Rotary Community Heroes of Hope
Introducing "Rotary Community Heroes of Hope" - a podcast dedicated to showcasing the profound impact of Rotary in District 5330 and beyond. Join us as we explore the remarkable stories of rotary heroes and initiatives that are transforming communities and creating hope around the world.
Rotary Community Heroes of Hope
Breaking Barriers: Mental Health Training in Brazil
Hello and welcome to the Community. Heroes of Hope, a podcast where we shine a light on the remarkable individuals and projects in Rotary District 5330 that bring hope and change to our local and global communities. I am Judy Zelfikar, your co-host and the current District Governor of Rotary District 5330.
Speaker 2:And I'm Niren McLean, the Rotary District Governor-Elect, and I'm Niren McLean, the Rotary District Governor-Elect. Together, we're diving deep into the heart of the community service, showcasing the impact of dedication and collaboration in addressing some of the most pressing challenges our communities face.
Speaker 1:Each episode, we'll tell stories of incredible people making a difference, innovating solutions and inspiring others to take action.
Speaker 2:We'll also be giving you a behind-the-scenes look at the projects that are transforming their lives, and we'll discuss how you, too, can get involved, contribute and be part of the positive change. Whether you're a seasoned Rotarian or just looking to give back, this podcast is for you.
Speaker 1:So join us as we explore the journeys, challenges and successes of people like you who have stepped up to make a difference. Let's celebrate the spirit of community and the power of hope together.
Speaker 2:Don't forget to subscribe to the Community Heroes of Hope on your favorite podcast platform. Stay with us on this journey of inspiration and let's spread the message of hope further than ever.
Speaker 1:Thank you for tuning in. Let's get started.
Speaker 2:Well, good afternoon. We are excited to have the members of the most recent vocational training team that went to Brazil with us today for our next podcast of our community Heroes of Hope. So I'd like to introduce our current district governor, judy Zolfakar.
Speaker 1:And one of the VTT team members.
Speaker 2:And one of the VTT team members.
Speaker 1:I know I'm very excited, so we've got quite a crew here. We're going to start us off and have our organizer and coordinator, past district governor Ricardo Loretta, start us off with an introduction and tell us a little bit about what is VTT.
Speaker 3:Thank you very much, judy. Vtt, which stands for Vocational Training Team, is fundamentally an exchange of service ideas in one of the seven areas of focus that Rotary has. So a team of usually five to seven members from one district will travel to another district internationally meaning across an international border to exchange ideas in one of these seven areas of focus, and it can be reciprocal. In other words, a district which sends a team, for example, to Brazil, can expect, hopefully, to have a team from Brazil come back and visit them at a subsequent date. The mission of these VTT teams is to discover and learn information in the topic that's on the table which might be beneficial to the Rotary Clubs back in the home district, and there is an interview process to select the VTT team which is fairly detailed and rigorous. So we get the best of the best.
Speaker 3:Now history we've had three VTTs that have gone to Brazil in the last 10 years and many others have gone to other places in the last 10 to 15 years. But with respect to Brazil, we've been very lucky to have three of these vocational training teams in the last 10 years 2015, 2019, and then this year, 2024, visit District 4630. And the value of doing that is that 4630 in Brazil knows what they're doing. We know that they are a safe place to visit. They are populated with great Rotarians to stay with, work with and bond with, and they get it. They know why we're doing this in the first place. So on to, is it Jennifer?
Speaker 1:Yes, let's talk about and to our co-captain, jennifer Loretta and you have to come off mute, jennifer, there you go.
Speaker 4:Okay, now I can speak Along with the presentations that we took to Brazil and we went down there on a mental health VTT. In other words, we were going down to discover and learn what they do in the district in Brazil and to bring along a presentation, a resilience program that we work on or working on instituting in the schools in our district. And we're focused on this because the training that we were presenting about involves educating students on how they can be resilient and what skills are required to be resilient in group activities that they can understand and learn from. So we went down with a series of exercises, so to speak, that we then tested on some of the students and staff people that we met at the universities.
Speaker 1:So we're going to get into the details of exactly what we did, but can you go ahead and introduce yourself? Tell us what club you're in, what you do in your profession and why it was important for you to go on to the vocational training team, what it meant to you what it meant to you.
