Giving and sharing for lasting good
When the full story of the novel coronavirus pandemic is told, it will be about much more than health-related impacts such as deaths and hospitalisations.
At its height, COVID-19 altered social relationships, ravaged economies and for a prolonged period brought normal life to a halt.
Of course, ‘COVID still a keep’, but thanks to the stubborn resilience that comes naturally to human beings we are coping.
Yesterday’s story about Rotarians across the island gathering in large numbers in Ocho Rios — their first such assembly since the onset of the pandemic — reminds us of how even those with a passion and commitment to voluntary service had to pull back.
But true to their vision to help create “a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change”, Rotarians and others who give of themselves in voluntary service have returned to the front of the battle.
We are told of the Rotary Club of New Kingston’s partnership with Rotarians in Lake Norman, USA, which provided a grant of US$95,250 to fund 36 heart surgeries for children at Bustamante Hospital for Children.
Halted by COVID-19, the project resumed in 2021.
“After the surgeries we also follow up with the children, and they have been doing well and the parents are also forever grateful. We are hoping to take on another project in March to assist another five to nine children,” said past president of the New Kingston Rotarians, Ms Petagaye Pryce.
Another partnership involving Rotary Club Negril, and the Rotary Club of Calgary North is providing US$135,000 to fund a youth upliftment project in the tourism Mecca, Negril.
In collaboration with a local church, a skills training centre has been developed and is being operated by the HEART/NTA Trust to train young — and even older — people in tourism-related skills .
And in eastern Jamaica, the Rotary Club of Manor Park has built two 24-hour domestic violence prevention centres in Lyssons and Morant Bay, St Thomas. That’s as a result of police statistics showing that region has the most domestic-related violence against women and children.
Rotarian Ms Yasmin Chong says a partnership with the Jamaica Constabulary Force, which led to the violence prevention centres, is bearing fruit with an increasing number of reports being made. Previously, we hear, “women in particular” were “very scared” to report domestic violence.
At the height of the pandemic, Rotarians, like many people in Jamaica and the wider world, stayed in touch online. But as the incoming district governor for Rotary Jamaica’s chapter appeared to suggest, the face-to-face meeting in Ocho Rios has re-energised the membership towards reconnecting to the “purpose of serving humanity”.
Their actual work apart, organisations such as the Rotary clubs and like-minded individuals set an example that is priceless. Their message to all of us is that there is value and satisfaction in giving and sharing; that we can all play a role — no matter how small — in building communities; and in giving a helping hand to someone else so he/she can stand on their own two feet.
Ultimately, if we stop to think about it, giving that helping hand is enlightened self-interest.