Mahmood Fadhel sharing his experience at the Rotary Club of Adliya

How would you go about managing a fleet of 650 vehicles and reconcile the needs of users and departments with varying needs? What would prepare you for this task?

Mr. Fadhel began his carrier as Workshop and Transport Controller when Batelco was experiencing growth and expanding its services. He gradually transformed the vehicle maintenance department from a simple maintenance workshop to a modern fleet management and maintenance centre, a centre which at times managed a fleet of over 650 vehicles ranging from normal cars and trucks to specialised vehicles like roading and cabling vehicles, pole erection vehicles, fiber optics specialised vehicles and mobile GSM base-station vehicles

Mr. Fadhel gained a Diploma in Automotive Engineering and a Diploma in Petrol and Diesel Vehicles Maintenance from UK. He also attained various practical certifications in vehicles maintenance and fleet management from vehicle manufacturers such as Toyota and Nissan, he was promoted to Manager Transport & Vehicle Maintenance Centre.

He was instrumental in Batelco winning numerous awards for fleet managements and vehicle repair and maintenance from reputable organisations around the world.
On retiring from Batelco after a service of 35 years, Mr. Fadhel started his own vehicle repair shop which he now personally manages.

To listen to Mahmood Fadhel’s story, please click on the Play button below and download his accompanying presentation [pdf].

Download audio file (RA-100712.mp3)

please press Play to start listening, or subscribe to our Podcasts to download and listen to them on your computer or mobile device at your leisure.

President Mahmood Al-Yousif presents Rotarian Dr. Faiza Ghabrial with a certificate of appreciation of her selfless dedication to the Rotary and its causes.

In a first of many to come, the President decided to honour a long standing and active member of the club for her exemplary service and attendance. He singled Rotarian Dr. Faiza Ghabrial for this honour and reminded the attendees of her services rendered to the Club and the larger community over a lifetime of selflessly giving without any expectations of returns.

The Club is indebted to Rotarian Dr. Faiza for her initiatives, particularly her suggestion for adopting the major cause of helping children with congenital heart defects, a cause which has now been fully adopted with committees formed to oversee the fund-raising and awareness activities to support such a worthy cause.

Rotarian Khulood Al-Qattan, the Service Projects Chairperson is closely working with Rotarian Dr. Faiza who now heads the Humanitarian Subcommittee to ensure the prescribed milestones are met and the vision for this program always remains at the forefront of the Rotary Club of Adliya’s agenda.

President Mahmood Al-Yousif with Think Pink Founder Jules Sprakel at the launch of a previous breast cancer awareness campaign

Earlier in the day, the Club approved its first activity of the Rotary Year: “The RCA Breast Cancer Awareness Walkathon” jointly with Think Pink Bahrain. The walkathon will take place on October 1st, signaling the start of a whole month of activities and events to increase breast cancer awareness in Bahrain.

Funds raised through this event will be equally shared between the Rotary Club of Adliya and will be used for its “Gift of Life Bahrain” program to help children with congenital heart defects and Think Pink Bahrain who will purchase a digital MRI machine specifically designed for the discovery of the onset of breast cancer in younger patients.

There are many corporate sponsorship opportunities available in this event, if you wish to contribute or talk to us about sponsorship, please contact Rotarian Khulood Al-Qattan or email us for more information. We expect the afternoon will be a lot of fun and be attended by a large number of people.

We welcome Rotarian and Guests to our meetings. For more information about our club and meetings, please link to http://rotaryadliya.org/about/club-meetings – we look forward to welcoming you.

Please click on the images below to view photos of the meeting.

New Year, New Location, New President, New Member inducted and the declaration of the committees programs, goals and aspirations for the year made the very first Club Assembly/Business Meeting an excellent start to the year. Especially with the presence of 73% of the membership.

President Mahmood Al-Yousif inaugurated the meeting at the Officers Club in the Elite Resort & Hotel by welcoming members and guests and inducted the first new member to the Rotary Club of Adliya in the year.

