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Rajashree Birla address the 2012 RI Convention

R ajashree Birla, of the Aditya Birla Group, has committed an additional US$1 million to The Rotary Foundation for polio eradication efforts. 

Birla, of Mumbai, announced the donation on 8 May at the Arch C. Klumph Society dinner during the 2012 RI Convention in Bangkok, Thailand. Birla’s contributions to the Foundation’s campaign to eradicate polio, including this commitment, total more than $6.2 million. 

Birla’s late husband, Aditya, made the Aditya Birla Group into a Fortune 500 company and one of the largest in India. Today, her eldest son, Kumar Mangalam, is chairman of the board, and she serves as a director. 

“Aditya Birla was one of India’s foremost industrialists and an active philanthropist,” said Rotary Foundation Trustee Chair William B. Boyd in introducing Rajashree Birla at the convention. “His widow has continued this work through the family’s foundation, introducing education and health care initiatives that improve the lives of underserved populations in rural India. The Birla family is a staunch supporter of the End Polio Now campaign and has contributed generously to [Rotary’s] US$200 Million Challenge fund.” 

Birla’s contribution to the Foundation comes during India’s breakthrough year in its fight to be polio-free. The World Health Organization (WHO) removed India from the list of polio-endemic countries in February, after the country hadn’t reported a case of polio since January 2011. To be certified polio-free, India must go until February 2014 without another case of the disease. Continued support is needed to ensure that India and other countries remain polio-free and to stop transmission of the disease in the three remaining polio-endemic countries, Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan. 

Birla, addressing the convention on 7 May, said, “Based on the success of Rotary International’s initiatives in India — coupled, of course, with the admirable backing of the government’s health departments and institutions like WHO, UNICEF, CDC, and the Gates Foundation — the day is not far off for us to envisage the elimination of polio in the other three countries where unfortunately its traces remain.”  

She added, “We owe it to ourselves and to humanity at large to ensure that in these three countries as well, polio becomes an affliction of the past.”  

An honorary member of the Rotary clubs of Bombay and Mulund, Birla also stressed the need for business accountability and community service. Her Giving to Living campaign encourages corporations to “embed giving into their DNA.” 

“When a corporation pushes its energies and helps resolve social sector issues through its engagement, it indirectly stimulates its own business development,” Birla said. “There is much to be gained when business leaders take giving to heart, and set the mandate of making a difference by caring for people in their community.”

For more information:

• Learn more about Rotary’s efforts to eradicate polio
• See other speeches from the 2012 RI Convention
• Read more about polio eradication on the Rotary Voices blog

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Rotarian Jim Wilkins, who created the Branch Rickey Award, and his wfie, Scotty.

Philadelphia Phillies center fielder Shane Victorino finished the 2011 baseball season error-free, with a perfect fielding percentage and a respectable .279 batting average. In November, the three-time Gold Glover marked yet another top baseball achievement when the Rotary Club of Denver gave him its 20th annual Branch Rickey Award.

The honor, which celebrates a player’s off-the-diamond humanitarian accomplishments, was named for the baseball executive and player who made history in 1945 by signing Jackie Robinson to the Brooklyn Dodgers organization, breaking the sport’s color barrier.

Since the 1940s, the Denver club has raised $3.8 million for Denver Kids, a program that has helped thousands of at-risk children complete high school. Of that total, $1.56 million has come from the Branch Rickey Award dinner. Now the club’s primary fundraiser, the event brings in ticket sales, sponsorships, and auction proceeds.

Flyin’ Hawaiian

Victorino, 31, known as “The Flyin’ Hawaiian,” was chosen for the award because of his work to help young people in Philadelphia and in his native Hawaii. The Shane Victorino Foundation, which he started with his wife, Melissa, in 2010, has committed $900,000 toward renovating the 105-year-old Nicetown Boys Girls Club in an impoverished Philly neighborhood. It also has raised $500,000 for charities in Hawaii, including the Hawaii Children’s Cancer Foundation, the Boys Girls Club of Maui, and local Little League and high school groups.

