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Bulletin Editor
Craig Clarke
Club Information
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Service Above Self
1st, 2nd, & 3rd Tuesdays @6:10 PM; 4th Tuesday is a service project
Nanaimo Golf Club
2800 Highland Blvd
Nanaimo, BC  V9S 3N8
Canada
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Speakers
Jul 18, 2017
Clothing Drop Bin Program
Jul 25, 2017
All club joint meeting with DG
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Upcoming Events
Nanaimo Dragonboat Festival Beer Garden
Swy-a-lana Lagoon
Jul 07, 2017 5:00 PM –
Jul 09, 2017 7:00 PM
 
Joint meeting of 2016_17 and 2017_18 boards
Longwood Brew Pub Upper Board Room
Jul 11, 2017
6:16 PM – 7:45 PM
 
Sponsors
June 13 2017 Meeting
 
Guests:  Ann Northwood.
 
Announcements
 
Community Breakfast - about 110 - 120 meals served last weekend
 
Membership - Rob announced that Glynis & Lynne will not renew their memberships next year.
 
Dragonboat - contact Gill with your volunteer times.
 
Program - presentations by Rob Waine & Daniel Simons.
 
 
Rob was born and raised in the English city of Hull a seaport 150 miles north of London.  Following graduation, he worked for Barclay's Bank.  In 1974 he immigrated to Canada, getting a position with the Bank of Montreal.  He started in the Tsawwassen Branch and then was transferred to various branches in greater Vancouver until 1993 when he moved to Nanaimo to work at the former downtown branch.  He switched to the BMO Harris Private Banking Division in 2003 and remained there until retirement in 2013.
 
Daniel is taking leave from our club next year as he will be away on sabbatical, his second since joining Vancouver Island University. In August he will go to Accra, Ghana where he will be looking into the feasibility of the West Africa Monetary Zone (WAMZ), Eco is the proposed name for the currency.  The common-currency dream for West Africa was formulated in 2000 -- one year after the euro was launched, by the heads of state of the five founding countries: Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and The Gambia. 
 
 
After his work in Ghana, Daniel will be going to New Jersey.  There, he will be studying accreditation of business schools to determine whether the benefits are worth the cost.
 
 
Birthdays & Anniversaries - Ian Thompson celebrated both this week but ducked out before we were able to launch into discordant singing.
 
Next week:  Membership meeting.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Stories
Canada announced $100M over three years for polio eradication
The Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau, Minister of International Development and La Francophonie, announced at the Rotary Convention in Atlanta that Canada will contribute $100 million over three years to the Global Polio Eradication Initiatives’ Endgame Strategic Plan, which seeks to wipe polio out for good by 2020.
 
Canada has been a significant supporter of the fight against polio from the very beginning, having contributed over $600 million to eradication efforts since 2000.
With only three polio-endemic countries remaining in the world, and only five new cases so far in 2017, global polio eradication is closer than ever.
Bill Gates Keynote on Polio eradication at Atlanta Convention
By
 
Bill Gates, speaking on 12 June at the Rotary International Convention, highlighted the extraordinary progress that’s been made toward a polio-free world, along with challenges ahead. 
Speaking at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, Gates reminded the audience of more than 22,000 attendees, who were given LED bracelets to wear, that the effort must continue and be strengthened before polio cases can be reduced to zero. 
 
Click here for video clip of Gates address
 
Calling the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) the “single most ambitious public health effort the world has ever undertaken,” Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, reviewed the historic milestones of the fight. 
 
At each achievement, including regions of the world being declared polio-free, sections of the arena were lit up by the LED bracelets, making the attendees a part of the presentation. 
 
Gates thanked Rotary for being the catalyst and visionary partner for ending the paralyzing disease worldwide. “Rotary laid the foundation with its unwavering sense of purpose and its belief that anything is possible if you put your mind and body to it,” he said. 
 
Since the GPEI effort began, polio cases have dropped a staggering 99.9 percent, from nearly 350,000 cases a year to only five cases reported this year, a record low. The virus has been eliminated in all but three countries: Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan. 
 
Gates noted that more than 16 million people who would otherwise have been paralyzed by polio are walking today. “The scale of this effort is phenomenal,” he added. 
"Polio is the thing I spend the most time on. Every day I look at my email to see if we have a new case," Gates said. "I'm very inspired to be a part of this. I'm also very humbled."
"It is this talent for generating new ideas, learning lessons, and adapting them to new circumstances that makes me optimistic we will get to zero,” Bill Gates said at the Rotary International Convention in Atlanta.
 
 
 
 
 
John Cena, WWE Superstar, actor, and Rotary polio ambassador, emceed the pledging moment at the general session and applauded Rotary for its determination. "You were the trailblazers who wanted to prove to the world that this insurmountable task could be done," Cena said.
 
Earlier in the day, leaders from countries all over the world joined Gates and Rotary in pledging new money toward filling the $1.5 billion gap in the funding that the GPEI estimates is needed to achieve eradication. Rotary announced that it is increasing its annual fundraising goal to $50 million. Since the Gates Foundation and Rotary began working together in 2007, the two organizations have raised nearly $1.5 billion for polio eradication efforts. 
 
Gates, who said his top priority for the last decade has been ending polio, acknowledged that challenges still lie ahead, especially in areas of conflict where polio remains endemic. “One of the toughest things to do is reach all the children who need the polio vaccine,” he said. “This is especially hard in conflict areas, because it is so difficult to build trust with all sides.”
 
But Gates also noted that Afghanistan, which still has areas of conflict, is nearly free of the virus. “That’s because the people running the [polio] program have helped build understanding that the only way to get rid of polio is to rise above political, religious, and social divisions.”
 
With fewer cases now than ever before, the surveillance and detection of the virus becomes more difficult. “To stop the virus completely, we have to know where it’s hiding,” said Gates. 
  • 1994              the Americas were certified as polio-free
  • 2000              the Western Pacific was certified as polio-free
  • 2002               Europe was certified as polio-free
  • 2017               we are down to just five cases in three countries: Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan
 
A network of 146 labs worldwide tests about 200,000 stool samples for the poliovirus every year; 99.9 percent of them are negative. But that tiny percentage of positive results will help health officials focus immunization activities to prevent the virus from spreading. In addition, in countries where polio remains endemic, 125 environmental detection sites test sewage, because the poliovirus can survive in sewage for a short time. 
 
Innovations inspired by polio eradication efforts can now have wide-ranging benefits for other global health campaigns, Gates said. Techniques like community mapping, disease surveillance, and expanding the role of health workers will help health authorities detect and contain other infectious diseases, like Ebola. 
 
“That is what is so exciting about Rotary’s 30-year fight,” Gates told the crowd. “You are not only eradicating one of the worst diseases in history. You are also helping the poorest countries provide citizens with better health and a better future.”
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Rotary Club of Nanaimo North P.O. Box 223, Nanaimo, BC V9R 5K9