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President's Corner District Gov’s visit FEBRUARY WORLD UNDERSTANDING MONTH TRANSPORTATION GRANTS APPROVED WESTERN PACIFIC DECLARED POLIO FREE: R I PRESIDENT FRANK J DEVLYN – POLIO PLUS BRIC-A-BRAC On a Lighter Note
2000 - 2001 Office Bearers
Board meets second Tuesday of each month ROTARY GRACE:
ROTARY CLUB OF BOROKO
INC
Call to Order:
Welcome to Visiting Rotarians
and Guests:
Club Announcements:
Attendance Report
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PRESIDENT’S CORNER: Due to unforeseen technical difficulties there will not be a riveting message this month from our beloved President David, instead gentle readers, you will have to put with further ramblings from your intrepid Bulletin Editor. If President David had addressed you, I am certain that he would have commended for your attention the Rotary Clubs of Papua New Guinea new website http://www.rotary.org.pg Whilst it is early days yet, all contributions (well intelligent ones) from members will be gratefully received, and for further details please contact either President David or Sergeant David. In view of President David and the incoming GSE team’s lineage we thought the following contributions might tickle fellows’ fancies! * O’Connell was staggering home with a small Paddy in his back
* She followed her husband to the public house. "How can you
* We’ve got our own recipe for Irish stew: Get some meat, some
Members were delighted to welcome our District Governor, Judy Magub, to our weekly club evening on Thursday 25 January 2001. Judy updated members on a number of activities currently being undertaken in our District 9600. She specifically referred to our Club’s participation in the "Donations in Kind" programme, and in particular to David Conn’s involvement. She hoped that a number of our members would be able to attend the forthcoming District 9600 Conference that is to be held from 30th march to 1st April 2001 at Caloundra. Your beloved Kiwi editor did not like to show his ignorance by asking the DG " where in the heck is Caloundra?" but the question still stands "just where in the heck is Caloundra?" as your scribe is still none the wiser at present! She also commended for our attention the District 9600 website, (http://www.rotary9600org) which in addition to publishing her monthly newsletter etc, also up dates Rotarians with what is going on in our District, both at a Club and District level. GREAT QUIZ CHALLENGE: The Port Moresby Rotary Club have advised that the next Rotary quiz
challenge will now be held early in April 2001 at a time and venue to be
announced. If we are to give the Port Moresby Rotary Club the thrashing
that they so richly deserve, it is recommend that members refrain from
over indulging in he turps, as your few remaining brain cells could well
make the difference between a glorious victory and an ignominious defeat.
The Rotary Foundation has adopted a new Humanitarian Transportation Grants programme to fund the shipping of donated humanitarian supplies to countries in need. Rotary clubs and districts will be eligible to apply for grants ranging from US$500 to US$5,000 to ship books, clothing, medical equipment, and other goods they have collected. (It sounds like us Fellows! – Editor) Grant applications will not be accepted, however until a minimum of US$150,000 is held in the newly established Foundation Transportation Grants pool. Rotary districts are urged to donate a portion of their unused Humanitarian District Designated Funds to the pool. When sufficient funds are in hand to start the programme, the foundation will notify District Governors. Districts wishing to donate to the Humanitarian Transportation Grants
should contact the SHARE System coordinator at The Rotary Foundation,
by telephone: 847-866-3281; fax: 847-328-8554; or e-mail: rush@rotaryintl.org.
For programme criteria, contact the Humanitarian Transportation Grants
coordinator by telephone: 847-424-5334; fax: 847-866-8736, or e-mail: kreamern@rotaryintl.org.