Speaker 4:Sure, I'm Jennifer Loretta. I'm in Palm Desert Rotary. My day job is as a director of development for Habitat for Humanity, so I'm very involved in the nonprofit area. Why was I very interested? Because I think that mental health strong mental health is so important. It's an initiative that we are working on here in our district and even have a global grant focused on that, so I was very interested in it. Plus, having lived in Brazil, so I was very interested in it. Plus, having lived in Brazil, I was very excited to go back and spend some time there and utilize my Portuguese to help the team.
Speaker 1:Which was a wonderful help because, boy, we needed those translations as we went through it. I'm also co-captain with Jennifer. It was such a pleasure working with every single one of these individuals on our team. We have everyone here today except for Glenn Brock. Glenn Brock is a police officer in the Hemet area. He's out of the Hemet Club and he wasn't able to join us today because there's some other stuff going on in the world and he is doing what he does best, which is keep our area safe. So everybody kind of knows me on this podcast. I'm going to kick it to Carissa. Carissa, can you tell us what club you're from, what you do in your professional life and why you decided to come on to the VTT team?
Speaker 5:Thank you for having me. My name is Carissa and I'm with the Rotary Club of Old Town, temecula. I'm Ms Carissa and I'm with the Rotary Club of Old Town, temecula. I had the privilege of serving as the secretary for this VTT. Professionally, I am a director of marketing and business development for a national law firm, and the reason why I was drawn to this particular VTT is mental health, and destigmatizing mental health is a cause that's near and dear to me specifically with youth.
Speaker 1:Excellent, thank you, carissa. How about Dan? Dan, can you introduce yourself and tell?
Speaker 6:us a little bit about it. Sure Well, good afternoon. I'm Dan Huddick. I happen to be president of the Yucaipa Rotary in Yucaipa, california, and I'm assuming the same question why was it that I was interested in VTT? Fortunately, like Loretta Jennifer, I was able to spend some time in Brazil, so I have a bit of experience as an exchange student many years ago. And so when I heard of the opportunity of a team heading to Brazil, coupled with the focus of that opportunity being mental health, that piqued my interest. And I also happen to be a minister working with youth and working with young adults that deal with issues and are challenged, and so I thought that this would be a great opportunity to enhance my abilities to provide for those in the ministry field.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Thank you, Mary Alice. Can you introduce yourself and tell us why you decided to be on the VTT team?
Speaker 7:Sure, I'm Mary Alice Alvergoings. I'm with the Palm Desert Rotary Club along with Jennifer, and I applied to go because my experience is in public education and over the last 15 years I've worked with my teaching staffs and we went through trauma, informed practices and we looked for many different ways to help our students because we could see an increased need for mental health support. And now that I'm retired, I'm still working with school districts all over Riverside County. So I wanted to learn more about this and what we're using and how we can incorporate this in our district, and then what they were doing down in Brazil and what they're facing down there with their youth.
Speaker 2:Well, that's kind of interesting. As you know, in my day job as well, we're dealing with at-risk youth, at-risk teenagers in particular, at-risk youth, at-risk teenagers in particular. So I'm really curious to see, to hear more about what did you, what are they doing in Brazil that may be different than what we're doing here, and what did you bring down to them to help their teenagers deal with the challenges facing them? I don't know who want to take that.
Speaker 7:I don't know who want to take that. Well, what we took is past president Jamie Zinn is introducing and trying to pilot this resilience program and it's very specific in the 10 skills that can really be taught to students so that they can practice them over time and build their own resilience levels. So that's what we took down to Brazil is this program and what it could look like and what we're trying to implement in our schools. But, dan, I always like your explanation of the health system in Brazil, so I think that might help answer some of Niren's question.
Speaker 6:Yeah, from my understanding work, especially since I have a host brother in Brazil who is a neurologist, and so I've got some insights and some information from him on how medicine is delivered in Brazil.
Speaker 6:In the 60s, brazil made a very focused effort to educate their people, realizing that this was the main road to prosperity, and so for many, many years they've been focusing on education. Their higher education in the federal systems are of no charge, as long as you can pass a test, your college or your university charges are zero, and this was all in an effort to encourage and to assist their people in arising from the third world status. However, they've also now have been inundated education to students where maybe they're not able to get into the universities because there's no space, and so private universities have also joined in privately providing information, providing education for the professionals that are desperately needed in Brazil, and so there's while it's a bit different structure than we recognize here in the States, it is a public right for a Brazilian to seek medical care. The question then becomes how does that care get delivered and in what fashion? And we were exposed to a lot of information from the universities, both private and public, on how they see their role in delivering care to the population.