Before the 453-plate dinner, Victorino got a ride from the airport with past club president Jim Wilkins, whom Denver Rotarians credit with creating the award. “It was really that the Denver Rotary club asked me to head a task force to find a new fundraiser,” Wilkins says. The club’s longstanding charity event, an art show and sale, hadn’t been raising enough to meet the growing needs of Denver Kids.

“I started looking into different sports,” says Wilkins, who grew up rooting for the Brooklyn Dodgers, including Robinson and feisty general manager Rickey. “It was around the time the Rockies got the franchise for baseball in Denver, so I went to the Denver library and looked up baseball awards. Everything was covered: most home runs, hits, everything. Because of our motto, Service Above Self, I thought it would be natural to highlight service.” He put together a short list of great baseball names but kept coming back to Rickey.

“Branch Rickey didn’t have anything named after him, yet he was this monumental figure,” Wilkins says. Coincidentally, a club member, John Andrews Sr., had lived next door to Rickey growing up. Andrews contacted the Rickey family, who have been supportive of the award ever since.

The Denver club asked Colorado artist George Lundeen to create a 30-inch statue called The Player to present to award winners. A 9-foot-6-inch bronze version now stands outside the Colorado Rockies’ Coors Field.

The money raised from the event goes to the Denver club’s foundation, which gives Denver Kids $145,000 each year. Denver Kids, with an annual budget of $1 million, needs “about $1,000 per child per year, for 1,000 children,” says Donna Hultin, its recently retired CEO.

Helping students graduate

Through the organization, Hultin says, at-risk children from kindergarten through high school are provided with counselors and mentors so they receive the academic help and cultural enrichment they need to graduate high school and succeed.

Introducing the students to the Rickey award-winning baseball stars is an important part of the activities surrounding the event, Wilkins says. When Victorino talked with the kids, he revealed that he had been mocked at school for his small size, and that he’d thought he wouldn’t amount to much.

Across Denver Public Schools, 50 percent of students graduate from high school. For Denver Kids, that figure is 90 percent. The program has begun to focus on empowering participants to go to college.

But the challenges are growing, Hultin says. The poverty rate is up, as is the number of children at risk for dropping out. “The schools would like us to work with more kids,” she says. “But we can’t compromise. We’re able to serve more kids only with additional funding.”

Providentially, the 2011 auction was the best yet, and the entire event netted $58,000

Read more stories from The Rotarian or sign up for the digital edition.

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Watch a trailer to the documentary

The seven-year-old star of an award-winning Indian film earned his role not because of a screen test, but a medical test.

Rishikanta, who had two holes in his heart, underwent open-heart surgery, sponsored by the Rotary Club of Imphal, in 2009. Last year, his story, titled Heart to Heart, won for Best Science and Technology Film in the National Film Awards, India’s equivalent to the Academy Awards.

“Miracles do happen,” says executive producer Radhesyam Oinam, a member of the Imphal club. At a September ceremony, India’s president, Pratibha Devisingh Patil, presented him with the honor.

The genesis of Heart to Heart was Imphal Rotarians’ decision to document one of their projects: providing treatment to children with congenital heart defects whose families couldn’t afford corrective surgery. More than 180,000 babies are born with such defects annually in India, and one-third require treatment within their first year. Members of the Imphal club, located in the far northeastern state of Manipur, raised funds to send children to New Delhi, 1,500 miles away, for surgery. “Pediatric heart care is costly and rare in Manipur,” Oinam says. Open-heart surgery costs about US$5,000 – an impossible sum for a family like Rishikanta’s, who survive on $25 a month.

In September 2009, the first three children underwent operations through the project, and as of August 2011, the club had sponsored 47 recipients. Last year, Gift of Life in Delhi, part of an international organization founded by Rotarians to provide free medical services to children with heart conditions, began sponsoring youth from Manipur. Participating hospitals provide the surgeries at half the usual cost.