BRIC-A-BRAC: *Our beloved Treasurer Geoff advised last week that our Club now has K52,500 in its cheque account, and K100,000 on term deposit @ 8%. The Directors are to consider other investment options. *International Director Noel is looking for billets for the Irish GSE team that will be here from 4-9 March 2001 – any takers fellows? RI PRESIDENT FRANK DEVLYN’S FEBRUARY MESSAGE: "This month we commemorate a very special anniversary…the birth of Rotary on 23 February 1905, known as "World Understanding and Peace Day". During Rotary’s 96 years of existence, we have accomplished milestones in service that even founder Paul Harris could not have envisioned during his lifetime. We have provided educational opportunities for thousands of international scholars, provided health care to tens of thousands of needy people, and made possible the immunisation of millions of children against the crippling disease of polio. In less than the span of a century, we have forged a powerful force for peace, built on the foundation of service. To me, the magic of Rotary is its internationality. The incredible diversity of our organization is its greatest asset, and it is what distinguishes us from other organizations. Through international programmes such as Youth Exchange, Group Study Exchange, the Ambassadorial Scholarships programme, Matching Grants, and World Community Service, we are able to expand our reach of service. Such service is the first step on the path to peace, because peace is rooted in the health and happiness of a nation’s people. It is difficult to have peace when children go hungry, when parents lack a livelihood, when a country goes to war. I believe that Rotary can make a difference, even if it is one child at a time, one community at a time. One of our greatest programmes is World Community Service, which matches clubs and districts in need of assistance. Today, thanks to the Internet, clubs can contact other clubs and districts around the world in order to carry out a joint project. You can publicise a project in need of a partner by posting it on the Project Registry, via the World community Services Resource Task Force, at http://www.frankdevlyn.org/wcs/register-project.htm Other great resources are the Project Fairs, which help match clubs in need of a partner. These gatherings are invaluable in linking people who want to take action and meet face-to-face. One shining example is the first international Projects Fair held last May in Eastern Europe, organised by Halina Stepien, WCS Chair of District 2230 (Belarus, Poland and Ukraine). This event, held in Kielce, Poland, attracted 100 participants and featured 107 projects. These fairs put the "action" into Rotary Service by helping to bring clubs together. Rotary also has been successful in advancing international understanding and peace through our joint health initiatives with the United Nations and its agencies. Indeed, people have often compared Rotary to the United Nations, with its great diversity and striving to achieve a common good. Our greatest partnership to date has been working with the "World Health Organisation, UNICEF and other groups to eradicate polio. We are on the threshold of achieving this great dream…to see polio wiped out in our lifetime. With your continued support and vigilance through the PolioPlus Partners programme, we plan to celebrate our historic victory over polio in the year 2005 – Rotary’s centennial. This month, I encourage you to Create Awareness and Trade
Action. through the programmes of Rotary to bring peace to the world.
It may sound like a monumental task, but it is achievable in small steps."
WESTERN PACIFIC DECLARED POLIO FREE: The Western Pacific (that includes us – Editor) has become the second region of the world where the transmission of the wild polio virus has been interrupted. The World Health Organisation is expected to certify this finding shortly. Rotary’s polio-immunisation efforts in this region date back to 1979 when RI awarded US$760,000 for a five-year immunisation pilot programme in the Philippines. As of 1 July 2000 Rotary had committed US$37.5 million for polio eradication in the Western Pacific region. The 26 countries in the Americas were the first to bring polio under control, in 1994. Europe is the next region expected to be declared polio free. The Indian subcontinent and Africa remain the largest reservoirs of the poliovirus. In 1988 10 percent of the world’s children lived in polio-free countries; as of 1 July 2000 over 60 percent were living in polio-free countries. To date, 122 nations around the world have benefited from PolioPlus grants for polio immunisation and eradication efforts. A child can be protected against polio for as little as US$0.50 worth of vaccine. The annual global savings from polio eradication will be at least US$1.5 billion, which is the estimated cost of routine immunisation alone, and does not include the cost of treatment or rehabilitation. Table
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From the moment Rotary became international with the formation of a club in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada in 1910, it began its search for the path to world peace and understanding. When The Rotary Foundation was created in 1917, Rotary had a specialised vehicle to travel that road. After 30 years of world wars and depression, Founder Paul Harris’s death in January 1947 became the catalyst that caused Rotarians to seriously begin to develop programmes and initiatives in pursuit of a world free of serious conflict. Doubtless, the horrors of World War II, the reality of nuclear destruction and the perverse threat of other weapons of mass destruction in the hands of numerous nations and groups added a sense of urgency. The first programme of the Foundation was an international scholarship programme in which university and graduate students accepted an "ambassadorial" function to encourage and foster cultural exchange and understanding. That programme has seen more than 40,000 participants whose study has covered government and political science, the arts and sciences and almost every conceivable field of study. Rotary clubs now host some 1,300 students annually in six programmes
varying from three-month to multi-years periods. A program of grants to
university teachers to serve in developing countries is also growing in
popularity. Although some alumni have achieved wide recognition and international
prominence, the real thrust of the educational programme has been to lay
an indirect foundation for world peace, based on friendship and understanding.
