This Week - A Business Meeting

 There'a never very much to say about a Business Meeting other than to announce it as the agenda will tell us everything in due course.  A cartoon is the only answer.
 

Last Week

Professor Steven Friedman spoke to us about the political situation in South Africa and the possible affect of the Trump administration on our country.  As was expected it was an interesting and controversial talk and much enjoyed.  The subsequent treatment of the Ukrainian president at the White House just underlines much of what was said.

Next Week

Stefan Neubig on The Sonnenglas Project.  Solar Lights. Sustainable Solar Jars. Made in South Africa. Fair Trade.  It's an interesting solar light project that assists in job creation.  More next week. Electricity vanished for a while and now Rotary websites seem to be down which is a nuisance.

International -Ukraine (Part 1)

Next Week, Part 2.  This will show how Rotary internationally has assisted Ukraine

and what the Ukraine clubs have been doing during the war.

Olga and Mykola Stebljanko, from the Rotary e-Club of Ukraine, are based in Odesaand give a first-hand account of three years living in the shadow of war.

OLGA You cannot prepare for war. You might have food supplies, medicines, documents, money,

and a plan, but as a civilian, you can never be truly ready for war. You cannot brace
yourself for the overwhelming shock that engulfs you, for how your mind begins to work in
ways that feel unfamiliar and uncharacteristic. You cannot anticipate how your inner world
will instantly transform, rearranging your priorities like a puzzle, separating what truly
matters from what, in the grand scheme of things, holds little significance in a person’s life.

The first days of the full-scale war flew by. The state of shock and constant surges of
adrenaline took their toll. Air raid sirens blared around the clock, forcing us to retreat to
the makeshift shelter we had set up in our bathroom. Our phones, always in hand,
became our lifelines to real-time updates about attacks across the regions.

We tracked the movement of the front lines, the heroic resistance of the Armed Forces,
and the remarkable defiance of ordinary citizens. All of Ukraine stood shoulder to
shoulder. Age, wealth, or beliefs no longer mattered. We were united by one immense
tragedy, becoming an invincible force.

During those days, we knew with certainty that we had made the right decision to stay in
Odesa. By then, we had been living in this city for several years. Odesa had welcomed us
after the annexation of Crimea, which marked the beginning of the war and forced us to
leave our home. And now, when it seemed the war had caught up with us again, Mykola
and I realised that we no longer wanted to, nor would we, run from it. We had to stay and
do what we could. I remember the moment our goal crystallised in my mind for the first
time: “Survive. Endure. Victory.”

It is worth noting that from the very first day of the invasion, we began receiving emails,
calls, and messages from our Rotary friends worldwide. They offered words of support,
asked how they could help, and even invited us to seek refuge from the war if we chose to
leave Ukraine. We remember how we struggled to respond to all the messages in time -
there were so many. These memories will stay with us forever, as will our profound
gratitude to everyone who stood by us during the darkest times of our lives.

Thus began a period of several months that we later called the sprint - a time of rapid
decisions and actions under extreme pressure, with little sleep, and driven by the
strongest motivation to achieve as much as possible with the help of the international
Rotary community.