The 37-minute film is helping the club spread the word about congenital heart defects. “We had no intention of winning awards or anything of the sort,” Oinam says. “We wanted people to know what we were doing.”

Vicky Wallace, of the Rotary Club of Lake Elsinore, California, USA, saw a screening in 2009 while she was in Imphal for a district conference. “When the movie was over, several people came forward and committed funds to help with more surgeries,” she recalls. “I was never more proud to be a Rotarian.”

The film, which was released in 2010, also has increased awareness of Rotary in India. “In Manipur, we are known as ‘the heart people,’” says Pramod Kumar Chhabra, president of the Imphal club. “It has improved our image in our state.”

The club’s relationship with Rishikanta did not end with his surgery. Before the procedure, his illness kept him from attending school, but today, the Imphal Rotarians are sponsoring his education. Chhabra reports that the young student is earning good grades.

Read more stories from The Rotarian or sign up for the digital edition to see the full interview.

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Watch the full videos of 2012 Convention speakers

• RI President Kalyan Banerjee’s welcome address
• Rotary Foundation Trustee Chair William B. Boyd’s address
• General Secretary John Hewko’s address
• 2012-13 RI President Sakuji Tanaka’s address
• RI President Kalyan Banerjee’s closing address

Download reports from the convention

• General Secretary’s Report to the RI Convention
• Treasurer’s Report to the RI Convention

Read speeches from the convention

• Address by Her Royal Highness Princess Chulabhorn
• RI President Kalyan Banerjee’s welcome address
• Rotary Foundation Trustee Chair William B. Boyd’s address
• Address by John F. Germ, chair of Rotary’s US$200 Million Challenge Committee
• General Secretary John Hewko’s address
• 2012-13 Rotary Foundation Trustee Chair Wilfrid Wilkinson’s address
• 2012-13 RI President Sakuji Tanaka’s address
• Ron D. Burton, RI President-nominee’s acceptance remarks
• RI President Kalyan Banerjee’s closing address

Order the 2012 Bangkok Convention Speeches DVD Set from shop.rotary.org

10 Comments:

At 10:19AM on 11 May 2012, PP Keow Hock Sneah, Jeff wrote:
As one of over 35,000 participants, I am greatly wowed and mesmerized by the overall excellent standards of performance attained in all areas and fields of the 2012 RI Convention in Bangkok – from the magnificent IMPACT venue and all its facilities and amenities, from the process and system of communication, registration and admission, .from transportation by 999 buses to the venue from hotels and back, from the splendid Frienship Corner of exhibits, entertainment, food (and even Thai massage), Resouce Center etc; from high-tech audio-visual presentations, from world-class entertainers. The Thai Rotarians in the Organising Committee and the many local and foreign volunteers must be applauded for their selfless effort and contributions to the success of the Convention. Bangkok in particular and Thailand in general will now endear themselves to the hearts and minds of the foreign Rotarians and guests for years to come. Lastly, the reports, speeches and the videos that are quickly uploaded to the RI website will greatly help to educate, train and motivate Rotarians and thier Clubs to give and contribute more in the six areas of focus (which are
1. peace and conflict prevention/rresolution
2. disease prevention and treatment
3. water and sanitation
4. maternal and child health
5. basic education and literacy
6. economic and community development. .

