The Westerner for April 15, 2013
Meeting: chair, Rob Dunseith; music, Jerome; grace, Brent
Guests: Gem and Tanis Munro, guest speaker and spouse. Attendance - 27.
Planning Session: 9:00 a m, April 22, @ Duncan & Craig, 2800 Scotia Place, 10060 Jasper Avenue; continental breakfast and lunch are provided; program to be facilitated by Rob Hagg of Alberta Culture; all members are invited to help plan next year and give at least a frame work for planning the following 2 years
Gift Cards: Mike Ryan asked for members to remember to use gift cards purchased through Brian to buy their groceries, fuel, pharmaceuticals - 8% commssion earned by the Rotary Club goes towards payment of programs but won't cost you one extra cent because we buy them in bulk at a discount.
Integrity Award: Kieran advised that our club has an integrity award winner for this year - Garnett Thomas - who will speak to the club in the near future; award dinner and ceremony is on April 25 at Strathcona Community Centre, Ticket are $50 available from Kieran; cocktails at 6:00 p m
50/50: Fred and Chris did not match cards; $134 carried over
Finemaster: Joe raised many dollars due to wrong answers to golf trivia questions
New Member Proposed:
Fred Kraft has proposed David Gibbens for membership in the Rotary Club of Edmonton West. David is the Regional Geomatics Coordination Lead with Agriculture Canada in Edmonton. He is very active in his community and in the Federation of Community Leagues.
Guest Speaker: Fred introduced Gem Munro of Amarok Society who returned to give us an update on that society's education efforts in Bangladesh. Jim, who is an author and artist, talked to our club 2 years ago. Since then he has been awarded the Queen Elizabeth 11 Jubilee Medal.
Amarok tries to improve the school system in Bangladesh but does it by educating mothers to become teachers to their children, other children in the slum neighborhood, other mothers and, occasionally, their husbands and male children. By empowering the women, change can occur to break the slave/marriage system that has evolved in the slums of Bangladesh. The target is mothers of children too poor to go to school. There is no local help as all local efforts go towards city development. The answer is not to build school buildings but to follow the most cost effective method of teaching the mothers to become community teachers. Because this is a Muslim country, there was anxiety that husbands would interfere. There is some physical abuse at the start but Amarok has developed tools to remove that concern.
Gem quoted a recent statement from the United Nations that supports Amarok's approach "to plumb true depth of suffering, look to the slums, not the villages that have some refurbishing help". Amarok was invited to attend a U N Symposium as the only organization that is active in the slums. Rather than Gem or Tanis or some other well educated person, Amarok sent a mother from one of the Amarok schools. She gave a great talk on the effect of education on her and, thus, her community. Mothers need to give answers to questions posed by children even though they feel too exhausted and busy. The marriage/slave system in Bangladesh slums is that girls marry young and become slaves in the husband's household - they do all the work. This can only be combatted by educating the girls and by giving them the knowledge that there are alternatives. Amarok system is mothers learn, then teach at least 5 children, thus improving quality of life and status. Unfortunately, the mother is still a slave but the children can learn to get out of the marriage lock.
The education changes the attitude of the male children as well. The hope is they let the female children develop into productive human beings, not slaves. The schools observe International Mothers Day and the women parade as a group through the slums asking for rights and opportunites for women. There have been no violent repercussions. The women always identify with Amarok - the movement and opportunities. They present dramas to illustrate these opportunites - which is not a safe undertaking. The dramas examine the Bangladesh dowery system and its destructive effects. The girl's family pays the family of the boy (or man) for the right of the girl to enter the boy's family as a slave and baby maker. The older the girl the higher the dowery so very young girls are offered for marriage. This forcing of early age marriage is very damaging for the girl mentally, physically, emotionally plus babies don't produce good babies. There is a high cost to the country as this is one of the few areas in the world where the average I Q is being reduced every year. A dowery strike program is being developed so that the community is learning that daughters have to be adult before marriage and that no dowery will be paid.
Amarok has a motto "Peace Through Education"; similar to Rotary's "Peace Through Service". Amarok partners with Rotary in Bangladesh, particularly the Rotary Club of Dacca. Education in the schools is both in Bangla and English. The women want English as it gives them power. Ignorance destroys the mind. Gem was thanked by Steve.
To learn more about this topic visit www.amaroksociety.org