President Mahmood Al-Yousif inducts Mr. Fareed Bushehri into the Rotary Club of Adliya

The president then launched his presentation summarising his goals for the year and requested volunteers for various required subcommittees which would be critical for the success of the programs.

As you can see from the joint presentation and hear from the audio Podcast below, the major program for the year will be the Gift of Life Bahrain which is a program specifically designed to enable the diagnosis, treatment and ultimately surgical intervention of children with congenital heart defects. This program will raise sufficient funds to help the Ministry of Health to build and equip a specialised centre (the Children’s Cardiac Centre) to be housed within the Salmaniya Medical Centre, the main healthcare hospital in the Kingdom. To ensure its sustainability, the Rotary Club of Adliya will also ensure that a supervising doctor and some attendant nurses will be trained in the use of the provided equipment.

Download audio file (RA-1007-5.mp3)

Please click the Play button to listen to the Podcast

PP Redha Faraj discusses the budget for RY10/11

The Vice President and Honorary Treasurer PP Redha Faraj presented his budget for the year and explained how the sources of revenues to the Club must be utilised in order to achieve the required growth in program adoption, particularly the GOLB project, informed the club of the impact of membership growth and presented two scenarios for the Club to consider and suggested milestones and fund-raising possibilities and targets which should be considered to ensure the success of the Club’s endeavours.

The Gift of Life program will be supervised by Rotarian Khulood Al-Qattan who chairs the Service Projects Committee and ably assisted by Rotarian Dr. Faiza Ghabrial who heads the Humanitarian Subcommittee. The Gift of Life program was the brainchild of both Rotarian Dr. Faiza and PDG Nijad Alattasi.

To help raise funds for GOLB, the club will mount five major fund-raising activities:

1. Breast Cancer Awareness Walk
   1st October 2010 in cooperation with Think Pink Bahrain, subcommittee headed by President Mahmood Al-Yousif
2. Cricket Tournament
   scheduled for November 2010, subcommittee headed by Rotarian Zoher Taherbhai
3. RCA Bahrain Model United Nations XVII
   scheduled for February 2010, subcommittee headed by Rotarian Fareed Bushehri
4. The Bahrain Invitational Golf Tournament
   scheduled for March 2010, subcommittee headed by PP Peter Muijrers
5. Art Competition
   scheduled for March 2010, subcommittee headed by PP Redha Faraj

There are several more activities scheduled for the year and we need your help! RCA Rotarians especially are encouraged to contact me or any board member to offer your services. Please download the presentation and have a look at the available activities ready for your leadership.

Rotarian Khulood Al-Qattan, Chairperson, Service Projects Committee discusses her programs for RY10/11

Rotarian Khulood Al-Qattan then informed the club of her activities and emphasised her committee’s goals for the year, starting with the GOLB project and going on with educational, social and vocational aspirations. She specifically mentioned programs and ideas discussed during her meeting with her committee which comprise of:

• Rotarian Dr. Faiza Ghabrial – Head of the Humanitarian Subcommittee
• PP Dr. Khalid Tabbara – Head of the Educational Subcommittee
• and Rotarian Fareed Bushehri – Head of the Vocational Subcommittee

The Public Relations Chairperson Rotarian Ahdeya Noor then shared her plans on how the Club could be best exposed in the media and talked of her intentions to leverage the Arabic press more effectively and continue to work with the English papers who have always been supportive. Rotarian Ahdeya is also looking into exposing the Club’s activities in the national radio and television.

Past District Governor Nijad Alattasi then informed the club of the work and existential importance of the Rotary Foundation and declared his plans to activate the Club’s understanding in order to further the relationship with the Rotary Foundation.

The acting Sergeant-at-Arms Rotarian Jawad Hassan ably officiated the proceedings, PP Peter Muijrers entertained those present and acted as the fine master while Honorary Secretary and Incoming President Dr. Sajida Tabbara concluded the meeting by announcing the Secretary and positive Treasurer’s reports for the evening.

To be kept informed of the Rotary Club of Adliya’s activities, please consider subscribing to our Podcasts, view our photo albums, join us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter!