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/rotary/PBqj/~3/q6K__ANQuiY/120503_IC12_speeches.aspx

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Watch the full videos of 2012 Convention speakers

• RI President Kalyan Banerjee’s welcome address
• Rotary Foundation Trustee Chair William B. Boyd’s address
• General Secretary John Hewko’s address
• 2012-13 RI President Sakuji Tanaka’s address
• RI President Kalyan Banerjee’s closing address

Download reports from the convention

• General Secretary’s Report to the RI Convention
• Treasurer’s Report to the RI Convention

Read speeches from the convention

• Address by Her Royal Highness Princess Chulabhorn
• RI President Kalyan Banerjee’s welcome address
• Rotary Foundation Trustee Chair William B. Boyd’s address
• Address by John F. Germ, chair of Rotary’s US$200 Million Challenge Committee
• General Secretary John Hewko’s address
• 2012-13 Rotary Foundation Trustee Chair Wilfrid Wilkinson’s address
• 2012-13 RI President Sakuji Tanaka’s address
• Ron D. Burton, RI President-nominee’s acceptance remarks
• RI President Kalyan Banerjee’s closing address

Order the 2012 Bangkok Convention Speeches DVD Set from shop.rotary.org

10 Comments:

At 10:19AM on 11 May 2012, PP Keow Hock Sneah, Jeff wrote:
As one of over 35,000 participants, I am greatly wowed and mesmerized by the overall excellent standards of performance attained in all areas and fields of the 2012 RI Convention in Bangkok – from the magnificent IMPACT venue and all its facilities and amenities, from the process and system of communication, registration and admission, .from transportation by 999 buses to the venue from hotels and back, from the splendid Frienship Corner of exhibits, entertainment, food (and even Thai massage), Resouce Center etc; from high-tech audio-visual presentations, from world-class entertainers. The Thai Rotarians in the Organising Committee and the many local and foreign volunteers must be applauded for their selfless effort and contributions to the success of the Convention. Bangkok in particular and Thailand in general will now endear themselves to the hearts and minds of the foreign Rotarians and guests for years to come. Lastly, the reports, speeches and the videos that are quickly uploaded to the RI website will greatly help to educate, train and motivate Rotarians and thier Clubs to give and contribute more in the six areas of focus (which are
1. peace and conflict prevention/rresolution
2. disease prevention and treatment
3. water and sanitation
4. maternal and child health
5. basic education and literacy
6. economic and community development. .

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Top: RI President Kalyan Banerjee and RI President-elect Sakuji Tanaka during the closing plenary session. Bottom: Ron D. Burton, 2013-14 RI president, and his wife, Jetta, are introduced during the fourth plenary. Rotary Images/Monika Lozinska

Rotarians and friends left the 2012 RI Convention in Bangkok, Thailand, energized to keep up the fight against polio and to use their ingenuity to help reduce global poverty.

The four-day event, which drew to a close Wednesday, attracted more than 35,000 attendees from 181 countries and geographical areas and included a celebration of two major milestones in the global polio eradication effort.

Attendees were also treated to a preview of the next RI Convention, which will take place 23-26 June 2013, in Lisbon, Portugal. Register now.

In his closing remarks, RI President Kalyan Banerjee reminded Rotarians that “what’s important in Rotary isn’t what we say. It’s what we do, and who we are.”

“There dwells within you the power and spirit that can evoke the energy you may not realize,” Banerjee said. “You have to be hungry enough to reach within and release the energy to help you embrace humanity. I believe this is the state we call happiness. I have just given you the prescription for it. Rotary can help you achieve happiness in life that you seek.” Download Banerjee’s closing address.

Peace through service

Incoming RI President Sakuji Tanaka outlined his plans for his term, which begins 1 July. Tanaka will ask Rotarians to achieve Peace through Service.

“Through service we learn that the problems that may seem large to us are really very small,” said Tanaka. “We learn empathy for others. We come closer to people who seem very different from us. And we begin to understand how much we are all the same.”

“Through our Rotary service, we know that cooperation is more productive than conflict,” he said. “We know that every one of us has something to give, and everyone has something to teach.” Download Tanaka’s speech.

Delegates elected nominee Ron D. Burton, of the Rotary Club of Norman, Oklahoma, USA, as the 2013-14 RI president during the fourth plenary session earlier in the day.

