Amarok Society is a Canadian charity that goes into the world's most forbidding slums to teach mothers to teach children too poor for school. Daily, each mother goes from her Amarok Society Womens' School to teach at least 5 children from her neighbourhood in her own home. Amarok Society teaches literacy in Bangla, English and numeracy as well as health and hygiene and child care and development. The wonderful women of our Mothers of Intention Projects overcome a lifetime of bitter discouragement to find inspiration and hope in the promise that the children will be able to work their way out of their terrible poverty and debilitating ignorance. This is a new, effective, sustainable and cost-efficient method of addressing a very serious and dangerous problem that has resisted improvement in the past. Teach a Mother, Change the World.
 
Dr. Ruth Mathieson, Rotarian was very pleased to be able to introduce Dr. Tanyss Munro of Amarok Society to the Rotary Club.  Dr. Munro has devoted her life, along with her husband Gem, an author, to improving opportunities for disadvantaged people.  She has been an advisor to Federal Ministers in the Canadian government and a Director of Good Governance with the Commonwealth.  Her work has ranged from the Centres of Power to the poorest and most overlooked communities in the world.  In 2006, Dr. Munro and her husband founded and are Executive Directors of the Amarok Society.  The Rotary Club of Belleville has a long-standing commitment to the Amarok Society, through Michael Maloney, Chair of the Literacy Committee and the hard-working members of the Committee, former Rotarian Sharon McConnell and Elizabeth Grew who led a Global Grant which took eight years to complete.
 
Dr. Munro was excited to have Sharon McConnell in person at the lunch meeting and to have Michael Maloney join on screen.  When Dr. Munro and her husband moved to Dhaka, Bangladesh in 2005 with their four children, they soon saw a situation that was much worse than they had imagined.  There was no one working on education in the slum areas.  They identified Rotary as an ideal partner to come up with an effective and sustainable solution to make a difference and the possibilities have been remarkable.  By instilling a culture of education in the slums, caring neighbourhoods have been developed where people have a sense of others and are deeply committed to the program.  Dr. Munro gave credit to Michael Maloney who approached them to connect with the Rotary Club of Dhaka and to Elizabeth Grew and Sharon McConnell who were instrumental in putting together a Global Grant that resulted in Rotary Clubs around the world becoming aware of their work in Bangladesh.  Dr. Munro and her husband are forever grateful to Rotary for understanding the problem they were facing.
 
Dr. Munro shared some true stories about young people whose lives have experienced a great trajectory change through the program and help of the mothers in the program.  Not only teaching young children, but ensuring they are fed, collecting food and helping them find safe places to live.  Through the schooling, young people are able to access better jobs and are paid a little more.  They have seen first hand the courage and strength of the mothers.  The mission of the Amarok Society is to advance human rights, peace and understanding through education.  Dr. Munro left us with a quotation from Rabindranath Tagore, "I slept and dreamt that life was joy.  I awoke and saw that life was service.  I acted and behold, service was joy".  Thanked by Masud Alam who knew of one school that was very close to where he lived, he acknowledged the commitment of Dr. Munro and her husband and Rotarians Michael Maloney, Sharon McConnell and Elizabeth Grew.  Give us a good mother and we will give you a good nation.