[D9640general] [eFlash_Rotary] Digest Number 801

[Garry Krischock]

 Messages In This Digest (2 Messages) 

 

1. 1519: At Los Angeles convention, stars become aligned to end polio From:
Sunil K Zachariah 

 

2. 1520: President-elect's Address to the LA Convention From: Sunil K
Zachariah 

  

Messages 

 

1
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/eFlash_Rotary/message/1436;_ylc=X3oDMTJxc2w4a
2FuBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE1BGdycElkAzI3ODYwNzYEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1MDY0MDg2BG1zZ0lkAzE0M
zYEc2VjA2Rtc2cEc2xrA3Ztc2cEc3RpbWUDMTIxNDMwMDAyOA--> 1519: At Los Angeles
convention, stars become aligned to end polio 

 

Mon Jun 23, 2008 4:32 pm (PDT) 

At Los Angeles convention, stars become aligned to end polio
By Ryan Hyland 

Rotary's goals to eradicate polio and improve health and literacy 
seemed to become more attainable after the 2008 RI Convention in Los 
Angeles drew to a close on 18 June. 

More than 19,000 Rotarians from around the world celebrated 
fellowship, commemorated Rotary's history, focused on the future, and 
along the way set a Guinness world record. 

The convention, which began on Sunday, 15 June, marked the official 
launch of Rotary's US$100 Million Challenge , a three-year 
fundraising effort to match a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates 
Foundation. In concert with the launch were two tremendous boosts 
from the World Health Organization and the government of Canada. 

On 17 June, Dr. Margaret Chan, director-general of the World Health 
Organization, announced that WHO is making polio eradication the 
organization's top operational commitment "on a most urgent, if not 
an emergency, basis." Chan praised Rotary's conviction and big 
thinking attitude for the reason polio eradication is within reach. ( 
Watch the video ) 

RI President Wilfrid J. Wilkinson announced on 18 June that he just 
received a commitment of US$60 million from the Canadian government 
toward polio eradication. 

In a keynote speech on 16 June, Dr. Tadataka Yamada , president of 
the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's Global Health Program, warned 
Rotarians that they must not stop too soon in their efforts to 
eradicate polio. 

"If we conquer polio, no goal is beyond our reach, and no disease is 
beyond our capacity," said Yamada. "This is a battle we can't afford 
to lose." 

Stephen Lewis, co-director of the advocacy organization AIDS-Free 
World, spoke passionately on HIV/AIDS at the fourth plenary session 
on 18 June and encouraged Rotarians to take action. 

Literacy was also highlighted during the fourth plenary session, with 
a video message from Dolly Parton, country music star and founder of 
the Imagination Library, and an address from Ontario Premier Dalton 
McGuinty. 

Throughout the week, Rotary's Wide World of Books, a global literacy 
initiative, also put the spotlight on literacy. Rotarians from around 
the world were asked to donate a book. Exactly 242,624 books were 
collected for public elementary schools in Southern California and 
Southern Nevada. The response resulted in setting a Guinness world 
record for the most books collected in seven days. ( See the video ) 

Inside the Los Angeles Convention Center, the House of Friendship 
provided a forum for Rotary Fellowships, Rotarian Action Groups, and 
club and district projects. Outside, the beautiful Southern 
California summer served as a scenic backdrop to the Concert under 
the Stars entertainment event at the Hollywood Bowl. 

RI President-elect Dong Kurn Lee concluded the 2008 RI Convention by 
motivating Rotarians to take action in decreasing the world's child 
mortality rate. More than 26,000 children die each day from 
preventable diseases such as pneumonia, measles, and malaria, he 
said. 

Lee told the assembled Rotarians that they are the ones who can make 
the difference by providing clean water to communities and delivering 
basic medicines and vaccines to sick children. 

