2022-23 RI President Jennifer Jones and Zimbabwean actor Sibongile Mlambo take part in a soccer match about peaceful resolution to conflict. The game is part of an ongoing effort within Nakivale Refugee Settlement to build community and strong bonds among residents of differnt nationalities. Jones and Mlambo visited the settlement to speak with Rotaract members and see their club projects. Nakivale, Uganda. 05 September 2022.
Hed: Empowering girls is about more than creating equity
Recently, I spent time in the Nakivale refugee settlement in Uganda. As the “settlement” in its name suggests, the people living there are free to move around and integrate as best they can — one thing that makes the place unique.
I had a chance to play soccer with boys and girls from about a dozen nations and talk with women who had fled areas of conflict. It was a tapestry of human experience shared through both laughter and tears.
As I walked across a school campus at the settlement with a teacher, she shared with me the dire statistics on girls’ education. Most don’t get through grade school. Many are sold into child marriage to pay for food for their families. As I looked around at these young girls, I was gutted.
Our work with empowering girls and women is much more than creating equity — sometimes, it’s about health or education. Other times it’s about providing safety. Regardless of the path, it’s always about basic human rights.
We can do more to empower girls and women, and we can expand how we share the progress Rotary members and our partners have made toward this goal.
There is no shortage of inspiring examples of our work, from interest-free microcredit loans for women in Nigeria, to projects in India that provide girls menstrual hygiene products. Hundreds of projects are taking place across all Rotary areas of focus and are making a meaningful and often lifesaving difference.
Together, we can address the needs and inequities that girls throughout the world face daily. But we must also monitor the impact of these projects and create awareness of Rotary resources and subject matter experts, including Rotary Action Groups, The Rotary Foundation Cadre of Technical Advisers, Rotary Peace Fellows, and others.
It is especially important that we tell the stories of our initiatives that have a positive impact on the lives of women and girls. This last point is near and dear to my heart. This means sharing our stories on social media, through local news outlets, in this magazine, and wherever we can inspire others.
As you do so, it’s important to provide information that helps our Rotary family connect with others who are implementing activities in their regions, as well as across the world. Let’s share our successes and learn from one another — then proudly tell our stories to a larger audience.
These are exciting times in Rotary, and the world is taking notice. As we work to empower women and girls to step into their full potential, we create new pathways for membership growth and greater collaboration with partners to create positive, lasting change. Thank you for your continued action in this vital effort.
Jennifer Jones
President, Rotary International
Caption, if using the photo: Jones and Zimbabwean actor Sibongile Mlambo watch a soccer match in Nakivale settlement. It’s part of an effort to build community among residents of different nationalities.
One of the fascinating things about Rotary is that we are many things at once. We are a service organization based on action. We are also a professional and community networking group, not to mention a place to find friendship and fun.
And, when you stop to think about it, you and I are also part of a peace organization. I saw this in 2013, when I represented Rotary at an international symposium on advancing a peaceful democratic transition for Myanmar. Despite recent setbacks, the fact that Rotary was at the table demonstrates that the world sees us as peacebuilders who are not deterred by the most difficult issues.
How did we earn this reputation? Through literacy projects that help people expand their minds and viewpoints. And through water, sanitation, and hygiene projects that create common ground for communities in conflict. The Rotary Action Group for Peace promotes hands-on service projects, and our annual international conventions unite thousands in a celebration of global harmony.
Perhaps the most visible face of this cause is the Rotary Peace Centers program, now in its 21st year. Today, more than 1,600 Rotary Peace Fellows are advancing the cause of peace in more than 140 countries. On 1 February, we open applications for the next generation of peace fellows. Encourage your local peacebuilders to learn about Rotary and apply for this unique fellowship.
And soon, we’ll be recruiting fellows for a new peace center in the Middle East and North Africa region as we begin working this year with a recently selected partner university. Made possible by a generous gift of $15.5 million to The Rotary Foundation from the Otto and Fran Walter Foundation, the addition of this center furthers Rotary’s vision of peacemaking in action.
As we celebrate Rotary’s 118th anniversary and Peacebuilding and Conflict Prevention Month, we can be proud of the many ways Rotary promotes peace. Without The Rotary Foundation, and your support of it, none of that would be possible.
You can directly support this work through the Foundation by visiting rotary.org/donate and selecting the peacebuilding and conflict prevention area of focus. I also encourage you to contribute to the Ian and Juliet Riseley Endowed Fund in The Rotary Foundation to support peace projects.
If Paul Harris could see us now, he would be amazed by the astonishing growth of the little club he founded in 1905 and the global force for good — and peace — that Rotary is today.
2022-23 RI President Jennifer Jones with Rotaract members at Rotary’s World Polio Day 2022 and Beyond: A healthier future for mothers and children event at the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. 22 October 2022.
