Rotary Club of Beijing

Rotary Beijing in Summer part 1

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

27 July 2021

See here Rotary Beijing in Summer part 1: A very relaxed dinner in Schindlers Tankstelle Sanlitun with a special Country Western performance once more by Kevin and Brian (Bag of Bears Band!). Most of the songs are my favorite, mostly from ‘70s and ‘80s. I had the mushroom soup and the BBQ ribs, all great!

No speaker, simply enjoying the music and fellowship.

Rotaract events

Small get together meeting with Trefyn the new President of Rotaract for 21-22, on 14 July in The Local and then on 26 July I gave a talk in the Yard House (SOHO Sanlitun).

And yes some volunteering again!
On 30 July 2021 Rotaractors joined MCF (Migrant Children Foundation) to go to Beijing Huiling to make some DIY dog puppets. Beijing Huiling is a place for children and young adults with learning and intellectual disabilities. With the 15 young adults at Beijing Huiling, Rotaract and MCF constructed dog puppets. Some of the young adults were even able to say the names of the body parts of the dog puppets in English. Many of the young adults needed help putting the puppets together. When everyone had finished making their puppet everyone gathered to take a picture.

See the happy smiles!
And another career talk on 9 August by Didier, our president of the Rotary Club of Beijing.

I followed by ZOOM.

10 August 2021

Another successful dinner in Schindler Tankstelle, this time with an inspiring speaker:
Josh Dominick – Topic: “Krankin’ through China: Adaptive Sports in the Middle Kingdom”

“Krankin’ through China” is a team of individuals who promote adaptive supports and inclusive activities in Greater China. Their goals are to raise social awareness, accessibility mindset, and improve health through motion by all people. Josh is from New Mexico, Florida, and New York and has lived in China since 2005. He shared with the audience his passion for outdoor sports, a passion since he was a child. Adaptive sports, Josh explained, started after WWII when injured veterans returned home. Adaptations were made so that those sports could suit the veterans to allow them to participate and do sports. Adaptive sports also allow those veterans with disabilities to integrate back into society. Adaptive sports like surfing, kayaking, cycling, or swimming are especially good because nobody can see at first glance that a person is disabled. Josh’s interest in adaptive sports started when he saw a disabled person couldn’t get to an elevator because of a crowd around it. He felt there was a need for awareness to help both normal people and people with disabilities to get along. Josh saw this as a good way to “give back” to the community. So Krankin’ through China was born.

Krankin’ Through China has both members and volunteers. They do everything together to cement a cooperative community, and to encourage leadership by everyone.

Rotary lunch 20 July 2021

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

I quit

We had our Rotary lunch 20 July 2021 in Kempinski, this time not anymore as Sergeant-at-Arms as I quit for “obvious personal reasons”. Well I can finally enjoy the food, the company and listen to the speaker!

Speaker was Sean McLeod, consular officer in US Embassy in Beijing. Topic: “ “How I Became a Foreign Service Officer”.
He told his story on how he become a diplomat after a diverse career, with posts in Indonesia, among among others. He was deeply involved with the evacuation flights from Wuhan last year.

Meeting Highlight as in the Newsletter

Sean McLeod is a consular officer from the US Embassy in Beijing. In this captivating talk, Sean described the trajectory of his career and highlighted the reasons why he decided to quit the private sector to serve his country. It all started with medicine. Sean first studied to become a doctor, but finding it not what he wanted, he made a big jump to computer programing and moved to Japan to live overseas for the first time. Finding it not fulfilling still, he went on to study for an MBA and later became a management consultant for IBM for 15 years. While as many people would have just settled down at what they had at this stage in life, Sean was not satisfied. Deciding to join the foreign service, he then took the foreign service examination and after successfully passing it, took the foreign service training on teamwork and how to achieve consensus on issues while representing US interests abroad. Sean’s current tour is in the consular section at the US Embassy in Beijing.

Rotary Club of Beijing memories

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Cleaning up my paper mountain

As many friends know, I have this annoying statement since a few years that I am trying to clean up the mountain of files in my office. Annoying because I always mention it but failed to make any progress. But I am discovering a lot like Rotary Club of Beijing memories, among many other. It seems like a huge jigsaw puzzle as papers are all mixed up, sometimes with no date stamp. But yes I am making progress and my tricycle recycling friend has more waste paper to collect.
But sometimes I am left puzzled about those hazy memories.

A gold medalist

I stumbled on this small newspaper clipping:

I think the small article is from China Daily. I found the longer version here:
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/olympics/2008-08/18/content_6945218.htm

I had nearly forgotten about it. I found back the old post on my website, see here the updated version:
Sergey Bubka, the IOC and Beijing Rotary Club, https://www.beijing1980.com/2013/08/20/sergey-bubka-the-ioc-and-beijing-rotary-club/

Few of our present members ever heard about Sun Children Village… One of the projects we supported. We even had a Rotary Villa there…

GSE 2008

GSE is “Group Study Exchange”. We did that in 2008 when we sent a Chinese team to New Zealand and we then received their team in Shanghai and Beijing. It was a difficult and complicated organization with our Kiwi friends staying all over the city in different locations and changing then from one family to the other. One, Jo, stayed with me and I found back her note, see the pic. I had also organized for her a meeting with one of the most important pharmaceutical companies involved in diabetes medicine; Ms. Joana Young BSc, PG Dip SCi was doing her PhD – Clinical Scientist, Lipid and Diabetes Research Group, Christchurch Hospital.

