.” His dad grabbed him, his mom 7:34, the time of the earthquake. Pre- quake hit the central coast of California, picked up his two-year-old sister, and earthquake cookie-cutter high-rises that where the losses were limited to two they rushed, shoeless, down the stairs speculators built without seismic provi- deaths and 500 damaged buildings, onto the tiny piazza below, where a crowd sions are an outrage to someone in his line thanks to the implementation of modern of shocked people had gathered, wonder- of work. seismic codes. ing what was going on. Faggella studied seismic engineering at While we know much about earth- More than 3,000 people died, and over the University of Basilicata at Potenza, quake-safe construction, the application 200,000 were left homeless as a result of which was established after the quake. of this knowledge still lags, even in a de- the earthquake – including Faggella’s fam- His Ph.D. adviser, Enrico Spacone, sug- veloped country such as Italy, where 60 ily. They spent the first night at the farm gested he look into a Rotary scholarship percent of the buildings are more than 100 of a family friend, Faggella and his sister for an opportunity to do research in the years old. The week before my visit, the sleeping on a coffee table. The schools United States. Faggella called Gaetano closed for a few months, so they moved Laguardia, a family friend who was a Left: After a series of earthquakes hit Italy in 2016, the with other families to a beach town two member of the Rotary Club of Potenza, government created financial incentives for people to hours away. His parents never felt safe who helped him through the application retrofit their homes to make them seismically safe. process. He received an Ambassadorial ANTI-SEISMIC MEASURES Seismic dampers absorb some of the energy of an earthquake and lessen the damage it causes to a building. Engineers use these techniques in newly constructed and retrofitted buildings all over the world. STEEL PLATE VISCOUS YIELD FLUID LOCATION OF METAL PISTON BOLT MARINA MUUN VISCOUS DAMPER FRICTION DAMPER YIELDING DAMPER The motion of a piston passing through a thick The friction created by steel plates rubbing A metal alloy more flexible than brick or concrete silicone fluid absorbs the earthquake’s energy. together dissipates seismic energy. will yield when shaken in an earthquake. N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 7 | THE ROTARIAN 37

Faggella created a scholarship program to bring students from high seismic-risk countries in Asia to the European Union to study earthquake engineering. 38 T H E R O T A R I A N   |   N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 7

Scholarship, the predecessor to today’s study the intersection of natural disasters “I managed to get developing countries global grant scholarships, to study at the and peace. to come to me, ” he says later as we look University of California at San Diego, out over a ghost town that was never re- another city on a major fault. He was ready for a career working in built after the 1980 earthquake, a destiny developing countries, bringing his engi- he is trying to prevent for other communi- In San Diego, Faggella connected with neering background to bear, but fate ties.“I live in a cool region that everyone Fary Moini, who was later honored at the intervened. As a teenager, he had been a wants to come to, but I’m stuck with this, U.S. White House in 2012 as one of 10 daredevil: He was a competitive skier, let’s say, disability. Let’s just flip the story. ” Champions of Change, and Stephen R. he cliff dove, he did flips while wakeboard- Brown, who went on to become a Rotary ing. But when he was 17, a motorcycle From 2010 to ’14, 104 students and Foundation trustee. Moini and Brown, accident nearly severed his foot at the ankle. researchers from 14 Asian countries stud- members of the Rotary Club of La Jolla Doctors saved his foot, but just barely. ied at five European universities, funded Golden Triangle, have long been involved While in San Diego, Faggella had a bone by a €2.5 million grant from the Euro- in Rotary projects in Afghanistan, includ- graft, but he had to decline the peace fel- pean Union. Faggella’s Rotary district in ing establishing several Rotary clubs. lowship and set aside his dreams for a Rome helps provide hospitality for visit- Inspired by their work as well as that of career in developing countries. ing students. a professional contact, Brian Tucker of GeoHazards International (a nongovern- Instead, he went back home, joined “It’s a kind of dilemma that Rotarians mental organization that works in disaster Rotary himself, and came up with his big- face all the time, ” notes Stephen Brown. preparedness), Faggella successfully ap- gest idea of all: He created a scholarship “To what extent can one person make a plied for a Rotary Peace Fellowship to program to bring students from high difference that would impact hundreds, seismic-risk countries in Asia to the Eu- as opposed to providing food and shelter Left: Romagnano al Monte was never rebuilt ropean Union to study earthquake after the fact? Rotarians can’t help them- after being destroyed by an earthquake in 1980. engineering. When they return to their selves – when there is a natural disaster, Below: A map of Italy shows where earthquakes countries, they become professors or gov- they’re going to write checks. If we look are most intense. ernment officials who work to make more at the cause of the problem, it’s a construction safer. better investment. ” N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 7   |   T H E R O T A R I A N 39

