2015 Rotary Convention photo gallery
See our photo gallery from São Paulo.
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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…
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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;…
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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;…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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Korean sailor makes waves for End Polio Now
Enjoying calm winds and peaceful Pacific waters, Seung Jin Kim dove off his 43-foot sailboat, the Arapani, to swim with some dolphins nearby. The serenity that day near the equator was a stark contrast to the 60 mph winds and 23-foot waves he had to fight around Cape Horn, the southern tip of South America. But Kim, a veteran sailor and member of the Rotary Club of Seokmun, in Chungcheongnam, Korea, expected such challenges when he set out in mid-October on a 25,600-mile journey around the world. In addition to fulfilling a lifelong dream, Kim is using the trip to raise awareness and funds…
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Monrovia club’s Ebola fight not finished
After the first cases of Ebola reached Liberia’s capital, Monrovia, last June, local Rotary members feared that the city’s limited health care system wouldn’t be able to contain the highly infectious, often-deadly disease.
Those fears were realized when infections quickly multiplied, underscoring the speed with which Ebola can spread in an urban center. It was the first time the hemorrhagic fever had threatened a major city since it erupted in West Africa last March.
Now, after months of crisis-level response, and with the number of new cases declining, club members are looking to the long…