PurgeMe

Larry Bradley reported the we have heard nothing yet about our District Grant Application.

John Bohannon reported that next Tuesday evening, at 5:15 pm there will be a ribbon cutting ceremony at the new school construction.

This is just a reminder that Peggi had previously reported that the BCCC wants know how many they will be serving dinner to at our meetings. So, you will receive an email from Peggi announcing the next meeting at the BCCC and asking you to RSVP, if you will attend, by the Wednesday prior.

Jessica Thorpe introduced her husband Matt.and our program for the night, Marty Wilkes.

Steve Plume introduced Member Roy Ellis, who has not been to a meeting for long time, because driving from his farm was a long way at night. He move to Chico last week, making getting to a meeting a lot easier.

Jim Patterson introduced Mike Crump who had been missing for a while due to leg surgery.

We had tonight’s program before dinner, to accommodate our speaker. Our speaker was Marty Wilkes, Principal of Durham High School. He talked about the students, his graduates going to college (70%), his teams (55% in sports) and particularly his wrestling team which beat all schools. He talked about their connection with Southern Oregon University enable many of his students to graduate high school with college credits. He noted that they connected with Southern Oregon University rather than Butte College because they were much easier to deal with than Butte.

After dinner we heard from Janelle Thorpe about her experiences at Camp Royal this year.

Marijeanne Birchard (President) and Melissa Lynch (Vice President) of Durham Little League will be our speakers on August 20th at BCCC.

Recognitions

K. R. was recognized for his 99^th birthday. He wanted to be a Bell Ringer, so he contributed $100.

Bring guests who you think you can interest in becoming a member. Your dinner and your guest’s dinner will be paid for by the Club. Also, bring a guest to one of our occasional social gatherings.

Go to the following Rotary International web site for information on membership development: https://my.rotary.org/en/learning-reference/learn-topic/membership . From this website there is access to membership development and other related information.

You can make a difference in this world by helping people in need. Your gift can do some great things, from supplying filters that clean people’s drinking water to empowering local entrepreneurs to grow through business development training.

The Rotary Foundation will use your gift to fund the life-changing work of Rotary members who provide sustainable solutions to their communities’ most pressing needs. But we need help from people like you who will take action and give the gift of Rotary to make these projects possible.

When every Rotarian gives every year, no challenge is too great for us to make a difference. The minimum gift to The Rotary Foundation is $25.00. An annual $100.00 gift is a sustaining member. Once your donations accumulate to $1,000 you become a Paul Harris Fellow.

It is possible to learn more about The Rotary Foundation on the Rotary web site.

Your gift can be made online or by sending Jessica Thorpe a check made out to The Rotary Foundation to Durham Rotary, P.O. Box 383, Durham, California 95958.

Following the meeting, we had a discussion of the Harvest Festival. Larry Bradley reported that the Captain Bob has gone back to have some painting corrected, but with all the agency’s dealing with the Park Fire he has no assurance that we will have it for the Harvest Festival. But he believes we will.

There was a lot of discussion of using signs with the sponsor’s names, rather than the banners. This resulted in a vote to use the signs since they were safer that putting up the banners.

A reminder that names of all interested candidates for District Governor for the 2027-28 Rotary year should be submitted to Nominating Committee Chair Mark Roberts at markrotary5160@rotary.com by August15, 2024.

Please think about Rotarians you know, in your own club or others, who you believe have the leadership ability, experience, interest and passion to serve as DG for our district starting on July 1, 2027. You can nominate such members yourself or talk with them about how you feel about them and suggest that they apply themselves. Self-nominations are encouraged. Applicants must have previously served as the President of ANY Rotary Club -- not just within District 5160 -- for a full term OR as Charter President of a club for at least six (6) months.

Please refer to Section IV of the District 5160 Policy Manual for more information on District Governor qualification requirements at https://rotary5160.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Dist-5160-Policy-Manual-Final-20220901.pdf

Nominations for DG candidates from clubs are now open. Clubs are limited to one (1)District Governor nomination each year. If there is a qualified member of your Rotary Club that you would like to nominate, see the steps to do so set out inthe email you recently received.

From October 5th through October 9th you'll join your District 5160 family in Evanston

Health workers trained through a Rotary project resuscitate infants struggling for air

As a midwife who works at health facilities all over the Western Rural District of Sierra Leone, Banneh Daramy sometimes has to assert herself. Her confidence and skill can make the difference between life and death.

“I went to one facility and the people on duty did not even recognize that I was a midwife,” she recalls. “They’d just done a delivery, and the baby was not crying. So they concentrated on the mom, and the baby was left alone. Immediately, I entered. I knew how to resuscitate the baby.”

As the mother screamed in panic, Daramy grabbed a self-inflating resuscitator and fitted it over the baby’s face.

“I used it to ventilate the baby. And within one minute, the baby started crying,”she says. “The mom had been crying and shouting, ‘Oh God, please save my baby! Please save my baby!’ And then she was so happy. That’s why, whenever I see a delivery, I stay until the end to see that the baby is safe.”

It didn’t take expensive equipment to save that baby’s life. A self-inflating resuscitator sells for about US$11. Daramy’s knowledge of neonatal resuscitation — and her quick thinking — made all the difference. She learned many of her skills through Helping Babies Breathe, a training program created by the American Academy of Pediatrics that she took part in through a Rotary global grant project.

Trainees in the Helping Babies Breathe program hold newborn simulator dolls called NeoNatalies at the Lungi Government Hospital in Sierra Leone.