คำบรรยายภาพ: โจนส์อยู่ร่วมกับสมาชิกโรทาแรคท์ที่งานวันโปลิโอโลกปี 2022 (World Polio Day 2022 and Beyond) : งานอนาคตสุขภาพที่ดีของแม่และเด็กที่องค์การอนามัยโลกในเจนีวา
(A Healthier Future for Mothers and Children)
Jan23 President’s message final
Hed: Building connection through comfort and care
Rotary recently surveyed our members and found something that should be unsurprising but still caused many of us in Rotary leadership to sit up and pay attention: The single most important factor in member satisfaction is the club experience. How at home you feel in your club, how rewarding club meetings are, and how engaged you feel in service projects.
I have seen this firsthand across the Rotary world this year. When members feel an emotional connection to their club, they cannot imagine leaving. And that connection is often forged in “Rotary moments,” when people feel that special connection to the people around them and the impact of their service. Our Imagine Impact Tour is all about shining a light on those Rotary moments and encouraging our members to tell their stories.
But there’s something else that makes an enormous difference in building and sustaining that connection. It’s the comfort and care of our members — both Rotarians and Rotaractors. As my Rotary friend Todd Jenkins says, “People can’t see how you think, but they sure can see your actions.”
We are in the relationship business, and if we take care of each other — genuinely show concern for each other — then we will make friends for life, and we will do anything to widen that circle of friendship.
The question is: How do we live with our eyes wide open and do the things that really matter? We do this by taking time for each other, actively listening to one another, and treating every Rotary member as equally valuable — no matter how long we have been a member or what position we hold.
People like me in Rotary leadership can offer all kinds of advice about how to make your club experience more valuable. But what’s most important is for everyone in every Rotary club to speak up and listen to one another. We should never be afraid to share with our fellow Rotary member what we expect to get out of our membership and have an open discussion about how to make that happen.
To lead a Rotary club is to invite such dialogue and to be willing to try new approaches. Good leadership is giving it away. Propping others up. Allowing others to feel the victory.
I have one last request for club leaders. We still need to do more worldwide to increase our female membership. It’s up a bit this year, but I know we can and must do better. Rotary is growing again. As I write this, we’re just a handful of members away from surpassing 1.2 million Rotarians again. So let’s redouble our efforts to bolster our clubs with great new members, then keep them for life by providing comfort and care.
Jennifer Jones
President, Rotary International
Caption for photo: Jones gathers with Rotaract members at World Polio Day 2022 and Beyond: A Healthier Future for Mothers and Children, an event at the World Health Organization in Geneva.
A new year is upon us. As we look forward to new beginnings and experiences, let’s think outside the box and find new opportunities to serve through Rotary.
Consider taking up a community economic development project this year. In this Rotary area of focus, we apply our professional experience by promoting the entrepreneurial spirit as we help communities help themselves in a sustainable way. Community economic development projects, to paraphrase the universal adage, don’t just give someone a fish today but teach them to fish so they can eat for a lifetime.
These projects can be microloans to start up a livestock breeding business, or they might take the adopt-a-village approach in which Rotary works with communities on multipronged efforts to boost local economies sustainably.
In 2000, during its transition to independence, Timor-Leste was reeling from political violence and destruction. Communities not only needed shelter and improved living conditions but also a new economy.
This is where Australian Rotary clubs stepped up with the East Timor Roofing project to produce and install corrugated roofing, and later, water tanks and grain silos. As the project grew, other organizations joined, including The Rotary Foundation, which delivered a grant that set the project on its path to success.
Before long, East Timor Roofing became a financially viable enterprise, raising enough money to build roofs for homes, schools, orphanages, and commercial buildings. Subsistence farmers got silos for their crops. Hundreds of East Timorese received professional training in basic building and administrative skills. Thousands of new water tanks ensured that young girls could attend school rather than fetching water.
What began as a roofing project is today a commercial enterprise employing local people and making a huge impact. And your Foundation paved the way.
What experiences lie ahead for you in 2023? A district or global grant? Or possibly a visit to Melbourne, Australia, just up the road from my home, to make new friends, reunite with old ones, and find partners for projects during the 2023 Rotary International Convention?
Let’s make a New Year’s resolution to take advantage of opportunities to learn, grow, and serve. And let’s have some fun in the process. This is Rotary, after all.
So, my friends, let us go forth and carpe annum — seize the year.
On the first day of the New Year, the Rotary Club of Royal Hua Hin were happy to support the Sang Foundation who arranged a special day to support underprivileged families from the Hin Lek Fai community in Hua Hin.
The day included an art workshop supported by Artist village, tots and second-hand clothes and food packages for up to 300 hundred people. The RCRHH were pleased to donate 15,000 Thai Baht to this project.
Music was provided by Dave Faulks and Lilly Zhang.
The first Fellowship evening of 2023 for the Rotary Club of Royal Hua Hin was held at Dady Deli in recognition of their support for the 12th Amateur Golf Classic in November 2022. A certificate of appreciation was presented to Peter and his team for their support.
In addition to new members PP Dr. Danai Adulyasuk and IPP Aree Mitruttatham.
Banners were exchanged with Uwe Serr from the Rotary Club of Baden in Germany and Morten Burr from the Rotary Club of Silkeborg Connect in Denmark.
The first weekly lunch meeting of 2023 was held in the ballroom of the Amari Hotel.
