[D9640general] [eFlash_Rotary] Digest Number 832

[Garry Krischock]

 Messages In This Digest (3 Messages) 

1. 1575: RI <>  president addresses UN forum From: Sunil K Zachariah 

2. 1576: Child mortality conference <>  draws 10,000 in Korea From: Sunil K
Zachariah 

3. 1577: São Paulo Rotarians help <>  American family in need From: Sunil K
Zachariah 

 

Messages 

1.
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/eFlash_Rotary/message/1493;_ylc=X3oDMTJxNXViZ
Wo1BF9TAzk3MzU5NzE1BGdycElkAzI3ODYwNzYEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1MDY0MDg2BG1zZ0lkAzE0O
TMEc2VjA2Rtc2cEc2xrA3Ztc2cEc3RpbWUDMTIyMzc5NzQ0NQ--> 1575: RI president
addresses UN forum 

Sat Oct 11, 2008 4:13 pm (PDT) 

RI president addresses UN forum By Ryan Hyland
[http://www.rotary.org/SiteCollectionImages/News/dk_endpoverty.jpg]
RI President Dong Kurn Lee addresses government and civic leaders during
a 25 September forum convened by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon in New
York. Photo courtesy of the UN Photo Library
RI President Dong Kurn Lee praised the 20-year partnership between
Rotary and the United Nations in fighting polio during a 25 September
forum convened by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

At the forum in New York, attended by top government and civic leaders,
Lee reaffirmed Rotary's commitment to working with the UN to eradicate
polio and build a healthier, more peaceful world.

"We have brought the world closer to the end of a disease and to the
achievement of the fourth Millennium Development Goal: reducing child
mortality," Lee said in a speech during a breakout session on health and
education. "We have created partnerships that will endure and will yield
benefits far beyond the elimination of one disease."

Lee and other RI leaders spent four days in New York in September
participating in several forums, convened to assess progress made toward
achieving the Millennium Development Goals 
<http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/2008highlevel/pdf/newsroom/MDG%20Over\
<http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/2008highlevel/pdf/newsroom/MDG%20Overview
%20FINAL.pdf> 
view%20FINAL.pdf> adopted by world leaders in 2000.

The forum brought together a broad coalition of government leaders,
philanthropists, and development agencies who recommitted to slashing
poverty, hunger, and disease by 2015.

Speakers included Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation co-chair Bill Gates,
UNESCO Director-General Kiochiro Matsuura, WHO Director-General Margaret
Chan, and other philanthropists and government leaders.

"Rotary's agenda addresses all of the millennium goals: health, hunger,
cleaner environment, and education," says Sylvan Barnet, RI
representative to the United Nations. "This event was a useful way to
promote Rotary to different world leaders and organizations."

RI General Secretary Ed Futa said the meeting he attended was a
high-powered event.

"The thing that impressed me the most was that everyone -- heads of
state and CEOs -- recognized Rotary International and the work we are
doing," Futa said.
Other events during the week included:
* A White House symposium on global literacy on 22 September,
attended by RI Vice President Monty Audenart and hosted by U.S. First
Lady Laura Bush. The event summarized and reported on the six UNESCO
literacy conferences held around the world since an inaugural White
House conference on global literacy in 2006. * A luncheon discussion
on 23 September focused on financing education to achieve the millennium
goals. Representing RI, Barnet shared information about some of Rotary's
recent polio immunization efforts in Afghanistan with Afghan officials.
* A 24 September forum on long-term solutions to the global food crisis.
Futa was among the 100 CEOs, government leaders, and heads of
foundations and UN agencies who participated.

Read about the upcoming RI-UN Day on 8 November 
<http://www.rotary.org/en/Members/Events/Pages/081508_announce_rotaryund\
<http://www.rotary.org/en/Members/Events/Pages/081508_announce_rotaryunday.a
spx> 
ay.aspx>

Source: Rotary International News / Courtesy: eFlash_Rotary

2.
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/eFlash_Rotary/message/1494;_ylc=X3oDMTJxOGs1a
mVvBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE1BGdycElkAzI3ODYwNzYEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1MDY0MDg2BG1zZ0lkAzE0O
TQEc2VjA2Rtc2cEc2xrA3Ztc2cEc3RpbWUDMTIyMzc5NzQ0NQ--> 1576: Child mortality
conference draws 10,000 in Korea 

Sat Oct 11, 2008 4:24 pm (PDT) 

Child mortality conference draws 10,000 in Korea By Susie O. Ma
[http://www.rotary.org/SiteCollectionImages/News/child_mortality.jpg]
RI President Dong Kurn Lee presents a check on behalf of Korean
Rotarians for W500 million (US$431,890) to two organizations working to
reduce childhood mortality. Photo courtesy Rotary Korea
Nearly 10,000 Korean Rotarians gathered on 2 September to pledge their
commitment to reducing child mortality, the focus of RI President Dong
Kurn Lee's service emphases for 2008-09.

"Together, we can save a child who is at the threshold of death," Lee
told the audience at the Kintex convention center in Ilsan, Korea.

On behalf of the gathered Rotarians, Lee presented a check for W500
million (US$431,890) to two Korean organizations working to reduce child
mortality, Korea Foundation for International Healthcare and Community
Chest of Korea. The groups will match the funds with the goal of
building a small hospital dedicated to mother and child care in Africa.

Conference attendees spent the morning in a symposium on child mortality
with medical and academic experts and a UNICEF representative. In the
afternoon, Rotarians heard from the heads of several nongovernmental
organizations, such as World Vision Korea.

"It was awesome to see 10,000 Rotarians gathered in one place to get
energized and educated about reducing child mortality," said Past
District Governor Sang Koo Yun.

Korean President Myung-bak Lee, a Rotarian, and UN Secretary-General Ban
Ki-moon sent video messages to the gathering. Reducing child mortality
is one of the UN's Millennium Development Goals.

"I am heartened that President D.K. Lee and Rotary International have
also taken up this issue," Ban said. "I am sure this will bring the same
energy and dedication as Rotary [has] marshaled in the fight against
polio."

At the end of the event, Rotarians adopted a statement on child
mortality.

A second presidential conference on child mortality will be held in
Singapore on 6 March.

Source: Rotary International News / Courtesy: eFlash_Rotary

3.
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/eFlash_Rotary/message/1495;_ylc=X3oDMTJxOTJsN
WN2BF9TAzk3MzU5NzE1BGdycElkAzI3ODYwNzYEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1MDY0MDg2BG1zZ0lkAzE0O
TUEc2VjA2Rtc2cEc2xrA3Ztc2cEc3RpbWUDMTIyMzc5NzQ0NQ--> 1577: São Paulo
Rotarians help American family in need 

Sat Oct 11, 2008 4:37 pm (PDT) 

São Paulo Rotarians help American family in need By Donna Polydoros
[http://www.rotary.org/SiteCollectionImages/News/buzbee.jpg]
Samantha Buzbee (left) and her mother Carol on Samantha's 18th birthday.
Rotarians in São Paulo, Brazil, came to the Buzbees' aid when
Samantha came down with a serious case of pneumonia. Photo courtesy
Portrait Innovations
Carol Buzbee didn't know a soul in São Paulo, Brazil, when she
arrived by medevac flight with her daughter, stricken by an unknown
illness while volunteering with an international charity.

Buzbee had no Brazilian currency, no visa, no luggage -- and she
couldn't speak a word of Portuguese.

After 48 hours alone in the hospital by her daughter Samantha's bedside,
she was stunned when she received a telephone call from Rotarian Victor
M. Esteves de Moraes, of the Rotary Club of São Paulo, offering to
help her in any way he could.

"Victor came to the hospital that night and handed me Brazilian money.
He took my dirty clothes home to his house to be washed," recalls Carol.

Samantha had been volunteering with Amigos de las Americas in Paraguay
when she became ill. Local doctors were initially unable to diagnose her
illness, and her condition worsened. Shortly after her mother was flown
in from their home in Mantua, Ohio, USA, Samantha was transferred to
Albert Einstein hospital in São Paulo.
Moraes and his wife and children welcomed Carol into their home when the
hospital told her she could no longer spend the night in her daughter's
room.
"Once I knew someone needed help and it was in my reach to do it, I had
to do it. Period," says Moraes.
Helping hands
Dulce Mara Romanin, District 4610 grants subcommittee chairperson, also
stepped in, offering to take Carol out to lunch and to buy clothes and
supplies.

"She looked at me and said, 'Just think of me as an old best friend. Ask
me anything; tell me anything,'" says Carol of Romanin.

Romanin and Moraes learned of the Buzbees' predicament after Samantha's
grandmother, Phyllis Boldon, contacted the Rotary Club of Mantua on the
chance that someone involved with Rotary might be able to help. Pearl
Austin, president of the club, sent an e-mail to four district governors
in São Paulo.

Austin also tracked down a Youth Exchange host family in Ohio that had
students from the São Paulo area. The students called their parents,
who found an English-speaking doctor to visit the Buzbees in the
hospital and reassure them.

Samantha was eventually diagnosed with bacterial pneumonia. Once she was
on the correct antibiotics and her condition improved, she was
discharged, and the Buzbees returned home.

Carol, Samantha, and Phyllis visited the Mantua club to express their
thanks.

"I did so little," says Austin. "It was the Rotarians in Brazil who came
through so beautifully."

Source: Rotary International News / Courtesy: eFlash_Rotary

 

 

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