Speaker 1:Very good. Thank you, dan Carissa. Can you walk us through kind of what the overall things that we were doing throughout the day, the different the schedule that we had as we went through the week?
Speaker 5:And so our days were a mixture of meeting with, you know, leaders in the community in the education space, in mental health, in medicine space, visiting universities and also presenting on the program that we are piloting here in our district on resilience so we talked a lot about that with different rotary clubs, with different university groups. Primarily we were meeting with psychology departments and then we concluded our trip meeting with city officials, with the Chamber of Commerce, there in Maringa.
Speaker 1:And this was interesting because it was a very these trainings that we did were very interactive training. So say, taking basically what would have been done in a full day of training and condensing it into three hours and then doing it in a different language, If you can imagine Some challenges.
Speaker 5:Yeah, was demonstrating the program and getting the adults to be involved in the program that we would have the students be working with here in the state so they could get a flavor for the teachings, the experience and be better equipped to speak on that topic and further develop it there in Brazil.
Speaker 1:And it was just really sorry. Go ahead.
Speaker 3:This is the beauty of Rotary. We were working with a group of people in District 4630 who understood what the overall purpose was, and so they kept the group focused, and yet we didn't necessarily have a palette or a model that had been time tested over years. In fact, we put together a presentation in both English and Portuguese weeks before the team left and it actually worked. But it worked because we were working with Rotarians who get it, who were helpful in trying to, you know, make any of the speed bumps passable, etc. Isn't that true? You had great support from our fellow Rotarians who were hosting you, absolutely.
Speaker 1:We did and, Jennifer, I'd love you to start off talking about what was your experience with the host families.
Speaker 4:Well, that was a lot of fun. I was with a host family that did not speak any English, and so the communication was funny, because even though I speak Portuguese, I couldn't always track on exactly what they were saying. But they were so hospitable every minute, to the point where every day they would drop me off where I needed to be be right there to pick me up. At the end of whatever our schedule was for the day. I'd have dinner, if it was necessary, breakfast, every morning. I had a wonderful experience, and it was just a couple, and they're two dogs, so I didn't have any kids to bond with like Carissa did, but it was a lot of fun.
Speaker 2:Carissa, tell us about your your experience with your host family.
Speaker 5:Oh my gosh, I had the best experience. I have been adopted by my Brazilian family.
Speaker 1:She's now literally part of their family.
Speaker 5:My husband too. They actually facetimed us on christmas. So we've got a wonderful.
Speaker 5:So, um, my family was a married couple with labio and melissa and my, my host brother and sister, um, and they have two boys, pedro and tiago. And tiago took to me immediately, like the second. I stepped onto the tarmac, essentially he was just glued to my side. So we, as I mentioned, we had a very busy program while we were down there, but we did get quite a bit of time with our host families and I had the honor of taking Chiago to school almost every weekday that I was there. So I actually got to visit his class, his first grade class Maybe he's in second grade, I should know that, but I got to visit on the day they were having their English lesson. So it was really awesome. We had some game nights, really great meals together, but, as Jennifer said, just such a hospitable people Dan what was your experience like?
Speaker 6:Fortunately for me, both Glenn and I stayed with our family. The lady's name was Verigiana, which is very Diana, which I thought was a beautiful name, verigiana and Fausto. They have two children One, the daughter, was Maria Luisa, and she was in the university working on her dentistry degree. Of course, both her parents are dentists as well, so it was right in line. And then the son, pedro, also Jean Pedro. He was also in school for dentistry also. Both he and his sister spoke great English. Fausto and Veridiana spoke a little bit of English, but it was so welcoming. The house was absolutely gorgeous. It happened to be on a level just above their dentistry practice and a school that they have set up in the same building. So it was wonderful. The family even took both Glenn and I over to a local street fair and fiesta that was taking place as they were celebrating the time before Christmas and it was very popular in Brazil the pre-Christmas season. So just a great, delightful family and, as Carissa said, just very hospitable Couldn't do enough for us.
