June 8, 2015 Comments are off Findlay Rotary
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Africa on brink of polio eradication

Nigeria and the whole continent of Africa is on the cusp of being polio free, Dr. Hamid Jafari told audience members at the Rotary Convention on 8 June in São Paulo, Brazil.
Between 2013 and 2014, the reported cases of polio dropped from 53 to just six in Nigeria. Even more encouraging, said Jafari, is that the last case of polio in Nigeria was reported in July of last year and the last case in all of Africa was reported in Somalia in August.
“With a year of no polio cases in Nigeria tantalizingly close, and no cases in Somalia since August, the tireless work of so many people across the…

June 8, 2015 Comments are off Findlay Rotary
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Alumni Award Winner Helps Others Overcome Mental Illness, Speaks at Rotary Convention

Dr. Geetha Jayaram has dedicated her life to helping people in her native India and the United States overcome the torment of severe depression, bipolar disorder, panic attacks, and other mental illnesses.
Jayaram is a psychiatrist and associate professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and the Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality. Her work expanding access to mental health services is much needed. Depression affects at least 350 million people and is the leading cause of disability worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.
“In India, there is no mental…

June 7, 2015 Comments are off Findlay Rotary
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Water summit urges Rotary members to invest in youth

Almost 200 million days of school attendance are lost every year because of the lack of proper sanitation. Many diarrhea cases in children result from transmission of disease in schools rather than at home.
“A school is a place where children should feel safe, not a place where they are susceptible to infection,” says Lizette Burgers, senior adviser of UNICEF’s Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) in Schools program
But the message at the World Water Summit on 4 June in São Paulo was positive: Rotary members and their clubs can make schools healthier places through programs that provide clean…

June 7, 2015 Comments are off Findlay Rotary
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2015 Rotary Convention photo gallery

See our photo gallery from São Paulo.

June 6, 2015 Comments are off Findlay Rotary
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President Huang kicks off São Paulo convention

RI President Gary C.K. Huang called the 106th Rotary International Convention to order on 6 June at Anhembi Parque in São Paulo, Brazil. More than 14,000 attendees from all over the world have assembled for the four-day festival.
Huang called the convention a “festival of ideas” and the highlight of his year as president. “It provides the stage to showcase our achievements and inspire each other with stories and new ideas,” he said.
Huang began his keynote speech by celebrating the year’s gains in membership, a top priority of his presidency.
“Rotary clubs around the globe have engaged in…

June 5, 2015 Comments are off Findlay Rotary
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Peace Symposium speaker urges world to spend more on education, less on war

When former Costa Rican president Oscar Arias was eight years old, his country abolished its military and turned its focus instead to human rights and peace. Now, the Nobel Peace laureate believes the world can gain just as much by following his country’s example.
Speaking at the Rotary Peace Symposium on 4 June in São Paulo, Brazil, Arias recounted how his country traded in its tanks and heavy artillery to invest instead in economic reform and social justice.
“My country promised me, and all its children, that it would invest not in the weapons of our past, but in the tools of our future;…

June 5, 2015 Comments are off Findlay Rotary
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Peace Symposium speaker wants world to spend more on education, less on war

When former Costa Rican president Oscar Arias was eight years old, his country abolished its military and turned its focus instead to human rights and peace. Now, the Nobel Peace laureate believes the world can gain just as much by following his country’s example.
Speaking at the Rotary Peace Symposium on 4 June in São Paulo, Brazil, Arias recounted how his country traded in its tanks and heavy artillery to invest instead in economic reform and social justice.
“My country promised me, and all its children, that it would invest not in the weapons of our past, but in the tools of our future;…

June 4, 2015 Comments are off Findlay Rotary
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Rotaract clubs receive awards for their innovative initiatives

A project launched by members of Rotaract in Uttar Pradesh, India, is liberating women who emptied dry toilets with their hands by teaching them skills that enable them to earn a living for their families.
Although the practice of manual scavenging was banned in India in 1993, it persists in many parts of the country. The women who engage in it, many of them the sole wage earners for their families, make a meager income for their efforts.
Through Project Azmat, members of the Rotaract Club of SRCC Panchshila Park, partnered with the international nonprofit Enactus to organize these women into…

May 15, 2015 Comments are off Findlay Rotary
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Rotary, USAID collaboration improves sanitation facilities in Ghana

According to a 2012 report by UNICEF and the World Health Organization, Ghana has made great strides in providing its people with clean drinking water. But access to better sanitation has lagged.
Only about 14 percent of Ghanaians have access to improved facilities, compared with the 54 percent target set for 2015 by the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. Addressing the issue isn’t simple, as pit latrines need emptying, toilets need maintenance, and promoting hygiene requires education.
The H2O Collaboration, a partnership between Rotary and the U.S. Agency for International…

April 10, 2015 Comments are off Findlay Rotary
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How a simple school project in India became a global grant

Two years ago, U.S. Rotary members in Maine set out to improve the education system in Bikaner, Rajasthan, an Indian city near the border of Pakistan.
The Rotary Club of Kennebunk Portside chose Bikaner because club member Rohit Mehta was originally from the area and had connections there. Mehta put the club in contact with Rotarians in India to provide desks for four government-run schools.
But when community leaders returned with a request for more desks, the Maine Rotarians decided they had to think bigger. The Rotary Foundation had rolled out its new grant model, which required that the…