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Kalyan Banerjee, President of Rotary International
You are just holding your 103rd Rotary International Convention from 6 to 9 May, at the IMPACT Arena Exhibition and Convention Centre in Bangkok. Why did you choose Thailand?
Thailand is a spectacular destination, truly the Land of a Thousand Smiles. Bangkok is a fantastic gateway to explore Southeast Asia and a wonderful experience on its own for a shorter trip. By participating in the Rotary International Convention, Rotary club members will gain a broader appreciation of Rotary’s global impact and strengthen their commitment to service.
With more than 35,000 participants the 2012 Rotary International Convention is expected to break the previous attendance record. Do you have an explanation why?
Thailand is one of the Asian countries where Rotary is growing fastest. Thailand, one of the Asia’s most popular attractions, is a wonderful place to go visit and people love to spend their vacations there. While more than 35,000 Rotary club members, their families, and friends from all over the world are in Bangkok, the Bangkok convention will be one of the biggest conventions and is expected to inject more than US$100 million into the local economy during its run.
At the convention, we have the chance to see all those communities represented in one place — to hear all the languages, see all the people, and learn about all the projects of the past year. Nothing brings home the internationality of Rotary like a Rotary convention, and nothing else has the same power to inspire. Every year, I go to the Rotary Convention excited to see old friends and make new ones, to celebrate our successes and learn from our experience. And every year, I leave with a sense of pride in Rotary.
How important is the Rotary International Convention for your global organization?
The convention gives members of Rotary the opportunity to share success stories, exchange ideas, and renew acquaintances. Often described as a “mini-United Nations” because of its global scope and cultural diversity at the convention Rotary members participate in a broad agenda of plenary sessions, workshops and other activities focused on how Rotary clubs help improve communities worldwide through volunteer service.
Displays showcasing hundreds of Rotary’s humanitarian and education projects and programs will be open daily to convention registrants at the aptly named ‘House of Friendship’. Easily, these are the reasons that so many Rotary members are eager to attend the convention.
How do you motivate people to become a member of Rotary to make the world a better place through humanitarian service?
Rotary is an organization that appeals to business and professional leaders who are interested in addressing important issues on both a local and global scale. Our track record of success is demonstrated by the millions of people who have achieved and sustained a better quality of life through Rotary.
Rotary offers a grassroots approach to problem solving. Rotary club members understand the needs of their communities and have boots on the ground to develop and implement effective, sustainable projects.
Rotary’s goal-oriented, business model approach has attracted key partners for shared humanitarian priorities, enabling us to expand our reach and improve more lives by leveraging recourses and expertise.
What are Rotary’s main three challenges these days?
1) Rotary is a global service organization on the forefront of tackling major humanitarian challenges facing the world today. From local food pantries to clean water and maternal health, Rotary clubs engage in local and international service projects in thousands of communities all over the world. Rotary also offers the Rotary Peace Fellowship Program, one of the largest comprehensive programs in peacemaking that provides academic and practical training to prepare scholars for leadership roles in solving conflicts around the world. And, to provide thousands of young people around the world with the opportunity to meet people from other lands and to experience their cultures, Rotary offers the Rotary Youth Exchange Program.
2) Rotary’s top goal is to eradicate polio worldwide. Since launching its PolioPlus program in 1985, and helping to establish the Global Polio Eradication Initiative in 1988, Rotary and its partners are close to eliminating the second human disease in history after smallpox. The incidence of polio has plummeted by more than 99 percent, from more than 350,000 cases in 1988, to fewer than 700 in 2011. To date, Rotary has contributed more than US$1 billion and countless volunteer hours to the protection of more than two billion children in 122 countries. This year, Rotary raised more than $200 million in new money for polio eradication in response to a $355 million challenge grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
In addition, Rotary has played a major role in decisions by donor governments to contribute over $8 billion to the effort. Rotary club members worldwide cautiously celebrated a major milestone in the global effort to eradicate polio. My homeland of India, until recently an epicenter of the wild poliovirus, was removed from the World Health Organization’s list of polio-endemic countries. With the support of Rotary club members around the world, Indian Rotary club members have worked diligently month after month, year after year, to help organize and carry out the National Immunization Days that reached millions of children with the oral polio vaccine.
As an Indian, I am immensely proud of what Rotary has accomplished. However, we know this is not the end of our work. Rotary and our partners must continue to immunize children in India and in other countries until the goal of a polio-free world is finally achieved. We also identified a growing need to focus efforts in order to achieve greater impact, more public recognition, and streamlined operations for improved efficiency. These efforts enable Rotary clubs to change people’s lives, make the world a better place, and help meet the priorities and goals of Rotary.
3) Building on its successful collaborations for polio eradication, Rotary is forging strategic partnerships with other established organizations to achieve common humanitarian goals in the following six areas of focus:
•Peace and Conflict Resolution
•Maternal and Child Health
•Water and Sanitation
•Economic and Community Development
•Disease Prevention and Treatment
•Education and Literacy
Rotary International is a global humanitarian organization with more than 1.2 million members in 34,000 Rotary clubs in over 200 countries and geographical areas. Rotary members are men and women who are business, professional and community leaders with a shared commitment to make the world a better place through humanitarian service. Rotary’s top priority is the global eradication of polio. Since 1985, Rotary club members worldwide have contributed more than US$1 billion and countless volunteer hours to the effort. www.rotary.com