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Dear Fellow Rotarians, Rotaractors, and friends,
This year, we celebrate Earth Day on April 22 with
a new sense of purpose. The environment is now an area of focus
for Rotary. Solutions for all great tasks always start with you
and me, and there is much we as individuals can do simply by changing
our behaviour: Cutting down on our use of plastic and using energy
wisely are just two examples. But now we have the opportunity to
do more together.
Supporting the environment is not new to Rotary; clubs
have long worked on environmental issues based on local needs. Now
climate change — a problem that affects us all, rich and poor
— requires us to work together more closely than ever. Alberto
Palombo, a Venezuelan engineer living in Brazil and a member of
TRF Cadre of Technical Advisers, shares his view.
For 30 years, my work has been to connect with communities
and policy officials to take care of the environment. Today, I am
excited about Rotary’s opportunities to help reduce environmental
degradation and make communities more environmentally sustainable.
In every community where we have a Rotary, Rotaract,
or Interact club or a Rotary Community Corps, there are environmental
challenges. As Rotary members, we can become stewards of environmental
sustainability and adopt the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development
Goals in our daily lives at home and in our clubs. Then we can incorporate
them into our Rotary projects.
My club has been involved with water and environment
projects since day one. We seek opportunities to empower Rotarians
and foster partnerships in our region and beyond, working with groups
such as the Inter-American Water Resources Network and the
World Water Council. Local clubs worked with the Water, Sanitation,
and Hygiene Rotary Action Group (wasrag.org) to help Rotary get
a seat at the table during the 2018 World Water Forum in Brasilia,
where we discussed how communities can recover from environmental
disasters like the one caused by the failure of a mining dam on
Brazil’s Rio Doce in 2015.
Taking care of the earth is an effort that never stops.
To make an impact, we must align our knowledge, abilities and enthusiasm
— and Rotary is already great at doing this. As a volunteer
with the Environmental Sustainability Rotary Action Group (esrag.org),
I have seen how our work for the environment dovetails with much
of what we are already doing in water and in our other areas of
focus. Rotary members are not passive spectators; we take action.
Let’s work together and make a positive impact.
Support from The Rotary Foundation will define this
new chapter in our service. Through district and global grant projects,
we will build upon our previous projects that help the environment.
We will look for ways to collaborate more closely and make a greater
impact on global environmental issues. And we will incorporate environmental
concerns into all of our programmes, projects and events.
Rotaractors and participants in our youth programmes
expect Rotary to take a clear position and provide leadership with
vision. We will work with them, seeking intelligent solutions to
the problems they will inherit. Our incredible members, networks,
and Foundation give us the capacity to make an important and lasting
contribution. Now, we will discover together how Rotary Opens Opportunities
to help us expand our service to preserve the home we all share.
HOLGER KNAACK
President 2020-21
Trustee Chair's Message - April
2021
K.R. Ravindran
Rotary Club of Colombo
Western Province, Sri Lanka
Trustee chair's
message
“Make no little plans,” American architect
Daniel Burnham said. “They have no magic to
stir our blood and probably themselves will not be
realised.”
When Rotary heeds Burnham’s advice
and follows through with action, we shine. We made
big plans when we spearheaded a global initiative
to eradicate polio; last year the World Health Organisation’s
African region was certified polio-free.
When the coronavirus hit about a year
ago, The Rotary Foundation quickly mobilised and awarded
319 Covid specific disaster response grants for $7.9
million. To date, we have further awarded 317 Covid
global grants for about $24.1 million, which, combined
with previously approved global grants that grant
sponsors repurposed to support coronavirus response,
has made for a total outflow of more than $32.7 million.
We are now thinking big again, through
our programmes of scale grants. We will award a $2
million grant annually to one project that aligns
with one or more of Rotary’s areas of focus.
The grant should solve problems for many people in
a large geographic area through a measurable and sustainable
approach within a three-to five-year period. It also
requires like-minded partners who are committed and
resourceful. The idea is also to replicate these programmes
in different communities around the world, applying
the lessons learned.
The Rotary Club of Federal Way, Washington,
has made no little plans. As sponsor of the first
programmes of scale grant, the club is leading, in
partnership with Zambian Rotary clubs and Malaria
Partners Zambia, an effort to help end a disease that
is widespread in that country. Through the programme,
called Partners for a Malaria-Free Zambia, Rotary
will help train 60 Zambian district health officials,
382 health facility staff, and 2,500 community health
workers to save lives; it will also equip them with
the necessary supplies and gear to get the job done.
Their aim is no less than reducing malaria by 90 per
cent in 10 target districts in two of Zambia’s
provinces.
Rotary members are also applying the
power of partnering by teaming with several organisations.
They include Zambia’s Ministry of Health through
its National Malaria Elimination Centre — which
will ensure that the programme contributes to the
national strategy — as well as the Bill &
Melinda Gates Foundation and World Vision, which are
also investing substantial resources in co-funding
and implementing this $6 million programme.
This first programmes of scale grant
will inspire others and make a great impact in the
years ahead. It is just the latest chapter in the
story of Rotary, one that recounts how ordinary citizens
unite to not only plan big but also take bold action
to help others in need. It is a stirring story that
you, the dedicated members of Rotary who support The
Rotary Foundation, are helping to write.
http://www.endpolio.org/donate.
K.R. Ravindran
Trustee Chair 2020-21
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