In the last meeting of the Rotary Year 2009/2010 under the leadership of President Hasan Albalooshi, the Club, which strongly believe in continuity and sustainability, took the opportunity to look forward and build on past successes.

The meeting was well attended, and was presided over by PP Redha Faraj, who invited Incoming President Mahmood Al-Yousif to share his goals and aspirations for RY 10/11.

In the attached Podcast, you could listen to the Mahmood’s presentation and download the accompanying presentation (pdf) to see and hear the plans and aspirations for yourself.

Download audio file (RA-100621.mp3)

Briefly, the following are the major points presented which will be the backbone of RY10/11 for the Rotary Club of Adliya:

The main cause: The Gift of Life Bahrain [GOLB]

For the benefit of children with congenital cardiovascular defects. It aims to not only build and equip a new annex to the Salmaniya Medical Centre, but also equip it with the appropriate equipment and help train a doctor and nurses to ensure its viable and long term sustainability.

With the aim to raise BD100,000 (US$ 265,000) to enable us to achieve this goal, we are planning several major fund raising events throughout the year; some of which will be:

Fund Raising Activities for RY10/11

• Breast Cancer Walk • shared with Think Pink Bahrain
 • October 2010 – P. Mahmood Al-Yousif
• Cricket Tournament • Rotarian Zoher Taherbhai
 • November 2010
• RCA Bahrain Golf Invitational • PP Peter Muijrers • 
Jan 2011
• RCA BAHMUN XVII • Rotarian Fareed Bushehri • 
Feb 2011
• Earth Day / Art Competition
 • March 2011

IP Mahmood Al-Yousif also detailed some other events which the Club will take on as part of its community responsibility, including:

• Orphans Cinema Outing in cooperation with the Bahrain Cinema Club • Sept 2010
• Bahrain National Day • December 2010
• RCA Family Fun Day activity • December 2010
• DG visit • February 2011 • should coincide with BAHMUN
• Elderly & Orphans desert camp • March 2011

The members expressed full support for these programs and committed to exert all efforts at ensuring their success.

We look forward to RY10/11, please join us!

Rotarian Wesam Baqer delivering his speech

Rotarian Wesam Baqer has a long history in community service. having been a Rotaractor (Manama & Salmania) for some 9 years and having gone through various leadership positions with the Rotaract Club, including a presidency and a leading position within the District’s management.

As Wesam wanted to continue serving his community in a structured and institutionalised manner after he naturally left the Rotaract Club, he decided to join the Rotary Club of Adliya.

Rightly thinking that others would benefit from his experience, Wesam approached the club and asked to be featured as a Speaker so that he can share his experiences, reflect on his time as a Rotaractor and also share his enthusiasm and aspirations with his fellow Rotarians to inspire them to do even more within their community.

Please click on the link below to listen to Rotarian Wesam’s talk and click here to download his presentation [pdf 12MB]

Download audio file (RA-100510.mp3)

These days, it’s often cheaper and more convenient to buy a new PC than to upgrade an old one. But what happens to those old computers once they’ve been abandoned for newer models?

The refuse from discarded electronics products, also known as e-waste, often ends up in landfills or incinerators instead of being recycled. And that means toxic substances like lead, cadmium and mercury that are commonly used in these products can contaminate the land, water and air.

Fareed Bushehri, the UNEP’s ROWA DTIE officer, and an acknowledged expert who provides technical assistance to countries of the West Asia Region to promote Sustainable Development, will be speaking to us at our regular meeting tomorrow evening (April 19th, 2010).

Mr. Bushehri covered:

• What is E-Waste and Why E-Waste is an issue?
• The Arab region and Its ICT Industry
• E-Waste Projects & Initiatives currently undertaken by UNEP
• Results of the Desk Study on E-Waste Management in the Arab Region
• Potentials for Environmentally Sound Management of E-Waste in the Region.

