The Abergavenny Rotary Club President, Mr Dean Christy inducted its newest member, Mrs Yevheniia Shepherd into membership of the Club on February, 5.

Yuvheniia is a retired language teacher, originally from Kharkiv in Ukraine, and has lived in Abergavenny for some years.

An active member of the Abergavenny Women’s Institute, she is closely connected with the Abergavenny Ukraine support group, which meets regularly in the Community Centre. Yevheniia says she is “delighted” to become the Rotary Club’s newest member.

She has been engaged with Rotary over the last couple of years with its activities in support of the Ukrainian refugees who live in Abergavenny, the people of Kharkiv via the Help for Kharkiv Group, and has also helped with the visit from members of Jaroslaw Rotary Club on the Polish/Ukraine border to Abergavenny in August 2022.

She also provided the voice over translation for an interview with a Ukraine refugee living in an Abbey in a short film made by Rotarian Martin Phillips about the Club’s visit to the Polish Rotary Club in June 2022. 

President Dean said: “I am delighted to welcome Yevheniia into membership of our Club which brings our membership up to 33. The Club has been very successful in the recent past in creating a more diverse mix of members in line with Rotary International’s policy of welcoming people from all parts of the community regardless of their age, ethnicity or gender. Rotary in Abergavenny used to be an all-male preserve, but we now have eight female members which is 24% of our membership and growing.” 

Abergavenny Rotary Club runs the Annual Steam Rally and raises tens of thousands of pounds each year for worthy causes in the town and beyond.

If you are interested in finding out more about Rotary membership and looking to give something back to the community and to have fun and fellowship in the process, then please contact the Club Secretary, Robert Parker on [email protected]