Few Rotarians have the experience
to really know how Rotary programs are created and how they have
evolved throughout Rotary's history. That's what I have been asked
to discuss this morning. Rotary programs do not start with the
RI Board of Directors or the Trustees of the Foundation. Nearly
all of our programs grew out of a simple idea started in the mind
of a creative Rotarian who saw a need and said, "Maybe our
club can do something about that."
Perhaps many of you have never
heard of the name Edgar "Daddy" Allen, a Rotarian in
the Rotary Club of Elyria, Ohio. Back in 1919, Daddy Allen firmly
believed that every Rotary club should help crippled and handicapped
children. His son had been killed in a tragic streetcar accident,
and Daddy Allen took up the cause — raising money, speaking
to Rotary clubs and traveling the nation, urging every Rotary
club to make disabled and handicapped children the major focus
of Rotary. Soon, every Rotary club had a "crippled children
committee" concerned about youngsters who suffered from injuries,
birth defects, blindness, or crippling diseases. State and national
crippled children societies were formed. Rotary's efforts led
to the creation of the organization we now know as the EasterSeals
society for people with disabilities.
Why was the passion of Daddy Allen
such an important milestone in Rotary? Because the pressure to
make handicapped children the primary activity of all Rotary clubs
led to long and heated debates throughout the Rotary world. But
finally, at the Rotary convention in 1922, the Rotary world voted
and rejected the plan to make crippled children's activities Rotary's
single activity. And that meant that from then on, every Rotary
club would be fully autonomous to select the club programs and
service activities that best fit their club and community.
So Rotary clubs went back to selecting
their own projects — delivering Christmas baskets, collected
shoes, food, and clothing for needy families, and giving toys
and books to underprivileged youngsters. Clubs built park benches
and community playgrounds. So, for our first 50 years, Rotary
service activities were largely done by individual Rotary clubs
selecting projects in their own communities.
However, a major change took place
during the 1960s as clubs began to look at the whole world as
their community — and international service activities began
to emerge. In 1963, RI President Carl Miller introduced the Matched
District and Club Program. Shortly after, in 1965,The Rotary Foundation
launched the very first Matching Grants. The following year, in
1966, the concept of World Community Service was officially launched.
Rotary clubs began to reach across national boundaries and the
oceans of the world. International service began to complement
local community projects. The next year, 1967, Rotary expanded
its international activities with Rotary Volunteers Abroad, offering
technical and professional assistance to developing nations. Disaster
relief became another extension of Rotary clubs into worldwide
service.
But some Rotary leaders dreamed
of doing even more. In 1978, RI President Clem Renouf initiated
the Health, Hunger and Humanity (3-H) program to enable Rotary
to complete international projects much larger than any club or
district could ever attempt. I was a cochairman of that frst 3-H
Committee, and we realized that this was to be a huge departure
for Rotary clubs to undertake and support large-scale projects
that could really make a difference in the world. The program
was not enthusiastically endorsed and was actually challenged
and criticized by many senior Rotary leaders.
Fortunately, special funds were
being collected to celebrate Rotary's 75th anniversary in 1980,and
those funds launched the first 3-H program. We wanted an immediate
success story to demonstrate that the program was effective, so
the very first proposal we selected for the very first 3-H project
provided polio immunization for six million children in the Philippines.
This effort, and other successful immunization projects, became
the forerunner of the PolioPlus program to eradicate polio throughout
the entire world. Other 3-H projects provided community sanitation
in Colombia, national literacy programs in Thailand, health care
and food production projects in several nations, and much more.
Rotary had found a way to launch huge national and regional projects,
in spite of the opposition from many Rotary leaders.
Building upon the 3-H program,
in 1981, RI President Stan McCaffrey appointed the New Horizons
Committee, which set a new path for future decades. Among the
committee's 30 recommendations which the RI Board adopted was
the idea of providing polio vaccine for all the children of the
world. The massive fundraising campaign did not really begin until
President Carlos Canseco in 1984-85 said, "It is time to
get started." And we did. As
PolioPlus has progressed with such success in the world, a whole
new attitude has been created in Rotary. There are so many illustrations
of how Rotarians with new ideas believed they could make a difference
in the world.
