At last week's Rotary meeting, Julie Moskalyk, Science Director and Dan Chaput Staff Scientist at Science North, provided Sunrisers with an overview of the migration and life cycle of butterflies and in particular of the Monarch butterfly which is the most iconic. Rotarians discovered the importance of plants and in particular milkweed and native plants to the butterfly population. Both Julie and Dan offered to provide Rotarians with advice on the creation of its pollination garden in Rotary Park.
The Plasma Drive needs your help to reach the donation goal! Please contact Brandi Braithwaite to sign up for a time to donate.
Barb Roy will be weeding the Rotary Park flower boxes at the bottom of the stairs on Wednesday, June 2nd at 1 pm. If you are able to come and help please bring gardening tools, gloves, hat and bug spray!
As we prepare for the upcoming year, we are sending out the dues invoice. What the year will look like is somewhat uncertain however hopeful that by fall we will be returning to guidelines that are more similar to pre-pandemic.
We do ask for prompt feedback with the invoices, as any members who appear on our roster July 1st we do have to pay fees to Rotary International. If you do not plan on returning as a member, I would ask you please let me know. As always, we are interested in feedback from members that have decided to move on to other commitments.
The 2021 Virtual Convention will be better than ever, opening more innovative opportunities to learn and to engage with the family of Rotary, near and far. You’ll be able to network in virtual lounges, meet new partners in service, and join fun activities with Rotary members from around the world.
This event is open to all Rotary members and participants from 12-16 June 2021. Registration fees are as follows:
Promotional rate: US$49* through 11:59:59 (Chicago time - CDT) 7 May
US$65 - 8 May through 16 June
*Registration must be paid in full between 16 April and 7 May to receive the US$49 rate.
Rotary News
Julie Dockrill, a member of the Rotary Club of Timaru, New Zeland, was a recipient of Rotary's 2021 People of Action: Champions of Health, for improving maternal and child health practices in Mongolia.
“It’s overwhelming to know that you may have played a small part in saving the lives of hundreds of mothers and babies.”
by Ryan Hyland
When Julie Dockrill was approached by the Rotary Club of Waimate, New Zealand, to train medical workers in Mongolia in safer childbirth practices, she wasn’t sure how much of a difference she could make — despite her 20 years of experience as a midwife and childbirth educator.
Eight years later, the project’s success has exceeded her expectations. Dockrill, now a member of the Rotary Club of Timaru, says she never imagined that the work she began in 2013 would lead to the adoption of a nationwide health care framework that has contributed to the steady drop in Mongolia’s maternal and infant mortality rates.
Dockrill, who came recommended through a colleague, was tasked with leading a five-person team of midwives from Australia, Mongolia, and New Zealand, and developing training materials for more than 100 university students and midwives, nurses, and other health care professionals in Mongolia.
The maternal and infant mortality rates in Mongolia were falling, but mothers and infants were still dying at alarming rates. In 2011, the government made a commitment to reduce the infant mortality rate to 15 out of every 1,000 live births, which would be a drastic reduction from its 2009 rate of nearly 27 deaths per 1,000 live births. Comparatively, the infant mortality rate in New Zealand that same year was just five deaths per 1,000 live births.
Causes of death frequently involved asphyxia, respiratory distress, and congenital defects, but Dockrill says the problem really came from poor prenatal care.
“Before the childbirth education course was embedded, there were only standard visits to hospitals and clinics for pregnant women,” Dockrill says. “The care was just focused on the physical well-being of the mother. The information mothers were given was very basic.”
Dockrill focused on topics that weren’t being discussed with expectant mothers, such as smoking, domestic violence, nutrition, exercise, breastfeeding, and contraception — all important to keeping mothers healthy. And when mothers are healthy, their children are more likely to be healthy. According to Dockrill, the health and survival of a mother directly affects the likelihood that her child will live to age two.
So Dockrill and her team were hoping to help health professionals take “a holistic approach — not just a physical approach” and see people come forward earlier with health problems. She adds, “If one child or mother was saved by what we shared, I considered that a success.” Her team was also able to bring equipment — fetal monitors, hand-held Doppler scanners, syringe pumps, induction pumps, and more — to Mongolia and provide basic training to those using it.
The success of the project contributed to the Mongolian government exceeding its 2011 goal of reducing the infant mortality rate to 15 out of every 1,000 live births. The latest data from 2019 puts the rate is 13.4, and it’s expected to keep declining.
On World Health Day, 7 April, Rotary honored Dockrill as one of six People of Action: Champions of Health, an award that recognizes those who try to improve health outcomes at home and across the globe. “I never dreamed of this,” says Dockrill, who also credits her colleagues on the vocational training team and the sponsor Rotary clubs for the project’s success. “It’s overwhelming to know that you may have played a small part in saving the lives of hundreds of mothers and babies.”
