By Rotary International

By Quentin Wodon, a member of the Rotary Club of Capitol Hill

For the past four years, I have conducted evaluations of the district conference we hold in District 7620 using surveys administered through the web. This year our conference was different, and some of the things we learned I thought could be valuable to share with Rotary members everywhere.

This year our conference was shorter and cheaper to attend. On the first day, attendees had several opportunities to participate in community service projects with local NGOs. We achieved substantially higher attendance (425 registrations) than previous conferences.

Our conference focused largely on fun and fellowship, with only a few sessions on Rotary matters. And it involved multiple locations with transportation provided from one location to the other. Because the conference was located in an area with several Rotary clubs nearby, many participants were also able to attend without having to book a hotel night.

Did the new format of the conference work? A total of 155 participants responded to the evaluation survey. Almost half of participants rated the conference as better than previous conferences. This is slightly below the results for last year’s conference, where 60 percent of the responses rated it higher than …read more

Source:: Rotary International Blog

By Rotary International

Club members get ready for a walkathon in Sanjay Gandhi National Park to raise awareness for the need for skin donations.

By Rajesh Kumar Modi, Rotary Club of Mumbai Borivali East, Maharashtra, India

In Mumbai, our deputy fire chief recently died after suffering major burns rescuing people from a residential building fire. Two other officers also died in the fire. The media covered the tragedy, and how a shortage of natural skin in our skin banks complicates the efforts to save brave individuals like these.

Throughout India, there is a shortage of skin largely because people are not aware of the concept of skin donation. Skin can be used to aid the healing process for severe burn victims. Donated skin grafts protect recipients from infection while promoting regeneration of their own skin.

According to the World Health Organization, more than one million people are moderately or severely burnt every year in India, and burns are among the leading cause of shortened life span from disabilities. Burns most often occur from contact with electricity, chemicals, radiation, or from kitchen accidents.

We launched our project as a collaborative effort to involve the community, doctors, and non governmental organizations. We have held several camps, inviting speakers, …read more

Source:: Rotary International Blog

By Rotary International

A member of the medical team inspect a patient for cataracts.

By Himal Pandya, past president of the Rotary Club of Bhavnagar Royal, Gujarat, India

Every year, our club has arranged multiple medical camps in and around the town of Uttarkashi. We began the effort two years ago when heavy flooding struck the state of Uttarakhand, and our charter president risked landslides and other perils to help deliver 1,200 cooking stoves and other supplies to flood victims. We struck up a close association with Rotary members in Uttarkashi about 1,000 miles from our city.

It is a great and most satisfactory experience performing humanitarian service miles from home. This year, seven committed medical professionals and a number of dedicated Rotary volunteers traveled to Uttarakhand and diagnosed nearly 600 patients during three separate camps in Badkot, Uttarkashi, and Rishikesh. The team performed lens transplant surgeries on 30 patients with cataracts restoring their sight. The Rotary Club of Luton North, England, provided financial support for the procedures and Dr. K. A Gabani, an ophthalmologist and member of the Rotary Club of Bhavnagar Round Town, donated his work pro bono, operating many hours over two days.

We received support from many directions, including officials at the hospital, …read more

Source:: Rotary International Blog

By Rotary International

Students use the sound proof therapy room at the Kamalini school for children with hearing and speech impairments.

Prafull Karnik, past president of the Rotary Club of Thane East, Maharashtra, India

Our unique partnership with the Rotary Club of Mission Viejo in California, USA, began more than a decade ago when I was president and I was looking for a centennial project for our club. With other members of the club, I visited Nakhwa School in Thane, established in 1964 to provide education for children from low-income families, and was convinced this would be a great opportunity for us to serve.

On a visit to California, I met with the Mission Viejo club and discussed the project, and they were excited to partner with us on a Rotary Foundation grant. We were able to provide benches, electrical fans, glass boards, a water tank, science lab equipment, library books, and six computers with Internet access for the school of 600 plus students. We also purchased four tailoring machines to teach female students sewing and kits to teach electrical skills to male students. We completed the project in four months at a cost of $14,000.

Members in both clubs were very much willing to continue the …read more

Source:: Rotary International Blog

By Rotary International

Rachel Shaw (middle, first row) with Rotary members at a book launch in Manila.

By Rachel Shaw, honorary member of the Rotary Club of West Bay, Laguna, Philippines.

Six years ago, I visited the Philippines as part of a Group Study Exchange team from Rotary District 1270 (Lincolnshire, England).The opportunity to visit one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots as a professional wildlife conservationist became for me the start of a new writing and illustrating adventure.

Glimpsing just a little of the amazing diversity of animals sparked my imagination.The animals became characters in my mind and I started to write their stories. Three of those stories have just been published in the Philippines.

The animals featured in ‘Danao the Parrot,’ ‘Mayumi the Forest Pig,’ and ‘Pipisin the Pangolin’ are all endemic to the Philippines; they are found nowhere else in the world. The books are a celebration of the rich diversity of wildlife in the country with a strong educational element and conservation messages about the endangered animals. Two of the picture books were illustrated by Filipino artists Jonathan Ranola and Ingrid Tan, while the third I illustrated myself.

Witnessing the work of Rotary in the Philippines, particularly after Typhoon Ketsana hit just months after my …read more

Source:: Rotary International Blog