Tony Zino, a New York Rotarian,
read of a child badly mauled by a hyena in Uganda. He was so touched
by the tragic plight of Margaret-Rose Illukol that he initiated
an effort to help her secure the plastic surgery she needed. This
simple act of kindness set the stage for a Rotaryinitiated program
called Gift of Life. In 1974, a second child, five-year-old Grace
Agwaru, traveled from Uganda to New York to undergo a four-hour
open heart surgical procedure. These simple responses by Rotarians
developed into a dynamic program that has provided the gift of
life to over 10,000 children, involving 60 Rotary districts worldwide.
In a remote community of Jaipur,
India, in 1968, Dr. P.K. Sethi and a local sculptor had an idea
that many amputees and persons with birth defects could be given
a chance to walk if an inexpensive prosthetic device could be
designed. With plastic pipe and scrap rubber, the amazing lightweight
Jaipur foot was created. Today, Rotarians have provided the Jaipur
foot to over 100,000 men, women, and children around the world,
giving them new mobility, independence, and dignity.
When a group of Texas Rotarians,
led by J.B. Roberts, learned of the desperate famine among the
Tarahumara Indians in Central Mexico, they turned to another sponsored
Rotary project, the Breedlove Dehydrated Foods in Lubbock, Texas,
and shipped thousands of pounds of dehydrated food to Mexico.
This led Rotarians to create Hunger Plus, a new Rotary club-sponsored
relief agency to reduce hunger and develop new food supplies.
Since 1998, this program has provided Rotary club-sponsored shipments
of millions of meals with dehydrated fruits and vegetables to
nearly every continent in the world to relieve hunger and malnutrition
and offer disaster relief.
In England, Rotarian Tom Henderson
had an idea that one box, filled with lifesaving materials and
equipment, could be prepared and ready to be sent instantly to
areas facing floods, earthquakes, tornadoes, tsunamis, and other
disasters. Thus, the ShelterBox program now provides a tent and
supplies for 10 persons, with cooking equipment, sleeping bags,
basic tools, a water container, and other essential items. This
program, started by one Rotarian as a club millennium project,
has been continued by Rotarians and has spread around the world
to enable Rotary clubs to provide immediate disaster relief to
over half a million people in more than 30 nations
because Rotarians care. I
hope you are seeing that most Rotary-initiated programs started
out when just a few Rotarians saw a need and reached out to meet
it.
As the years passed, and using
the experience gained in our PolioPlus program, many Rotary clubs
and districts found that their efforts could be greatly expanded
by working with other humanitarian agencies and nongovernmental
organizations. A major leap was achieved in 2000 when RI President
Frank Devlyn established task forces to create working partnerships
with organizations that had common humanitarian goals.
For example, it is estimated that
50 million people live in blindness or have limited vision for
the lack of cataract surgery or care for basic eye diseases. By
cooperating with several of the leading world agencies, such as
the World Health Organization, Global Vision, International rachoma
Initiative, and other agencies, plus support from several worldwide
pharmaceutical companies and foundations, Rotarians have created
an active program, aptly named Avoidable Blindness. With 3-H grants
and Matching Grants, clubs and districts are caring for millions
of people afflicted with river blindness, cataracts, trachoma,
lack of corrective lenses, and other
forms of vision impairment. Rotarians alone have sponsored over
a half million cataract surgeries throughout the world. What a
tremendous demonstration of the new directions in Rotary's world
community service.
In another outreach of Rotary service,
over 2,000 Rotary clubs and districts have donated more than 200,000
wheelchairs in 100 countries in cooperation with the Wheelchair
Foundation since 2001. These Rotary clubs have given mobility
to children and adults who were victims of polio, birth defects,
disabling accidents, and disease. Many of these Rotarian-sponsored
distributions have been enhanced by Rotary Foundation Matching
Grants in cooperation with the Wheelchair Foundation, operating
in Canada, England, Australia, Florida, and California. Through
these cooperative efforts, over 200,000 people are living a better
life because Rotarians saw a need and filled it.
In more recent years, we have seen
the creation of a new area of international service: the Rotarian
Action Groups. These activities grew out of the long-established
Rotary Fellowships,formerly called Rotary Fellowships of Sports
and Recreation. The new Rotarian Action Groups are initiating
worldwide activities and awareness in such areas as population
and development,elimination of malaria, blood donation, multiple
sclerosis, polio survivors, disaster relief, and several other
humanitarian activities.
