Stories

By Ryan Hyland

Rotary International President Jennifer Jones appeared on the main stage at the star-studded Global Citizen Festival on 24 September to highlight Rotary’s commitment to eradicating polio and announce an additional US$150 million pledge toward that end.

By Arnold R. Grahl

The detection of poliovirus, and even cases of polio, in places where it hasn’t been found for years has demonstrated once again that eradicating a human disease isn’t easy, especially in the final stages.

In recent months, an unvaccinated man in the United States was paralyzed. In the UK, poliovirus was detected in sewage. In Malawi, a child contracted polio. And Mozambique announced its first polio outbreak in 30 years.

By Ryan Hyland

Rotary International and the U.S.-based nonprofit Ukraine Friends have agreed to collaborate to provide resources, organize logistics, and distribute funds for high-impact projects that help Ukrainians affected by the war with Russia.

Zone 8 Rotary Regionalisation Pilot Project

• Linda was our chairperson for this evening’s club meeting at Cilantro.  Larry conducted invocation and Ron conducted the loyal toast.  Glenda joined the meeting via Zoom.
• Club members enjoyed a lovely 3 course meal served by first timer apprentices – an enjoyable night for all who attended.

• Rotary International and disaster relief charity, ShelterBox, announce three-year partnership renewal
• Humanitarian alliance supports people who lose homes to conflict and disaster
• Partnership enables ShelterBox and Rotary to support more people, in more places, in more ways

From the RI website here.

by Ryan Hyland

Rotary’s goal of ridding the world of polio is within reach, global health experts said during the 2021 World Polio Day Online Global Update on 24 October. The 30-minute program, “Delivering on our Promise of a Polio-Free World,” provided encouraging information about the progress and remaining challenges in the fight to end polio.

by Aidan O’Leary Illustration by Viktor Miller Gausa

“There’s something about the whole idea of eradicating polio that grabs the imagination,” says Aidan O’Leary. “Most people talk about making steps toward achievements, and it’s almost always into the never-never. Eradication is a zero-sum game; anything short of zero is failure. You keep getting closer and closer, but ultimately the only number that actually matters is zero.”

We believe that exemplifying and embracing diversity,  equity, and inclusion (DEI) should be a part of everything we do at Rotary.   

To ensure we live up to that ideal, the Board of Directors and our DEI Taskforce acted to strengthen the DEI statement originally adopted in 2019.  The result is in a new commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion:

(taken from rotary.org here)

The call went out from New Zealand, and Rotaractors in places as far away as Denmark, Jamaica, Mexico, and Uganda answered. Over 30 days in October and November, they took part in relay races, practiced yoga on the beach, danced, and did pushup and squat challenges, raising awareness — and about NZ$7,000 — for a project to vaccinate 100,000 children in nine countries and territories against three deadly pathogens.

“They were inspired by our story to say, ‘We want to be involved in this. We want to help see these illnesses erased,’” says Becky Giblin, a member of the Rotaract Club of Auckland City, New Zealand

Volunteers work to keep the community of Kingston, Ontario, healthy and safe

by Arnold R. Grahl

Tips to have that talk

Taken from rotary.org

By Joseph Epstein Illustrations by Davide Bonazzi

I only recently learned of The Four-Way Test, one of Rotary’s central principles. It is of special interest in the current day, when truth — or, more precisely, truthfulness — seems to be losing its prestige in public life.  

Rotarians, Rotaractors, and Interactors worked together in a nationwide project that promoted behavior change and initiated safety standards for businesses

by Ryan Hyland

This club develops presentations on a particular subject - conflict, migration, and refugees - to help other clubs improve their projects

by Vanessa Glavinskas

Quentin Wodon, an economist at the World Bank, joined Rotary to share his expertise, to network, and to help others. He has remained a member because he enjoys it. “I have been a Rotarian for 10 years,” says Wodon. “My father was a Rotarian, and I was a Rotaractor in Belgium. I also did Rotary Youth Exchange, so I’ve known Rotary for a long time.”

The people who fill the truly essential roles in society are often in short supply. By Joe Queenan Illustrations by Sébastien Thibault from the RI website

From time to time, societies run low on the things — and the people — they really need. We wake up one day and realize that there are too few doctors. Or far, far, far too few nurses. Or it suddenly dawns on us that there aren’t enough teachers, engineers, or plumbers to go around. There are certainly never enough guys who work well with sheetrock.