Our speaker Friday was Chehab (Shab) El Awar, a Past District Governor of District 5330 and a member of Rotary Club of San Bernardino Sunset. He was born in Lebanon and raised dirt poor but always listened to his mother and followed her example of helping people throughout her life.  Shab emigrated to the United States in 1978 and became a U.S. Citizen in 1986. He received his B.S. Degree as a civil engineer from Chico State University and his Masters of Structural Engineering degree from Long Beach State. He is married to Dr Bricia El Awar who is a dentist and practices on missions to Mexico and Central America . Shab joined Rotary in 1997 and both he and his wife are members of the same club.

Shab spoke from the heart with a passion to help others and a passion for building a future that has a promise for all. He and his wife have traveled extensively on missions for Rotary and have mastered how to research and apply for a matching global grants. There are two websites he shared with our club that list opportunities for matching global grants and projects to partner with other clubs. The first, matchingglobalgrants.org, lists projects all over the world along with contact information, project details, etc. These projects are typically located in very poor areas of third world countries such as remote India, Nepal, Philippines, or Mexico. Many are cleft pallet or water purification, or even medical equipment needs, but all are important.  Ideas.rotary.org is the other shared website that is full of “how to” instructions with step-by-step Rotary procedures on idea sharing.

Make no mistake, Shab not only tells us how to find projects and get matching grants, he takes part in missions to areas like Guatemala to repair cleft pallets, Bangladesh for a 3-H Project to deal with Health, Hunger, and Humanity at a school for drop out girls in poverty (2015). He currently lists another pending “water/sanitation” project waiting for RI Foundation approval with a $60,000 budget in an area of India. He is truly an amazing man with incredible talent to get things done. Many thanks to Shab and his wife for joining us and sharing this valuable information.

(Pat Dolphin)