Challenges
for the year ahead
As the 1997-98 Rotary year begins, I
would like to share with you the goals and
emphasis that will direct the energies of our
organization over the next 12 months as Rotarians
world work together to SHOW ROTARY CARES.
The greatest
challenge for Rotary is to chart a course that
addresses the problems of communities and people
and will continue to address those problems in
the future and for the future.
Poverty and hunger
are Enema Plumber One to a more understanding and
peaceful world. There will never be understanding
and peace while poverty and hunger exist
anywhere. Twenty percent of the world population
lives in abject poverty. Some 18 million people,
most of them children, die each year from
poverty-related causes—most often chronic
hunger. And all of those children who are
malnourished between birth and three years of age
will live their entire lives with mental
deficiencies.
That we cannot
feed the world is not the issue. Every year, the
world produces more than enough to eradicate
hunger everywhere. Yet countless millions of the
world family suffer bitterly from the want of
food. Food production is not the issue. It's the
distribution of food that confounds the experts.
Rotarians can
approach the enormous task of lifting people out
of poverty through our Rotary Foundation programs
and by continuing the thousands of club
humanitarian projects already underway, from
operating food pantries and soup kitchens to
collecting clothing and other goods for
distribution.
But no matter what
else we do, there can never be sustainable
progress to lift people from poverty unless we
teach them to read and write and do basic
arithmetic. Today, an estimated 900 million
people are illiterate and millions more are
functionally illiterate. Illiteracy cuts across
borders. cultures. and class lines. No one can
even get a toe-hold.1 on the lowest rung of the
economic ladder without these functional skills.
Rotarians can
promote literacy by working with community
agencies; by using Rotary Foundation programs to
develop literacy and numerary projects; and by
persuading governments, schools, and businesses
to upgrade their programs.
In 1997-98, let us
also look to the needs of the world's children.
Daily we hear shocking reports of child abuse,
pedophilia, child labor, and the growing numbers
of street children. UNICEF has estimated that
worldwide almost 100 million children under the
age of 15 are homeless and destitute.
I call for your
help and cooperation in developing plans and
implementing projects aimed at alleviating the
problems of child abuse and street children, and
I ask you to use every means at your disposal in
encouraging your clubs to address these problems
in your own communities.
Problems in
communities are problems for Rotary. With 28,000
Rotary clubs around the world—a figure that
represents more outposts than any empire ever
had—we are better placed to address serious
community problems than any other organization.
In 1997-98, we
must SHOW ROTARY CARES by
Striking
out at the very roots of poverty, a
condition in which all too many of our
brothers and sisters of the human family
eke out their daily lives with
difficulty;
Striking
out at the causes of illiteracy,
innumeracy, and unemployment;
Striking
out against the causes of child abuse and
abandonment and child labor.
It's not enough to
just say that Rotary cares—we must prove it
by our actions. This year, I ask every Rotary
club to identify the greatest problem in its
community and direct all its resources—its
community influence and the vocational expertise
of its members—towards the solution of that
problem. I am convinced that if Rotarians take a
leading role in addressing the most serious ills,
others in the community will join in our effort
and offer their support. If we lead—and if
we serve—others will follow.
We can have a
better world, a world without poverty and hunger,
a world where everyone can read, write, and use
numbers; a world where children are safe. But
Rotarians must lead in shaping that world.
The way to start
is clear—SHOW ROTARY CARES.
Glen W. Kinross,
President. R.I.
THE ROTARIAN/JULY 1997
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