PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

In January, the Gates Foundation awarded Rotary International a US$255 million grant to boost the global effort to end polio. Rotary will raise $100 million in matching funds. The new funds come in addition to the $100 million challenge grant that the Gates Foundation awarded in November 2007, bringing the total contribution by the RI-Gates Foundation partnership to $555 million.

Rotary has committed to raise its total contribution of $200 million in matching funds by 30th June 2012. The effort, called Rotary’s US$200 Million Challenge, was announced at the International Assembly in San Diego in January.

It was quoted that “With the support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, we are on the brink of eradicating one of the most feared crippling, sometimes fatal, diseases in the world. This shared commitment of Rotary and the Gates Foundation should encourage governments and non-governmental organizations to ensure that resources are available to end polio once and for all”.

Rotary and other NGOs must be mindful that diseases known and unknown are at our door-step. With the worldwide trend in migration, diseases are bound to spread. Migrant workers bring along illnesses that affect the local population. In Malaysia, TB, that was once controlled, is now making a comeback. We must be wary of the new forms of diseases that can pose a threat to public health.

From the Malaysian Employers’ Federation, more than 26,000 people were retrenched as of last month. This number is expected to increase. The loss of jobs is traumatic. Loss of income. Fear for the future. And above all, the loss of human dignity. When we hold on to jobs, we become respectable. Society looks upon us as responsible and assets to the community. Without a job, a person is deemed useless. He then suffers from social and emotional problems and this will mushroom into something that could be reflected in criminal activities.

Rotary and other NGOs could provide support for the unemployed to seek professional help. The unemployed could redeem their human dignity with new skills for employment. Towards this direction, our RCPJ is going to embark on a project ‘Redeeming Human Dignity’ soon. This project helps people to acquire new skills and also assists them financially to set up small businesses.

We need to reach out to these people in times of economic recession.

Istanbul, the only city in the world built on two continents, stands on both shores of the Istanbul Bogazi where the waters of the Black Sea mingle with those of the Sea of Marmara. The Golden Horn divides European Istanbul in two. Here on this splendid site, Istanbul guards the precious relics of three empires: a unique link between East and West, past and present.

However, Istanbul is not only historical, it is also a magnificent city that is fascinating and vividly alive. Beneath the unchanging skyline of her domes and minarets there is the continual bustle and movement of crowds, the rumbling of vehicles along ancient cobblestone streets, the incessant coming and going and the cries of street sellers mingling with shipping sounds from the busy port. Istanbul has endless variety: museums, ancient churches, palaces, great mosques, bazaars and the Istanbul Bogazi.

Thank you PP Ali for sharing with us.