The clacking of sewing machines fills the sunlit room until word spreads that the bus has arrived. At that, a dozen women clad in pink kurtas file into the courtyard of the Seven Women Center in Kathmandu, Nepal. They smile widely as a group of Australian women led by a tall blonde enters through the iron gate. 

 

Stephanie Woollard bends down to let Sandhya Khadgi, the center’s bookkeeper and literacy trainer, put a dot of red powder on her forehead and a red flower petal atop her head in a gesture of welcome.

Woollard has arrived with a group of Rotary members and friends to tour the center that she founded and whose goal is to improve the lives of women in Nepal.

 

You too can join in to visit the Seven Women Center.

 

Read more click https://www.rotary.org/en/rotary-member-opens-door-out-poverty-women-nepal

 

 

 

Letter from Linda Robertson,

Hi Everyone 

 

Today as I was preparing to send an End Polio Now update to all of the districts in Zone 24 W, I received an e-mail from Mike McGovern, Rotary's International Polio Plus Chair.  He was sharing the disturbing news that in the last two weeks four polio workers were killed in Pakistan and a propaganda program against polio vaccinations in that country has created hysteria that led to tens of thousands of children needlessly going to hospital.  There are news stories circulating regarding the current polio eradication efforts in Pakistan and Rotary and its partners are doing all that is humanly possible to address the many situations. If you have any further questions about the current situation please contact me as End Polio Now Coordinators are kept well informed.

 

Mike also shared that three new cases of wild polio virus were confirmed in Afghanistan last week and two new cases in the lab in Pakistan were confirmed this week.
Thus we have gone from 9 cases this year to 12 officially and two more known. The message we are being asked to share with Rotarians is to emphasize our long term progress, to highlight the African progress (Africa is expected to be declared polio free by August 2019) and to indicate we have challenges in Pakistan and Afghanistan which are being addressed by Rotary leaders.