President Michelle Arnold and the West Milton Rotary Club welcomed the 2011-12 District 6670 Governor, Ute Papke, as our guest speaker at the August 8 club meeting. Ute detailed for us the history of Kaylan Banerjee, our International President, and his unusual Indian background. He defied his family and married a nurse that cared for him when he was a young man. His family was so angry they sent him across the country of India where he became a chemist and started his own company. Ute also told us her story of emigrating from Germany and coming to America to study at Kalamazoo University. She met her husband, Hans, on a return visit to Germany and they both decided to make their home in the States. Ute stressed the importance of the Four Way Test, vocational descriptions of members with our directors,
and how Rotary has become an International Family.
Ute provided some interesting statistics regarding POLIO progress. Last year there were only 303 new cases of polio reported worldwide, which was a decrease to about one quarter of the cases the year prior. If no new cases are reported for 3 consecutive years the disease is declared cured. With the money received from Bill and Melinda Gates and the money we have almost been able to match as an organization
astonishing progress has been made. With such success, The Foundation identified a growing need to streamline its operations for improved efficiency and focus efforts to achieve greater impact. Future Vision is the Rotary Foundation’s new model to support district and club humanitarian and educational projects. Rotary’s new focus relies on the sustainability of projects. Identified as areas of focus are: Â Peace and Conflict Resolution, Disease prevention and treatment, Water and Sanitation, Maternal and Child Health, Basic Education and Literacy, and Economic and Community Development.
Ute ended her presentation stating she is not spearheading a project of her own, but her project this year is to support clubs in all of their individual efforts. She would like notification of our local events and will try to attend as many as possible. The new International Rotary theme this year is “Reach Within to Embrace Humanity.”
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