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Welcome to the E-Club of Heritage New York

Our Club was chartered on 18 January 2019.
Rotarians have a vision: “Together, we see a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change — across the globe, in our communities, and in ourselves.”

Club Provides CPR Training & Information Session on Vaping

The Heritage NY E-Club is the first new Club formed in the district in 2019, after a number of decades of no new Clubs. Since then, it has flourished, now having 38 members and has won the Presidential citation in its first two years.

Last Sunday, 4 December, the Club, in collaboration with Pediatric Education Development Society International (PEDSI), organized an amazing program – providing certified CPR training to nearly 20 young kids and some adults, coupled with informative sessions on Vaping and the importance of exercise. In addition, two senior Psychiatrists were on hand explaining to both, the parents and the children, the importance of communication and understanding particularly in view of the generational and cultural gap.

In all, the event that began at 9 am was attended by 35 students, parents as well as District officials and Club members. DG Marty welcomed everyone and at the end of the 90-minute-long CPR training, handed over the certificates to the attendees. One woman, pushing back tears, said, “Some years ago, my husband died right in front of me. I could not help because I did not know how to. If I had known CPR then, I could have helped him. Now I can help others in need”.

Following a short coffee and snack break, the program resumed, this time with a Zoom component adding to the number of attendees. Pulmonologist Dr. Naeema Chowdhury, from Philadelphia discussed the dangers of vaping and how the vapors damage the lungs. She explained that in the US, unlike in Europe, vaping pods are unregulated and are freely available to anyone, including children. Big tobacco companies, trying to make up for revenues lost due to the strict regulation on tobacco products, are now targeting young people with child-friendly flavors of vaping products. The ingredients in these products, not being regulated, also contain lead and other deleterious substances, some of which are highly addictive. The students and parents actively participated in the ensuing discussion. “I never knew vaping products are so harmful,” said one surprised student.

Dr. Ryan Chowdhury joining the Zoom session from Washington, DC explained the importance of exercise. He said any movement of the body is beneficial. He suggested swimming, biking, running or even walking to keep the body muscles functional and healthy.

In the final segment, two Psychiatrists, Dr. Munibur R. Khan Chief Psychiatrist, Creedmoor Psychiatric Center, and Dr. Quazi Rahman, Child Psychiatry, Medical Director, NYC Child Center spoke about the difficulties of parent-child relationships due to generational and cultural gaps.

DG Marty also presented the pins and certificates to three new Paul Harris Fellows of the Heritage Club, President Dr. Maksud Chowdhury, First Lady Dr. Shamim Begum and Vice-President Dr. Nasrin Khan. Also present at the event from the district, were Executive Secretary PDG Mahbub Ahmad, District Rotary Foundation Chair PDG Mary Shackleton and Area Governor Bina Ahmad.

Molloy University Honors President Zaki with Lifetime Achievement Award

Club Past President S. Zaki Hossain was honored by Molloy University with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the First Molloy University Gala on Friday, 4 November at Garden City Hotel. The Gala also raised more than $400,000 for student scholarships.

Accepting the Award President Zaki said Education is key to success. "If you want to earn, you have to learn", he said. President Zaki has been a trustee of the University. Molloy officials said, "A mechanical engineer who found success in the coffee industry manufacturing "K-Cups" has donated $2 million to Molloy University.

Zaki told the crowd that after he emigrated to the United States from Bangladesh, he increasingly felt the importance of applying education to the “real field.” His gift will help do exactly that, officials said, as Molloy increases programs that train people already working in their fields to keep up with the latest advances. The programs will also help shape undergraduate curricula to help meet the current needs of various industries including the health sector and businesses, said James P. Lentini, Molloy’s president.

Past President Zaki, the founder, and CEO of Pintail Coffee got his start in the coffee industry with the development of some of the first manufacturing technology for small coffee cartridges known as "K-Cups," He ended up using proceeds from this technology for charitable work through Pintail. The Farmingdale-based business donates 100% of its profits to hunger-relief organizations. A Muslim whose wife is chair of the board of the Long Island Muslim Society — a mosque in East Meadow founded by Bangladeshi immigrants — President Zaki said his donations to a Catholic university were an example of interfaith cooperation.

“I am a human being first,” he said. “I like to work with humanity. God created all of us. If I can make God’s creation happy, I will be happy.”

To show support for President Zaki, also attending the Gala were Membership Chair - his wife, Rahat, PDG Mahbub, AG Bina, VPs Nasrin, and Shahper, Past President Nurul Alam, members Nausheen and Nazmul Khan. Also present were Sunshine Club members Tarin and Lubna Anwar.

It was a wonderful ceremony with a sumptuous dinner at the Garden City Hotel. Congratulations to President Zaki.

Club Begins District Grant Project with Interactive Sessions Raising Awareness in Support of Women and Children

Our District Grant-funded project "Support for Women and Children" is very much underway with two sessions already completed. The objective of this project is to bring awareness among the women and young children who are potential targets of abuse and then to empower them. It will consist of lectures, workshops, therapy, and individual discussion sessions.

