I was privileged to be asked to attend this meeting which I thought was only going to include participants from Oceania - New Zealand ,Australia and the Pacific Islands - but to my delight young people from all over the world attended. Some 26 Countries in all, because of the dreams of our own Auckland City Rotoract Member, the master of communication, Becky Giblin.
The main presenter was Michelle Tanner from the Matamata Rotary Club who gave the best overview of our Polio Eradication Programme.
The main Rotoract subject of the event was to present the GECAF (Give Every Child A Future) Project .
Michelle Tanner's presentation covered our Polio Eradication Programme from its beginnings as the 3 H Programme in 1979, and its rise to the unbelievable RI Programme that it is today with a massive legacy of immunisation on the World Stage. Huge collaboration with the big players in health and major fundraising programmes not to say the least. These efforts have not just resulted in the near eradication of Polio, but have left an infrastructure legacy second to none which not only greatly assisted in containing Ebola when it struck the poorer countries, but has been a major asset to the same areas with the Covid pandemic and this will be realised as the programmes develop in these counties. Well done ROTARY.
We are gong to try and obtain a copy of this presentation, or get Michelle to come and present to our club when restrictions allow.
Give Every Child A Future features the partnership of the Rotary clubs of Auckland, Wellington, Sydney and Melbourne, the Governments, and UNICEF, all linking together to vaccinate the children of the Pacific Islands with the 3 childhood vaccines that are used in our own Countries. The Rotaract promotion is aimed at raising money for this project by creating a series of challenges with the theme of “Move It’ for $100 and Auckland running a Bingo Challenge. Expect more next week on how we can join in and give our support to this great opportunity.
Of real interest to me was the presence of our next Rotary Leader and the First Lady to sit in the seat next Rotary Year, Jennifer Jones, who was so inclusive with her remarks when part of the presentation panel, and really showed us the changes sweeping through our organisation with the inclusion of Rotaractors in some key roles backing up her beliefs that in order to survive and to grow we need constantly to adapt - even hinting that we all need to remove the age from our thinking. Jennifer also suggested we allow Rotaract to lead us into new Technology and to fully utilise our enormous assets, both intellectually and financially.
One of the take-aways for me was this - Rotaractors think of an idea and implement it straight away.
Makes me think !!!! So its very important to encourage us all to be YOUNG thinkers. This is so necessary to take our wonderful organisation forward.
One more thing - If you haven't already done so, click on the link below and complete the Protecting Youth Programme Participants Module on the Learning Center - its good for the mind.