Birth asphyxia, or the failure to breathe at birth, kills an estimated 900,000infants globally each year. Although it accounts for less than 0.1% of newborn deaths in industrialized countries, it’s the leading cause of neonatalmortality in low- and middle-income countries, like Sierra Leone. Many newborns who aren’t breathing can be saved if health care workers begin resuscitation immediately, so it’s crucial for providers to learn how to respond as quickly as Daramy did.

Since 2022, Rotary members in Sierra Leone and North America have collaborated to offer the Helping Babies Breathe protocol to more than 650 nurses, midwives, and other health workers from all over Sierra Leone. The program was fundedthrough a global grant co-sponsored by the Rotary Club of Freetown, Sierra Leone. Sybil Bailor, the club’s 2023-24 president, was committed to the program in part because of her own experience. She once had a difficult delivery, during which her baby struggled to get oxygen.

“When my second child was being born, it was quite a long process, and she got distressed in my birth canal,” Bailor says. “Her oxygen level was below 90%, so they gave me [a medication] to make the contractions come quicker. This is oneof the reasons why this particular project is very special to me.”

Bailor collaborated on the grant application with Charlotte Israel, 2023-24 president of the Rotary Club of Palm Harbor, Florida, USA. Israel was drawn to the training project partly because of a personal tragedy.

“In 2020, my daughter passed away,” she says. “I went in to wake her up to go to work, and she was lying on her bed. I called [emergency services] and they told me to try giving her CPR. But I had never done CPR. That has always been on my mind: Maybe, if I had the training, I could have helped my daughter.”

Like CPR programs, Helping Babies Breathe teaches non-doctors how to provide lifesaving care. Rotary’s association with the program goes back several years. The American Academy of Pediatrics relied on help from Rotary members when it created training materials for the program in 2010.

“Rotarians have been champions of the program from the very start, [including] serving as editors on the various curricula,” says Beena Kamath-Rayne, a neonatologist and the vice president of global newborn and child health for the American Academ yof Pediatrics. “We have a very much valued partnership with them as we continue to spread Helping Babies Breathe around the world.”

One of the great things about Helping Babies Breathe, Israel notes, is that its training materials can be downloaded for free.

“We provided wall charts. We provided brochures. And if I gave you a brochure, you could actually learn that entire course yourself to be able to do that technique,” she says.

But Israel wanted the trainees in Sierra Leone to be able to practice on dolls that are specially designed for the program. The NeoNatalie newborn simulator’s chest rises only when the trainee uses the correct resuscitation technique. The trainee can also check for a pulse in the doll’s attached umbilical cord, and a trainer can use squeeze bulbs to make the do llbreathe spontaneously or cry.

Israel and Bailor’s clubs used The Rotary Foundation grant to purchase 160 NeoNatalies and other supplies. The trainees practiced with self-inflating resuscitation devices and used plastic bottles (known as “penguins” because of their shape) to learn to suction fluid from infants’ noses and mouths.

Graduates display their certificates after completing the Helping Babies Breathe training program that was sponsored by Rotary clubs.

The project’s sponsors overcame some unexpected costs, including higher shipping fees and the need to provide transportation and lodging for nurses and midwives from rural areas. The organizers were able to raise a bit more money from clubs to meet some of these needs and received a donation of free lodging.

Because of this, the clubs were able to make another significant investment in the health of babies in Sierra Leone. The grant also provided five oxygen concentrators and a solar power system to the King Harman Maternity and Child Hospital in Freetown. In addition, the Rotary members distributed baby hats, blankets, and clothing at the hospitals where the training was conducted.

To ensure sustainability, the project trained people who could then teach other health workers and lead courses for them to refresh their skills. The clubs partnered with Sierra Leone’s health ministry and the nongovernmental organization Health Care Sierra Leone USA to make sure training would continue. Members of Health Care Sierra Leone USA had been providing training before the Rotary grant-funded project, and they continue to monitor the program.

“We train the participants with the goal that when they go back to their various localities, they will be able to train others,” says Sulaiman Sannoh, a neonatologist and member of Health Care Sierra Leone USA. “Over the years,people who’ve attended our training sessions have sent us pictures of themselves training their colleagues.”

The Rotary International web site is: www.rotary.org

District 5160 is: www.rotary5160.org

The Durham Rotary Club site is: www.durhamrotary.org

The Rowel Editor may be contacted at: pbprice1784@gmail.com

The deadline for the Rowel 6:30 am on Wednesdays.

The Editor's photographs published in the Rowel are available, upon request, in their original file size. Those published were substantially reduced in file size.

A u g u s t					1	2	3
	4	5	6 Meeting Marty Wilkes, DHS Principle (Jessica Thorpe)	7	8	9	10
	11	12	13 No Meeting	14	15	16	17
	18	19	20 Meeting Marijenne Birchard & Messisa Lynch, Durham Little League (Peggi Koehler)	21	22	23	24
	25	26	27 No Meeting	28	29	30	31
S e p t e m b e r	1	2	3 Meeting Harvest Festival Planning - Location TBA	4	5	6	7jeMe
	8	9	10 Meeting Harvest Festival Planning at BCCC Board Meeting at 5:00PM	11	12	13	14 Harvest Festival Preparation
	15 Harvest Festival	16	17 No Meeting	18	19	20	21
	22	23	24 Meeting Harvest Festival Debrie at BCCC	25	26	27	28
	29	30

Rotary District 5160 Governor:

Clair Roberts

Durham Rotary President: Glenn Pulliam

The Meeting Opening

Recognitions