Stories of People of Action

Rotarians share a passion for taking action to improve their communities and the world. Right after being
chartered, the Rotary Club of Washington Global launched in March 2020 a series of short videos with Rotarians who are leaders in their field for them to share their passion. The series will also feature non-Rotarians who are doing great service work in their communities. The first three interviews in the series were conducted on the occasion of an event organized at the World Bank by Rotary International ahead of International Women’s Day.

March 2020 - Brenda Erickson, Rotary leader for the Project “Souns” in South Africa, Puerto Rico and the US

Brenda Erickson is a Montessori Primary teacher with four decades of experience teaching children to read. She is
also the developer of Souns – a Montessori-minded, early literacy program that teaches the fundamental tools of
print. Through Rotary, the Souns program has been introduced to pre-schools for early literacy in South Africa,
Puerto Rico, and preschools in disadvantaged areas in the United States.

March 2020 - Carolyn Johnson, Rotary leader for the Guatemala Literacy Project

Carolyn has more than 30 years of experience as a teacher and elementary school principal. She has been
volunteering in Guatemala to improve literacy instruction for indigenous children since 2006. She currently leads
the Guatemala Literacy Project which includes teacher training, a low-cost textbook rental program, literacy
materials, and computer labs for children in some of the country’s poorest areas, with clear positive results.