26 Rotarians and 7 guests attended the meeting and welcomed the guest speaker Cell Dilion.
Cell spoke about the new Junior Asian Golf Academy which will open its doors on the 4th September 2023 at Black Mountain and he will be head of school for the new premier golf and international boarding high school, which will offer up to 40 students a combined program of golf and education here in Hua Hin that could help students gain access to International Universities around the world, especially in America and Canada.
Rotarian Morten Burr from the Rotary Club of Silkeborg Connect in Denmark once again joined our club meeting before he returns to Denmark.
Members were encouraged to help the board identify speakers to attend our lunch meetings, and voice their opinions on where to hold fellowship evenings.
While sitting with a group of Rotary leaders outside of Lusaka, Zambia, I ask a question: “How many of you have ever had malaria?” Every hand in the room goes up. They even begin to tell me about the first, second, or third time they experienced the disease, one of the main causes of death and sickness in many developing countries.
They are fortunate. They have access to medical treatment and lifesaving medicines. For the people of rural Zambia, their story is very different.
On a wooden bench in a small village, I sit with Timothy and his young son Nathan. With a camera crew capturing our conversation, he tells me of the time Nathan showed signs of malaria. He brought the boy to the nearby home of a community health worker, where Nathan quickly received medicines that saved his life.
Calmly, Timothy tells me about his other son’s bout with the disease a few years earlier. He had to race that son to a medical clinic more than 5 miles away. Riding a bike and carrying his child on his back, he tells me, he could feel his son’s legs turn cold and then his little body go limp. As he finally entered the clinic, he screamed for help, but it was too late. The camera stops rolling, and we sit in silence. He begins to weep, and I hold him tightly. “I lost my son, I lost my son,” he says.
This story is all too familiar for the families we meet over the next few days. And yet there is hope. Partners for a Malaria-Free Zambia is Rotary’s first Programs of Scale grant recipient, and it is saving lives. Across two provinces of Zambia, 2,500 volunteer health workers have been selected by their communities. They are trained to bring medical care closer to those who need it, and they are able to diagnose and treat malaria and other ailments. I invite you to turn to page XX to read about Rotary partnerships that create lasting change.[KM1]
Rotary President Jennifer Jones visits Zambia in August to showcase the work of Partners for a Malaria-Free Zambia, Rotary’s first Programs of Scale grant recipient. Malaria is a leading cause of illness and death in Zambia, and it disproportionately affects people in rural areas. With the grant, Partners for a Malaria-Free Zambia aims to reduce cases of the disease by 90 percent in targeted areas. The program is also providing medicine and supplies for effective diagnosis, treatment and data reporting.[KM2]
[KM1]If the regionals are also running our Programs of Scale feature, they can update the XX to the page number. If not, I’d recommend changing the last sentence to: Rotary partnerships create lasting change.
[KM2]Including this in case the regionals want to use the photo.
We all make hundreds if not thousands of decisions daily. Whenever I need to make an important decision, I remember the words of Roy Disney, who co-founded what became the Walt Disney Co.: “It’s easy to make decisions when you know what your values are.”
Each of us brings a set of personal values into our clubs. Rotary also unites by a set of core values — service, fellowship, diversity, integrity, and leadership — that guide our decisions and galvanize us to take action and, by doing so, change the world.
Another value is inextricable to Rotary: our giving spirit. From the club members who volunteer their time for service projects to the Rotary leaders in the Arch Klumph Society who sustain our Foundation, Rotary members are among the most generous people I have ever met. Combining our personal generosity with the countless ways Rotary affords us to give back makes us a global force for good.
In Rotary, we take it a step further. We also value good stewardship, planning, and sustainability. Not only do we give, but in Rotary we also give smart. We know that building sustainability into our projects means their impact will be felt over the long term.
In short, through the Foundation, your gifts keep on giving.
This is why donating to The Rotary Foundation is one of the most intelligent decisions you can make. You know that your gift will align with those values you hold dear and that it will be administered by your fellow Rotarians, who share those values.
It is quite an understatement to say that in giving to Rotary, we also receive. As someone who has been privileged to visit hundreds of Foundation projects around the world, I can tell you that the gift we get in return is priceless.
I hope you, too, will be as lucky I have been, to see the look of amazement on the face of a person at an eye clinic in Chennai, India, who now sees clearly. The proud smiles of Guatemalan children who learned to read thanks to Rotary. Or the grateful tears of a parent in Pakistan whose child has received two drops of polio vaccine. Then you will understand what I’m talking about. We are so fortunate to be able to serve humanity by supporting our Rotary Foundation. S
During this season of giving, I thank you for your generosity to The Rotary Foundation and for all the ways you give to our great organization. Juliet and I extend our warmest holiday greetings to you all.
โครงการขับขี่ปลอดภัยใส่ใจหมวกกันน็อค (ตามโครงการถนนปลอดเหตุชีวิตปลอดภัย Safe Roads Save Lives)
โครงการมอบสิ่งของจำเป็นให้ผู้ป่วย ซึ่งผู้ป่วย เพศชาย อายุ 50 ปี