Twenty-two of the scholars who went will perform if they are built to interna- We stop outside one of the cave build- through the program were from Nepal, tional standards. ings, but this one is surrounded by including Surya Narayan Shrestha, the scaffolding and covered with tarps. While deputy director of Nepal’s National Society On my final day in Basilicata, Faggella Matera is not in a high-risk earthquake for Earthquake Technology. Now he is drives me to the ancient city of Matera, a zone, its protection is still of concern be- using his knowledge in the rebuilding after UNESCO World Heritage Site that will cause of its cultural significance. Students its devastating earthquake that killed nearly be a European Capital of Culture in 2019. here do simulation trials in the lab and 9,000 people in April 2015. (Faggella The city dates back 9,000 years and is advanced computer modeling before they appeared with him on Italian television among the world’s oldest continuously do any work on-site.“We prefer to do it in shortly after the quake.) inhabited settlements. Early inhabitants a virtual environment rather than go and drilled into the city’s cliffs to make caves, smash an artifact, ” Faggella says. Aslam Faqeer is another scholar who then used the materials to make bricks and went through the program. Before study- build houses on the caves’ faces. Rotary’s investment in Faggella and the ing in Italy, Faqeer had taken courses on exponential number of students touched seismic engineering at NED University Looking to expand its international col- by the programs he has set up are paving of Engineering and Technology in Kara- laborations, the University of Basilicata at the way to keep this and other culturally chi, a city where he estimates 20 to 30 Matera asked Faggella to set up another important structures around for years to percent of structures are earthquake safe. scholarship program. This time, the initia- come, he says. “I’ve always tried to drag “At that time, people in Pakistan had tive aimed at protecting cultural heritage the science community toward cooperat- limited knowledge, ” he says. Faqeer re- sites in Latin America and Europe from ing with the international aid field, ” he ceived his Ph.D. at Sapienza University natural disasters such as earthquakes and says. “Rotary gave me the idea of how to of Rome in 2015, advised by Faggella and floods. A total of 119 students are partici- make this have a large, global impact. ” n Spacone. Now an assistant professor in pating: 83 traveling from Latin America Karachi, he has trained more than 120 to study at schools across Europe, and 36 Above and right: Through a scholarship program master’s students and practicing engi- Europeans going to Latin America to study set up by Faggella, students are conducting research neers on modern seismic analysis and at universities there. The program, which in Matera, a 9,000-year-old city in southern Italy design, and researched how structures is running from 2014 to 2018, is funded that will be a European Capital of Culture in 2019. through a €3.7 million grant from the EU. 40 T H E R O T A R I A N   |   N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 7

A new initiative is aimed at N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 7   |   T H E R O T A R I A N 41 protecting cultural heritage sites in Latin America and Europe from natural disasters such as earthquakes and floods.

story and photos by LEVI VONK ON THE TRACKS OF THE BEAST In Mexico’s migrant shelters, a Rotary scholar puts his education into action There are two inescapable elements of southern Mexico. The first is dust – desert rock ground to a powder that finds its way into your every crevice: the backs of your knees, the folds of your eyelids. You cough it up as you drift to sleep and discover its brume settled across your bedsheets in the morning. The second element is violence. I found both on the gritty tracks of the Beast. Over the past half-century, mil- lions of Central Americans have crossed Mexico from south to north, fleeing poverty, decades-long civil wars, and, most recently, brutal gangs. To escape, mi- grants used to ride atop the cars of the train line known as the Beast. In July 2014, Mexican immigration officials announced a plan called the Southern Border Program; part of it entailed closing the Beast to migrants. Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto said the plan would create new economic zones and safeguard migrants’ human rights by securing the country’s historically volatile southern border. Instead, the number of migrants beaten, kidnapped, and murdered has skyrocketed. Some have even been victims of the black-market trade in organs. 42 T H E R O T A R I A N   |   N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 7

