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Bedtime Stories | David Schwimmer reads The Smeds and The Smoos | CBeebies

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At Rotary, we're committed to treating everyone with dignity and respect, allowing everyone's voice to be heard, and providing equitable opportunities for fellowship, service, and leadership.

Our members want and expect Rotary to be a diverse, equitable, and inclusive organization. We're committed to creating supportive environments that foster open communication and shared learning. And although the Rotary experience may differ from country to country, the dynamics, histories, and structures that create inequality and bias can be found all over the world. Issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion are globally relevant.
For the complete DEI Code of Conduct please go to https://my.rotary.org/en/learning-reference/about-rotary/diversity-equity-and-inclusihttps://my.rotary.org/en/learning-reference/about-rotary/diversity-equity-and-inclusi

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Good to see comments and pictures from you all.  Bob continues his food drive purchases and delivery for a work related drive in our local area.  I continue plans for an active Spring at my Little Free Library.  Planning a Book Fair for May weekend.  Also would like to encourage any of our members to start a little library of their own.  A simple and easy project and I have enough books to seed another one with lots of fiction, BIPOC and other reading material.  Books ship quite inexpensively.  See you next week.  Pep

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KES Phones Delivered to Refugees by Frank

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KES Phones Delivered to Refugees by Frank

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Delivered 9 KES phones to refugee program in Albany New York... RISSE is an independent not-for-profit. Our mission is to help refugees and newly arrived immigrants create safe and sustainable lives. RISSE is the only organization in the Capital Region that provides comprehensive, year-round English Language and supportive services to the refugee and immigrant community. RISSE operates After-School and Summer Youth Programs, Adult English Literacy/Language Program, civics classes, life skills orientation, Job Search Assistance, and more. We work one-on-one with about 200 families a year utilizing one or more of our services.
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Carpe Diem! -Frank

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9+ million need food – United Nations Report (https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/01/1110802)

After 15 months of conflict in Ethiopia, almost 40 per cent of Tigrayans are suffering an extreme lack of food, according to data released by the World Food Programme (WFP) on Friday.

Meanwhile, across all three conflict-affected regions of the north, more than nine million people now need humanitarian food assistance, the highest number so far, since conflict erupted in November 2020, between Government and rebel forces.

...Across the three regions, more than 14 per cent of children under five and almost a third of pregnant and breastfeeding women are malnourished.

Recent health screening data shows malnutrition rates for children under five were at 28 per cent, far above the standard emergency threshold of 15 per cent.

Intensified conflict on the Tigray-Afar border in recent days is expected to force more communities from their homes and deeper into hunger.

Since November 2020, the crisis in northern Ethiopia has resulted in millions of people in need of emergency assistance and protection. , by © UNICEF/Christine Nesbitt

WFP estimates that on average, crisis-affected families in northern Ethiopia were getting less than 30 per cent of their caloric needs in the past months, pushing people deeper into crisis.

Constant humanitarian food assistance will be necessary throughout 2022, said the UN agency…

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Meanwhile, across all three conflict-affected regions of the north, more than nine million people now need humanitarian food assistance, the highest number so far, since conflict erupted in November 2020, between Government and rebel forces.

According to the  Tigray Emergency Food Security Assessment, 83 per cent of people are food insecure.

Families are exhausting all means to feed themselves, with three quarters of the population using extreme coping strategies to survive.

Diets are increasingly impoverished as food items become unavailable and families rely almost exclusively on cereals. At the same time, families are having to limit portion sizes and the number of meals, to make whatever food is available stretch further.

In terms of nutrition, 13 per cent of Tigrayan children under five, and half of all pregnant and breastfeeding women, are malnourished, leading to poor pregnancy outcomes, low-birth weight, stunting and increased maternal death.

Action now

For WFP's Regional Director for Eastern Africa, Michael Dunford, the bleak assessment reconfirms that " what the people of northern Ethiopia need is scaled up humanitarian assistance, and they need it now."

According to him, WFP is doing all it can to ensure convoys with food and medicines make it through the frontlines, but no convoy has reached Tigray since mid-December.

