Austria: WE&ME Foundation
Damn right!
(Maybe posted elsewhere but I saw it on Xitter, sorry)
It's like the road runner cartoons, when the coyote has stepped over the ledge and doesn't fall until he looks down, except here it avoids looking at the mountain of death and misery this evil ideology has inflicted, and chooses to add to it instead of doing anything ethical about it. We can't be nice about this, there is no neutrality in the face of evil. But as the main lesson from WWII and the nature of evil revealed: evil is banal, and it usually works not through intentional infliction of suffering but through indifference to it. It simply normalizes it, turns bad into good and good into bad.Christoph Ströck said:
(Maybe posted elsewhere but I saw it on Xitter, sorry)
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hotblack
Senior Member (Voting Rights)
Nice! Looks like quite an event, some good pictures of people enjoying themselves and being well fed in a very fancy room while being gently persuaded to part with their cash for a good cause! Something worth making a song and dance about (I don’t think there was dancing though, only singing by the looks of it).
And a powerful message from Gabriele and Gerhard Ströck
And a powerful message from Gabriele and Gerhard Ströck
Benjamin Missbach
Established Member
Michael Werba, the bassooonist legend is very engaged with ME/CFS and very helpful. I helped him to set up different activities in the last years. One of the outcomes is a Rotary Action group with the goal to activate Rotary clubs worldwide (donations) and raise awareness for the disease. Unfortunately the website is in german language only, but here is the eglish excerpt
"The Rotary Group ME/CFS Support, registered in Austria as the association ME/CFS Support, was established with the aim of raising the greatest possible amount of funding for the implementation of concrete large-scale projects in support of people with ME/CFS. This is made possible through the cross-border collaboration of Rotary Clubs as members of the Rotary Group ME/CFS – Support / ME/CFS Support, within the worldwide Rotary network.
As President of the Rotary Club Mödling in 2024/25, Michael Werba saw, while implementing effective projects through his club—such as supporting people who are ill and providing further education and training for doctors and nursing staff—that the need for humanitarian assistance among people of all ages worldwide is enormous. A particularly large number of those affected are young people, including adolescents from the age of 12.
As a committed Rotarian, this led him to decide to establish an association whose aim is to bring together Rotary Clubs worldwide to implement meaningful large-scale projects to support people with ME/CFS. From now on, these projects will be presented individually and in detail on this website and proposed for implementation.
To this end, he brought together respected Rotarians, doctors, and scientists, all of whom support and contribute their expertise to this association (organizational chart – click to view). To establish this platform, 50 supporters and four supporting clubs from five countries and four Rotary International zones were submitted.
We all know how much effort is involved for an individual Rotary Club in implementing a Global Grant, as well as in finding supporting clubs for a joint large-scale project. Therefore, this association also provides assistance with the implementation of ME/CFS-related grants.
At present, interest in the German-speaking region is very strong, and the initiative is now expanding into France and Poland.
One of the main purposes of this association is to consolidate information about ME/CFS and to communicate it to the public.
Many clubs responded extremely positively to the announcement of the establishment of such an association and immediately offered their support and assistance.
For membership inquiries, our contact person is Board Member Walter Ebner (Rotary Club Gmunden), who has extensive experience with international Rotary networks, including the Inter-Country Committees (ICC)."
--> https://www.rag-mecfs.org
get in touch, if you know people who are in this space and want to get involved via rotary.
hotblack
Senior Member (Voting Rights)
That’s brilliant @Benjamin Missbach the Rotary Club are exactly the sort of mainstream institution we need to accept ME/CFS and having them involved in fundraising certainly helps give a respectability and reach beyond what we currently see that can bring in more funds.
I really liked seeing this gala event. A great way to make people feel good about supporting us. I hope we can see more of this from others.
I really liked seeing this gala event. A great way to make people feel good about supporting us. I hope we can see more of this from others.
