During my inaugural message, I started the ball rolling by a question… “What have you been doing for others?” And there, I joyfully shared how I have learned to share my 3 Ts for Rotary after a year of being a Rotarian and now a Life Changing President (LCP).

They say time flies when you are having fun, never thought I can survive half my term being an LCP, amidst the challenges posed by this pandemic, the escalating demands at work and my laboratory as a scientist for the nation as well as responsibilities at home, being juggled to flawlessly serve and change lives. I found myself flowing with the tide as guided by my Club Past Presidents and sailing along with LCP Classmates, fellow Rotarians, Rotaractors and Intercators of our club, enjoying each moment to use our talents, time and treasures to reach our beneficiaries.

Since my term marks the start of celebrating our club’s silver anniversary, we made 25 kids happy and healthy during the Children’s day last July, strongly emphasizing the importance of oral health, family values and joys of being kids through gift giving. We also started establishing the MAT Caparas Village, a Rotary Cultural Village, a community of Alangan Mangyan in Mindoro through the project called ROOFed and food-for-work. This honors PRIP MAT Caparas affirming his respect for the nobility of the poor and emphasizing diversity, equity and inclusion as well as encouraging their ownership and engagement. We started with 25 homes and will continue to finish the remaining households soon.

When most clubs were encouraged to invite female Rotarians as new members, our club was challenged to recruit males. RCPM’s trademark is giving vibes that we are a family and not just a club, thus, together with our membership team we boldly and excitedly tried the “spouses and families” recruitment strategy. This is to continue engaging our respective families in various Rotary activity whether as a couple, as a family and now, as a club. Worth noting related to this initiative is having Paul Harris Families from our club recognized during the TRF gala. As we continue to heed the call of “each one bring one”, we are committed more than ever to retaining them all.

I am humbled by RCPM’s generosity as 10 of us have joined as charter members of the Polio Plus Society, making sure to help and make history to finally close the gap and end polio globally. It was indeed a fun month to celebrate and inspire other to end polio, together with my husband, we even joined a virtual marathon, 24km, to raise funds for this cause. Not only we enjoyed our time with fellow runners but knowing that this healthy activity will also help in ending polio, it was surely worth it.

The Rotary have always given me opportunities to use my vocation, a virologist and immunologist, to educate and aid in understanding the benefits of vaccination for COVID-19, various clubs and even districts have invited us to share insights, advances and other important issues related to ending fake news about vaccination. I think that even if my term ends, I will continue this call to reach more and educate more to help end this pandemic and provide healthy and safe spaces against COVID-19.

Speaking of SAFE SPACES, we are thankful for District 3830 in providing us a district grant to help empower girls, women and other vulnerable genders though our SAFE SPACE project with Barangay Almanza Dos, RC Makati and YCA Philippines. We started during the vocational service month to describe what safe spaces meant through our vocation and how we can help create a safe space for everyone. As we continue the project in training barangay safe spaces champions, we are looking forward to having this model perpetuated in other barangays in the coming rotary years. This is our way to ensure that girls, women, and all vulnerable genders are empowered, wherever they are, allowing them to reach their full potential and fulfilling their dreams.

As we embark towards the next half of this rotary year journey, we are excited to cap it with relevance, inclusivity, and focus. Several projects are brewing such as our Scholarships for the DEAF, Water project for the Alangan Mangyan, economy and livelihood initiatives for the Dumagats and our Rotary Environment Coffee Project. Hopeful that beyond the club’s silver years, we remain steadfast and linked stronger.

This is LCP Lhen, first half done, on to the next half!