Taking on Guinea worm in South Sudan

Posted on by
4
Walter Hughes Jr. watches a water pump in action in South Sudan.

Walter Hughes Jr. watches a water pump in action in South Sudan.

By Walter Hughes Jr., a member of the Rotary Club of Rocky Mount, Virginia, USA. Hughes is one of 12 Rotarians being honored 5 April at the White House as a Champion of Change.

I am honored to be a White House Champion of Change. I’m accepting on behalf of Rotarians and friends from a team of more than 80 Rotary clubs in the United States, Canada, Switzerland, Ghana, and South Sudan. We are celebrating the end of Guinea worm disease in Ghana in West Africa. It all started with a dream. I’m the lucky guy who gets to witness lives transformed around the world. Continue reading →

Sister clubs form deep bonds of friendship and service

Posted on by
2
Luis Pedro Fuxet Ciani, president of the Rotary Club of Guatemala Sur, and Suzanne Gibson, president of the Rotary Club of Barrington Breakfast, sign a sister club agreement.

Luis Pedro Fuxet Ciani, president of the Rotary Club of Guatemala Sur, and Suzanne Gibson, president of the Rotary Club of Barrington Breakfast, sign a sister club agreement.

By Narayan Murarka, a member of the Rotary Club of Barrington Breakfast, Illinois, USA

Through Rotary, people from different backgrounds and cultures come together to serve side by side and build long lasting friendships. I have seen this first hand in my club, the Rotary Club of Barrington Breakfast, Illinois, USA, which has formed a sister club relationship with the Rotary Club of Guatemala Sur, Guatemala.

In March 2010, I took part in an international service project to Guatemala, distributing water filters to residents of Sumpango, a village near Antigua. Continue reading →

Eye camp gives the gift of sight

Posted on by
3
RI Director Gideon Peiper looks at a patient recovering from cataract surgery during an eye camp in Lagos, Nigeria, in October.

RI Director Gideon Peiper looks at a patient recovering from cataract surgery during an eye camp in Lagos, Nigeria, in October.

By Suman Ramesh, a member of the Rotary Club of Lago-Palm Grove Estate, Lagos, Nigeria

Seeing the joy on people’s faces when they receive their sight back is an unforgettable experience.

Every year, the Rotary Club of Lagos-Palm Grove Estate, Lagos, Nigeria, sponsors an eye camp with medical staff from the Eye Institute in Navsari, India, treating nearly a thousand patients in the Nigerian states of Lagos and Ogun spread over 10 days. Continue reading →

Sisters share a passion for peace

Posted on by
4
Katrina (left, second row) and Summer (center) in 2009 with members of MarketPlace India, a fair trade textile cooperative based in Mumbai.

Katrina (left, second row) and Summer (center) in 2009 with members of MarketPlace India, a fair trade textile cooperative based in Mumbai.

By Summer Lewis, a 2010-12 Rotary Peace Fellow, University of Queensland

My sister Katrina and I grew up overseas with our mom, an international educator. Between the two of us, we have traveled, lived and worked in 57 countries.

Katrina is a design professor. I am committed to fair trade and small-scale farmer development. We like to say that Katrina got her start playing with boxes as a kid, and I began cultivating my passion for grassroots development in the garden. Continue reading →

Rotary clubs target dengue fever

Posted on by
5
Rotarians inspect tub sites with the mayor of Surakarta. Rotarians shared details of the project with the mayor to use in other parts of the city.

Rotarians inspect tub sites with the mayor of Surakarta. Rotarians shared details of the project with the mayor to use in other parts of the city.

By Paul Spiekermann, M.D., a member of the Rotary Club of Westport, Connecticut, USA

Rotary, with its army of volunteers, is uniquely suited to help prevent the spread of dengue fever, a painful and debilitating disease that infects 50-100 million people a year, mostly in tropical and subtropical regions.

The dengue virus is transmitted from person to person by mosquitoes. While 80 percent of Continue reading →

Stories of sustainability from Mt. Kilimanjaro

Posted on by
4
Children wash their hands from a spigot in Mwika, Tanzania. Photo courtesy of Walt Schafer

Children wash their hands from a spigot in Mwika, Tanzania. Photo courtesy of Walt Schafer

By Walt Schafer, a member of the Rotary Club of Chico, California, USA

After a 45 minute drive up a winding dirt road on the shoulder of Mt. Kilimanjaro, we arrived at a new waste-high trench and could smell the soil of the fresh dig.

About 75 young farmers had made remarkable progress digging the trench for a new four-inch water pipe in just two hours. The water pipe will transport clean water trickling down from a tiny stream higher up the slope to Mwika, Tanzania. Continue reading →

Rotary collaborates with others for clean water

Posted on by
8
Ron Denham, chair of the Water and Sanitation Rotarian Action Group, addresses Rotary’s commitment to water at an independently organized TED event.
 
By Ron Denham, a member of the Rotary Club of Toronto Eglinton, Ontario, Canada, and chair of the Water and Sanitation Rotarian Action Group.

A change is taking place in the way Rotarians approach water and sanitation programs.

We realize that the challenge of meeting the Millennium Development Goals is something that no organization can achieve on its own; not even Rotary with its 33,000 clubs and over 1.2 million members. To be successful we need leverage, the leverage that comes from collaboration with others who share our goals. Continue reading →

Lessons in sustainability from the jungles of Ecuador

Posted on by
7
Children in Guayaquil, Ecuador, receive computer training in their new learning center.

Children in Los Bancos, Ecuador, receive computer training in their new learning center.

By Rob Wood, past president of the Rotary Club of South San Francisco, San Francisco, USA

A few years ago, I learned valuable lessons in sustainability trying to help the people of Los Bancos, a community of about 100 villagers living in extreme poverty in the jungle near Guayaquil, Ecuador.

As president of my club in 2007, I was expected to come up with an international service project and had heard about a new club in Guayaquil looking for an international partner. When I asked them what the villagers needed, they answered “They need everything!” Continue reading →

Invite a young person on a service project and change a life

Posted on by
4

The above video shows images from Danae Cooney’s service project trips to Fiji and to Cambodia with Habitat for Humanity.

By Danae Cooney, a Rotary scholar and former Interactor from Hamilton, New Zealand

Sometimes all it takes is one; one person willing to open a door, offer an opportunity and lead another.

In August 2011, I was 16 years old. I was given the opportunity to participate in a Rotary service project in Fiji. I traveled with a team of Rotarians, including my stepfather, to a small, remote village in Fiji called Saqani, where we refurbished a rotting, unusable preschool. Continue reading →

Rotarians step up polio eradication efforts in Pakistan

Gallery

Posted on by
Three Rotarians and a Rotaractor from District 7080 (Ontario, Canada) participated in Subnational Immunization Days in Karachi and Lahore, Pakistan, in early March. Photo courtesy of Aziz Memon

This gallery contains 8 photos.

By Aziz Memon, Pakistan National PolioPlus Committee Chair At the End Polio Summit in Islamabad, Rotarians committed to help make Pakistan polio free through advocacy with government and religious leaders, immunizing migrant children at transit points, and conducting health camps … Continue reading →