Weekly Meeting

Karyn Westervelt, President of the E Club invites you to join her on line Tuesday evening at 6:30pm Pacific time.

We will be using Zoom meeting to connect.

Topic: Rotary E Club of World Peace Zoom Meeting
Time: Tuesday, 6:30pm Pacific Time. Join from PC, Mac, Linux, iOS or Android: https://zoom.us/j/4378079715 Or iPhone one-tap (US Toll): +16465588656,4378079715# or +14086380968,4378079715#Or Telephone:
Dial: +1 646 558 8656 (US Toll) or +1 408 638 0968 (US Toll)
Meeting ID: 437 807 9715
International numbers available: https://zoom.us/zoomconference?m=dRo33f76ozYR8Fr4n3TKQvmvr0WlYB3v

In 2019, Robert will undertake his second circumnavigation, this time from the North Pole to the South Pole in the “Citizen of the World,” a 1983 Turbine Commander 900 aircraft with the powerful global mission of “One Planet, One People, One Plane: Oneness for Humanity.” This trip is a real-time example of going after the seemingly impossible, not giving up while “Flying Thru Life” and making the dream of connecting our humanity through flight a reality.

Founder and president of the inspirational publishing company Flying Thru Life and the charitable organization, DeLaurentis Foundation, Robert’s mission is to inspire people and organizations to live their impossibly big dreams through the wonder of aviation and the power of courageous action.  Explore more at www.PoleToPoleFlight.com and ttps://vimeo.com/247556534

Soushiant Zanganehpour

Soushiant Zanganehpour is one of the three winners of the Global Challenges foundation multi-million dollar competition for best new ideas on better ways to govern our world to reduce catastrophic risk.  He writes:  “An update to our global governance system must start with building new digital tools and institutions at the city, national and international levels, allowing citizens to directly ideate, build strong proposals with support of Artificial Intelligence, debate and build consensus with insights mined from millions of conversations by AI, and vote the best proposals into existence.

Terry Tamminen, CEO for the Los Angeles-based Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation (LDF)

From his youth in Australia to career experiences in Europe, Africa, China and across the United States, Terry has developed expertise in business, farming, education, non-profit, the environment, the arts, and government. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed him Secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency and later Cabinet Secretary, the Chief Policy Advisor to the Governor, where Terry was the architect of many groundbreaking sustainability policies, including California’s landmark Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, the Hydrogen Highway Network, and the Million Solar Roofs initiative.
In 2010 Terry co-founded the R20 Regions of Climate Action, a new public-private partnership, bringing together sub-national governments; businesses; financial markets; NGOs; and academia to implement measurable, large-scale, low-carbon and climate resilient economic development projects that can simultaneously solve the climate crisis and build a sustainable global economy. Since 2007 he has provided advice to Pegasus Capital Advisors and numerous global businesses on sustainability and “green” investing. In 2016, Terry joined the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation as CEO. An accomplished author, Terry’s books include “Cracking the Carbon Code: The Keys to Sustainable Profits in the New Economy” (Palgrave Macmillan). In 2011, Terry was one of six finalists for the Zayed Future Energy Prize and The Guardianranked Terry No. 1 in its “Top 50 People Who Can Save the Planet.”

Deepa Biswas, PDG, PACE Universal, 2018 Santa Barbara-UNA Peace Prize winner

Deepa is the founder of a non-profit organization named PACE Universal (www.paceuniversal.com), a Past District Governor (PDG) of Rotary International District 5240;  Over the past ten years, Deepa’s time and personal resources have been dedicated to the founding and developing of the Piyali Learning Center (PLC) outside of Calcutta, India and spreading the message of the value of girls’ education throughout the world. Her dedicated work at PLC, which she developed through her non-profit organization, PACE Universal, is resulting in the creation of a sustainable village rehabilitation model and she is working to end human trafficking in India.

Deepa took the Piyali Learning Center from a little shack for 20 girls to a newly built school with classrooms and playground  for over 220 girls, all funded with her private donations and a grant from Rotary International. She is most proud that she did this without bribing any officials so all the donations went directly to the school.

Deepa is an inspiration to all.  Her outstanding work in this area didn’t begin until she was 60!  Lesson: we are never too old or too young to change the world.  Her inspiration and slide show will inspire you to share her story with others.  She is a proud member of the UNA Santa Barbara chapter.

Ray Matsumiya, Executive Director of UME, The Oleander Initiative

For the last 8 years, Alex Haimanis, a Greek-American naturalized citizen, has been leading Mission Tanzania, drilling new water wells in 16 villages around Bukoba. Now 35,000 people have easier access to reliably clean well water. With two trucks, a drilling rig, and a hoist purchased entirely from donated funds, the local crew expects to drill 15 new wells in 2017 at a cost of only $5,000 per well. This is far cheaper than many well-drilling operations run by NGOs using leased equipment.

Mission Tanzania was formed in 2009 by volunteers of Saint Barbara Greek Orthodox Church to improve basic services for the villagers. The first project was a medical mission to Bukoba. In 2010, collaborating with St. Paul Greek Orthodox Church of Irvine, Haimanis and the committee organized and accompanied a team of volunteer doctors and nurses who treated 850 villagers during a two-week clinic. Haimanis returned in 2012 with a second medical team along with $40,000 in donated medications for the newly opened Ufufuo Health Center. This time, the team treated more than 500 patients and created a computerized patient database.

“During our second medical mission to Tanzania, I saw a child fill her empty plastic bottle from a muddy roadside puddle and, without hesitating, put it to her lips and drink it. That was the moment that shocked me into action,” said Haimanis.

There are more than 200 villages in Bukoba, most of which do not have access to clean water and safe sanitation. The villagers rely on rainfall to collect untreated water from drainage ditches, creeks, and roadside puddles, creating a health crisis and requiring women and children to spend hours each day fetching water rather than attending to family, work, or school.

Haimanis, at 81 years old, knows about growing up in a village. He was born in Stromi, Greece, in 1936. When he was a small child, the Germans bombed his village. The villagers fled to the caves in the mountains and subsisted on what little food they could carry and the local wild greens. Haimanis and his village endured the oppression of the German occupation and survived the civil war that followed. When he was 12, Haimanis was sent away to continue his education. He joined the Greek navy in 1956 and learned how to be a radioman and code breaker.

Haimanis retired in 2001 after 35 years managing the bar at Harry’s, but his work in service to others continues. Now in his ninth decade, Haimanis pursues his dream that all 200 villages in Bukoba would have access to fresh, clean water. “We don’t just drill wells and let the villagers figure out how to manage the water,” stated Haimanis. “We train representatives from each village on good sanitation and hygiene practices so they in turn can teach these practices in their communities.”