Sunrise Rotary Newsletter (Apr 18, 2015)

Guests: 4/8: Doug Kosch (prospective member) and on 4/15:Olivia Strom and Emerson Dickinson.

Visiting Rotarians: 4/8: Michael Richmond (TC Noon) and on 4/15: DG Al Bonney (TC Noon)

50/50: On 4/8 Gary Brown was the lucky winner of $31 and he donated it back to the club. Thank you. On 4/15 Past President Jane was the lucky winner of our 50/50 raffle.

Dave Kase introduced Assed Josephat, a Rotarian from Tanzania, to speak about the work they have going on to benefit abandoned children.

Assed flew three days to arrive in Traverse City. Functioning on little sleep but excited to address our club.He is from Tanzania, close to Lake Victoria and the Serengeti Wildlife Park. He is a Rotarian, and co-worker of David Kase, as country director for Christ Hope International. www.christshope.org

Assed has been the country director since 2005. He currently directs their ministry in Mwanza and the capital city of Dar es Salaam. He left his job in a UK dental office in 2008 to work for Christ Hope full time.

His work began with street children ages 7 to 12. Most who had been abandoned when a parent died of AIDS and the surviving parent would remarry and abandon their children. In a short period of time he was mentoring 28 kids. Ended up renting a 2 room home for 26 boys to live in at the same time. Two girls were placed in a foster home type arrangement.

After 3-4 years they experienced excellent results with many children becoming top performers in school. The program is expanded to more of a “foster parent” model and now serves +200 children 3-4 days per week.

Assed shared that Tanzania has a large and moderate Moslem population. Moslem’s and Christian children are served by his program and they co-exist without issue.
Tom Krause spontaneously “passed the hat” to raise some funds for Assed’s work.

Kelly spoke about her time in Brazil. She works with the Traverse City native, Rick, who owns Rare Earth Hardwoods. The company is committed to the 3D Initiative, only using Dead, Dying, and Down trees. Kelly shared pictures of her time spent in Brazil and talked about the future plans for Rick’s property in Brazil. There are 89 lots up for sale and there is a project that also provides tours in their adventure park. Kelly is working on putting together a 10-day trip of Traverse City residents and anyone else that has interest to go on a trip later in 2015.