S T Snapshots from the Beast: Until recently, as many as 450,000 Central Americans a year migrated north across Mexico atop freight trains. TOP PHOTO: EXCELSIOR.COM.MX N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 7  | THE ROTARIAN 43

Top: Axel Hernandez, whose parents brought him from Guatemala to the United States as an infant, has been deported twice; he now lives in Mexico. Bottom: Shelters house migrants including children traveling with family members (left) as well as young people on their own (right). 44 T H E R O T A R I A N  |  N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 7

In early 2015 I had just completed my fewer than 100. Shelter directors ex- studies as a Rotary global grant scholar, plained that the number of Central Amer- earning a master’s degree in the anthro- icans fleeing into Mexico each year pology of development. I had studied – around 400,000 – had not fallen, but how trade and development initiatives in because immigration agents were now ap- Mexico could make people’s lives more prehending anyone near the Beast, people perilous, not less. To learn about what were afraid to approach the shelters. These was going wrong, I went to southern safe havens had been transformed into no- Mexico to use the skills I had gained go zones.“This is a humanitarian crisis on In 2015, shortly after finishing his studies as a Rotary Foundation through my global grant studies. the scale of Syria, ” one director said to me, global grant scholar, Levi Vonk went to Mexico to work with Southern Mexico is poor and rural, “but no one is talking about it. ” migrants. He has written about what he saw, and about the experiences made up of small pueblos and subsistence In the shelters, I chopped firewood, of migrants themselves, for Rolling Stone, The Atlantic, and National agriculture. In some ways, I felt at home. cooked dinners, and scrubbed kitchen Public Radio. For Rotary Foundation Month, we asked him to describe I grew up in rural Georgia, and I became floors. I changed bandages and helped what he has done and learned. Vonk studied at the University of interested in immigration after teaching people file for asylum. And I lived and Sussex, England, sponsored by the Rotary clubs of Shoreham & English to farmworkers harvesting cab- traveled with migrants headed north, re- Southwick, England, and Charleston Breakfast, S.C. His master’s degree bage, berries, and Christmas trees in the cording their stories – about why they left, in the anthropology of development and social transformation led to his foothills of North Carolina. Many of the where they hoped to go, and what they becoming a 2014-15 Fulbright fellow to Mexico. He is now a doctoral candi- men I worked with were from southern had faced on their journeys. date in medical anthropology at the University of California at Berkeley. Mexico. Their descriptions of the vio- Mildred, a single mother of three, was walking for days. Gangs, which had previ- lence brought by drug and human traf- fleeing gang members who threatened to ously extorted money from migrants, now followed them into these isolated areas to ficking led to my interest in the region. kill her family if she didn’t pay them a pro- rob, kidnap, or simply kill them. To understand how the Southern Bor- tection fee. Ivan, the oldest brother of six, The Southern Border Program has failed as a development initiative. Not only der Program was affecting people’s lives, I singlehandedly resettled his entire family has cracking down on immigration made southern Mexico less safe, but the increased stayed in migrant shelters, which are not in Mexico – including his elderly mother violence has deterred business investment that the region so desperately needs. unlike homeless shelters or temporary and his two toddler nephews – after hit During my time as a Rotary scholar, I refugee camps. They are often without reli- men tried to kill them in their home in learned to look at development differently. We often think of international aid in able running water or electricity, but they Honduras. Milton had lived in New York terms of poverty reduction, and we often see poverty reduction in terms of dollars do provide migrants with a warm meal and City for years – and had sheltered ash- spent and earned. The anthropology of development aims to analyze global aid in a place to rest before they continue north. covered pedestrians in his apartment another way. We pay particular attention during the 11 September I lived and traveled with migrants 2001 terror attacks – before headed north, recording their being deported. stories – about why they left, The things I learned were terrifying. Instead of shoring where they hoped to go, and what up Mexico’s borders, the plan they had faced on their journeys. had splintered traditional migrant routes. Those routes had been dangerous, but they At first, shelter life was a shock to me. were also ordered and visible. Migrants Sick or injured people arrived nearly each knew approximately which areas of the day. Severe dehydration was a big problem, train passage were plagued by gangs. and some people had literally walked the They were prepared to pay protection skin off the bottoms of their feet. I was fees – generally between $5 and $20. there when a gang member entered the They traveled in groups for safety. And shelter to kidnap someone, but shelter they were often close to aid – a shelter, a directors stopped him. Red Cross clinic, even a police station. By the time I arrived, shelters along the The Southern Border Program changed tracks of the Beast had seen the number that. Hunted by immigration officers, mi- of migrants dwindle from 400 a night to grants traveled deep into the jungle, N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 7  | THE ROTARIAN 45

