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Announcements
- Roger made an announcement about the TFR. He said they are closing in 20 days and wants to remind the club to send your checks to reach their goal. There will also be a stop trafficking information here.
- Jan made an announcement about her friend looking for items to donate. If you want more information contact Jan Eian.
- John is currently working with some Rotarians testing the hybrid space and technologies for the hybrid meeting next week.
- Praf made an announcement saying he will send an email with information to sign up for the Barepath meeting. Praf will also send an email stating how the 22nd meeting will be a online zoom meeting.
Vocational - Dan O'Brien
Dan O'Brien was born in Kankokee, Illinois. He was the youngest on four and was raised by a single working mother. He graduated from from High School in 1969. Then he went to the University of Illinois - Urbana Champagne where he received a degree in architecture. He then worked at BW architectures. After getting is job, he married his college sweetheart. After a couple of years he created a firm with two other partners in Eden Prairie. They had projects of designed the Eden Prairie City center, Maple Grove community center, all the Bachman's stores in the twin cities, and many more projects. Lastly, Dan talked about his his children and grandchildren.
Happy Fives
- Praf was happy to see members helping prepare at Barepath for the upcoming hybrid meeting.
- Glenn Olsen is happy to share about his rescue project that going through a place up north. Glenn was also happy to share about the two books he read, Rob Hillers the power of three and another book by a Rotarian.
- Nate Nyren is happy to share that him and Amy have ran 365 days in a row. Nate also shared about his best friends father that recently pasted away and the the values he leaned and still uses.
- Tim Conners is happy to announce that his oldest grandchild graduated from high school is a prospective engineer at the U of M.
- Jan Eian is excited to share about how are we being good ancestors. A new way of looking how we live our life and how we are leaving the world for future generations.
- Irene Kelly visited Lake Street and is happy to see them up and running. In addition, Irene is happy to share a website called story worth that she received on Mother's Day asking weekly questions and creating a book by the end of the year.
Joining District 5950 (click 
On Tuesday, April 27th, Serge-Alain Wandji spoke about DiaspoCare and its efforts to provide healthcare for friends and families in Africa. Serge-Alain started off with a bit about himself. He is originally from Cameroon and left for Canada to study at 18 years old. He then came to the US as a postdoctoral scientist and conducted research at Cornell. Serge-Alain has a background in biomedical sciences and technology management. He has worked for Cargill and Children's Minnesota among others. During his time working for Cargill, he spent time working on understanding how to leverage the strengths of Cargill to help the folks in Africa. Serge-Alain then spoke about the African diaspora’s attempts in trying to support their families medical fees. The African diaspora sent around $48 billion to families in Africa last year. The majority of the money is sent back through Western Union and Moneygram; however, there is no accountability on how the money is spent. Serge-Alain shared a bit about his family as an example. His mother has a medical condition, but there are other family obligations and expenses that the money ends up going to. Serge-Alain knows the funds will be going to other expenses and that his mother is not getting the medicine that she needs. This is a similar situation for many families in Africa. Serge-Alain then figured out that a direct payment to a pharmacist would insure that families receive their medicine, and families won't have to worry about spending their remittance on healthcare. Serge-Alain then started his digital platform DiaspoCare to create a system that pays pharmacists directly. DiaspoCare enables diaspora members to scale their help, and help as many people as possible, which is a big step in healthcare inclusion. Additionally, with a monthly payment of around $100, he could fund many family members’ medicine. DiaspoCare works by having the African diaspora enlist as many family members as they can. When family members need medicine, they can then go to participating pharmacists, and the pharmacist will enter the prescription on DiaspoCare's system. The diaspora will then receive a notification on their mobile devices that their family members’ prescription is ready to pick up at the nearest participating pharmacy. The diaspora can then pay for the medicine on their mobile device. The pharmacist will receive a notification that the payment is on the way, and the family member will receive an SNS message with a unique code to read to the pharmacist to receive the medicine. Serge-Alain highlighted that DiaspoCare system is faster than Western Union and Moneygram. Also, when money is sent through Western Union and Moneygram, most of the funds disappear on the way back home because a family member who goes to Western Union and Moneygram might spend some money on the way back. DiaspoCare also strives to solve the UN identified problem of an annual 100 million people falling into poverty due to unaffordable healthcare. DiaspoCare is also partners with the largest healthcare insurance company in Kenya, Jubilee Healthcare, to get more Africans insurance so their basic healthcare costs are covered. Serge-Alain ended with asking the EPAM Rotarians to consider partnering with DiaspoCare.