Conceived of and developed by Club Vice-President Dr. Nasrin Khan, the project was written up by past President Dr. Nazrul Islam and the Club Board approved it for presentation to the District Grants Committee for a Grant. The budget is $4,000.00 to cover the costs of speakers, lecture materials, and technological logistics. The Club is contributing $2,000.00 from its members, with the District approving the matching grant.

Following approval by the district and the Rotary Foundation, the first session under the Grant was held on 15 October at the East Meadow Library with Dr. Anca Amighi as the main speaker. The second session was held on 5 November at the Hicksville Library with Rehab Coach Leyla Messcha as the main speaker. Both sessions were well attended. Club President Dr. Maksud Chowdhury opened the sessions while Dr. Nasrin provided the introductions and led the discussions afterward. Both interactive sessions focused on "Communications Improvements in Asian American Family dynamics" District AG Bina attended the first session.

Abuse and isolation can lead to not only threats to the women's physical safety but also psychological disorders. Similarly, children in immigrant families face different challenges at home and outside which may impact their mental health severely. Members of minority groups are the worst sufferers who cannot seek assistance due to hesitation and lack of finance. These sessions aim to address these issues and raise awareness

At both sessions, President Maksud presented certificates of appreciation to the speakers. Membership Chair Rahat Hossain handed over gifts to the Speakers. Light Refreshments were served, and a raffle was held

Club begins 2022 with Winter supplies Distribution

As Rotarians we are always looking for ways to make a difference in our community or communities around the world. Rotary is all about helping people in need - Service Above Self.

Our Club began the new year amidst the seemingly never-ending pandemic We cannot be bystanders while we see needs all around us. So we partnered up with a like-minded sister organization to help out our neighbors who are in need. The Heritage E-Club of New York. in collaboration with Long Island Muslim Society (LIMS) raised funds and purchased winter supplies - blankets and like items for distribution in a very needy neighborhood of Jamaica, New York. Care was taken to enure that the recipients were in real need and had not received winter supplies previously.

Thanks to new member Raihan Rahman and his mother Club Rotarian Mursheda Rahman, who together coordinated the project. Club members Rahat Hossain and Past President Zaki Hossain among others, contributed to this worthwhile project. Donned in bright yellow vests emblazoned with the Rotary logo, volunteers loaded a minivan a carted the supplies to the distribution point, where the handed out the supplies.

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Club Donates Laptops to School to Aid Remote Learning

As one of our major projects of the year, our Club has donated 12 laptops to a school to help students there with remote learning. The nearly $5,000 project was funded in part by a District grant, while the club component of $2,500 was donated by Club member Mohammed Saleh.

The pandemic has closed down schools in our region and many have moved to online classes. While this has helped some students continue their education, many students from low-income families have been left out because they do not have access to computers and internet connections required for remote education. Therefore there is a great need to provide these young learners with the resources necessary for them to keep up with their more fortunate fellow students. Therefore the Club decided to undertake this project to help address at least a part of the need.

The 12 Chromebooks are for students at Longwood School District but will remain the property of the School District. Each student assigned one of these devices will use it for the School year and return it to the School at the end of the academic year. At the beginning of the next year, another batch of students meeting the criteria will be assigned these devices. The Longwood School District was identified as the Project target District because it is a diverse District of 9,200 students with 52% in the free lunch program, and many sub-continent-origin students. These Chromebooks will be given to students in K-4 grades whose parents' annual household income is less than $30,000. These Chromebooks were selected by the Scholl District to match the existing inventory of remote learning devices and have 5-year full replacement coverage. So in the 5-year lifecycle, they will have benefitted 60 students. The Project was completed within about three months.

Dr. Sam Ahmed Director of Special Programs and Data Reporting of the School District coordinated the project on behalf of the School District. Dr. Ahmed made a presentation at a meeting of the Club in February. He said 350 students still do not have any remote learning capability because they do not have any computers.

Club's Ongoing "COVID Relief Project Hope"

Since the onset of the pandemic, our Club has undertaken a number of COVID relief projects. As part of "Project Hope-1" Club Members have been helping a widow and her two young sons in the Bronx meet their ongoing subsistence needs. Three Club members pooled their resources and began providing monthly assistance to the family for food and essentials. These members have pledged to continue their contribution for the near future. They are looking into ways to assist the family in creating a sustainable revenue stream so they do not become continually reliant on this assistance.

And a few days ago at the onset of Ramadan, the Club initiated "Project Hope-2" to assist a new immigrant mother of three young children when her husband passed away very recently from COVID. Club members rallied to her rescue by providing immediate assistance for day-to-day needs. Other Club members are assisting the family in applying for any government relief she and her children may be entitled to.

