Jubilee celebrates a year of mercy, unity

By Rotary International

Rotary members at the Vatican for the Jubilee.

Thousands of Rotary members gathered at the Vatican in Rome to celebrate a message of compassion, inclusiveness, and service to humanity.

By Elizabeth Celi, Rotary Club of Rome International

The audience at the Papal Jubilee, though buzzing with excitement, excuded serenity. Despite a sea of thousands of people right behind us in St Peter’s Square, I sensed a palpable feeling of tranquillity. We were positioned up close to Pope Francis’ outdoor podium with the sun shining and the soothing sound of water surging through two magnificent stone fountains on either side of us.

As a member of Rotary for eight years in Melbourne, Australia, and now in the Rotary Club of Rome International, I was delighted to attend this event which focused on stories of extending a hand to help our fellow human beings, especially refugees. The experience was humbling. Before Pope Francis greeted us, we listened to several members of the Italian armed forces and emergency service personnel share accounts of helping save lives.

A 16 year old shared the story his parents relayed to him, when he was old enough to understand, about the day he needed emergency cardiac attention when he was just 17 days old. He stood next to an …read more

Source:: Rotary International Blog

Jubilee celebrates a year of mercy, unity

By Rotary International

Rotary members at the Vatican for the Jubilee.

Thousands of Rotary members gathered at the Vatican in Rome to celebrate a message of compassion, inclusiveness, and service to humanity.

By Elizabeth Celi, Rotary Club of Rome International

The audience at the Papal Jubilee, though buzzing with excitement, excuded serenity. Despite a sea of thousands of people right behind us in St Peter’s Square, I sensed a palpable feeling of tranquillity. We were positioned up close to Pope Francis’ outdoor podium with the sun shining and the soothing sound of water surging through two magnificent stone fountains on either side of us.

As a member of Rotary for eight years in Melbourne, Australia, and now in the Rotary Club of Rome International, I was delighted to attend this event which focused on stories of extending a hand to help our fellow human beings, especially refugees. The experience was humbling. Before Pope Francis greeted us, we listened to several members of the Italian armed forces and emergency service personnel share accounts of helping save lives.

A 16 year old shared the story his parents relayed to him, when he was old enough to understand, about the day he needed emergency cardiac attention when he was just 17 days old. He stood next to an …read more

Source:: Rotary International Blog

Alumni of three Rotary programs unite to advance ‘Service Above Self’

By Rotary International

The three Rotary alumni and DSLI Global participants at the Zero Baht Shop Community, a domestic migrant community that has developed a recycling program that funds community insurance and social support programs.

The three Rotary alumni and DSIL Global participants at the Zero Baht Shop, a domestic migrant community that has developed a recycling program that funds insurance and social support programs for the community.

By Courtney Lawrence, Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar 2009-10; Katherine Grennier, Rotary Peace Fellow 2016; and Hermes Huang, Rotary Scholar, 2014-15

From the coastline of Costa Rica, to the sidewalks of Bangkok, to the jungles of Indonesia, we have been supported as individuals by The Rotary Foundation to make this world a better place; one where we find service above ourselves. As a team of Rotary Alumni, we have been able to rise together in pursuit of empowering grassroots social innovators around the world.

Katherine Grennier leads a session for global social impact entrepreneurs in Manila.

The three Rotary programs that have supported us: Courtney’s Ambassadorial Scholarship at the University for Peace in Costa Rica; Hermes’ global grant supported scholarship at Chulalongkorn University in Thailand; and Katy’s Rotary Peace Fellowship at the Rotary Peace Center in Thailand; have been critical experiences in defining our work and the experiences that we create for our participants at Designing for Social Innovation & Leadership (DSIL) Global.

