From RI President Holger Knaack

African Region Certified Wild Polio-Free

Dear Rotarians,

It our pleasure to announce to you that the African region has just been certified wild poliovirus-free.

Rotary members have played an invaluable role in the effort to rid the African region of wild polio. We should be proud of all the hard work that we’ve done to eliminate the wild poliovirus throughout Africa and in nearly every country in the world.

This progress is the result of a decades-long effort across the 47 countries of the African region. It has involved millions of health workers traveling by foot, boat, bike and bus, innovative strategies to vaccinate children amid conflict and insecurity, and a huge disease surveillance network to test cases of paralysis and check sewage for the virus.

Over the last two decades, countless Rotary members in countries across the African region and around the world have worked together to raise funds, immunize children, advocate with local and national leaders, and raise awareness about the importance of vaccination, enabling the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) to effectively respond to and stop polio outbreaks.

This milestone is an incredible public health achievement for Rotary members, the African region, and our GPEI partners, and a huge step forward on the road to global polio eradication. But we still have important work to do in order to eradicate wild polio in the last two endemic countries.

We have faced many challenges in our journey to eradicate polio. But we’ve made remarkable progress, and the polio infrastructure that Rotarians helped build will serve as a lasting legacy that will continue to help protect vulnerable children against other diseases for decades to come.

We are calling on you today to recommit yourselves to ending polio. We need each and every one of you to help finish this fight and continue raising $50 million each year for PolioPlus. The eradication of wild polio in the African region shows us that polio eradication is achievable, and shows how our hard work, partnerships and financial commitment continue to propel us forward, even during a global pandemic.

Thank you for your continued efforts, for achieving a wild polio-free African region, and for remaining committed to fulfilling our promise of a polio-free world.

Sincerely,

Holger Knaack, President - Rotary International

&

K.R. Ravindran, Chair - The Rotary Foundation

District 9620: Update

The Youth Portfolio

As we move towards the start of District 9620 the Transition Team has finalised the portfolio of District Youth programs.

We acknowledge that lots of Rotary and Rotaract Clubs support youth based programs that are not linked in any way to District – and that’s part of clubs having their own identity. Hopefully, you’ll share stories about those projects through our regular updates but from now we’re looking to select Chairs, confirm individual programs and lock in the calendar for the 2021-2022 year.

For quite some time now we’ve just rolled our programs over year by year, this year we’re needing to make some changes. It comes with our merge and we’ll be talking about how we’re offering the programs. Lots of what happens is known, but we do need to recognise that there’s a need to be flexible.

We will be having only one model of each program in District 9620 – but if it’s particularly popular we may need to offer it more than once or we may need to limit numbers.

There will be a Youth Coordinator and a Chairs for each program.

So here’s the request for you. If you’re interested in volunteering your passion and time to manage a youth program at the level of Chair then please send me an email so that we can start to appoint Rotarians or Rotaractors to roles. On hearing from you we’ll forward a copy of the role description so that you can decide if you’d like to stay in the group for consideration.

The programs identified by the District to fit within this category are:

Youth Exchange – although we know that this one may not be up and running again for over another twelve months. It really does depend on the world’s ability to manage time during the pandemic

Rotary Youth Leadership Award (RYLA): for young people aged 18 – 25 years

Rotary Youth Transition Seminar (RYTS): for youth aged 17 – 18 years

Rotary Youth Program of Enrichment (RYPEN): for youth aged 14 – 16 years

Interact: – within secondary schools

Earlyact: – within primary schools (in District 9630 this program was called Rotakids. As there are fewer clubs with that name in the District it has been determined that Earlyact will be the name of the District 9620 program)

Rotary Reading Assistance Program: - A program to provide early readers to pre-schoolers in 9620 isolated through drought

The Science Experience: for youth in year 9 or 10

National Youth Science Forum: for youth entering year 12

RYDA: a road safety program for years 11 & 12

Please send an email along to wendyprotheroe@optusnet.com.au if you’d like to be considered for the role of Chair for one of these programs- including your program of interest.