On March 10, 2020, Rotary District 3810 Governor Liza Elorde and her team visited the RIMM headquarters. After an enjoyable lunch we had a fellowship meeting that was also attended by some of our club members from Japan and a guest Rotarian, Takashi Narishige from Mizunami, Gifu club in Japan who exchanged club flags with us. Governor Liza was presented with a District flag from District 9780 in Australia through our cooperating Geelong Central Club in Victoria. Australia and her team presented five of our club Rotarians with the Paul Harris Fellow recognition and pins.
Gov. Liza gave an inspiring overview of the many needs in the world and the place of Rotary to assist effectively. She pledged a District grant of $1,000 to assist the club with its support of the 64 families of the relocated AETA village in San Luis as with High School and College scholarships for deserving students and recommended that the club provide application summaries ASAP to the District. RIMM provided an overview of its many projects with the most pressing being cooperative disaster relief with the District, DSWD (Department of Social Welfare and Development) and the City of Alfonso after the Jan. 10, 2020 Taal Volcano eruption. Ongoing projects such as family planning, assisting indigent families, teaming up with DSWD and local barangay (village) captains to prevent/discourage sexual abuse of women & children by bringing perpetrators to justice, school supplies and school uniforms, birth certificates for indigents, donations in kind from Australia clubs, etc. were also discussed.
While the meeting was somewhat overshadowed by the uncertainty pertaining to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic, it closed with participants pledging to cooperatively accomplish even more with the limited resources available.