Please listen to the podcast of the meeting and Mr. Bushehri’s talk by clicking Play below:

Download audio file (RA-100419.mp3)

You can also download Mr. Bushehri’s accompanying presentation by clicking here [pdf].

disclaimer: some text copied from Wired.com

That’s how Test Cricket apparently ends up in sometimes!

On the night that PP Alan Blackman stood-in for President Hasan Al-Balooshi due to the latter being on a business trip, our very own Rotarian Zuhair Taherbhai stepped up to the plate and spent the next 20 minutes trying desperately to explain something which was rather obvious to him (and to both Rotarian Sam Mulholand and our stand-in president PP Alan Blackman) to a roomful of people who were utterly bewildered as far as Cricket is concerned. Thankfully, Rotarian Zuhair was finally able to get us to start to comprehend it.

That’s a good thing, as our club is putting a plan in place to mount another Cricket competition in Bahrain to raise money for our endeavors. Rotarian Zuhair spent a few minutes talking about the plans and suggested ways in which club members can contribute.

On behalf of the club, we wish to extend our thanks to PP Alan Blackman for chairing the meeting. We hope you enjoy listening to the Podcast.

There is one constant in the IT business and that is change! So how would a business – regardless of size – get a grip on how to enact an effective IT strategy that would ensure business success?

To explore this and other issues, our club invited Abdulkarim Abu Jaber, Managing Director of Primus Bahrain to discuss this topic and share some of his experience to start the attendees on the right path of creating or strengthening their company’s ICT strategies. Some of the topics to be discussed include:

• General IT industry Trends
• IT in business and personal life
• How IT can help organization grow and reduce cost
• Adoption of new IT trends
• How in the current economic downturn technology can drive innovation, as people and enterprises need new technologies and new products
• How can IT and technologies provide companies with a competitive advantage
• How running a business and overseeing IT is a tough task in the best of times. But in today’s environment—with consumer and business spending shrinking, budgets declining, the stock market sinking, and the pressure to adopt new tools and technologies growing—many organizations are finding themselves stretched to the limit.
• Software as a Service

You can listen to the talk and download the Podcast here:

Please click here to download the accompanying presentation.

When a young person’s whole future depends on a certificate, should you care if it’s recognised?

I’m sure that you care about your children’s education and that too of the other youths in your society. Raring to “grow up” and get on with their lives. How harrowing is it then if at the cusp of their career they find that their toil for a number of years in a university has been worthless as its certification is deemed to be sub-standard and unrecognised?

This refrain has unfortunately become very familiar in Bahrain, with the snow-ball starting with Kuwait refusing to recognise some Bahraini “universities”, a fact confirmed by the QAAET. Some universities have made serious attempts at correcting their situations of course, but still, a number of young graduates are between the proverbial rock and a hard place and staring into what seams to them to be a bleak future.

On 1st of March 2009 at our regular weekly meeting the Club welcomed an expert to underline the issues of university certification accreditation and to help us learn more about this important topic.

The Rotary Club of Adliya welcomed Dr. Muna Al Balooshi – Assistant Secretary General for Accreditation and Evaluation, who talked to us about this subject and answered some of our questions.

Please take the time to listen to the following Podcast which is a recording of her presentation. Should you wish to, you can also download her presentation in PDF format.

Our President Elect (11/12) Dr Sajida Tabbara recently joined the Bahrain Riders, a motorcycle enthusiast club, to ride across the Emirates and Oman on a thrilling holiday.

Dr. Tabbara enthralled the gathering with not only snippets of what the trip was like, but also explained the intricacies of motorcycling, a very much growing activity in Bahrain with 3 official clubs in place. The youngest in these three is the Bahrain Riders which boasts a membership of 330 active riders in about a year after formation!

Please listen to Dr. Sajida’s presentation and view some of the pictures she shared with us.

Bahrain TV’s “Open Talk” program, produced and directed by Rotarian Ahdeya Ahmed, interviewed both Dr. Khaled Tabbara and the Secretary General of BAHMUN09.

Please click below to view the interview online:

[podcast format="video"]http://rotaryadliya.org/podcasts/RCA-BAHMUN-IV-BRTC.m4v[/podcast]