Job loss, business closures, and food insecurity are bearing down on immigrant communities, creating untenable pressure inside households that are often crowded with more than one family and facing pressures to keep up with rent payments, utility bills, and basic needs. At the same time, parents who lack English language skills and the technology needed for remote learning are struggling to find the time and space to help their children complete assignments. And many immigrant students are tasked with caring for younger siblings or relatives while their parents go to work on the front lines of the pandemic

Multiple organizations report that as much as 75 percent of their clients are going hungry. Yet despite the mass-scale unemployment hitting the area’s immigrants, they have been almost entirely shut out of federal cash relief. Several of the nonprofit organizations surveyed said 95 to 100 percent of their immigrant clients have not received or are ineligible for the IRS stimulus checks.

Meanwhile, the pandemic has laid bare existing struggles with language and technology access for the city’s immigrants, which created barriers in access to care such as telemedicine and crisis hotlines. Those issues extend to families who have undertaken remote learning for their children. For undocumented immigrants, the city’s lowest earners despite high participation in the labor force, unemployment can be uniquely devastating, extending to tolls on physical and mental health.

Our projects aim not only to assist one or more families but also to create engagement among our members so they feel energized to come out and provide any assistance they can. These are our Rotarians in Action, providing Service Above Self. If any member is interested in joining in this project, please contact Rahat Hossain (Membership Engagement Chair).

Club Member Dr. Nasrin Khan presents online Seminar on Emotional Resilience

Club Member Dr. Nasrin Khan presented an online Seminar on Emotional Resilience - in the second online seminar organized by our Club. At the outset of the hour-long seminar, also simultaneously available via our Facebook Page, Dr. Khan was introduced by Club President S. Zaki Hossain. Dr. Khan is a Medical Specialist at Creedmore Psychiatric Center and completed her residency. at Brookdale University Hospital in Internal Medicine. Dr. Khan has long experience in Mental Health and rehabilitation, conflicts in personal relationships, and management of professional challenges.

Dr. Khan began by sharing a PowerPoint presentation and afterward responded to viewers' questions. She says she is a life coach and describes coaching as bringing "awareness in people especially in people of our culture. There is a misconception among people that life coach is for people with mental illness but not really. Life coach actually works with everyone. The coach is not the therapist, but is just a person who will make the relationship with the client and will make her or him comfortable to explore the strategies to reach his or her goal"

Dr. Khan emphasizes that "goals can be different for different clients. Someone might want to improve their health, someone their business, while others might want to improve their relationship either with romantic partners or with children or other relatives and friends. A major part of coaching is active listening. Coaches are trained to listen, observe and customize their approach to individual client needs. Life coaching is a powerful human relationship in which trained coaches assist people to design their future rather than get over their past." Through a typically long-term relationship, Dr. Khan says, "coaches aid clients in creating visions and goals for all aspects of their lives as well as multiple strategies to support achieving those goals. Coaches recognize the brilliance of each client and their personal power to discover their own solutions when provided with support, accountability, and unconditional positive regard". According to Dr. Khan, there are different phases of coaching. That’s why it is a long-term course. The first and most important part of coaching is listening. Active listening means the client has to feel heard.

Dr. Khan made it clear that coaching is not therapy so it’s not for mental patients. In fact, she says, "We all need to have a coach in different aspects of life". She saiys people should not feel embarrassed to reach out to her. She can assist people in reaching their goals and have peace and happiness in life which they are dreaming of their whole lives Here is how to contact her: nasrincoaching@gmail.com Read a recent article she wrote in WBH Journal

Club to provide COVID Vaccine Registration Assistance

It was reported at the Club meeting on 10 February that many citizens in our community are struggling with registration and scheduling for the COVID vaccine. Therefore, the Club has decided to provide assistance to citizens, especially seniors, with registration for the COVID vaccine.

We are collecting the following information about those in need of the COVID vaccine provided that they are willing to take the next available vaccine appointment at a nearby facility:

1. Name:

2. Date of Birth:

3. Mailing Address:

4. Phone (Cell):

5. E-mail Address:

Please forward the information to our incoming Club Secretary, Adeeb Hakim (adeeb.hakim@gmail.com). who will coordinate among the Club Members for registration and scheduling purposes. While we cannot assure that all requests can be attended to and can be fulfilled, we are providing this as a service to our community..

Winter Blanket Distribution: Club's International Project

Winter always brings hard times to many people in many people in many countries that Rotary works in. This winter, in particular, many people are in greater need because of the pandemic. What we can do together is much greater than what we can do alone. Encouraged by that spirit, we partnered with a sister Club in Rotary District 3282 (Bangladesh) - the Rotary Club of Sylhet to arrange distribution of winter blankets for those who have no other way to fend off the cold weather,

Thanks to a donation from our Club President Syed Zaki Hossain, we pooled resources with the Rotary Club of Sylhet to arrange for the distribution of blankets. On a cold winter day on 17 January 2021, this joint project was carried out by the host Club.