Rotary started with the vision of one man — Paul Harris. The Chicago attorney formed the Rotary Club of Chicago on 23 February 1905, so professionals with diverse backgrounds could exchange ideas and form meaningful, lifelong friendships.

 

Over time, Rotary’s reach and vision gradually extended to humanitarian service. Members have a long track record of addressing challenges in their communities and around the world.

 

Almost four weeks have passed since the novel coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. More than 70,000 cases have been confirmed with the death toll of more than 1,700 people. Due to this infectious virus outbreak overlaps with China's Spring Festival season, medical supplies have been strained throughout China. As a result, the frontline medical and health workers in Wuhan are not able to get the N95 medical respirator masks in a timely manner. At 11:22 PM on Monday, February 10th, Mr. Dean Hsieh, Assistant Governor of Rotary International District 5040 (BC, Canada), received an email from Mr. Terry Chu, a member of the Rotary Club of Shanghai. Mr. Chu is also an assistant to Mr. Frank Yih, Rotary International's Special Representative in China 2016-2018, and his two charitable foundations.

 

The Rotary Club of Shanghai, in conjunction with the Shanghai GuoFeng Charity Foundation and various Rotary Clubs in France, approached the Médecins Sans Frontières a.k.a. Doctors without Borders ("MSF") office in Belgium. MSF is an international humanitarian medical non-governmental organization (“NGO”) “best known for its projects in conflict zones and in countries affected by endemic diseases.” Considering it is cooperation between international NGOs, MSF generously agreed to supply 38,000 N95 medical respirator masks at cost. Hence the objective of the Rotary Club of Shanghai is to help raise $ 20,000 USD to acquire this batch of 38,000 N95 medical respirator masks for frontline medical and health professionals in Wuhan hospitals.

 

Mr. Dean Hsieh immediately forwarded the email from Shanghai to members of the Rotary Club of Richmond on Tuesday, February 11, at 1:21 AM. When members read the message in the morning, many responded eagerly to the call for action, and expressed a strong commitment of support. But in order to meet Rotary's Four-Way Test of truth, fairness, good will, and common benefit, District Assistant Governor Mr. Hsieh, decided to host an online meeting with the Rotary Club of Richmond President Mr. Henry Lee and Mr. Chu of the Rotary Club of Shanghai.

 

The online conference was held at 9 PM PST in Canada or 1 PM in Shanghai, China. Mr. Chu spent over thirty minutes elaborating on the global collaboration, fundraising, use of funds, logistics and transportation of medical respirator masks. The conference video was uploaded to YouTube after the meeting, and was submitted to different lower mainland Rotary clubs in BC overnight. At the second day luncheon on Wednesday, February 12, the Rotary Club of Richmond carried out a motion to join hands with the Rotary Club of Shanghai, Rotary clubs in France, the Rotary Club of San Francisco #2, the Rotary Club of Palo Alto, and the Rotary Club of Cupertino in California as well as the Rotary Club of York in Toronto, and the Rotary Club of Richmond Sunset in Vancouver to support the relief task.

 

Although 38,000 as a number looks like a tiny drop in the face of China's huge population, those masks can still effectively protect the life, health and safety of medical professionals in Wuhan. In 36 hours from receiving the initial request to the approval and the decision to release funds, nearly ten Rotary clubs in Europe, North America and Asia actively cooperated with each other and quickly responded to the humanitarian call for support. We have witnessed realization of Rotary's vision statement: “Together we see a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change across the globe in our communities and in ourselves.”

 

Rotary International is a non-political and non-religious international service organization to “bring together business and professional leaders in order to provide humanitarian service and to advance goodwill and peace around the world.” The Rotary Club of Richmond British Columbia, Canada holds a regular luncheon every Wednesday between 12:00 PM and 1:30 PM. Interested parties are welcome to join us. For detailed event information, please visit https://www.richmondrotary.com.

 

by Jimmy Yan

Spring has arrived!  Warm and plenty of sunshine on Wednesday!  Another full-house lunch meeting with visiting Rotarians Sam Wu and Jim Ling.

 

Thanks to Jim Ling (Richmond Sunset) for bringing his friend Samuel Wu from Rotary Club of Admiralty, Hong Kong to our lunch meeting.  Sam is the Founder and CEO of Meiga Health.  While visiting his son, Victoir Wu's family in Vancouver, he is also developing the health supplement for the Covid19 Virus and DNA/Health related business here.  Victoir Wu is also a Rotarian (Vancouver Club), he is the Founder and Executive Director of Hycity Hub; his father-in-law Pipe Chang is a senior Rotarian of Taipei Rotary Club.

 

We were happy to see Christina returning from vacation with good news... She has just become a grandma!  Congratulations Christina! 

 

James Kao was away for a month and is excited to be back.  In preparing for the Club members attending the Rotary International Convention in Taiwan, James experienced himself a 5 days/4 nights tour surrounding Taiwan Island.  He invited Rotarians to attend the Rotary International Convention and visit his hometown in June 2021!