SERVICE ABOVE SELF


JULY 2018: ISSUE 111


New Rotary International President Barry Rassin laid out his vision for the future of the organisation calling on District Governors to work for a sustainable future and to inspire Rotarians and the community at large. Rassin, a member of the Rotary Club of East Nassau, New Providence, Bahamas, unveiled the 2018-19 presidential theme, Be the Inspiration, to incoming District Governors at Rotary’s International Assembly in San Diego, California, USA earlier this year. “I want you to inspire in your Clubs and your Rotarians, that desire for something greater. The drive to do more, to be more and to create something that will live beyond each of us.” Rassin stressed that the power of Rotary’s new vision statement, ‘Together, we see a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change — across the globe, in our communities, and in ourselves.’ “This describes the Rotary that you as leaders must help build,” he said. To achieve this vision, he said that Rotarians must take care of the organisation: “We are a membership organisation first and if we want to be able to serve, if we want to succeed in our goals — we have to take care of our members first.” Rassin asked the incoming District Governors to “ inspi re the club Presidents, and the Rotarians in your Districts, to want to change. To want to do more. To want to reach their own potential. It’s your job to motivate them — and help them find their own way forward.”


Progress on polio Rassin noted that one source of inspiration has been Rotary’s work to eradicate polio. He described the


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incredible progress made over the past three decades. In 1988, an estimated 350,000 people were paralysed by the wild poliovirus; just 20 cases were reported in 2017. “We are at an incredibly exciting time for polio eradication,” he said, “a point at which each new case of polio could very well be the last.” He emphasised, however, that even when that last case of polio was recorded, the work wouldn’t be finished. “Polio won’t be over, until the certifying commission says it’s over — when not one poliovirus has been found, in a river, in a sewer or in a paralysed child for at least three years,” he said. “Until then, we have to keep doing everything we’re doing now.” He urged continued dedication to immunisation and disease


surveillance programs. Sustaining the environment Rotary has focused heavi ly on sustainability in its humanitarian work in recent years. “Now,” Rassin said, “Rotarians must acknowledge some hard real i t ies about pol lut ion, environmental degradation and climate change.” He noted that 80 percent of his own country was within one metre of sea level. With sea levels projected to rise two meters by 2100,” he said, “my country is going to be gone in 50 years, along with most of the islands in the Caribbean and coastal cities and low-lying areas all over the world.” Rassin urged his audience to look at all of Rotary’s service as part of a larger global system. He said that this meant that they must be an inspiration not only to clubs, but also to their wider communities. “We want the good we do to last and to make the world a better place- not just here, not just for us, but everywhere, for everyone, for generations!”


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