Speaker 2:Mary Alice. Last but not least, tell us about your experience.
Speaker 7:I was very lucky and got to stay with a retired professor from one of the universities who is also a Rotarian and just very well known in the area. Her history is that her family, her great grandparents, helped to build Maringa, and so she was wonderful and I met her family, her children and grandchildren, and we just hit it off really, really well and, yes, we are still in touch every few days.
Speaker 1:I will tell you, it's like every single person got placed with the absolute perfect family. Myself, I was actually with Bia and her brother. The parents weren't even home. Bia's 20. She's a rotaractor and she was so perfect. She spoke English beautifully, which helped, because I have no Portuguese in me, did not learn and did not have time to learn, but she took excellent care of me. And then, you know, going out and visiting Rotaractors in action on a service project was one of the highlights of my visit there as well, in addition to all the wonderful work we were doing as the VTT team.
Speaker 2:They have a lot of energy, rotaractors, and they're the future, so that's awesome. That's awesome. I do have a question for the group, and that is were you able to test out or I shouldn't say test out, that's probably not the right word but were you able to utilize the program that you brought down there on high school students and to gauge their reaction to the resiliency, the 10 resiliency points that were listed?
Speaker 1:Dan, why don't you go ahead and answer that?
Speaker 6:Certainly yes, we had a great time kind of sharing some of the core aspects of the resiliency training. The resiliency training was intended for an audience from 7th to 11th grade. We were working with university students and that was our kind of test personnel that we were able to work with At two different universities. We had a population of about 100, and for one group and about 50 at the next group. And in our activities again, this is done through a translator the materials were all in Portuguese for them to understand. But especially sitting back and just watching and not knowing the language, you could just see how they were getting the concepts and they were getting the ideas and they were. You could see the learning, the light coming on and again, the material, while developed for a younger population, was very appropriate for the university students as well.
Speaker 1:And Mary Alice, I'm sorry go ahead.
Speaker 4:I was going to say one of the advantages of this particular program is that it is scalable and adaptable to any age group.
Speaker 1:Okay, Absolutely, okay, absolutely. And what we learned down there was that there are not any programs that are like this currently and that it's very needed. So that's what we heard back from our Brazilian team was that this is very much a need. They're very interested in having this resilience program, learning more about it and implementing it with their schools. Mary Alice, do you want to talk about one of the results of us being down?
Speaker 7:there what that initiated One of the universities has already jumped on. One of the things we noticed in going to the university is like we have mission statements here with our schools and businesses. They had mission statements on their walls and many of these words were incorporated into their mission statement, but they hadn't really visited that or taught that to their students. So as we were teaching them the 10 skills of resiliency, they're like wait a minute, we have that. That is important and one of the universities has already reached out to talk, to work with their president, to start incorporating building a program like this for their psychology students.
Speaker 1:Awesome. So what are? What are? Maybe some funny things that happened, or final thoughts as we wrap up this and maybe, maybe sprinkle in what maybe somebody can talk about what how you would encourage somebody else, another Rotarian, to apply for a future VTT, because you have a couple that you're planning, right, nairon?
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:So let's start with Carissa.
Speaker 5:Okay, well, you know what my story is going to be. So, again, the focal point of our training is resiliency, and that's a skill I learned hard and fast on my travels down to Brazil. I got stuck in the Sao Paulo airport. It's a long story, I'll save for another day, but I was up there for 12 hours, so I missed out on a lot of the activities that were planned for us for our first day. And you know, when I was collecting myself, I recognized we're here to teach about resiliency.
Speaker 1:So I need to be resilient, we actually Mary Atlas and I.
Speaker 5:In the portion of the program that we moderated, we brought in some real-life examples to demonstrate what the skill looks like in action and how it may arise. So we circled back to travel woes quite a bit, but I would certainly encourage anyone who is interested in learning about a different culture even learning more about yourself to pursue being on a VTT. It was a great way to get to know different Rotarians, to get to know people in a different country, and I just personally feel very enriched by this whole experience.
Speaker 2:Excellent. Mary Alice how about you?
Speaker 7:I have to agree with that. Excellent, mary Alice. How about you health? And especially within our schools, because I still work with all of our schools here in Riverside County, so the chance to go down there and learn more about our program and their programs was too good to pass up. So I did apply and it was amazing. It's just an amazing country with wonderful, wonderful people, and it would have been a real shame to not go. So I think if you, if you have a passion for something, don't be worried about the country you're going to, because they'll make it a great experience for you awesome Dan well.
