18 January Program

Program

Akilah R. Ensley

2010 Census Overview

 

Akilah is a Partnership Specialist for the U.S. Census Bureau. Akilah graduated from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, with a Bachelor of Science degree in International Business Studies.  She lives in Greenville.  Her hobbies are travel and volunteer work. 

 

On April 1 the most complete comprehensive count of people living in the United States begins with Census 2010. Census data are used to distribute Congressional seats to states, to make decisions about what community services to provide, and to distribute $400 billion in federal funds to local, state and tribal governments each.

 

The Rotary Foundation establishes

The Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund, a donor advised fund (DAF) within The Rotary Foundation of RI. The fund was established to streamline the flow of contributions from Rotarians wishing to assist victims of the earthquake in Haiti. The fund will be directed by account holders working with local Rotary clubs and districts, as well as emergency relief agencies, to meet the most pressing needs of people in affected areas. Account holders will make grant recommendations after consulting with District 7020 Governor Errol Alberga or his designee. Funds will be used in the relief effort and for projects providing longer-term support and development (e.g. funding for Rotary Foundation Matching Grant projects).

Eric E. Adamson, Vice President, RI Zones 33-34, is the account holder for our district.  The Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund DAF will make grants to other charitable organizations which may have other costs. However, efforts will be made to provide grants to organizations directly supporting the needs of individuals and communities through the Rotary volunteer structure and other aid organizations. (RI website)

 

In this danse macabre occurring in Haiti, non-governmental organizations are pivotal.  There are many exceptional organizations.  One of the most interesting and noteworthy in Haiti is Zanmi Lasante.

Here is one tiny mercy amid the hell that’s befallen Haiti: Zanmi Lasante Hospital is mostly undamaged. … Zanmi Lasante was the most important medical complex in Haiti and a model to healers worldwide. Now, with hospitals in Port-au-Prince leveled, aid workers killed and a public health catastrophe brewing, it would be impossible to overstate Zanmi Lasante’s importance. The hospital’s founder, Dr. Paul Farmer…is a rock star in the world of public health, widely hailed as a saint and a visionary. He founded Zanmi Lasante in the 1980s, while he was still at Harvard Medical School, eventually building it from a two-room clinic into a full-service hospital with a network of satellite clinics and home health visitors. Altogether, it serves more than two million people… Cange, the town where Zanmi Lasante was founded, is one of poorest parts of Haiti. Yet the care provided at the hospital is, by all accounts, excellent. It is also largely free. No one is turned away for lack of funds; support comes from Partners in Health, the Boston-based NGO that Farmer co-founded. As he told The New York Times, “For me, an area of moral clarity is: you’re in front of someone who’s suffering and you have the tools at your disposal to alleviate that suffering or even eradicate it, and you act.” (www.thedailybeast.com 1/14)

 Check out Tracy Kidder’s book Mountains beyond Mountains: the quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a man who would cure the world. (Kidder traces Farmer’s trajectory…He was given a scholarship to Duke, where he majored in anthropology and worked alongside poor Haitian farm workers in North carolina’s tobacco fields.)

Names you need to know for Tarpon 2010

-Director:   George Link (249-1956)  

-Admin. Chairman:  Bill Fink (745-5686)

-Journal Ad Sales:  Bob Webster (249-2426)

-Journal Production:   Brad Cecil

(249-1517)                

-Fishing Chairman:  Dan Siren

(1-954-228-7376)       

-Observer Chair:   Larry Walker (249-2135)

-Tournament Adv & PR.:   Keirn Rush

(249-9891)

-Event Chairman:  Tom Black

(1-513-967-5125)              

-Merchandise Sales Chairman:

George Steensen (249-3117)

*The next planning meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, 9 February, 5:00 p.m. at Captain Larry’s.  Tarponistas be there!!