"I will ask you all to Make Dreams Real for the world's children," 
Lee said. "This will be our theme, and my challenge to all of you. We 
will Make Dreams Real by giving children hope and a chance at a 
future. " 

Source: Rotary International News
Courtesy: eFlash_Rotary

2.
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/eFlash_Rotary/message/1437;_ylc=X3oDMTJxajNoc
zlpBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE1BGdycElkAzI3ODYwNzYEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1MDY0MDg2BG1zZ0lkAzE0M
zcEc2VjA2Rtc2cEc2xrA3Ztc2cEc3RpbWUDMTIxNDMwMDAyOA--> 1520: President-elect's
Address to the LA Convention 

 

Mon Jun 23, 2008 4:42 pm (PDT) 

President-elect's Address to the RI Convention
Dong Kurn Lee, 2008-09 RI President
Los Angeles
18 June 2008

There are certain moments in our lives that are filled with such joy 
that we wish we could hold on to them forever. Standing here, at this 
Rotary convention, speaking to all of you, is one of those moments.
In my many years as a Rotarian, I have seen how Rotary changes lives. 
All over the world, Rotary means hope. It means health and literacy. 
It means honesty and fellowship. It means the courage to make things 
better. All over the world, there are people whose lives are 
different, whose lives have been touched, and transformed, because of 
Rotary. But as much as Rotary service changes the lives of others, it 
changes our own lives more.
Rotary changes who we are because it changes how we see ourselves and 
the world. We do not only see how things are now, but how they might 
be. We see potential, and we see possibility. Together, our abilities 
are stronger. Together, we really can make a lasting difference on a 
global scale. Together, there is no limit to what we can accomplish. 
But when we truly understand the power that we have through Rotary, 
we must also understand that this kind of potential brings a 
responsibility: the responsibility to do the most good we can and to 
inspire other Rotarians to do the same.
How can we do the most good that we can? We do it by keeping our 
clubs strong, by bringing in new members and making sure that all of 
our members are serving well. We do it by giving to our Foundation, 
so that we have the resources to support projects around the world. 
And in the coming Rotary year, we will do it by coming together to 
succeed in our $100 million challenge. This challenge is a promise we 
have made, as part of our promise to eradicate polio. And I will 
quote President Wilf when I say, "We Rotarians keep our promises."
Every project we take on in Rotary is a promise we must keep, which 
is why it is so important to choose our projects carefully. Our 
choices are not always easy or obvious. They are not simple questions 
of right or wrong. They are complicated questions of who needs our 
help the most and whom we can help the best. This is why, every year, 
it is the job of a Rotary president to choose his emphases, to help 
guide the service of Rotarians in the coming Rotary year. It is one 
of the biggest decisions a Rotary president makes. And it was one 
that I spent many months considering.
I thought carefully about the emphases of past presidents and looked 
at some of the many projects that these emphases had inspired. Water, 
health and hunger, and literacy - these are the categories of Rotary 
service that have endured now for several years, and with good 
reason. These are the areas in which local Rotary clubs, working 
individually and in cooperation with other clubs, can do the most 
good. They are areas in which we now have many years' experience and 
expertise. They are areas of wise Rotary investment. They are areas 
that let us do the most good with everything that we have. I knew 
with my mind that these were the emphases we should continue.
And yet, my heart was pulled in another direction. Because, in the 
midst of my research on possible emphases, I came across a number. 
That number was 30,000 - the number of children under the age of five 
who died every day from preventable causes. At first, I thought that 
it had to be a mistake. Maybe there was an extra zero in that number, 
if not two. Maybe the number was per month, or per year. It was 
impossible, unthinkable, in the 21st century that 30,000 of our most 
precious children could be dying, needlessly, every day. But there 
was no mistake. I asked, how can it be possible?
The answers were as heartbreaking as the number. Children die 
needlessly of pneumonia, measles, and malaria - for the lack of basic 
medicines, vaccines, and mosquito nets. They die of diarrheal 
illnesses - for the lack of a packet of rehydration salts that costs 
only 10 cents. They die in the thousands, every day, because they 
have no clean water to wash in and to drink. They are killed by 
illnesses that become deadly in combination with poor sanitation and 
malnutrition. They die because their families are trapped in a cycle 
of extreme poverty, a cycle that is not interrupted because there is 
no access to education.
So much can be done to keep children healthy, with so little: 
