We launch today our new programme theme for November, the Family. This can mean different things, however this week we intend to explore the fact that if you join Rotary you are joining a world-wide family and what this can mean.
The family of Rotary consists of 1.2 million members world wide in 200 countries, so when you are a Rotarian you can visit any of these countries and instantly find a local contact, a place to meet other like minded people, if you need urgent assistance whilst on business or holiday, Rotary can be contacted and will have someone who can help. But when an international natural disaster occurs e.g. earth quake, flood, etc. Rotary International goes into action around the world, the local Rotary Club and District coordinating things on the ground, while Clubs around the world raise funds to put in the urgent resources to help with the humanitarian relief that’s required, e.g. Shelter or Water Boxes, Food, or helping to rebuild where destruction has taken place. The Rotary family work together to help make a difference to the communities that have been affected.
Over last weekend, thanks to the Rotary Foundation Programme, we were lucky to have Galina Gusarevich from Russia stay with us, who is an Ambassador Scholar studying for a year at the LSE. Emma, one of our eClub members, interviewed Galina about her life and work within the Rotary family, please enjoy the video below:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=no-1dC0J-Eo&w=853&h=480]- Following Galina’s interview, what questions would you like to ask about the Rotary family world-wide?
- How can we encourage more young people like Emma and Galina to join and help in the development of our Rotary eClub?
- Others who read or view this article, can you comment on what the world -wide Rotary family has helped you achieve or how you’ve been involved.
We have truly had an international year because of meeting up with Rotary family: Last October (strictly over a year ago, but who’s counting?) we stayed with our Rotary friend Karin in Sweden planning our trip to America; Karin then came to stay with us to meet up with her Swindon Rotary friends before we all went off to New Orleans for the Rotary International Convention – where we part of 18 thousand Rotarians from 200 different countries meeting up. This was an amazing experience and everyone just spoke to everyone, some Rotarians recognised us amongst all the faces as being Facebook friends, we met so many different people doing so many interesting things in their communities. From here we travelled up (still with Karin) to Memphis where we continued to bump into Rotarians who had also been at the convention. We ended up in LA to meet with long term facebook Rotarian friend Mel, and through him we met loads of other Rotarians – they gave us an amazing time meeting and chatting and needless to say we’re still in touch. In October we then had another fantastic journey by train, meeting up with Flor Maria, an Inner Wheel facebook friend, in Paris and then travelling down to Italy to meet up with Lisa, who was a GSE student who stayed with us last year. We really were welcomed into her family and spent a day with them laughing the whole time, despite the fact we didn’t speak Italian and they didn’t speak English! Then, once home again, we finally met Gallina who we have known through facebook for a couple of years and have been supporting her writing of her Rotaract newsletter in English over the internet. She stayed with us for a weekend and since she is in London studying for a year hopefully more of you will get the chance to meet up with her and talk about what she has done through Rotaract in Russia. The Rotary family internationally has been quite an experience this year!