
Lorraine Jardine shared her volunteer experience at Hekima Place in Kiserian, Kenya. Lorraine went there initially in 2007 and she has been involved with them ever since and now serves on their Board of Directors. Hekima Place has been thriving to educate and empower young girls. For more information, please see their website at www.hekimaplace.org.
Several current and past members tended the Salvation Army at Loblaws on Wonderland South on Thursday, November 16. Pictured here are Vic Danyla and Al Hardy. | ![]() |

Sergeant at Arms, David Kirwin's interview with one of our newest members, revealed that Akhil was born and raised in India and worked as a Design Engineer there before coming to Canada where he is pursuing a career as an Insurance Broker. He hopes to be able to reunite his family by bringing them to London in the future. Akhil has enjoyed his exposure to Rotary to date volunteering at Rotary Community Service activities and is looking forward to his role as Youth Exchange Officer to support the development of outbound and inbound exchange students.

Kate Traill, Professor & Program Coordinator at Fanshawe College provided a very informative synopsis from the data collected for the utilization analysis of the London Community Fridge last summer. Her research team found that the majority of respondents live within a 5km radius of the Community Fridge; nevertheless, a sizable percentage travel significant distances. Most live in 1 or 2 person households, although 21% report living with 5+ people and 65% of respondents report that they access the Community Fridge at least once a week. See the complete report attached.

Rotary celebrates World Polio Day on October 24th. Nadia Troisi from the March of Dimes introduced polio survivor, Sanjeev from Pickering. Sanjeev shared his journey of living with Polio and Post Polio Syndrome. Listen to Sanjeev's Polio Story here

Contact davidknoppert@sympatico.ca to join us for a traditional Cuban Dinner on November 19 and/or donate at

Just in time to celebrate International Literacy Day, RCLS Rotarians Megha Thakar and Joan Fisher helped the Grand Bend Rotary Club fill their 100th Container with school supplies which are now enroute to Durban South Africa. It's great when Rotary Clubs collaborate on projects!

Joan Fisher reports that because of RCLS presentations to other Clubs, we have been able to further help Deurence's Smart Girls initiative in Kenya. In August, the Sarnia Bluewaterland Rotary Club donated $3,500 for the installation of an additional water cistern which has already been installed at the school.
Message from the school's principal: "Kindly accept our sincere appreciation as teachers and students of St.Albert Chiepe Sec.School. The water tank is already installed next to the girls hostel and will help our students get clean water. Thank you so much. God bless you abundantly."
It is a very proud day for us as Rotarians!
Message from the school's principal: "Kindly accept our sincere appreciation as teachers and students of St.Albert Chiepe Sec.School. The water tank is already installed next to the girls hostel and will help our students get clean water. Thank you so much. God bless you abundantly."
It is a very proud day for us as Rotarians!

Thanks to London South Rotarians Anette Grue, Akhil Anthony, Kathleen Murphy and President Hector Silva Rodriguez along with Friends of Rotary, Carol and Joy, who prepared a meal on September 28th for the families staying at Ronald McDonald House.

Nourish founder, Sarah Bergs shared her incredible journey from growing up in a game reserve to becoming a leader in transforming lives through Nourish's bold initiatives. From humble beginnings, Nourish has introduced hundreds of children to the wonders of wildlife and the importance of conservation. Nourish provides thousands of nutritious meals and has established a revolutionary, scalable model known at the "Eco Village".Nourish Eco Village is a non-profit NGO located in the Limpopo Province of South Africa, near the world-renowned Kruger National Park.
http://www.nourishecovillage.com
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Nourish.org.za

Cindy Benning, from the Rotary Club of St. Thomas was our speaker this week. Cindy told us about the upcoming St Thomas Rotary Discovery tour. This is the third year the club has put on this mystery tour. The tour starts from Ferguson RV in St Thomas on Oct. 1st and goes on a secret route to visit interesting sites in Southwestern Ontario. The tour lasts about 3-4 hours. There are prizes for various activities such as putting and picture taking.
Scott Nelson from the Ann Arbor North Rotary Club in Michigan presented a white paper on Plant Rich Diets at the District 6330 Conference in June 2023. On August 18 he enlightened our Club on How to Talk About Climate Change in a Way That Makes a Difference | ![]() |

