REPORT FROM OUR INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE

Our International Committee Chair, Cathy Anderson, has been working diligently for quite some time in researching how our Club might benefit the victims of some recent natural disasters in other parts of the world. At the January Board meeting, it was decided to contribute funds toward the relief effort in Jamaica following Hurricane Ivan, as well as to the work that’s being done in Sri Lanka following the recent Tsunami. The people of Jamaica were hit hard, and we wanted to make sure that their needs were not forgotten about due to the tremendous amount of publicity that’s been focusing the world’s attention on the Tsumani devastation.

01/08/05

Dear Cathy,

Thank you very much for your kind generosity. Please convey my thanks to the members of your club. We will route these funds towards long term rehabilitation project. You can monitor our progress and work via our web log - www.reliefforsrilanka.blogspot.com

The cheque should be written to "Rotary Club of Colombo Regency"

Post it to Palan Rajanathan

Corporate Banking Department

HSBC 24 Sir Baron Jayatilleke Mawatha

Colombo 1 Sri Lanka

thank you,

yours in Rotary Service

Chamila Wickramasinghe

Secretary - R C Colombo Regency, D 3220

Editor's Note:

According to Cathy, this Club is impressive, and so in addition to accessing the blogspot that Chamila refers to in her email, you may be interested in accessing their club's website at http://www.rotarycregency.org/. 

01/07/05

Cathy, thats incredibly generous of you and it will make a big difference.....We`have actually only just finished distributing food parcels, zinc and bedding etc and have re roofed 3 schools that got badly hit.....What we are working very hard on at the moment is less fixing the damage (much of which will be done within the next few weeks) but making the pre school we have adopted a lot more secure for the next Hurricane so the walls and roof dont cave in and the kids can actually afford to risk sheltering there as it will be a lot stronger that their own homes.

My we please allocate your very kind contribution to helping us rebuild and strengthen the Pre School in Negril which is for 3 to 6 year old children and make it as H.....We` will take lots of pics so you can see all we are doing and i promise you it is a fantastic project with huge benefits for 93 little pre school children who attend the school.

I will ask our Treasurer Lynette to tell you where we need the money sent and, i will send you some pics of the school we finished re roofing this week in a little town called Cocoon and the pre school we are re building right now in Negril.

Best regards

Gary Caesar

Editor's Note: Cathy has read the end of year report from the Rotary Club of Negril and feels that it may be of interest to our members. Their website is www.rotarynegril.org

   PERU    

THE ANN SULLIVAN CENTER IN LIMA, PERU

Our Club has provided support to the Ann Sullivan Center. The Ann Sullivan Center teaches autistic children and adults much needed skills.   One major goal of the program has been to enable these individuals to  become employed.  The much needed training that’s been provided to the teachers and administrators at the Center actually became part of a much larger teaching project that spread throughout South America and Europe. The staff members  have spread the philosophy, training and techniques they learned at the Center to Brazil, Argentina, Chili, Holland, Tanzania and many other countries.  Recently, Christiana Rotary teamed up with the Rotary Club of Callao in Peru to donate funds that were used to furnish a kitchen in the new Ann Sullivan Center building.  This kitchen is a multi-purpose room that's used to teach skills that can be used in the workplace. 

WORLD AFFAIRS SEMINAR

Christiana Rotary sponsors a student in their junior year at Christiana High School to attend the World Affairs Seminar which is held every June at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. The World Affairs Seminar is a personalized, educational program for selected high school students to learn about the customs, traditions, aspirations and heritage of people from around the globe through personal association with the young people from foreign countries. Approximately 50 countries are represented in the student delegation. The seminar staff maintains an objective and strictly non-political attitude that never stifles reasoned and mature inquiry.

The program consists of lectures, films, panels, and group discussions as well as informal talks on important issues of the day. An in-depth inquiry is made into the most perplexing problems facing the world today. Special activities of an international flavor are featured throughout the week.

Applicants should have an interest in international issues, and have a creditable academic standing and high standards of personal integrity and behavior.

POLIO ERADICATION

Christiana Rotary is proud to support Rotary International’s PolioPlus Program, which is Rotary's massive effort to immunize the children of the world against poliomyelitis. It is part of a global effort to protect the children from five other deadly diseases as well--hence the "plus" in PolioPlus. The program was launched in 1985.  Achieving eradication will be difficult (only one other disease, small pox, has ever been eradicated) and expensive (estimated cost to the international community is nearly $2 billion). Rotary's efforts and those of partner agencies, including the World Health Organization, the United Nations Children's Fund, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and governments around the world, have achieved a 99 percent reduction in the number of polio cases worldwide. Rotarians stand at the brink of a great victory and look forward to celebrating the global eradication of polio in 2005, Rotary’s centennial year. By the year 2005, Rotary's contributions to the global polio eradication effort will exceed $500 million. In addition, millions of dollars of "in-kind" and   personal contributions have been made by and through local Rotary clubs and districts for polio eradication activities. Of even greater significance has been the huge volunteer army mobilized by Rotary International. Hundreds of thousands of volunteers at the local level are providing support at clinics or mobilizing their communities for immunization or polio eradication activities. More than one million Rotarians worldwide have contributed toward the success of the polio eradication effort to date. For more information about  the PolioPlus program,  click here.

Youth Exchange is one of the most popular programs to promote international understanding and develop lifelong friendships. It began in 1927 with the Rotary Club of Nice, France. In 1939 an extensive Youth Exchange was created between California and Latin America. Since then the program has expanded around the world. In recent years more than 7,000 young people have participated annually in Rotary club- and district-sponsored exchange programs.

The values of Youth Exchange are experienced not only by the high school-age students involved but also by the host families, sponsoring clubs, receiving high schools and the entire community. Youth Exchange participants usually provide their fellow students in their host schools with excellent opportunities to learn about customs, languages, traditions and family life in another country.

Youth Exchange offers young people interesting opportunities and rich experiences to see another part of the world. Students usually spend a full academic year abroad, although some clubs and districts sponsor short-term exchanges of several weeks or months.

Club members host the inbound students at their homes and also take them to several events throughout the year.

To find out more about the Rotary Youth Exchange program, click on the following link.