Sivan Moyal - July 6 Speaker

Sivan Moyal, alum and Eagle Scout from NxNE Austin's Great Troop 8, 2016 graduate of Harmony School of Excellence, and off to Rochester Institute of Technology in the fall, shared a slide presentation of District 5870's 2016 Group Service Experience Team to the Philippines.  This most impressive young man began and closed his presentation, with obvious gratitude, by thanking Rotary for his previous RYLA experience and for inclusion on the GSE Team this year. The four-week experience began in Tacloban with an orientation about the culture by local Rotarians.  Their first service project was with a therapy center for autistic and similarly handicapped children called the Jesus Kids.  (In most cases, the social and educational institutions are church and other non-governmental organizations.)  The GSE group spent two days building steps and beautifying the grounds.  Moving on, they were always on the lookout for ways to provide a ready means of livelihood for village residents:  seeds and scrubs, tree plantings(both shade and fruit to sell), recycling plastic bags into woven carry-alls.  They spent five days building a food dehydrator using solar power to reach temperatures of 180-200 degrees F.  The resulting product needed no refrigeration, could be kept or carried a distance, sold for ready cash.  They donated over $500 worth of school supplies to three elementary schools, participated in four different feedings and two clean-ups.  Perhaps most encouraging was meeting the Streetlight youth.  Street kids at risk for gang and drug activities were fed, cared for, taught social skills, trained in a useful skill, so that when re-entering the community, they had both personal pride and the tools to be useful, successful citizens. The group learned much, noting the warm and welcoming communities built on strong family bonds, the need for more future projects (food dehydrators, education, cottage industries to uplift community standard of living), and the importance of service in what it brings to servant:  new skills, new ways to communicate and form interconnections, new realizations and possibilities, new desire to "do what is right because it is the right thing to do," and the desire to do more and more. Going off to college, Sivan says he will continue as a Rotaractor, founding a new group if necessary, and continue doing service as a way of life.