“I am both honored and humbled to accept the nomination of president of Rotary International,” Burton said in his acceptance remarks. “I take a tremendous amount of pride in being a Rotarian. To me, Rotary isn’t just another service organization. It is something different, something special.”

Burton says the best years are still to come for Rotary. He emphasized RI’s Strategic Plan as the tool to make that happen.

“The plan is a way to look clearly at who we are, where we are going, and how we should get there,” said Burton. “It’s a powerful reminder of our goals and priorities, which at their heart are the same as they’ve been since Rotary was founded.” Download Burton’s speech.

Achieving peace

Jose Ramos-Horta, president of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, talked about his country’s struggle to achieve peace. He told Rotarians that peace can be difficult but, with the right people in place, it’s attainable.

“Peace is a process — sometimes a long one, too long. It can be a formal political process,” said Ramos-Horta. “But to be sustained we have to deal with human beings as individuals, as communities, as people with traumas, emotions, and anger, but also with hopes, hearts, and feelings.”

Earlier in the session, Banerjee honored clubs and districts with the Changemaker Award and the Presidential Citation.

The Changemaker Award recognizes clubs that made an extraordinary impact during 2011-12 through the Avenues of Service. The Presidential Citation recognizes achievements related to membership development and contributing to The Rotary Foundation.

During the fourth plenary session, General Secretary John Hewko outlined five priorities for the Secretariat to get Rotary on the best footing possible to embark on its second century. These included eradicating polio, implementing the Strategic Plan and Future Vision, finding an effective way to track and demonstrate the value of the service provided by Rotarians, increasing membership, and bringing Rotary into the ranks of major players in the world of global humanitarian assistance and development. Download Hewko’s speech

For more information:

• Get the latest news, photos, and video from Bangkok
• Read more about the convention in the Rotary Voices blog
• Download convention speeches and reports

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Top: Bruce Aylward tells Rotarians India’s removal from the polio-endemic list is a magnificent Rotary achievement. Bottom: Former Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholar John Skerrit accepts the Global Alumni Service to Humanity Award. Rotary Images/Alyce Henson

Rotarians Tuesday celebrated two major milestones in the organization’s decades-long fight to rid the world of polio with a laser light show at the 2012 RI Convention in Bangkok, Thailand.

During the third plenary session, which was also made available through a live webcast, Rotarians were congratulated for meeting and exceeding Rotary’s US$200 Million Challenge, Rotary’s response to $355 million in matching grants from the Bill Melinda Gates Foundation for polio eradication efforts. Attendees also celebrated India’s removal from the polio-endemic list in February, which leaves only three countries where transmission of the virus has never been stopped.

But speakers reminded the festive assembly that the work is far from complete, because the ultimate goal has not been reached.

“We know that we haven’t reached our goal. We haven’t ended polio,” said John F. Germ, chair of Rotary’s US$200 Million Challenge Committee. “Our clubs are still planning polio fundraisers for the coming years and encouraging donations from people in their communities.”

Germ announced that, as of 4 May, Rotarians and supporters have raised $215.7 million for the challenge, which runs through June. But with the Global Polio Eradication Initiative facing a significant funding shortfall for 2012 and beyond, it is vital for clubs and districts to keep pushing forward with their many creative fundraisers. (Download Germ’s speech or watch a video of the third plenary)

Public health emergency

Bruce Aylward, assistant director-general for polio, emergencies and country collaboration for the World Health Organization, said India’s removal from the polio-endemic list is “perhaps the most important milestone ever on the long road to eradication.”

“It’s a magnificent achievement. And it is a Rotary achievement,” he said. “Today, Rotary’s vision of a polio-free world is much closer to reality.”

But an upsurge in cases of paralysis from polio in Nigeria, Pakistan, and Afghanistan and recent polio outbreaks in China, the Congo, and Tajikistan have also prompted what he called an “unprecedented push” to finally end the disease. He said 192 ministers of health will meet next week and declare polio a public health emergency.