Speaker 6:as I'm hearing the other two responses, I'm just kind of nodding my head. I think one who has an interest in adventure would do very well applying for a VTT experience trip. Especially if there is a hobby or if there's an interest. That would enhance the reason why one should put their name in the hat, so to speak. The experience was just phenomenal. It's difficult to explain how it impacts us, how it impacted me, but I think that to, especially now that we're back from our journey and we're kind of unraveling and maybe sharing information about our journeys and about those who have impacted us, we realize how we've impacted others as well, and so it's a great way to recognize that we too have a great impact. All we need to do is make ourselves available for that.
Speaker 1:Awesome.
Speaker 4:And last but not least, jennifer, you know I would recommend this to anybody who is willing to travel and willing to stay flexible. You have to be flexible and adaptable and kind of go without any preconceived expectations. You know, I lived in Brazil so I might have thought I know something about Brazil, and I do have thought I know something about Brazil and I do. But I learned so much more and it was just a wonderful experience. I think primarily the people, the people I traveled with, the people I met, and this is going to continue as we do our presentations throughout the district, presentations throughout the district. That's so much fun to visit the clubs and talk to them, so I would recommend it to anybody that thinks they would like to do that.
Speaker 2:I have a kind of a wrap-up question, governor Judy. I'd like to ask each of you do you think that this trip and your experience has made you a better Rotarian? Let's start with Carissa.
Speaker 5:Oh, hands down. I was so inspired to see what Rotarians are doing at the international level. That's something I've not really been able to experience before and it just renewed my passion for Rotary and I feel like I came back even more engaged than I was previously and I've been in Rotary for almost eight years now but it definitely sparked something anew in me.
Speaker 2:Excellent Jennifer.
Speaker 4:It's kind of that aha thing. That, yeah, it's kind of that aha thing, but I came back more enthusiastic. You know you get into a routine with your own club and you may do some wonderful things, but this is an eye opener sort of an aha on a international basis that allows you to see the big picture. That's all.
Speaker 2:Excellent Mary.
Speaker 7:Alice. It was really wonderful to learn about the projects that they're working on and where they could use help and be able to support. We supported an interact group that was working on a music project. It's a thank you for all the translation the young men did. But their Hope Farm. Learning that they had established that so many years ago and how successful it is, you learn a lot about what Rotary is doing in the world. Yes, in the world.
Speaker 6:And Dan, yes, you know what's interesting. When one has been in Rotary as long as I have, you wonder what keeps us going. Right, I've been now. I think that's my 29th year in Rotary and as president this year, one of my main focuses is to remind the club of all of the things that we do and its impact that it has on the community. And of course, I echo that through the theme. And that's the magic of Rotary. And I think that this was a wonderful opportunity to see how the magic of Rotary not only takes place here in the United States but is alive and well and thriving in a third world country, and they have the same desires for helping their people and helping each other. And it kind of challenged me to live out one of the slogans that I saw on the backs of the T-shirt that many Rotarians were wearing, and that was people of action, people of action. So I came back to Yucaipa with some different ideas and tried to live out that same motto, being people of action.
Speaker 1:That's a great segue into understanding really there are so many programs within Rotary. It's sometimes hard to explain to people that are not Rotarians, and even Rotarians, all the different opportunities. You know this is a Rotary-sponsored opportunity, so actually the travel not any extracurricular activities, but the travel is covered by Rotary. We have this international opportunity there's, you know you can go to a Rotary International Convention, you can be on a friendship exchange, you can do a humanitarian project. There's so many things both in our communities and around the world that we can be involved in and really appreciate all of you coming to share and that you're sharing the things that we learned on the VTT trip with all of our Rotarians in our district and around the world.
Speaker 2:Thank you for all coming today and to share your excitement and share your passion and I love the fact that you said that you are now even better Rotarians, because that is the name of the game and to share, being a community, heroes of Hope.
Speaker 1:So that wraps up this episode of Heroes of Hope. We are so happy that we have an audience out there listening. We want you to subscribe, share and tell your friends about the Rotary community Heroes of Hope, because that's how we get the word out about the impact we're having in this world.