[D9640general] [eFlash_Rotary] Digest Number 593

[Garry & Anne Krischock]

Messages In This Digest (2 Messages) 
  1. 1201: Rotary clubs are first responders in Lebanon crisis From: Sunil K Zachariah 
  2. 1202: Rotarian shows courage and humor when faced with danger From: Sunil K Zachariah 
Messages 
  1. 1201: Rotary clubs are first responders in Lebanon crisis 

  Posted by: "Sunil K Zachariah" sunilkzach at yahoo.co.uk   sunilkzach 
  Mon Aug 7, 2006 11:32 am (PST) 
  Rotary clubs are first responders in Lebanon crisis

  By Vukoni Lupa-Lasaga
  Rotary International News 

  The relief team organized by the Rotary Club of Limassol-Berengaria 
  Cosmopolitan, Cyprus, was expecting no more than one boatload of 500 
  evacuees from the fighting in Lebanon on 19 July. 

  But the following day, the volunteers who had originally offered to 
  help find hotel accommodations for the new arrivals in the port city 
  of Limassol were suddenly faced with a much bigger challenge. 

  "The Americans decided to reroute their largest ships to Limassol, 
  and we found ourselves standing in front of thousands of people in 
  need in an instant," explains Scott Givhan, leader of the club's 
  relief project. 

  Military and chartered-cruise ships each carrying up to 2,000 
  people - most of them Australian, British, and U.S. passport 
  holders - fleeing the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict were docking at all 
  hours of the day and night, says Givhan. 

  At its peak, the operation brought in about 10,000 evacuees in three 
  days. The club assembled an efficient multinational team of 
  volunteers from 10 Western and Middle Eastern countries. Each time a 
  boat came in, they were on hand to greet, comfort, and assist 
  passengers. 

  Nearly half of the Rotary club's 25 members were on vacation. But 
  those present and the non-Rotarian volunteers who joined them did an 
  outstanding job providing food and refreshments and helping set up 
  rest and play areas for evacuees and their children. They even 
  offered evacuees use of their mobile phones to call loved ones and 
  make travel arrangements. 

  "This project would not have been possible without the contributions 
  from our non-Rotarian volunteers, many of whom worked through the 
  nights to help the evacuees," says Givhan. 

  With the evacuations ending, the club is turning its attention to 
  helping people internally displaced by the fighting. Already, it has 
  sent two shipments of relief items - mostly donations of food and 
  medicine - to Batroun, Lebanon. 

  Members of the Rotary Club of Batroun are receiving the supplies and 
  distributing them in their own cars at great personal risk. 

  "We contacted this club because it is competent," says project 
  coordinator George Kfouri, of the Limassol-Berengaria club, who is 
  Lebanese. "The members in Batroun are trusted, and they are like our 
  own brothers." 

  "These Rotarians are the real heroes," says Givhan. 

  The city of Batroun, in northern Lebanon, is host to more than 
  10,000 people who have fled intense fighting and aerial bombardment 
  in the south. Other Lebanese Rotary clubs are helping with the 
  relief effort. 

  Rotary clubs were the first to respond to the humanitarian crisis in 
  Batroun, say Givhan and Kfouri. Because Rotarians are members of the 
  affected communities, their aid distribution network is one of the 
  most active in the region. 

  Kfouri says that the Limmasol-Berengaria Cosmopolitan club is now 
  bracing itself for an influx of Lebanese refugees to Cyprus. 

  The club is receiving donations of money and goods to provide 
  emergency relief in Cyprus and Lebanon. For more details, visit the 
  Disaster Relief page 
  http://www.rotary.org/programs/wcs/disaster/reliefefforts.html
  or contact Scott Givhan (phone: + 357 99 466 103; e-mail: 
  alpa1 at usa.net). 

  Courtesy: eFlash_Rotary


  2. 1202: Rotarian shows courage and humor when faced with danger 
  Posted by: "Sunil K Zachariah" sunilkzach at yahoo.co.uk   sunilkzach 
  Mon Aug 7, 2006 11:40 am (PST) 
  Rotarian shows courage and humor when faced with danger

  By Vanessa Glavinskas, The Rotarian 

  Excerpted from an e-mail from Rotarian Charles Adams: 

  "Almost everyone had a revolver and there were three or four long 
  guns, as well...Fidel in was driving and I was working on my notes 
  in the back seat..All of a sudden, Fidel in was hauled out of the 
  driver's se at....Apparently, I was more reluctant than he to get 
  out....So the gang poured in all four doors, each person seeming to 
  grab a piece of me to yank me out their door....My clothes were 
  ripped to shreds....When one of them started firing his rifle into 
  the ground beneath me, it was clearly time to be cooperative." 

  Charles Adams, a member of the Rotary Club of Glens Falls, New York, 
  USA, made international news in July when a gang of kidnappers 
  snatched him and his driver from their rental car in Port-au-Prince, 
  Haiti. Adams was visiting the Caribbean nation to work on water 
  filtration projects on behalf of his club, along with the 
  organizations Clean Water for Haiti and Pure Water for the World. 
  But on 19 July, Adams's trip was interrupted when he was kidnapped 
  and held captive. The gang demanded US$500,000 for his release. 

  In an e-mail to friends and family, which was also posted on several 
  news Web sites, Adams candidly recounted every moment of his 
  kidnapping: 

  "Except for hassle of demanding ransoms, the gang was very 
  courteous..Actually, I got to talk to the gang a good bit about how 
  to set up clean water projects in the areas they controlled..I 
  suggested that they could save the lives of thousands of the 
  children of their own people dying in Cite Soleil with clean water, 
  and I suggested that this would be pretty good PR for their gang." 

  From his account, it seems Adams gradually won the affection of his 
  captors: 

  "I found it easier to make friends than to be miffed over the whole 
  affair, so every time someone new came into the room, I'd stand up 
  and introduce myself. That amused them and they reciprocated." 

  After holding Adams and his driver captive overnight (the driver 
  managed to escape in the early morning hours), the kidnappers told 
  Adams he was free to go - even though they had not collected a 
  ransom. They escorted him back to his rental car and guarded him 
  until he reached a safe area for him to drive away alone. 
  Bewildered, Adams then spent the afternoon with UN police, who were 
  equally surprised that he was freed without a ransom being paid. 

  "It's just like Charles to talk himself out of something like this," 
  says Saundra Aubin, an administrator at Adams's Taeria Foundation, 
  which focuses on aid to developing countries, as well as affordable 
  housing, economic development, and the arts. Even officials at the 
  U.S. Embassy believe no other American has ever been released 
  without paying a ransom. 

  As for Adams, he still has no idea why he was released, but he isn't 
  dwelling on it. "There are three or four theories on why I was 
  released, but I really don't know why," says Adams, who stayed in 
  Haiti to continue his work after the kidnapping. "Going home was a 
  temptation, but frankly, I view it very much like an auto accident..
  This was just a random occurrence, and I'm satisfied to think that 
  lighting only strikes once." 

  Now, he is back to work as usual. On his schedule: firming up a 
  Rotary structure to plan and manage water programs in Haiti, 
  continuing to gather funding for the projects, and beginning 
  production of about 200 BioSand water filters per month in Gonaïves, 
  Haiti. 

  "In a strange way, this has been a good thing to bring attention to 
  Rotary and the water projects I'm working on," Adams adds. "Any way 
  my story can be of use to Rotary is fine with me." 

  Read more in the November 2006 issue of The Rotarian. 

  Courtesy: eFlash_Rotary
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