Every year, thousands of talented and dedicated young people, ages 12-30, have an incredible experience in a New Generations program.
As Rotaractors and Interactors, they serve in communities at home and abroad. Through Rotary Youth Exchange, they explore new cultures. And as Rotary Youth Leadership Awards participants, they learn skills that will help them succeed as future community leaders.
New Generations is Rotary’s fifth Avenue of Service.
Peter Pearce of Shelter Box Australia has just returned from Kenya and the Northern Borders where the infamous Dadaa camp is located. Some of you met Peter at the D9700 conference in Bathurst and they are looking for more ShelterBoxes to help provide much needed shelter for these famine ravaged Somalis. (click on the logo below)
Thursday 11 August 2011
ShelterBox tents providing shelter for families in need in Kenya
ShelterBox Response Team members Ben Spurway and Joe Cannon in Kenya
Thousands of Somali families fleeing famine and drought are receiving ShelterBox tents at a refugee camp in Kenya.
ShelterBox is working in partnership with UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) and IOM (International Organization for Migration) to provide shelter for up to 20,000 Somali refugees at the camp in Dadaab.
Tens of thousands of refugees are still waiting to be registered and relocated from transition shelters outside of the camps, which mostly consist of sticks covered by clothes, blankets, tarpaulins and any other materials the families can lay their hands on. ShelterBox Response Team member, Julia Schaper (DE), said: ‘The situation is desperate for thousands of families living in very bad conditions. Driving through the transit areas it became immediately obvious that there is a huge need and we now want to get our tents up and families moved into them as quickly as possible.’
Every year the Rotary International President awards clubs around the world his Presidential Citation and this is awarded to all the clubs in Rotary who achieve a certain level of service within the 4 avenues of service available in Rotary. This year Coolamon was awarded the Presidential Citation by RI President Ray Klinginsmith. The award was presented to PP Ian Durham by PDG John Egan at our regular meeting last night.
PDG John Egan and Ian Durham.
Those present at the meeting had a good night and the award was followed by a talk by Assistan Governor Gary Roberts. Some photos:
Ron D. Burton, a member of the Rotary Club of Norman, Oklahoma, USA, is the selection of the Nominating Committee for President of Rotary International in 2013-14. Burton will become the president-nominee on 1 October if there are no challenging candidates.
28 July 2011 – UNICEF correspondent Priyanka Pruthi reports on an immunization campaign reaching children under the age of five in Liboi, a Kenyan border town where refugees from drought and conflict are crossing over from Somalia. The campaign is part of a broader effort to bolster child survival in the Horn of Africa, where drought conflict and soaring food prices have triggered an esclating crisis.
“All of us in Rotary are looking to change the world – why else would we be Rotarians? We believe that our world can be happier, healthier, and more peaceful, and that we can create that better world through our service…….We must understand that true change can only begin with each of us, and start within us. We cannot share peace with others if we do not have it to give. We cannot look after the whole world without first looking after those closest to us: our families, our clubs, and our communities.”
