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When the Rotary Club of Elmbrook, Wisconsin, USA, learned the Yercaud TELC School in Tamil Nadu, India, needed a new library it jumped at the opportunity to help. The school, for children from tribal villages, is one of 97 administered by the Arcot Lutheran Church (ALC) School Project in south India. Continue reading
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By Stéphanie Tobler, RI Senior Media Relations Specialist Europe/AfricaHealth ministers at the World Health Assembly in Geneva adopted a resolution on 25 May that declared “the completion of polio eradication to be a programmatic emergency for global public health.”
As a staff member in charge of public relations for Europe and Africa, I had the pleasure and honor of attending the briefing on the launch of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative’s emergency action plan at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, on 24 May. Rotary was represented by Past RI President Carl-Wilhelm Stenhammar. Continue reading
Derek Locke, left, and Iquitos Rotary Club President Hugo Chacaltana, right, with a family in Peru who received emergency shelter. Photo courtesy of ShelterBox
I am currently on deployment in Iquitos, Peru, with ShelterBox, where area communities are suffering from the worst flood in 26 years. When I first arrived, the level of the Amazon River was still almost 1.5 meters above the normal flood level.
I’ve been struck by the natural beauty of the rain forests and the Amazon River and its tributaries, while also mindful of the tremendous force of these rivers when they are swollen by snow melt and heavy rainfall. Continue reading
Rotarian Scott Dudley gives the thumbs up after surgery to donate a kidney to someone he had just met.
A series of coincidences brought Rotarian Scott Dudley and Phil Rosario together.
On 16 May, Scott, a member of the Rotary Club of North Whidbey Island Sunrise, Washington, USA, donated one of his kidney’s to Phil, who he had met only a week before. Continue reading
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon immunizes a boy against polio during Angola’s first polio eradication campaign of the year. UN Photo/Quintiliano dos Santos
Wild viruses and wildfires have two things in common. If neglected, they can spread out of control. If handled properly, they can be stamped out for good. Today, the flame of polio is near extinction — but sparks in three countries threaten to ignite a global blaze. Now is the moment to act.
During the next two weeks, on two continents, two events offer the chance for a breakthrough. First, the leaders of the world’s largest economies, the G8, congregate at the U.S.presidential retreat at Camp David in rural Maryland. A week later, the world’s ministers of health convene in Geneva. Together, they can push to deliver on an epic promise: to liberate humankind from one of the world’s most deadly and debilitating diseases. Continue reading
Before the event, Plaza Inn chef Kowa Sato, a member of the Rotary Club of Mizusawa-Isawa, drove about 25 miles with his team to buy fish at the Ofunato market, which had reopened that May. The video above featuring Sato captures the sushi-making process from start to finish. Continue reading
Marty Helman during a National Immunization Day in Africa last year.
I spoke about Polio Plus to a sell-out audience at my parents’ retirement home recently. There was not one member of the audience who didn’t have a personal story to share about polio – they all knew a time in America when every summer brought a new outbreak of the disease. And inevitably, they all remember a sibling or cousin or close friend who survived – or succumbed – to the disease.
I told the residents that they had done their job too well. I told them that because of their enthusiastic support for the public health campaigns here in North America that followed rollout of first the Salk and then the Sabin vaccine, that young people today frequently think polio is a disease about as antiquated and as far from their consciousness as, for example, yellow fever or leprosy (both of which are also very much still threats in the developing world). Continue reading
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The 2012 RI Convention in Bangkok, Thailand, has drawn to a close. But the event is still leaving a big smile on many people’s faces. On 7 May, exactly 2,012 participants put on yellow and blue jackets and hoods to … Continue reading
K.R. Raja Govindasamy, a former Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholar, shares his favorite convention moment.
I caught up with a few Rotarians as they were getting ready to leave the 2012 RI Convention in Bangkok, Thailand, and asked what their favorite moments were.
Glen MacGillivray, a member of the Rotary Club of Petawawa, Ontario, Canada, said:
“The House of Friendship has been amazing. I’ve met an awful lot of people with shared interests and different interests. People who could help us with what we’re trying to do and us help them with what they want to do. We’re a small club. It was nice to be a part of something bigger. And hearing Muhammad Yunus was a great thrill. It’s a big reason why we came.” Continue reading
