Amazing time at Senses School for children with special needs

What a wonderful morning at Senses School for children with special needs!

After being closed for two weeks due to maintenance, the centre needed a little bit of help to ensure that it was operational for the “big day” on Sunday...

An enormous thank you to the team of volunteers so willing to help and get to know Senses’ residents. It was so rewarding to see the children smiling and enjoying their time with the activities that we put together for them. It was such a pleasure to feel the satisfaction of having touched the hearts of children in need of that smile.

The volunteers had the chance to interact with the kids through different painting activities. Our musician who came all the way to entertain the kids got hijacked by the residents who wanted to play the guitar rather than simply listen. I’m sure that this moment spent at Senses school provided food for thoughts to all our volunteers and gave us also other ideas to implement with residents, to make sure that they try different activities and most of all, feel happy!

End Polio Now, We are “This Close”

As the World Polio Day scheduled on October 24 is approaching, the Rotary Club is working hard to raise awareness and funds to eradicate polio.

It’s been 25 years that Rotary works closely with their partners to eradicate Polio. We are reaching now a historical moment where we’re 1% away from the end of polio forever. This achievement shows the tremendous progress that have been made to eradicate this tenacious disease for one and for all.

If you want to help at your level, Rotary is having a fund raising campaign where all the funds will be given to Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to support immunization campaign in developing countries where polio continues to infect and paralyse children.

Also, generate awareness and create the buzz by telling the world about Rotary’s achievements. Please visit our website http://www.thisclose.net/ and participate in our fun online campaign.

An eye on the Global Agenda

Does anyone have an idea of what is the Summit on the Global Agenda, organised with the World Economic Forum in the UAE for the past four years?

I have the answer! The Summit on the Global Agenda is an annual global intellectual brainstorming that brings together worldwide experts. The participants brainstorm in small groups around topics impacting on civil society, business, academia and government.

The participants were polled to determine which global challenges are the most important to address; and their responses were very interesting. It seems that these global challenges revolve around:
1. Resource scarcity and demographic change
2. Digital governance and managing complex systems
3. Global rebalancing and economic reform
4. Inclusive growth and employment creation
5. Global and regional governance

Living in an “emerging” country, bearing in mind the way the world is rapidly changing and seeing a total power shift from traditional developing countries to emerging economies, what would you consider a global challenge?

I think that if you were living in China, your challenges will be resource scarcity and demographic change. But we can also include growth and employment creation. India is facing the same issues that China has and Europe is finding difficulties to maintain or strengthen a global or regional governance. Which means that we leave in a world where we are all interlinked and inter-dependent. Which also show that my issues, are now increasingly becoming your issues to a certain extent. Don’t you think so?

Let us know your thoughts on that.

Did you know that blindness and poverty are inextricably linked?

Were you aware that there are 45 million blind people in the world? 90% of disabled children don’t go to school. 90% of cases occur in developing countries and 80% are in fact avoidable or treatable diseases.

These facts were shared by the General Manager of Sight Savers Middle East, Luke Thomas, who came to introduce his organisation and their activities in the region. Sight Savers’ history is fascinating, this international development charity was founded in 1950 by Sir John Wilson, who was himself blind.

When you know that the biggest cause of blindness is cataract, you understand that blindness and poverty go hand in hand. While preventing is better than treating, Sight Savers is working on very isolated areas in Africa and India to distribute treatments for free. To date 150,000,000 treatments have been delivered.

Educating people is key to make them understand that simple gestures such as using clean water and merely washing hands regularly can avoid the worse in certain parts of our globe.

I have to say that it’s hard for me to comment or add anything to what has been touched on, because when you know that 32 million people have been already treated, 8 million had a surgery and training benefited 161,112 people; you can only congratulate the initiative. There are simple things we have in life that make a big difference without us even realising. Let’s be grateful and truly appreciate them!

Have you ever visited a centre for people with special needs?

According to you, how does disability look like? Have you ever visited a centre providing care for people with special needs?

Some members of the Rotaract Club of Jumeirah and the Rotaract Club of Dubai had that chance this week-end. We went there with the only thing we had: our generosity. The person who was with me is a musician and we decided to organise a mini performance.

After being introduced to each resident, my friend started his show. This is when on my side, I got familiar with each resident. Every patient over there is different and unique. I had the pleasure to meet these adorable twins. One suffers from a high level of autism and his brother has the same disease but at a lesser degree. I was amazed by the brilliant memory of the brother who was less affected.

Each resident receives an education that includes reading, writing, mathematics, and physical activities. Every week, volunteers help the centre to take the residents to the beach. I heard this touching story of an 8 years old kid who came to the centre without being able to talk properly. He’s now able to pronounce his name and start a conversation.

It might sound so basic to be able to pronounce your name. But for some people, it can be a struggle that need more time to master. So my only advise will be, don’t take things for granted. I believe we all have our own potential to develop. And so have our members of the community with special needs who definitely need more attention and care, but they can make it too.

If you want to support the centre or have an idea to achieve that, please let us know by contacting pr@RotaractJumeirah.org.