One of them is the Water and Sanitation
Rotarian Action Group, which is seeking and supporting long-term
water initiatives for the 1.2 billion people who do not have safe
water and the 2.4 billion who do not have proper sanitation. It
is estimated that over 7,000 Rotary clubs are already engaged
in water projects. This Rotarian Action Group, working with WaterAid,
Water for People, Global Water Challenge, Living Waters for the
World, Engineers Without Borders, the Canadian International Development
Agency, and many other agencies, churches, and foundations, are
promoting clean water and sanitation for millions of people in
40 countries in Africa, 25 nations in Asia, and 17 countries in
Latin America.
Another Rotarian Action Group is
facing the worldwide devastation caused by HIV/AIDS. Rotarians
have reacted to the plague of this deadly disease with a variety
of educational, medical, and care-giving activities. In one single
project, the AIDS action group is providing care and support for
46,000 orphans and vulnerable children in Africa. Working with
USAID, the Coca-Cola Africa Foundation, Microsoft, Nike, the Gates
Foundation, and other foundations, these Rotarians are extending
their work in a pilot project in Kenya and other nations throughout
the continent. Clearly, Rotarians are giving education, medical
care, and hope to the children and youth of Africa.
I urge every district governor
to become aware of the potential of these special groups. It may
be that Rotarian Action Groups will become the most effective
way to achieve the six areas of focus of The Rotary Foundation.
Action groups may certainly be the new frontier of Rotary service
in the years ahead. Rotarian Action Groups frequently combine
the passion and knowledge of Rotarians in a partnership with other
nongovernmental organizations to create sustainable humanitarian
services not possible by single club or district projects.
With the amazing developments of
information communication and technology through the Internet,
Rotarians can be linked with critical issues at a moment's notice
and the resources of interested Rotarians put to work without
hesitation. I assure you, there is no end to the creativity and
imagination of Rotarians. In recent years, we have shown the world
— and we have proved to ourselves — that Rotarians
can meet even greater challenges by multiplying our resources
and working with other organizations
and foundations that share common humanitarian goals.
In this evolution of Rotary programs,
we must not bypass our other traditional programs that are part
of the established fabric of Rotary, all of which grew out of
the dreams of individual clubs or Rotarians — Interact,
Rotaract, Rotary Community Corps, Rotary Youth Leadership Awards
(or RYLA), Rotary Volunteers, Rotary Friendship Exchange, and
certainly Rotary Youth Exchange. Our
Youth Exchange program is one of the areas of special emphasis
this year. Again, this is a program that began with a few Rotarians
in Nice, France. Today, over 7,000 young people participate each
year in the rich experiences of Rotary Youth Exchange.
Within The Rotary Foundation's
six areas of focus, we will continue to distribute medical equipment,
establish blood banks, build schools, provide clean water, improve
sanitation, control disease, provide microcredit, remove land
mines, enhance literacy, plant seeds for food, restore dignity,
assist refugees, and simply bring hope to the world. The list
of Rotary projects is almost endless, because the needs of the
world are almost unlimited.
The real message I have this morning
is that there is so much more to Rotary than meeting and eating.
For over 100 years, the programs of Rotary have been evolving.
Some of the greatest program ideas may still be in the minds of
the Rotarians in this room today. Our most exciting activities
may come when you are able to inform, motivate, and stimulate
your clubs and district into action.
Sadly, there are many Rotarians
and Rotary clubs that have not yet discovered the real joy and
satisfaction that comes when we share our time, energy, and resources
with the people of the world. As governor, you must lead the parade.
Don't just let your Rotary clubs stand on the sidewalk and watch
the parade go by. Use your leadership to get your clubs on the
bandwagon, and be part of the parade yourself!
Rotary's greatest days are still
to come! Your president has given you the emphasis and direction
for 2010-11. Our most exciting achievements may come when you
and your district get involved. Rotary's achievements of the past
are merely the prelude to the Rotary of the future. Rotary has
the potential to build better communities and build a better world
with the presidential emphases of 2010-11. And would you believe
it? It is all up to you, because you have been chosen to lead
the Rotary world. That's the task. Now go to it!s.