At DSIL Global, we train social entrepreneurs from around …read more

Source:: Rotary International Blog

Pope welcomes Rotary to Jubilee audience

By Rotary International Thousands of Rotary members, motivated by a special invitation from Pope Francis, gathered at the Vatican in Rome on Saturday to celebrate a message of compassion, inclusiveness, and service to humanity.
At midmorning, the group — numbering some 9,000 members from 80 countries — made its way through the congested streets of Rome, past the tight security surrounding St. Peter’s Square, and settled into the area reserved for Rotary in front of St. Peter’s Basilica for the Jubilee audience.
Francis, a 79-year-old Argentine, urged the crowd of more than 100,000, which included members of the… …read more

Source:: Rotary.org

What millennials love about Rotary

By Rotary International From the May 2016 issue of The Rotarian
If there is one absolute truth about millennials, it is this: Anyone who says there is an absolute truth about millennials risks being subjected to their collective eye roll.
Millennials are individuals, and fiercely so. According to the Pew Research Center, most of them don’t even like being called “millennials,” let alone hearing generalizations about their shared attitudes and behaviors.
Case in point: Christa Papavasiliou, 31, recoils at the notion that older folks see her generation as a bunch of selfie-snapping smartphone addicts. “I’m the… …read more

Source:: Rotary.org

The Rotarian Conversation with The Edge and Garvin Evans

By Rotary International Editor’s note: After the May 2016 issue of The Rotarian went to press, we were saddened to learn of the death of Garvin Evans, who along with his son, U2 guitarist The Edge, appeared on the cover of that issue. Evans was a longtime member of the Rotary Club of Dublin North. We are grateful that we were able to share his remarkable story with our readers.
***
The boys of U2 are home. It’s Friday, 27 November, two weeks after the terrorist attacks in Paris. Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton, and Larry Mullen Jr. had been in Paris that terrible evening, rehearsing at the venue where they were… …read more

Source:: Rotary.org

Crisis at the doorstep

By Rotary International From the May 2016 issue of The Rotarian
More than a million refugees from Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan streamed into the European Union last year. Most entered via Greece after a harrowing raft trip across the Aegean Sea from Turkey. Once there, they made their way north, often on foot, traveling more than 1,000 miles through the rugged mountains of the Balkan countries toward Germany.
That was the uncertain odyssey facing Muhammad Mallah Hamza, a 26-year-old ethnic Kurd, in late 2014 when he decided to leave his native Syria. The trip would lead the recent college graduate to a picturesque… …read more

Source:: Rotary.org

What's next for Rotary?

By Rotary International From the May 2016 issue of The Rotarian
Demographic change is a drama in slow motion. It unfolds incrementally, tick by tock, but it transforms societies in fundamental ways – and the America of the early 21st century is undergoing two such dramas at the same time.
Our population is en route to becoming majority nonwhite at the same time a record share of us (like me) is going gray. Either trend by itself would be the dominant demographic story of its era. The fact that they’re unfolding simultaneously has created giant generation gaps. The United States is at a moment in its history when… …read more

Source:: Rotary.org

Culture: Consuming passions

By Rotary International From the May 2016 issue of The Rotarian
A friend recently said something to me that was shocking, maybe even a little subversive. She could afford to retire now, she said, because of this amazing reality: “I don’t need to buy anything more. I have everything I need.”
Was this America, home of the free parking with purchase and the brave doorbuster shoppers? The land whose fruited plains are dotted with storage lockers and Container Stores for all our excess stuff?
My friend maintained her love of country but held firm. She has enough clothes; her house is fully furnished. She is done. And, at… …read more

Source:: Rotary.org

Travel: Strange trips

By Rotary International From the May 2016 issue of The Rotarian
Over the years, I have regurgitated my share of dodgy dishes eaten on the road. I have had my appendix removed in a Tanzanian hospital. I have watched helplessly, imagining the discovery of my shriveled corpse, as my blood pooled on the floor of a guesthouse room in Borneo after I pulled a leech off my ankle. I know that the last place you want to end up while traveling is in the hospital.
Yet, apart from the usual bodily afflictions that come with travel, even stranger maladies prey on our minds when we are abroad. Less well understood than their… …read more

Source:: Rotary.org