"If hostilities persist, we need all the parties to the conflict to agree to a humanitarian pause and formally agreed transport corridors, so that supplies can reach the millions besieged by hunger", he warned.

In the neighbouring Amhara region, hunger has more than doubled in five months because the region bore the brunt of recent fighting between the Ethiopian Government's military forces and Tigray forces.

In Afar province, the fighting has reportedly led to tens of thousands of men, women and children being displaced in the last few weeks.

Deepening crisis

Across the three regions, more than 14 per cent of children under five and almost a third of pregnant and breastfeeding women are malnourished.

Recent health screening data shows malnutrition rates for children under five were at 28 per cent, far above the standard emergency threshold of 15 per cent.
Intensified conflict on the Tigray-Afar border in recent days is expected to force more communities from their homes and deeper into hunger.

WFP estimates that on average, crisis-affected families in northern Ethiopia were getting less than 30 per cent of their caloric needs in the past months, pushing people deeper into crisis.

Constant humanitarian food assistance will be necessary throughout 2022, said the UN agency.

Challenges

Since March, WFP has reached almost 4 million people across northern Ethiopia with food and nutrition assistance.

When access to Tigray improved during the summer months last year, humanitarian assistance from the agency and its partners kept starvation at bay for those who had been cut off from assistance, prior to May.

With no access to Tigray currently, aid continues to be scaled up in areas of Amhara and Afar, which are accessible.

More than 523,000 people received food in Amhara in the past week, with some 3.2 million men, women and children, having been reached with food assistance since last October.

In Afar province, nearly 380,000 people have been reached in this current round of food distributions.

WFP's northern Ethiopia response urgently requires $337 million to deliver assistance over the next six months and will begin running out of the capacity to purchase food from February.

Across the entire country, the agency has an unprecedented funding gap of $667 million to assist 12 million people.

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Northern Ethiopia: A record 9 million now need food assistance

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Meanwhile, across all three conflict-affected regions of the north, more than nine million people now need humanitarian food assistance, the highest number so far, since conflict erupted in November 2020, between Government and rebel forces. According to the  Tigray Emergency Food Security Assessment,  83 per cent of people are food insecure.

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GEN TENZIN-LA, who passed away just recently at the age of 95, spent all his exile life (60 years) at the Tibetan Children’s Village (TCV) headquartered in Dharamsala, India, looking after the wellbeing of the Tibetan children—orphaned and semi-orphaned as well as those who came from Tibet leaving their families back. Gen Tenzin-la’s dedication, hard work, and perseverance were familiar to most of my generation who were acquainted with his work and involvement at the Tibetan Children’s village.

Going through a brief obituary to him shared this morning on the Facebook by Phuntsok Namgyal-la, one narrative specially caught my attention and deeply touched me. It reads:

“His very first work in TCV was when about 25 children came all of a sudden from Chamba (road construction side in Himachal Pradesh in early 1960s where many Tibetans worked) there was no arrangement for their board and lodging. Ama Tsering Dolma (late elder sister of His Holiness the Dalai Lama who was in-charge of the TCV) then sent Gen Tenzin-La to inform Gyalyum Chemo (mother of His Holiness). His Holiness overhead their discussion and immediately told Gen Tenzin-La to pull the rug that was in the audience room. Gen-La roll the rug 12 X 12 feet and put it on his head and brought very joyfully to the school. Half the rug was used as mattress and over half as blanket for these newly arrived 25 children. As the rug was from His Holiness they felt blessed and had a very sound sleep after their tedious bus ride from Chamba.”

Gen Tenzin-La belonged to my parents generation who had shouldered the sole responsibility of reconstructing our exile life in India, Nepal and Bhutan in early days under the guidance of His Holiness. They joyfully endured all the difficulties and hardship and devoted their life single-pointedly for the benefit of the community as advised by His Holiness. Once again, my deep respect to that Tibetan generation which is fading away now.

Photo: Late Mrs Tsering Dolma, elder sister of His Holiness, with Gen Tenzin-La and Tibetan refugee children in early 1960s at the TCV

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