R I PRESIDENT FRANK J DEVLYN – POLIO PLUS: "Launched in 1985, the Polio Plus Programme remains the highest priority of Rotary International and The Rotary Foundation. We have achieved so many successes, which makes me especially proud to be a Rotarian. By the year 2005, Rotary’s contributions to the global polio eradication effort will be approximately a half billion US dollars. Just as important, Rotarians, local Rotary clubs and districts have made millions of dollars of "in-kind" and personal contributions. Rotarians have also been instrumental in recruiting thousands of volunteers at the local level to publicise the effort, deliver vaccine and provide support at clinics – even in the most remote areas. Our partners in the eradication effort – the World Health Organisation, UNICEF, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and national governments around the world – have been most impressed by the commitment and level of support shown by Rotarians. This effort has paved the way for other public/private partnerships for years to come. In fact, the unprecedented partnership formed to eradicate polio was recognised by the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan as a model for addressing other health issues in the 21st century. However, the media does not always properly recognise Rotary for its efforts, and we are working hard to correct this oversight. One reason is that health reporters do not think of organizations like Rotary when covering health news. They usually lead with the most obvious partner – the World Health Organisation, and then may delete references to Rotary if there is limited space. However, Rotary staff who are media relations specialists are working aggressively to educate the media and assist them in learning more about the PolioPlus effort. Our partner agencies are also working with us to place stories and invite reporters to cover National Immunisation Days and provide up-to-date information. Rotary has recently had success in being prominently featured in a number of national and international media outlets including: The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The Toronto Globe and Mail, Asahi Shimbun, Associated Press Newswire, Radio France International, Agence France Presse, The Voice of America, Chinese News Service, Gannett News Service, CNN, MSNBC, NBC, and many other national and local news outlets around the world. The story of PolioPlus is dramatic: Thanks to the effort of Rotary and its partners, more than 2 billion children have been immunised against polio during National Immunisation Days in the last five years – including 147 million children in a single day in India. The number of polio-endemic countries has dropped from 125 in 1985 to only 30 at the beginning of this year. Rotary’s unprecedented role in mobilising ordinary citizens to help with this effort has resulted in 10 million volunteers coming on board each year. Whilst it is impossible to quantify the value of their work, PolioPlus has proven that volunteers played a critical role in public health initiatives. Soon, we will be celebrating the death of a disease that has plagued humanity for centuries. Rotarians can take pride in this historic accomplishment – only the second time in history that a disease has been eradicated (Smallpox was the first). We will remain committed to the end." Table
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Mahatma Ghandi, as you know, walked barefoot most of the time, which produced an impressive set of calluses on his feet. He also ate very little, which made him frail, and with his odd diet he suffered from bad breath. What did this make him? A super callused fragile mystic plagued with halitosis! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "An organisation is like a tree full of monkeys all on different limbs, at different levels, some climbing up, and some coming down. The monkeys on top look down and see a tree full of smiling faces. The monkeys on the bottom look up and see nothing but arseholes." _______________________________________________________ "People often commend the good luck of the early bird, but do not stop to consider the bad luck of the early worm." ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- An eight-year-old girl handed the following message to a flight attendant on a recent Qantas flight: "dear Captain, my name is Nicola im 8 years old, this is my first flight and im not scared, I like to watch the clouds go by. My mum says the crew is nice. I think your plane is good. thanks for a nice flight. don’t fuck up the landing." Peter D Brown Bulletin Editor |