“The world understands the full consequences of failure,” he said. “We must be faster, we must be more focused and each one of us must be fully accountable.”

Indian philanthropist Rajashree Birla, who has given more than $4.2 million to the Foundation for polio eradication, said she has been “overwhelmed with Rotary’s polio efforts.”

Birla’s late husband, Aditya, built the family business into one of India’s largest. Today, Birla and her son, Kumar Mangalam, head the Aditya Birla Group, a Fortune 500 company.

Birla stressed the need for business accountability and community service. Her Giving to Living campaign encourages corporations to “embed giving into their DNA.”

“When a corporation pushes its energies and helps resolve social sector issues through engagement, it indirectly stimulates its own business development,” said Birla. “There is much to be gained when business leaders take giving to heart, and set the mandate of making a difference by caring for people in their community.”

Service to Humanity award

Former Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholar John Skerrit was presented with the 2011-12 Global Alumni Service to Humanity Award by Rotary Foundation Trustee Chair William B. Boyd.

“Just as Rotary Fellowships help build international understanding, I had the privilege of leading a program of postgraduate training for over 300 agricultural scientists from 18 developing countries to assist in building the next generation of thinkers and leaders,” said Skerritt. Read more.

In his keynote address, Boyd noted the difference The Rotary Foundation makes in lives daily.

“When a group calling themselves Rotarians comes to a village and asks what are the most pressing needs that can be worked through together and the answer is water, you can understand the opportunity that this gives the woman who spends three hours each day walking with her teenage daughter to collect dirty water as that is the only supply available,” he said.

“A water supply to her village will give her time to grow food, will enable her daughter to be educated, her other children will not be constantly sick, and maybe she can get a microcredit loan and start a small business. What a difference that day will bring.” Download Boyd’s speech

Amanda Martin, an alumna of the Rotary Peace Center at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, thanked Rotary for the opportunity to broaden her skills. She said her work as a public health coordinator and teacher in a refugee camp on the border of Thailand and Myanmar is “inspiring and fulfilling.”

“Rotary has already made a dramatic difference in my life and is having a profound ripple effect, radiating from me to my students and onto the impoverished populations that they will serve as public health workers,” said Martin.

For more information:

• Watch a video of the third plenary
• Get the latest news, photos, and video from Bangkok
• Read more about the convention in the Rotary Voices blog
• Download convention speeches and reports

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Top: Muhammad Yunus commends Rotarians for their work in developing microcredit loans for the poor during the second plenary session 7 May. Bottom: Hugh Evans urges Rotarians to use their influence to help end poverty. Rotary Images/Monika Lozinska 

Poverty and hunger were the targets of the second plenary session of the 2012 RI Convention, as a variety of award-winning speakers encouraged Rotarians to use their ingenuity to solve these global challenges.

Microcredit pioneer Muhammad Yunus, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, commended Rotarians for their work in developing microcredit loans for the poor. The founder of Grameen Bank also encouraged Rotarians to pursue social business enterprises that would work with microcredit-funded businesses not just to produce revenue but also to return profits to the communities where they operate.

As an example, Yunus highlighted a joint venture between Grameen Bank and Danone, a European food company, to produce high-nutrition yogurt for children in Bangladesh. The goal is to reduce malnutrition while creating manufacturing and distribution jobs.

“In today’s world, we use money to make money, not solve problems,” said Yunus. “If we use money creatively in a business framework, we can solve any problem.”

Recently, Grameen Bank also joined forces with Adidas to produce shoes that cost less than US$1 per pair. The affordable shoes help prevent infection by foot parasites in poor communities.

“My dream is to one day take poverty out of our society and put it in a museum that our grandchildren can visit to see what it was like,” Yunus said.

Antipoverty crusader Hugh Evans, cofounder and CEO of the Global Poverty Project, said Rotary can use its considerable influence to fight poverty.