District 6330 Governor for the Rotary year 2023-2024 Sonja Glass visited our club on August 11 and along with President Hector Rodrigues presented Don Fraser with a Paul Harris award
DG Sonja is an extraordinary individual. She is a retired nurse who worked in critical care, taught nursing at the college level, managed the nursing department in a rural hospital and served as Chief Quality Care officer.
Sonja’s relationship with Rotary started when she and her husband Dave agreed to host a Youth Exchange Student. They eventually hosted 10 students. In 2016 they joined the Rotary club of Meaford. She served the RC of Meaford as Secretary and two terms as President. In 2021-23 she was the Area 1 Assistant Governor.
Sonja and Dave travel annually to Ukerewe Island in Tanzania to provide volunteer medical services. So many of the illnesses they saw are caused by water borne diseases that clean water is an important issue for the Island. With the help of District Grants they have installed 7 wells. They have also done several initiatives with the local orphanage and hospital to address maternal and child health.
RCLS met off-site at Ronald McDonald House. After a presentation from the Working Group on Projects and Approvals, the members were treated to a tour of the 40-room Ronald McDonald House which offers a home away from home for families whose children are receiving medical care at London's Children's Hospital.

Our Kenyan contact, Deurence, reports that the launch with the sewing machines & additional menstrual hygiene kits went really well. There was a good show of buy-in by the Area Chief, local administration and parents for the work we are doing with your Club's support. The girls have started the sewing classes. This week should be their fourth weekend of classes. They do both cohorts on Saturday and Sunday to manage the large number that signed up. The school's account's clerk is supporting me with taking attendance and pictures/videos of the classes. The schools close in two weeks' time for a two-week break.
Suzanne Fratschko Elliot shared with us the important role that this social services organization plays in our community and surrounding areas. Childcan's mandate is to to raise awareness and funds to provide personalized, responsive, and compassionate programs and services to families facing the childhood cancer journey from diagnosis, through treatment, post-treatment care, or bereavement. They make childhood cancer a health priority, fund innovative research, and expand family supports until childhood cancer is eliminated. Click on the title for links to their website and Suzanne's informative presentation.

On July 6, 2023 London South Rotary said Farewell to our lovely exchange student, Mariela Santiago Deslate from Antique, Philippines shown here with her Dad Anthony, #3 Host Mom Brenda, Mom Carolyn, #1 Host family Hayley, Mark and Maren Linklater and #2 Host Mom Kathleen. Mariela's email is tingtingdeslate@gmail.com

Rick Baker, P.Eng, ICD.D a Waterloo entrepreneur created “Waterloo Intuition & Technology Corporation”. They bring big-business experiences and innovative ideas to mid-sized businesses, offering consulting services for technology integration and problem-solving. They assist business leaders in planning and optimizing Information Systems, promoting best practices, and enhancing governance and operations.
Rick is very active in the energy sector. He is leading an initiative where more than 50 senior energy leaders are collaborating in an effort to improve Ontario’s energy future.

Miranda Bothwell, the EMS community relations, and communications officer for Middlesex – London talked about emergency preparedness for EMS events. Miranda described what happens when someone calls 911 and the actions one can take to increase EMS effectiveness if we must call.

Joany McDougall, RN, told us about her work with Samaritan’s Purse training nurses in Ukraine. She described training on her third deployment to Ukraine during the war.

Training took place in a parking garage serving as a bomb shelter. In the shelter 4-foot cement culverts tubes covered with sandbags were close at by in case bombs were falling in the immediate area.
Two training sessions took place seven days a week. Joany estimated her group trained 23,600 nurses in diverse topics. During blackouts generators kept the lights on and computers working. Topics covered in the training ranged from treating fractures, burns, ICU operation under difficult conditions, and other trauma situations.
An example of Joany’s burn training was shown. Simulated burns were placed on translators and nurses learned how to apply treatment and dressings in an appropriate manner.
Resilience of the Ukrainian people impressed Joany. Some nurses continued to serve their people despite being bombed out, losing family members and all their possessions. A picture of a bombed-out children’s hospital was shown that continues to operate despite partial destruction from cluster bombs.
Jordanna Jones, the owner of three Bioped stores in London, told us about her work for Soles4Souls. Soles4Souls collects new and used shoes in Canada and distributes them in developing countries through a network of micro-loan companies in the individual countries.

Children's shoes help children attend school and work more easily in daily chores. The shoes are sold in local markets with new or newer shoes sold in larger and more prosperous cities and towns and used and shoes in markets in less prosperous communities.

Shoes are also distributed directly to schools in some cases.

Jordanna described her recent trip to Haiti where one of her distributors was able to put her son through university and over time build a new home for her family.
S4S has distributed 2.3 million pairs of shoes so far and Jordanna estimates the Canadian arm of S4S has collected and distributed 700,000 pair of shoes. Not only does this endeavour help those in developing countries, but it also keeps shoes out of our landfills.
London, ON N6E 1M3
Canada