Hoopoe
Senior Member (Voting Rights)
The Italian Rotary Club has meetings near where I live and I thought about presenting something about ME/CFS but don't know how to get started and don't know anyone on the inside. I'm also not affiliated with any organisation that is raising funds.
Any suggestions?
Any suggestions?
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Peter T
Senior Member (Voting Rights)
My knowledge of the Rotary Club, and similar groupings such as the Round Table, the Ladies Circle and the Soroptimists is sixty years out of date, my parents and their friends were members of these organisations at various stages. Not to devalue the excellent work they do, my recollections were that they were primarily social networks, often new chairpersons or presidents would pick the next area they supported. Many people joined to cement their place in local society, and to meet the ‘right’ people in their local community. So it seems to me that the best way to approach them is through making personal contacts, seeing if you could interest your local chair or secretary.
Looking at the webpage of my local Rotary Club they seem most interested in using locally based events for fundraising, such as horse riding events, golf tournaments or the traditional local ploughing competition, and then applying the money raised to both local and wider good causes. Approaching your local groups as an individual, could involve pitching an ME cause to benefit from their fundraising or somehow pitching an event they could hold that would both have local interest and serve ME related charitable ends. Also they seem to have regular speaker events, so you could suggest a good speaker on ME related topics. Alternatively a local ME group could make the contact, affiliated membership is an option, to suggest a joint event. For example such as opening an exceptional private garden for the day with the Rotary Club organising marshalling, car parking and helping with refreshments and publicity.
It seems to me the focus should be on doing something together, something that brings people together having a good time as well as benefiting the good cause.
(Added - Just looked up Mödling on Google maps and it is on the edge of Vienna, perhaps meaning that it would be easier to interest them in a broader approach to ME including medical training and service provision, where as I suspect my local group being a much more rural area might be more interested in more down to earth practical issues.)
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Benjamin Missbach
Established Member
@Hoopoe: so the Rotary Action Group Michael Werba is building is international. I’m llt part of any of these clubs, but as far as I understood it, the Action group is conceptualize to integrate local activities around the world. PM me or write me an email (Benjamin.missbach@wwtf.at) so I can introduce you to Michael.
Andy
Senior Member (Voting rights)
HI @Benjamin Missbach , a quick piece of feedback about the WE&ME website.
Is there any possibility of it being revamped to include a dark mode option? It is undoubtedly a well designed website but it is very bright for my eyes, and I'm sure that will be the case for many other patients. Reader view, available in most browsers, can obviously help if set up to but something designed to be far less bright from the start would be more ideal for many of us. Perhaps you could pass this on?
Is there any possibility of it being revamped to include a dark mode option? It is undoubtedly a well designed website but it is very bright for my eyes, and I'm sure that will be the case for many other patients. Reader view, available in most browsers, can obviously help if set up to but something designed to be far less bright from the start would be more ideal for many of us. Perhaps you could pass this on?
Benjamin Missbach
Established Member
Hi Andy; thanks for pointing this out. We have been getting feedback on this from others as well, that’s why we decided to work on a new website that will hopefully go-live early 2027. We will build all the features necessary to be max accessible for patients. No moving „Mantschgerl“, we will introduce a calm mode, reader view…
It is co-developed with patients, but we need a little more time, because we want to do it right.
Andy
Senior Member (Voting rights)
Thanks for responding so quickly, that's great to hear it's already being addressed.
Chandelier
Senior Member (Voting Rights)
Christoph Ströck via Twitter.
Machine translation:
Machine translation:
Chandelier
Senior Member (Voting Rights)
Ausstellerverzeichnis, Online Broschüre, Newsletter, Galerien, Kunsthändler, Antiquitäten
Das sind die Aussteller:innen der ART&ANTIQUE in der HOFBURG Vienna
www.artantique-hofburg.at
There will be an art exhibition by WE&ME from November 12-16 in Vienna.
Machine Translation:
