Islamabad, March 14, 2024 – A child has been paralyzed by wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) in Dera Bugti district of Balochistan, marking the first polio case of 2024.

The Regional Reference Laboratory at the National Institute of Health notified on Thursday that the virus was detected in stool samples collected from a 30-months-old boy from Sui tehsil of Dera Bugti.

The child had onset of weakness in both lower limbs on February 22, and the isolated virus belongs to the imported YB3A cluster.

Imagine being 17 years old and heading off to another country for an entire year by yourself.

That’s what three incredibly brave local students are doing on Wednesday, January 17.

Tauranga and Western Bay students Cleo Putty and Hope Kennerley from Ōtūmoetai College, and Daisy Bryant from Katikati College, are heading to the other side of the world for the opportunity of a lifetime.

The girls say they are nervous but excited.

Canada’s ambassador to Japan began his journey as a Rotary exchange student

By Bryan Smith

Ian McKay’s career path has run like a superhighway through some of the world’s most important cities: New York, London, Tokyo.

It has led him to the highest reaches of finance, politics, and global diplomacy, culminating in his current role as Canada’s ambassador to Japan.

December 11th 2023 marks the 20th Anniversary of the establishment of RNZWCS Limited (Rotary New Zealand World Community Service). That was the day we were registered with New Zealand Charities (CC26860).

As some will know, our work began 38 years ago. We started operating under the ROAP (Rotary Overseas Aid Projects) umbrella. One of the first activities was the introduction and promotion of the EMBOX Emergency Box Project in New Zealand, a UK Rotary initiative launched there in 1975.

Stephanie A. Urchick, of the Rotary Club of McMurray, Pennsylvania, USA, is the selection of the Nominating Committee for President of Rotary International for 2024-25, a decision that would make her only the second woman to hold that position.

She will be declared the president-nominee on 15 September if no challenging candidates have been suggested.

With the world facing incredible challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic, disasters driven by climate change, and conflict in many regions, Urchick says Rotary’s leaders can offer a vision and a plan for overcoming these challenges.

“Measures taken by Rotary leadership to survive and end critical challenges often make our organization stronger and more resilient for future events,” Urchick says. “This kind of essential leadership also creates new levels of cooperation, even among rivals, when Rotarians pull together as people of action to serve and solve a crisis.”

Making regionalization a priority is crucial, says Urchick. “Because Rotary operates in more than 200 countries and regions, it is vital to recognize that the organization has the potential to become more efficient and effective by understanding and reacting to how regional differences affect the way Rotarians work together to address providing service, promoting integrity, and advancing world understanding, goodwill, & peace,” 

The ClubRunner Mobile App is your key to connect to your club and district on the go!
Completely, free to download and use, this app will let you access the key info you need while you're on the go. Password protected just like your website, the ClubRunner Mobile app allows you to to view your member directory, contact your members and executives, read the latest articles posted to your website, learn more about your upcoming events and speakers, view your meeting details, track your attendance statistics and receive push notifications with important announcements from club admins, right from your smartphone or tablet! 

Our club’s contribution to the ongoing bee project in Fiji that Te Puke Rotary had with Charlotte Naiula. 

She took another step toward a sustainable business with the delivery of a further two hive boxes and frames funded by us over the last weekend.

She now has about 25 hives and is currently a registered beekeeper.

I understand the honey is very dark in colour as the main source of bee diet is sugarcane residue post-harvest.

This email is to give you a “heads-up” to save the date for The Rotary Foundation Recognition Dinner being held in Auckland on Saturday evening the 4th of November 2023 at the Cordis Hotel.

Cyclone Gabrielle, the most significant weather event in a generation threw New Zealand into a national state of emergency, amid this unprecedented weather event there are amazing stories of bravery and generosity.

HEADING TO MELBOURNE?

If you're attending the Rotary Convention, be sure to visit us in the House of Friendship. Peggy Carlaw, ShelterBox New Zealand Director and Trustee, will be there from noon to 3 on Tuesday and Wednesday and would love to say kia ora, show you around the ShelterBox display and answer questions about our Rotary partnership.

Lake Taupō Rotary Club has been fundraising for national causes recently in a bid to make life a bit brighter for Kiwis facing mental health struggles.

Within Taupō, the Rotary Club is perhaps best known for its community-based work, such as running the Lake Taupō Cycle Challenge, loaning out the Rotary Van and organising the annual charity golf tournament at Wairakei Golf + Sanctuary.

However, the Rotary Club also makes the time to fundraise for national causes.

Taupō is one of a network of 50 New Zealand Rotary Clubs in the region spanning from Hamilton to Gisborne which elects a new district governor every year.

McInally's Scottish heritage is apparent in his office, where a brightly colored landscape painting by the Scottish artist John Lowrie Morrison adorns a wall. Scotland isn't always as dreary as it is typically depicted, he notes. "Sometimes it's a very bright place." In fact, there are a lot of stereotypes about Scotland that McInally is looking to move past. "The tartan, the plaid, it's very traditional, very stereotypical," he says. His presidential tie, instead, was inspired by the bright colors used by Morrison, his favorite artist, along with the colors in a seashell from Thailand that helped inspire his presidential theme. Among other colorful curiosities in McInally's office is a giant cardboard rendition of his head, which he received after a Rotary institute in Minneapolis. Visitors are keen to hold it up for social media selfies. "I think they get more sense out of the head than they do out of me," he says with a laugh.

McInally joined the South Queensferry club when he was 26 years old. He and his wife, Heather, had recently gotten married and wanted to put down roots in the community outside of Edinburgh. A farmer they had met invited them to a Rotary social event and then to a couple of Rotary meetings, and before McInally knew it, he was on the road to Rotary membership. (Heather McInally is also a Rotarian, belonging to the Borderlands satellite club of the Rotary Club of Selkirk.) "I couldn't see how a dentist working in isolation in Edinburgh could make a huge difference in the world," he recalls. "But I very quickly realized that by being part of Rotary, I could, and I did."

Kaileen Casey, partner of Immediate Past District Governor Jeff Egan, adopted SolarBuddy as her partner project throughout 2021-22.

SolarBuddy is an Australian charity uniting a global community with a big dream to gift six million solar lights to children living in energy poverty by 2030, to help them study after dusk and improve their education outcomes.

The initiative is the brainchild of Queenslander Simon Doble, who invented a renewable energy-powered light that became a solution in refugee camps across the world. Simon realised the enormity of light deprivation – each night, 789 million people are plunged into complete darkness as they don’t have equal access to clean energy. So, he started raising global awareness and designing solar light solutions for the most at risk communities.

• Rotary International Director Drew Kessler and Vicki representing Rotary Internatioonal President Jennifer Jones

~ Click here for further details ~

Social media makes expanding your club’s reach easier than ever, but how? There are tips, tricks, and tools for creating content for social platforms, and the goal is simple: connection.

Rotary International President Jennifer Jones appeared on the main stage at the star-studded Global Citizen Festival on 24 September to highlight Rotary’s commitment to eradicating polio and announce an additional US$150 million pledge toward that end.

Jones, who spoke in front of 60,000 people in New York City and tens of thousands more online and on TV, noted the state of emergency that the governor of New York state recently declared to combat a resurgence of polio in the region.

In March, shortly after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, refugees began arriving at a home in Wojciechów, a town about 20 miles from the city of Lublin in eastern Poland.

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Tauranga’s Rotary clubs are celebrating diversity, with a fresh set of female presidents taking over in 2022.

The presidents are Carmen Goodwin of the Otūmoetai Rotary Club, Sue Boyne of the Tauranga Rotary Club, Vanessa Dodunski of the Tauranga Te Papa Rotary Club, and Lynda Burch of the Tauranga Sunrise Rotary Club.  

Tauranga Rotary assistant governor Pat Taylor says the coincidental move coincides with the first international Rotary female president being elected this year.

Lynda Burch, left, Carmen Goodwin, and Sue Boyne. Photo: John Borren