Every Rotarian knows we are part of one big global family, so it was a great pleasure to welcome Momtaz Chowdhury, from the Rotary Club of Dhaka Mavericks in Dhaka, Bangladesh, to our meeting yesterday at Canterbury Bowling Club.
Momtaz is on a visit to the UK and made contact with our Club through one of our members. As many of you will know, our Club has supported projects in Dhaka, Bangladesh through the Rotary Club of Dhaka (Bangladesh's oldest club) - including projects to provide hygiene kits & education to girls, Covid-19/cyclone relief and, more recently, to support the development of a Covid-19 testing lab at the national cancer hospital in Dhaka and to cover the costs of eye surgery for a number of underprivileged eye patients. Momtaz's club is separate to this club and meets in areas in Dhaka called Banani and Gulshan.
While at our meeting Momtaz told us a little about a project that their club is involved with that aims to construct sustainable zero-carbon structures. She encouraged us all to visit Granary Square (near Kings Cross station) by 26th May to learn more about the nature of the project (https://www.kingscross.co.uk/event/gender-ecologies). The environment is, of course, one of Rotary's 7 areas of focus.
Momtaz is also one of six Rotary members honoured in March as People of Action: Champions of Girls’ Empowerment during Rotary Day with UNICEF in New York City.
While she was here Momtaz received a pennant from our President Stephen Thompson to take back to her club. Sadly, a lost luggage issue meant that she was not able to give Stephen a flag from her club in return.
To read more about Momtaz and the Champions of Girls' Empowerment, click here.
To find out more about the Rotary Club of Dhaka Mavericks, visit their Facebook page here.
To learn about Rotary's 7 areas of focus, click here.
Look out for an article on our "Bowling day" coming soon, with pictures shared on our Facebook page.
Picture: Momtaz receives our pennant from our President, Stephen Thompson. Picture credit: The Rotary Club of Canterbury.
