DISTRICT GOVERNOR EVE S NEWSLETTER, APRIL/MAY, 2013

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1 DISTRICT GOVERNOR EVE S NEWSLETTER, APRIL/MAY, 2013 THANKS ROTARY WHEEL APPEAL I would like to thank all Rotarians and Clubs in Rotary in London who have made kind donations to the Marathon Rotary Wheel Appeal. 1

2 I had been suffering from a chest infection so been feeling rather under the weather and still aching after Sunday which was an amazing experience and challenging! The photo is of me and District Governor 1140 Mike Thorn in our two feet and four feet Rotary Wheels at the start of the London Marathon which got a lot of attention - particularly the four feet ones! Made it more of a challenge also. The money raised by Mike and I so far adds up to more than 4,500 - and still counting donations from Rotary in London are more than 3,000, including 1,000 from my Rotary Club of Redbridge. The donations are going to The Rotary Wheel Appeal which is a Paralympic legacy project between Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland and the charity WheelPower to give young or newly disabled people the opportunity to further a sporting goal by providing sports wheelchairs to allow them to compete and hopefully even become a future Paralympian. Each sports wheelchair package costs 3,000 so we have raised enough to hopefully provide two. PEACE THROUGH SERVICE A Rotary in London Peace Event is planned for Monday, 17th June and details are being finalised. Rotary in London is linking with the founder of Peace One Day, filmmaker and actor Jeremy Gilley for this event. This will involve Rotary Peace Scholars and inspirational keynote speakers. More information to follow soon. Please contact DG Eve to register your interest: eveconway@hotmail.co.uk. 2

3 LONDONDERRY PEACE FORUM 24 TH 26 TH MAY Just a reminder of an opportunity to be with your RI President Sakuji Tanaka. He will be attending the Londonderry Peace Forum May The registration can be made or simply go to the 1160 website. MEMBERSHIP SEMINAR AT YORK GATE - SATURDAY, 15TH JUNE, 2013 Amanda Watkin, Chair of RIBI's Membership Development and Retention Committee, will be holding a Membership Seminar at Rotary in London Headquarters at 6 York Gate, London NW1 4QG on Saturday, 15th June, between 10am and 1pm. Cost 5 to cover refreshments. Please contact DG Eve if you would like to attend on eveconway@hotmail.co.uk. VISIONING The opportunity is here for Clubs to take part in this important initiative by inviting the District Visioning Team to hold a Visioning Session. This project has greatly helped Clubs plan for their future and boosted membership in America, Australia and New Zealand. Please contact our Club Development and Visioning Champion Sarah Ball on development@rotaryinlondon.org RI CONVENTION, LISBON: 22 nd 26 th JUNE, 2013 Looking forward to seeing as many of you as possible at the RI Convention in Lisbon. The traditional RIBI meeting at the RI convention this year is a River Cruise lunch, the details are available on the webpage 3

4 RI PRESIDENT MEETS DISTRICT 1130 VTT TEAM IN INDIA The RI President Sakuji Tanaka and Immediate Past RI President Kalyan Banerjee met District 1130 s Vocational Training Team of medical professionals during their trip to Mumbai, India to take part in an important project to help reduce maternal mortality. Team leader was Rotarian Patrisha Diniah David (Nursing) from Pall Mall Rotary Club with Dr Piyusha Kapila Paediatrician, Manjit Roseghini Midwife, Caroline Duncombe Midwife, Dr Rajalaxmi Walavalkar, Obgyn. They conducted training to help reduce maternal mortality during childbirth and help ensure that mothers and babies do not die due to improper or unavailable maternal care. The VTT Team gave a great presentation at the International Women s Day Rotary Breakfast Event at City Hall in March. Thanks to Foundation Chairman Mike Hodge and Rotarian Judi Stockwell for all their hard work on this project. END POLIO NOW I had a meeting with the International Development Secretary and Putney Rotarian Justine Greening at DFID with her team and we discussed Rotary and linking with her Department on our End Polio Now Campaign. This was a very productive meeting organized with the help of Lesley McDonnell of the Putney Club. UPDATE ON POLIO ENDGAME UK to protect up to 360 million children against polio The UK will help to vaccinate up to 360 million children against polio over the next six years, announced International Development Secretary Justine Greening. Polio is a debilitating and life threatening disease that has been successfully eradicated across the globe, saving millions of lives. It now remains prevalent in just three countries: Afghanistan, 4

5 Pakistan and Nigeria. The UK support will help provide routine immunisations against polio to some of the most vulnerable and hard to reach groups of people. Justine Greening said: Britain will not stand on the sidelines while easily-preventable diseases like polio are still a risk to thousands of people around the world. Rotary Advocacy Efforts Yield Big Rewards Global leaders and philanthropists have signaled their confidence in a new polio endgame strategy by pledging close to three-quarters of the plan s projected US$5.5 billion cost to eradicate polio within the next six years. The new plan capitalizes on the best opportunity to eradicate polio, with the number of children paralyzed by this disease at the lowest level ever: just 223 cases in 2012 and only 22 so far this year. Rotary members have been advocating for government support of the polio eradication programme through meetings with world leaders and public awareness events to deliver financial commitments in support of the new end game strategy. By signing Rotary s petition and sharing your voice, Rotarians helped demonstrate to world leaders the wide-reaching global support for the push to end polio. These advocacy efforts played a key role in global leaders announcing their confidence in the plan s ability to achieve a polio-free world by 2018 and their financial and political support for its implementation. Bill Gates announced that his foundation would commit one-third of the total cost of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative's budget over the plan s six-year implementation, for a total of $1.8 billion. YOUTH MAKES MUSIC - ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL, 18TH MARCH I would like to thank YMM Chairman PDG Clive Amos and his team for an outstanding Youth Makes Music. What amazing youngsters and musical talent and so varied - I personally think this was one of the best YMM's that we have ever had. I would 5

6 like to thank the YMM Team for all the hard work that they put into this event to make it such a success. Thank you to all the Clubs that put the youngsters forward and to all those who attended the event. And Pam Rhodes was great as well. We have also received praise from the London Mayors who attended the event. YOUNG CITIZEN AWARDS For the seventh year running since starting the Rotary Young Citizen Awards, I filmed and produced the news features and produced the live Awards programme on the BBC News Channel from the RIBI Conference in Harrogate. Again, an example of how Rotary can raise its profile and change perceptions this tweet was one of many positive comments in response to the programme: I really didn't appreciate the Rotary Club, except for fireworks but watched the Young Citizens Awards and inspired :-) Clubs can also look at starting Young Citizen Awards with their local media. I started the Rotary Young Citizen Awards with the local Recorder newspaper group when I was President of Redbridge Rotary Club six years ago and the Awards are now part of the Mayor of Redbridge s Community Awards. Some other Clubs in the District have linked with their local newspapers for Young Citizen Awards and this is a project that Clubs can look at adopting to raise their profile in the community. Eve Conway-Ghazi, District Governor, Rotary in London 6