E-club develops young leaders through online workshops
Khumbo Chilimira Ndovi, a 25-year-old university lecturer in Malawi, has impressive leadership credentials as an accomplished young professional in the southeastern African country. She also knows how to have fun for a cause.
As president of the Rotaract Club of Blantyre, Chilimira Ndovi organizes lively fundraisers like karaoke parties and trivia nights to raise money for blankets for babies born to mothers in need. Now, she’s thinking about how to make an even bigger impact. “I want to move on to a bigger project where we’re maybe building a hospital wing or where we’re building a library for a school,” she says.
To help her get there, Chilimira Ndovi found a mentor in a seemingly unlikely place: 5,000 miles away in Scotland. Specifically, the Rotary E-Club of Southern Scotland, which recently started a virtual leadership development program that pairs Rotarians who are industry leaders with younger professionals for online workshops and one-on-one mentorship.
Image credit: Violeta Encarnación
The four-month program included lectures on everything from ethical leadership to managing conflicts. The club, whose members are from Europe, Africa, the U.S., and Australia, introduced the leadership program last year in a pilot phase with hopes it will spread districtwide. Besides giving the club a meaningful focus, members hope the program will also familiarize young professionals with the kinds of career and leadership development opportunities that are available to Rotary members.
Early signs are positive. Chilimira Ndovi found a new respect for Rotary and is planning to transition to Rotary membership after her Rotaract presidency. She was paired with mentor Denis Robson, a Rotarian based in Innerleithen, Scotland, for conversations that often focused on navigating change in the workplace. “I want to know how I can manage change, manage differences, where I don’t just spiral because something is not going according to plan,” Chilimira Ndovi remembers telling him.
Robson, a former director of African affairs for Johnson & Johnson and an honorary fellow of the College of Surgeons of East, Central, and Southern Africa, has navigated plenty of change. He quickly established a good rapport with Chilimira Ndovi. “She is a very confident young woman who enjoys challenges,” he says. “She is also a great team player.”
In his role with Johnson & Johnson, Robson traveled to Malawi frequently. His familiarity with Chilimira Ndovi’s country, known as the Warm Heart of Africa for its reputation for kindness, put her at ease. “Her openness to sharing her thoughts in a trusting and open environment was a delight,” he says. He hopes to stay in contact with Chilimira Ndovi and work on projects together in Malawi.
Chilimira Ndovi, for her part, built a network through the experience with participants from Europe, where she’s hoping to travel to one day. “We need to find ways to meet!” she says.
How to start a leadership development program
Tips from the Rotary E-Club of Southern Scotland
- Go virtual. An online program via videoconferencing will allow you to cast a wider net for participants and facilitators while enabling flexibility in scheduling.
- Start small. A relatively small cohort of six to 10 participants should be manageable yet large enough for good discussions, teamwork, and innovative outcomes.
- Invite expert facilitators. Root the curriculum in Rotary themes and values and invite expert “faculty” from around the world.
- Focus on mentorship. Anchor the program around facilitator-led sessions but put mentorship at the heart of the program. Mentoring creates trust, connection, and friendship.
- Challenge participants. Group them in teams and ask them to propose an actionable Rotary project.
- Stay organized. Use digital tools like Google Drive and WhatsApp for communication and collaboration spaces.
- Celebrate graduates. Offer recognition with real enthusiasm and provide digital certificates they can attach to their LinkedIn pages.
The leadership program is part of a rebirth for the club, which was originally chartered in 2010 as the Rotary Club of Edinburgh Park. Member Lynne Nelson remembers that in those early days the club was based in a business park in Edinburgh and had about 25 members. But many of the club’s members moved abroad for work. When the club got down to 14 members, they realized that they had to do something. They switched to an e-club in 2014 in hopes of growing their membership internationally.
The leadership program was the brainchild of two Rotary members in Switzerland, Tetiana Moroziuk and Juliet Beckwith. The two women were working together at the cancer prevention and screening company Exact Sciences when Beckwith suggested Moroziuk join the e-club.
The two came up with the idea for the leadership program as the group was casting about for projects to do as a club. Originally from Ukraine, Moroziuk is a senior human resources director and has a passion for helping people grow in their careers. “I love doing this. It’s something I know how to do,” she says.
She also wanted to do something to help her country amid the war with Russia. “The war will be over one day, and to rebuild Ukraine we will need good leaders,” she says. “Investment in the right leadership, leaders with values, leaders who will have this mission to serve, who will have Rotary values and a Rotary mindset — it’s a huge opportunity.”
The club recruited eight young leaders from all over the world. Moroziuk used her connections to promote the program to the Rotary Club of Kharkiv-International in Ukraine. Four young Ukrainians participated, including Pylyp Moskalenko.
Like Chilimira Ndovi, Moskalenko was already in a Rotaract club. “I thought that it would be a really great opportunity for me to gain skills and knowledge about leadership,” he says.
A translator, Moskalenko is his district’s Rotaract representative. He was paired with mentor Chad Campbell, a certified financial planner and longtime Rotary member from Salem, Oregon, who is now president of the e-club. The two met regularly on video calls over the summer. Many of their conversations revolved around how to succeed in Rotary leadership roles. “Pylyp would come with challenges about what’s going on in the Rotaract world,” Campbell recalls. “He and I would talk about his challenges, and I would share with him how I’ve resolved and managed conflict or disputes or realized opportunities in my 19 years of being a Rotarian.”
Campbell benefited too, taking inspiration from his mentee’s resilience in the face of war. During some of their meetings, Campbell could hear drone attacks in the background. Yet Moskalenko just carried on. Campbell was astonished.
He’s not the only club member drawing inspiration and motivation from the program. It has infused “tremendous energy and optimism” into the club, he says. “Along the way,” he adds, “we’ve built new friendships, new connections, and a level of fellowship that surprised even us.”
This story originally appeared in the February 2026 issue of Rotary magazine.