We had a very varied and full program for the group, but also filled with fun: I took them to a big lesbian evening where we had a great night. To say farewell to our New Zealand GSE team we organized a dinner on Friday 25 April 2008 in Restaurant Sahara (long gone, close to Salsa Caribe, also gone). We had a large VIP room with our own buffet of Middle East cuisine plus belly dancing in our room.

See some of the many pics (never published). One is during our Rotary lunch with the whole team presented; one in Pipe Cafe, long gone and razed, gongti nan lu, that time the biggest lesbian bar where I had privileged access; one in Sahara Restaurant.
Overall it was a big success but it also proved to be too much work for the Club.

Beijing Rotary in June

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Kempinski Hotel 1 June

Beijing Rotary in June started on 1 June with a lunch for members and potential members only, to discuss internal issues.
Rotary 2021-22 President Didier opened the meeting by welcoming the club guests and introduced his team of 2021-22. In presenting his vision and course of action, he first emphasized diversity as the guiding principle in growing the club membership. He further stressed Service as an integral part of the Rotary spirit and the driving force for achieving that spirit: Fellowship and Programs. To put them in order it is Fellowship, Service, and Engagement.

Didier also referred to the briefing he organized in his residence on 23 May (see the pics) for present and future board members and committee chairs.

Several of the directors and chairs briefed us about their activities.

Encuentro dinner 8 June

I have been a few times to Encuentro, the new place replacing Red Rose, see https://www.beijing1980.com/2021/06/13/exploring-encuentro-replacing-red-rose/

The Rotary Club of Beijing has held several dinners there to the general satisfaction, see also this post: https://www.beijing1980.com/2021/04/30/rotary-club-of-beijing-in-april/

Iris Bula, a friend of Rotary who attended several of our meetings is the new chef! She prepared for us an excellent buffet all included with wine, beers and other drinks. We had a large private room, very convenient.

Our speaker was John Sze Ming Khor, the President of the Shanghai Rotary Club Lujiazui who is on a visit to Beijing. He talked to us about the start of his Education company after being a volunteer teacher and exploring in particular the poor rural areas. He is the founder and CEO of KERU – Shanghai, a social enterprise that provides consulting services to companies in the social sector and offers educational experiences for ambitious student leaders.
He has an impressive background both professionally and for community service.
More about his company: https://www.keruknowledge.com/

Rtn Piper thanked the speaker for his well-received talk.

Foundation Project Update – Hypospadias

From April 7th to 9th, the Rotary/Hebei Children’s medical van made the trips to Xingtai, Neiqiu, and Shahe counties, to provide free checkups to rural children, and training to the county doctors. This was the first such medical mission since the lockdown in Shijiazhuang late last year and the travel restrictions imposed after the lockdown. This Rotary/Hebei Children outreach program transports medical experts to the rural counties, from where to reach the provincial capital of Shijiazhuang often involves all day journeys and lost work and wages for the rural families.

With the medical mission resuming, the Shijiazhuang urology experts were able to examine and provide diagnosis to the rural children again. In recent months, 10 Hypospadias surgeries from the current grant have been performed. The pandemic has caused delays and sometimes stoppage to the grant surgeries.
About Hypospadias: https://www.beijing1980.com/2017/04/13/hypospadias-surgeries-need-support/

Rotary Beijing discussed mental health

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Kempinski Hotel 18 May 2021

Rotary Beijing discussed mental health during their lunch thanks to Enoch Li.
Enoch was our very interesting speaker on the topic of Mental Health, now gaining a lot of attention by Rotary International and the Chinese government. This is a much misunderstood subject. Enoch corrected the wrong understanding of mental issues, illustrated the growing awareness of this medical condition and explained how we can address it correctly.

Enoch is a former member of our Club. Some ten years ago she left as she was going through a personal tough time. Previously she was a successful expat with HSBC, in London, Paris, Tokyo, and Beijing. Originally holding a Master in Law, she furthered her studies in INSEAD and Institutes in the field of Social Systems, Play Therapy and Small Group Training. She has been featured on many international media and is a regular public speaker.
In her talk she looked back at her studies, her successful career and how she was suddenly overwhelmed with depression, as recorded in her book “Stress in the City”.

See here Enoch taking the floor in the British Chamber of Commerce in Beijing.
More about her work: http://bearapy.me/

Enoch Li: “Stress In The City”

I bought her book and I was very impressed.

See here my book review:
https://www.damulu.com/2019/06/20/stress-in-the-city/