"Role of Rotarians in Disaster Relief"
Date:               Tuesday June 23, 2009 Time:              3:30 - 5:00 PM Location:        Hall 3A, Room 1 at the National Exhibition Centre (NEC).

The Convention attracted about17,000 people and has a very diverse program. Many breakout sessions were well attended. The D/R session attracted about 200 people.

PRID Don Mebus did a fine job in organizing this session. Panelists included DRRRAG Chair and Vice-Chair, John Eberhard from Canada and Sushil Gupta from India; DRRAG Zone Coordinators PDG Benjamin Cherian and PDG Shekhar Mehta; and Club Disaster Operations Officer from District 5260.

Don welcomed about 220 participants and provided an excellent detailed history of Rotary involvement in Disaster with some historic and very graphic pictures in a power point presentation.

The main question for the panelists was:  What is Rotary doing now to support disaster relief?

PRID Sushil Gupta introduces two presenters:

     PDG Benjamin Cherian Tsunami: Relief and Rebuilding

     PDG Shekhar Mehta: Bihar Flood Relief 

 

Both presentations were accompanied by slides of Rotarians assisting in various aspects of the relief operations. The content was detailed and well presented. A facilitated audience participation session followed moderated by Sushil.

This gave the audience an opportunity to voice their projects and successes having just been stimulated by the two prior presentations.

John Eberhard introduced the next presented by providing some background on DRRAG pointing out its short and long term goals. He then introduced Bernie Snider, C-DOO Granada Hills Rotary Club District 5260 Zone 24. What Bernie and D-DOO Nathan Wolfstein have done in California is just what DRRAG would like to see done in every district. His examples of "Preparation, training, response" gave live examples of how clubs can integrate with local emergency relief organizations as a "community service" and how the club (C-DOO) can relate to the District Committee and D-DOO at the regional level (tying in with other NGO and Government resources) and how the District structure provides a window to the DRRAG world. An audience-facilitated discussion moderated by John elicited many questions and comments from both the panel and attendees on the DRRAG Model

A wrap up and adjournment by RIPD Don Mebus expressed thanks for all attending and participating.