“Like Rotary, we believe that mass mobilization of individuals can effect real change in the world,” Evans said. “When we focus on the needs of others, our own burdens become lighter. Our perspective sharpens.”

“This idea, the same one that drives you as Rotarians, guides our work at the Global Poverty Project,” he said.

UN connection

Gillian Sorensen, senior adviser and national advocate at the United Nations Foundation, encouraged Rotarians to work with governments to solve global problems including poverty, hunger, illiteracy, and lack of access to clean drinking water and sanitation.

“What is clear is that problems like this are too great for governments alone to resolve,” said Sorensen, who has served in many positions at the UN including assistant secretary-general for external relations. “They need partners of every kind, from private sector to civil organizations like yours, who have the means to contribute and lead.”

Sorensen said Rotary, which has a 66-year relationship with the UN, continues to be an active and influential presence at the organization’s headquarters in New York. “You play a similar role with UNICEF, UNESCO, and WHO,” she adds.

Angelique Kidjo, Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter and activist , said the world has many health issues for which there are no solutions, but added that “the most frustrating are the ones for which we have a solution and not enough is being done.”

Kidjo, who was named a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in 2002, said Rotary’s “This Close” campaign is the right message to help eradicate polio for good.

“What I love about [the campaign] is that a simple goal is set,” she said. “We know eradication is possible. With your goodwill and energy, this goal is achievable.”

Kidjo also performed several songs.

In other convention news, Rotarians attempted to create the world’s biggest smile during an event at the Convention Center 6 May. Exactly 2,012 attendees wore blue and yellow ponchos and stood in the form of a smiley face. The event will be registered with Ripley’s Believe It or Not.

• Get the latest news, photos, and videos from Bangkok
• Read more about the convention in the Rotary Voices blog.
• Download convention speeches and reports.

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A royal appearance, and entertainment fit for a king, kicked off the 2012 RI Convention in Bangkok, Thailand, 6 May, where Rotarians gathered to celebrate past accomplishments and future friendships.

Her Royal Highness Princess Chulabhorn represented His Majesty the King at the opening ceremony,  thanking Rotarians for their good work around the world.

“I’m truly impressed by the unity of all Rotarians in devoting themselves to charity work in a spirit of selfless benevolence and dedication as befits Rotary’s own motto, Service Above Self,” said Princess Chulabhorn. “I am confident that your unwavering commitment and good intentions will reap due reward for our common cause.”

RI President Kalyan Banerjee presented the princess with a gift of appreciation. Flags of the 200 countries and regions where Rotary clubs serve their communities were presented on stage, followed by a performance of the national anthem of Thailand by Thai pop music star Tata Young.

In his opening remarks, Banerjee said Rotary is stronger today than it was at the beginning of his presidential term.

“I came into this year determined to make a difference, to leave Rotary stronger at the end of my year. And those goals were met,” said Banerjee. “But if there is one thing I have learned in this incredible year, it is that the changes that I have seen, the lives that have been touched haven’t been because of me. They have been because of you.”

Banerjee praised the Rotary projects that he and his wife, Binota, saw during their travels throughout the year, sharing how overwhelmed with pride and joy he was for their great work.

This year, Banerjee visited projects from New York to the newest Rotary country, South Sudan, where Rotarians from several countries are working with the government to build a multimillion dollar hospital.

He also highlighted the recent project partnership agreement between RI and ShelterBox, a grassroots Rotary club-sponsored disaster relief organization.

“We Rotarians pride ourselves on being the first to arrive when help is needed – and the last to leave. By partnering with ShelterBox, we’ll be able to do even more,” said Banerjee. “I hope this will be only the first of many project partners, as we look to expand our reach with more volunteers, in more places than ever before.”

Youth, social media vital to Rotary’s future

Banerjee said the best way to raise Rotary’s public profile and ensure its future is to bring in more young people.

“You only have to look around yourselves to realize that this is a problem we have to face,” said Banerjee. “Young people have to know what Rotary is, and why they should want to be a part of it.”

