I wasn't at last week's meeting as I felt a cold coming on...and it came on and on and ON! Thanks to our official photographer, Jenine, I can see that the meeting had a horticultural feel, Don Lindsay is back from Turkey and Jankees Sligcher has been punting our projects in Holland and they gave him a banner! Also faces from our Membership Evening, WELCOME!
Judging by the Spinathon pictures it wasn't only anguish, though that is etched on a few faces, but it was also sartorial and gastronomical!
This is just to prove that I really did duty at the Rotary Humanitarian Centre on Saturday as here is a happy customer taking away books for a junior school on the East Rand!
This week's meeting is our AGM so please make a real effort to be there!
And listen to the Brilliant Pretty Woman Track by Roy Orbison in the Video Bar!
What a momentous year! This will be my last opportunity to address you all in the Blog as President and I would like to recap on some of our achievements in this Rotary Year.
Firstly, thanks to all of you for your support and commitment over the year – it could not have been achieved without you all.
There have been some members who have truly excelled in this past year and I would like to acknowledge them.
Firstly to Joan Donet for picking up the baton with New Generations from Ian Widdop. That we have two Rotaract Clubs up and successfully running as well as regular RYLA participation is due to her hard work and perseverance.
To Mike and Linda Vink for taking in Alex Gano, our Ambassadorial Scholar, and providing him with the necessary support to get established in his own apartment in Melville; on behalf of the club I thank you. To Linda for the amazing coverage for the club in the local newspapers as well as Rotary Africa. Linda is also putting together a Memory Book of the happenings in the club since our inception. To Mike for dealing with all the requests from District – reams of documentation over the year! Also for weekly secretarial duties. Thanks Mike, I could not have done it without your support. To PP Peter James Smith for our incredibly professional and informative blog – Peter you excelled yourself in projecting the dynamic image of this club! Linda has also compiled all the blogs since our inception and it makes for interesting reading. To Lucille Blumberg for quietly getting on with the Wheelchair Project and making it such a success. And to PP Don Lindsay, thanks for being an anchor of strength to both myself and the club over the last year.
I am very proud of our District involvement, both in this year and for the year ahead and my thanks go here to Mike Vink, Peter James Smith, Steve du Plessis and Jan Kees Sligcher for their involvement at District level on behalf of New Dawn.
It’s been a tough year, with some sad member resignations, but this has been countered with great new members joining the club, and with a few new ones in the pipeline for the new year.
We’ve always said that our club would be different. We’ve had some great fun over the year, and I have been personally enriched by the interaction with all of you.
To our incoming President, Jan Kees Sligcher, good luck for 2011/12 and I know that you have the support of the club members and especially myself, in the year ahead.
President Rotary Club of Johannesburg
Our Ambassadorial Scholar, Alex Gano, always takes our Club much too seriously. I know we talked about the need for more financial expertise in the Club particularly if we want access big corporate money. Alex told Trevor Manuel to forget the IMF as he is unlikely to get the job but Johannesburg New Dawn needs him more. Alex will no doubt give us feed back at Wednesday's Meeting.
Eradicating polio will take renewed resolve, says Gates
Bill Gates addressed Rotarians during the third plenary session of the 2011 RI Convention 24 May. Rotary Images/Monika Lozinska-Lee
Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, praised Rotary for its continued success in the effort to eradicate polio, but cautioned that Rotarians will need to redouble their efforts to keep the disease from spreading -- and threatening hundreds of thousands of children.
Gates, the keynote speaker at the third plenary session of the 2011 RI Convention, 24 May in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, said that because of Rotary, there are many places in the world where polio is no longer considered a threat.
“That’s a blessing and a curse,” said Gates. “The blessing is that in many places, polio is a disease of the past. The curse is that it is now harder for us to raise awareness that, in some places, polio is also a disease of the present. If we fail to help leaders around the world understand this, polio is certain to be a disease of the future.”
Download the speech, watch highlights of the plenary, or view the entire speech on the Gates Foundation website.
Gates praised Rotary for reducing the incidence of polio by more than 99 percent worldwide since 1988.
“Your work has brought us so far,” he said. “I’m so proud to be a partner in the work that Rotary has been doing to eradicate polio.”
Gates noted that only one case of polio had been reported in India this year, as of March.
“India is approaching zero cases,” said Gates. “None of this would have been remotely achievable had it not been for Rotary. We would not be where we are without you. Nor can we get to where we’re going without you.”
Gates said that he and his wife, Melinda, have made eradicating polio their foundation's top priority. With the world on the threshold of eradication, the hard work really begins, he said.
“Polio eradication has been our single biggest investment in recent years, as far as innovation and creativity. The last 1 percent will be the longest and hardest 1 percent,” he said. “It will require more work and more commitment than ever before. Without the redoubled effort of everyone in this room, and your fellow Rotarians around the world, we will not succeed. Redoubling is crucial to ending polio.”
The Gates Foundation has awarded two grants totaling US$355 million to Rotary in support of its work in eradicating the disease. Rotary has responded with Rotary's US$200 Million Challenge . To date, Rotarians have raised $173.2 million for the challenge.
Gates said he plans to work with Rotary leadership to keep polio front and center in the public eye. “You have helped so many people understand that we are ‘this close.’ I challenge you to make your voices louder.”
Countries including Canada, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States have all increased their investment in the eradication effort. Gates attributed that success to the pressure Rotarians have put on the leaders of those countries. But he noted that with a funding gap of $400 million next year for the Global Polio Eradication Initiative , it is no time to let up.
“If we fail, the disease will not stay at its current low level,” he said. “It will spread back into countries where it’s been eliminated, and will kill and paralyze hundreds of thousands of children who used to be safe.”
Gates said that the monuments Rotarians have illuminated with the End Polio Now message are powerful images.
“But ultimately, the most important monument won’t be the one we illuminate,” said Gates. “It will be the one we create.”
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