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The Light for November 8, 2022
 
By Katherine Peterson
 
Presiding was President Kathy Tate-Bradish, who read the land acknowledgement statement recognizing the Indigenous people to whom this land originally belonged.
 
Dan Coyne recited “Why We Are Rotarians.”  The Thought for the Day was in honor of Veterans Day and Dan Coyne recounted stories of veterans of color who through the years experienced scathing inequality and mistreatment.  He invited veterans to step up, be recognized, and played a video of Jennifer Hudson singing our National Anthem honoring our veterans only six months after her family was murdered. 
 
Kathy Tate-Bradish stated that we normally introduce all visitors, but due to the number of visitors in the room and on-line, we will bypass that tradition this week in order to get to a longer program.
 
Announcements
 
Brien Johnson announced that we are joining with the Wilmette Rotary Club to provide volunteers to staff the Winter Warmth event for Connections for the Homeless on Saturday, Nov. 12, from noon to 2 p.m.
 
Help us spread the warmth this season by distributing winter gear and food to our participants.  Volunteers will assist participants with gathering food for their pantry and assist them in the winter clothing and gear room, where they will pick out a coat, boots, and other essential winter items.
 
Program
 
Topic: HIV Reduction in Kenya
 
Speaker: Yves Lassere
 
Kathy Tate-Bradish welcomed Yves Lassere, who is the Chair of the Global Grant Committee for several years and led a special program.
 
The main goal of the program is to reduce HIV in Siaya County by 40 percent in 2 years.
The Global Grant project involves Rotary Club of Siaya (SRC), Evanston Lighthouse Rotary Club (ELRC), in partnership with the ABCs of Sex Education as the implementing partner. 
 
The ABCs of Sex Education is the cooperating organization providing expertise in training the trainers who would, in turn, train 100 educators to disseminate information based on the ABCs knowledge-based curriculum to the target population in anticipation of behavior change towards HIV reduction.
 
Rosila Waringa presented the specifics for the Siaya Rotary Club. She covered the Community Needs Assessment (CNA) with HIV prevalence among 15-24-years-old at 6.2% or three times the national average for similar age.  They learned about lingering gaps and myths about HIV and addressed them.
 
She shared the many stakeholders, adding it’s important to note that the stakeholders have been the audience for the results of the evaluation process. She reviewed the implementation and process. The workshops they conducted brought back valuable feedback, including reduced cases of teen pregnancy, improved parent and teenager relationships, and more. 
 
Kathy Tate-Bradish continued with the ABCs of Sex Education. She talked about hiring and training of trainers with an online training of trainers in January 2021. They taught behavior change around sexual activities by engaging their audiences.
 
Hellen Gamba talked about the training of a total of 120 educators in four 5-day workshops.  She covered the specifics of the educators workshop, which was very interactive, allowing educators to teach back the entire curriculum. A practicum in the field was also part of the work.  
 
Patrick Anyembe discussed the practicum, groundwork, and implementation showing slides of the work in action. The most overwhelming response was in high schools, where the young people are most vulnerable. The schools invited them to come back time and again. Sex is a taboo subject and being invited to speak was overcoming a huge stigma.  He shared slides of the work in action.
 
Monitoring and evaluation of the data and Impact was covered by Beatrice Wambugu.  She discussed the many achievements. Many key indicators such as 8,000 people reached, almost 6,000 condoms distributed, teenage pregnancy reduction, and more. 
 
Sustainability Beyond the Rotary Global Grant involved discussion of the post-grant activities and continuation of the work.
 
Rosila Waringa finished the presentation, stating that the work continues, and presented many lessons learned, such as “You never know till you know.”  Looking ahead they imagine partners working together to reduce HIV risk, increasing prevention and knowledge, multiplying prevention efforts, and sharing responsibilities. 
 
The presentation lasted 45 minutes and included many detailed aspects of the global grant presentation, including photos.  The details can be viewed in full on the Zoom link sent to all members.

Guests and Milestones
 
Club Anniversary
 
Lesley Peters, 8 years, November 13, 2014