MATERNAL & CHILD HEALTH MONTH

One of the seven areas of focus for Rotary is Maternal and Child Health, and in April we celebrate the efforts of Rotarians and others worldwide, who work tirelessly to save women and children.

An estimated 5.9 million children under the age of five die each year because of malnutrition, inadequate healthcare, and poor sanitation--all preventable!

So how does Rotary help? The Rotary Foundation supports programs that provide education, immunizations, birth kits, and mobile health clinics. Women are taught how to prevent mother-to-infant HIV transmission, how to breast-feed, and how to protect themselves and their children from disease.

In our District, we support many Rotarian-initiated projects that support this area of focus. Alliance for Smiles http://www.allianceforsmiles.org/ is a project near and dear to my heart. Be sure and read Sallie’s article in this newsletter about all the lives that have been changed with your support.

Another amazing Rotarian initiated non-profit providing healthcare solutions for children is Gift of Life International. https://www.giftoflifeinternational.org/ This amazing organization provides hope to children born with congenital heart disease, the number ONE birth defect worldwide. This picture of Sat Nu from Myanmar shows how this surgery saved her life.

These are just two of the wonderful programs your clubs can contribute to support maternal and child health.

District Conference registration is OPEN! Reserve your spot at the Fun in the Sun “virtual” District Conference. Simply click on the link here!

The signature international project of the Rotary Club of Greene and Putnam Counties, Alliance for Smiles (AFS) is especially near and dear to District Governor Tina Fischlin. She became involved with the medical nonprofit in 2007 and joined the board in 2009.

Established in 2006 by six Rotarians from San Francisco, AFS conducts missions to correct cleft lip and palate anomalies in children (primarily) from underserved communities worldwide. As Tina says, “Even in parts of the US and Western Europe, we have a group of doctors with mobile clinics.” To date, AFS has treated more than over 8,700 children.

This is no April Fool’s Joke - DISTRICT 6910 HAS NOW PROVIDED
1,837,742 MEALS
TO FAMILIES IN NEED!

• 2,205,290 pounds of food
• 1,102 tons of food
• 74 tractor trailers of food
• Lined up that would be over 1 mile of tractor trailers
• Provided 517,516 meals in March – That’s an average of 16,000+ meals a DAY

Our revised goal of 2 million meals is within sight...but we are not done yet.

Here are the two things your club can be doing right now to support the Feed10Million campaign:

1. Farmers to Families (see flyer attached) – This is a USDA program that in response to COVID provides food truck deliveries for free through local charitable organizations like Rotary. Doug Bolton out of the Covington Club is coordinating these deliveries across the District, so if you club is interested in receiving one of these truckloads of free food, contact Doug at dougbolton@yahoo.com.
2. Log your meal projects -- Remember, in Rotary it doesn’t count until the paperwork is done, so click HERE to log your meals each time you complete a project.

• Rotary Club of Forsyth County & Rotary Club of South Forsyth
• Lanier-Forsyth Rotary
• Rotary Club of Jefferson
• Banks County Rotary

By Schelly Tennant – Rotary Club of Gwinnett County

For me, the environment isn’t just the focus of my career … it’s a focus in my life.

Every year the world commemorates Earth Day--the one day a year that we turn our attention to the needs of the planet. While April 22 marks one of my favorite days of the year, I can’t help but think, “Why can’t we make every day Earth Day?” After all, the environment isn’t just an ecological part of this planet--it’s an integral link in the chain of life. The health of the environment not only impacts the health of the people and animals who live in an ecosystem, it impacts the economic welfare of the community it encompasses. Graffiti-filled walls and litter-strewn streets are rarely, if ever, associated with an economically thriving community. That’s why it’s up to all of us to serve as stewards of our local environment.

While the heart of Rotary for Towne Lake will always be Service Above Self and giving back to the community, no one can deny that it is all made possible because of the hearts of the members. And those members are comprised of many small business owners.

Vocational Service is rooted in the second object of Rotary, whereby, we encourage and foster the ideal of service as a basis of worthy enterprise and in particular, to encourage and foster, high ethical standards in business professions; the recognition of the worthiness of all useful occupations; and the dignifying of each Rotarian’s occupation as an opportunity to serve society.