RI is already using social media like Facebook and Twitter to help spread the word. “More and more clubs of our clubs are using these tools that excite and inspire and that are drawing in new members – especially younger members, who are so key to Rotary’s future,” Banerjee said.

The opening plenary session also featured a Thai cultural dance performance by Creative Destination Management, and the Bangkok Symphony Orchestra.

In other convention news:

• Bangkok Governor Sukhumbhan Boribhat took part in a dedication ceremony of a new playground at the Queen’s 60th Birthday Park. Rotary volunteers and more than 200 children participated in the event. Rotarians from Bangkok and the U.S. contributed $60,000 and volunteered to build the playground.
• More than 150 Rotaract club members from 23 countries painted, refurbished, and installed water purifiers at a middle school damaged by this year’s floods. Volunteers also planted trees in the playground area and organized the school library with 200 books donated by the Rotary Club of Patumwan.

Get the latest news, photos, and videos from Bangkok and read more about the convention in the Rotary Voices blog.

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Nobel Peace Prize laureate Leymah Gbowee addresses Peace Fellows, Rotarians, and Rotary Foundation alumni at the closing plenary session of the Rotary World Peace Symposium 5 May. Rotary Images/Monika Lozinska

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Leymah Gbowee called upon Rotary Peace Fellows, Rotarians, and Rotary Foundation alumni to use their collective strength and passion to help tackle today’s global challenges.

Speaking at the closing plenary session of the Rotary World Peace Symposium, Gbowee shared her personal journey from an angry victim of war to a peace activist. “My purpose here is to inspire where inspiration is needed, to encourage where encouragement is needed, and to raise up where complacency has set in,” said Gbowee.

In 2003, Gbowee mobilized women across religious and ethnic lines to bring an end to Liberia’s long and bloody war. As the founder of Women for Peace, she rallied women in a fish market to sing and pray in protest, and urged wives of leaders of warring factions to withhold sex until the leaders laid down their arms.

The campaign culminated in the election of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf as Liberia’s president, the first woman freely elected as a head of state in Africa. 

Service as a mandate

Gbowee described how she traveled throughout Africa to communities where brutalization of women is common.

“I expected to find bitterness and hatred — what I found instead was strength,” Gbowee said. “They transcended the sorrow of their lives to discover in themselves the courage and will to rebuild their lives and communities. These women came to the realization that banding together for action wasn’t a choice but a life.”

“Like Rotarians, these women see service to humanity as a mandate that must be obeyed,” she added.

The world still struggles with the true meaning of service, Gbowee said, and Rotarians and peace fellows must join together to help the world understand what service can achieve. “The challenges in our world can’t be solved by individualistic thinking. These challenges must be tackled by groups of individuals who understand that collective strength and selflessness is the only way out,” she said. “Sometimes the craziest ideas can give you the most impressive change.”

Working for peace

Peace fellows gave Gbowee a standing ovation. Yolanda Cowan, a 2003-05 peace fellow at Sciences Po in Paris has been working for UNICEF in Liberia. She said she’s seen the impact Gbowee had on the country’s women.

“She was a mythical and wonderful figure in Liberian society,” says Cowan. “Her message today was about the courage it takes to stand up for what you believe in. She’s empowered so many women.”

Earlier in the session, Rotary Foundation Trustee Chair-elect Wilfrid J. Wilkinson thanked the peace fellows for their work and praised the Rotary Peace Centers program, which celebrated its 10th anniversary this year.

“We have vastly increased peacemaking resources,” said Wilkinson. “Providing clean water, food, and education to all children will go a long way at attacking the root causes of war. With all the positive forces we are creating, how can we not believe peace is possible?”

For more information

• Watch the video Practicing Peace
• Read more about the Rotary Peace Centers
• Get the latest news, photos, and videos from Bangkok
• Read more on the Rotary Voices blog

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