Top: Among those apprehended at the U.S.-Mexican border between October 2015 and January 2016 were 24,616 families – the vast majority of them from Central America. Bottom: Levi Vonk (right) and Axel Hernandez (also pictured on page 44) have known each other for more than two years. 46 T H E R O T A R I A N  |  N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 7

to how initiatives play out on the ground to at all – to solve this migration crisis and Institute of Human Rights at Madrid’s determine just what local communities’ needs are and how those needs might be met violence and go home. ” Universidad Carlos III and now works sustainably and, eventually, autonomously. Rotary’s six areas of focus mesh neatly with unaccompanied Central American When I was living in migrant shelters, we often received huge, unsolicited ship- with these goals. Such measures require minors and victims of trafficking in the ments of clothing from well-intentioned organizations. Had they asked us, we money, but more than that, they require in- United States. My partner, Atlee Webber, would have told them that their efforts, and money, were wasted. In fact, directors tense cultural collaboration to make them received a global grant to study migration had to pay for hundreds of pounds of clothing to be taken to the dump when sustainable. Who better than Rotary, with and development at SOAS University of space ran out at the shelter. its worldwide network of business and London (School of Oriental and African Among the things shelters actually needed, I learned, were clean water, better community leaders, to un- plumbing, and medical care. But shelter directors did not just want these items derstand the challenges Who better than Rotary, with its shipped over in bulk; they needed infra- and respond effectively? worldwide network of business and structure – water purification, function- ing toilets, and access to a hospital, along One way Rotary is re- with the skills and knowledge to maintain these systems themselves. sponding is by funding community leaders, to understand the graduate-level studies in Of course, as one shelter director told one of the six areas of fo- challenges and respond effectively? me,“Our ultimate goal is to not be needed cus. After his global grant studies in anthropology of development at Studies); she now works as a program of- the University of Sussex, my friend Justin ficer with the U.S. Committee for Refu- Hendrix spent several years working in a gees and Immigrants. Romanian orphanage, helping to provide Rotarians understand that to have the the children there with the best education most impact, we need to learn from other possible. Another friend, Emily Williams, cultures. As global grant scholars, that’s received a global grant to get her master’s what we aim to do – during our studies, degree at the Bartolome de las Casas and afterward. n Sponsor a global grant scholar ROTARY CLUBS CAN APPLY to The Rotary OTHER FOUNDATION SCHOLARSHIPS Foundation for global grants to support scholarships for graduate students studying abroad in one of  District grants can be used to sponsor secondary school, Rotary’s six areas of focus. There are now over undergraduate, or graduate students studying any subject, either 520 global grant scholarship alumni and more than locally or abroad. The scholarship may cover any length of time, 200 current scholars who share our commitment to: from a six-week language training program to a year or more of university study. – Promoting peace Rotarians can advance peace in troubled areas around the world – Fighting disease by promoting Rotary Peace Fellowships, recruiting peace fellow – Providing clean water, sanitation, and hygiene candidates, and supporting them through the application process.  – Saving mothers and children Rotary clubs and districts can also recommend candidates for – Supporting education IHE Delft Institute for Water Education scholarships and – Growing local economies interview applicants who have been admitted to the institute in one of three master’s degree programs. Applications for students who begin their studies in August, September, or October are due by 30 June. To learn more, visit rotary.org/scholarships. N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 7  | THE ROTARIAN 47

MICHAEL D. WILSON 48 T H E R O T A R I A N   |   N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 7