mosquito nets, rehydration salts, vitamins, and vaccines. And so much 
can be done with just a little bit more: a trained birth attendant, a 
simple clinic, a school feeding program, a visiting nurse. These are 
simple and direct ways to save children's lives. In the last few 
years, the number of deaths per day has already gone down, from 
30,000 to 26,000. I believe that part of the improvement has been 
through Rotary service in the areas of water, health and hunger, and 
literacy. We are already doing a great deal. But I believe that if we 
focus our efforts, we can do a great deal more.
This is why in 2008-09, Rotary will keep the service emphases we have 
had in so many of our past years, the emphases that are grounded in 
our knowledge and experience: water, health and hunger, and literacy. 
But this year, I will ask you to direct your work in each of these 
areas toward children, and toward reducing the terrible rate of child 
mortality in our world. In 2008-09, I will ask you all to Make Dreams 
Real for the world's children. This will be our theme, and my 
challenge to all of you. We will Make Dreams Real by giving children 
hope and a chance at a future. 
We will Make Dreams Real by bringing clean water to their 
communities, and by this I mean not only providing safe water to 
drink but creating the sanitation projects that keep children 
healthy. We will be as proud of building public toilets as we are of 
supplying drinking water, because by improving sanitation we prevent 
water from becoming contaminated, and we avoid so many needless 
deaths.
We will Make Dreams Real by giving children the chance at health 
through improving their environments and their access to care. We 
will Make Dreams Real by making sure that more children have a chance 
to go to school, because it will only be through education that the 
deadly cycle of poverty can be broken.
We will Make Dreams Real by working together on Rotary's $100 Million 
Challenge.
And in 2008-2009, I ask you all to ensure that we will be able to 
continue to Make Dreams Real for many years to come by bringing new 
members in to Rotary. For many years now, worldwide Rotary membership 
has remained at the same level - just over 1.2 million members. Our 
membership is not growing. But the needs of the world's children are. 
In order to keep pace with these needs, we must have more members. 
And we must have more clubs.
This is why I have set ambitious new goals for membership in this 
Rotary year. This is why I asked every district to work toward a 10 
percent net increase in membership. And I asked each district to 
establish at least two new clubs. I have asked each of my district 
governors to announce their own targets for new members and new clubs 
in their districts. If each district rises to the challenge that they 
have accepted, then by the time we meet again in Birmingham, we will 
have over 1.3 million Rotarians, and over 33,000 clubs.
How will we achieve this? We will do it by looking for qualified 
members where they are and not waiting for them to come to us, 
because in every community, we overlook candidates for membership 
simply because they are different from ourselves. They may be of a 
different age or profession. They may come from a different 
background or live in a different neighborhood. But this is all the 
more reason to invite them to a meeting. If you know someone who is 
qualified for membership, but you think would not fit in your club, 
perhaps it is time to reconsider. What might that individual bring to 
your club? What skills and talents could that person contribute that 
your club does not now have? How could that person help Make Dreams 
Real?
In every zone, in every district, more Rotarians are needed to help 
us reach our goal of saving children, because in every community 
there are children who need our help. Child mortality is highest in 
developing countries. But there is not a single Rotary district where 
local club projects cannot save lives. Every day, in every part of 
the world, children die for the lack of a seatbelt or a smoke 
detector. Children die because they have nowhere safe to play. 
Children die because their parents cannot afford health care. 
Children die not because nobody can help them but because too often, 
nobody does. But you and I, here in this room, are Rotarians, and 
helping is what we do best.
And so it is our job to open our eyes to these needs, in our own 
communities and in communities far away. Our job is to work together, 
one club with another, to do what is needed. Our job is to Make 
Dreams Real. We will turn those dreams of a safe and happy childhood -
a childhood that becomes a long and healthy life - into a reality 
because all of the world's children are our children. And our job is 
a simple one. It is saving lives with our hearts and our minds and 
our souls. And if, in 2008-09, every one of us does this job well, at 
the end of our year we will all have achieved something wonderful.

Courtesy: eFlash_Rotary

 

 

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