The Vision of a Mission for US and African Rotarians -

 

Obvious Needs, Resources and Issues:   A few random thoughts/points that seem to draw me to this vision:

 

  1. Future Rotary international service will be significant in Africa.  Increasingly over the next few decades Africa will become one of the major points of focus for international service.   Needs for basic necessities are great in Africa with many of the poorest countries in the world located on this continent.

 

  1. Cultural Differences.  Cultural differences between this continent and the developed western world are extreme.

 

  1. Single Service Projects Fall Short.  Although we have engaged in many projects trying to meet a given need for communities around the world, increasingly we are becoming aware of the need to address the issues of poverty from a holistic approach rather than one need at a time:  An approach that would attempt to meet many of the basic necessities simultaneously rather than one at a time.  The building of world peace is dependent on both understanding the cultural differences and helping meet many of these basic necessities simultaneously for the people living in this region of the world. 

 

  1. TRF Program Knowledge Inadequate.  From a Rotary perspective Africa is not known as a region that is well informed on the programs of the Rotary Foundation.  Knowledge of and therefore ability to benefit from the program grants is limited to just a few Rotarians.  This effectively concentrates the power in just a few hands, and more often then not means that only isolated regions or countries benefit from the programs of TRF while a vast majority of the African Rotarians fails to fully utilize TRF programs that are available. 

 

  1. US Rotary Leadership Doesn’t Always Really Get it.  For many of us we think we understand and feel the need without ever seeing it.  As one that has been on both sides, believe me the value of a current or future Rotary leader traveling to developing countries to see the need is immeasurable.  How can we honestly be proud of giving only $100 per year?  We need as many future US Rotary District leaders as possible to “get it” before they even start down the path of leading.

 

  1. We Need to Take Advantage of Polio Eradication Efforts.  During our Polio Eradication efforts we have developed a taste for large scale success, developed certain skills, obtained international respect together with fund development abilities at the highest levels of government and enhanced our network of connections and willingness to work with other service oriented, non-government organizations.  These assets should be utilized.

 

  1. Diverse Desires and Talents for Service.  Finally, international service by Rotarians has been somewhat successful in developing by district or club individual service delivery methods resulting in diverse passion for service.  Matching grants and other activity has resulted in pockets of passionate Rotarians focused on addressing one need, such as providing safe water, literacy, meeting medical needs, etc.  In addition this has resulted in certain districts or clubs becoming somewhat skilled at providing service to meet one or two basic needs, but not meeting all of a developing communities needs.  (As an example my district’s Haiti Safe Water Plus project has resulted in an increased skill at delivery of safe water and sanitation assistance).

 

In light of the above there appears to be a significant need for the following:

 

1.                  Increasing cultural understanding.

2.                  Developing an informal multi-leveled leadership network of connections between districts and zones in both the US and Africa.

3.                  Increasing the knowledge and awareness of TRF programs available for use by the African Rotarians and available for US Rotarians to participate in.

4.                  Fostering the use of both the shorter term benefits of the humanitarian grant programs and the longer term benefits of the educational grant programs.

5.                  Developing a model for delivering  in unison basic necessities to a larger area with single service delivery expertise by individual districts being combined to meet many if not all of the basic needs in that larger area.

6.                  Increasing the utilization of partnerships to enhance the effectiveness of all of our efforts.

 

 

The Beginning - A short trip to start us down a long path.  I suggest a trip of 10-12 days visiting Nigeria and a few surrounding countries or Rotary Districts.  A team of 10-15 would travel together to Nigeria and spend approximately 4 days together getting oriented and meeting a few key Nigerian Rotarians.  We would then divide up into smaller groups of 2-3 people and each travel to a different Rotary District to expand and develop further connections with African Rotarians.  The team should foster the ideals of true partnership with current and future leaders from several districts and TRF staff involved as part of the team.

 

Purpose of first trip:

 

  1. Develop connections with Rotarians in Africa.
  2. Start developing future leaders among US Rotarians – seeing the need, beginning the process of understanding the complexities
  3. Creating cultural understanding
  4. Looking at areas/projects as pilot sites for small scale testing of model.

 

The Long Term Goal  I am an incurable dreamer and I like many in Rotary have started to pick up on the same general dream.  I dream of a world where every child that comes into this world is born with real hope and opportunity.  The child would be born into a home with a solid floor and a roof over head made of tin or better.  I dream that when the child is thirsty a fresh, safe glass of water would be readily available.   A world where every child can go to school, and while there can count on eating a meal of substance.  In this dream world when the child becomes ill a medical clinic is nearby with healing help.  In addition the child is born into a community where employment is available with sustainable economic development a reality due to micro-business opportunities.  Finally, if the child has special drive and talent, there must be opportunity for that child to develop and learn far beyond the basics – a chance to attend a quality institution of higher learning.

 

I find it increasingly more difficult to sit by and live in our world without trying to make this dream world the real world.  We need to start developing a Rotary model that can serve as a starting point in many communities around the world.  Over the next 20 years we need to develop this model as the main option for international service by Rotarians.  During the 20 years through planning, experiment and team work we should develop the model, implement it on a large scale and demonstrate that it is feasible.  The model would have several Rotary districts and a few key partners each taking one of the components or working together on a few of the components. 

 

Primary goal – successfully create a model for holistic assistance to a well defined region of the world that is in need of these basic components for living.   The model would be sustainable both environmentally and economically and include the following basic components:

 

1.                  Safe water.

2.                  Medical service.

3.                  Education for all through at least grade six.

4.                  Food aid at school so no child goes hungry.

5.                  Low income housing.

6.                  Micro business assistance.

7.                  Higher education options.

 

Rotary is in a unique position to help make this happen.  The reasons include:

 

-           Rotarians already have separately developed models for fund raising and implementing each of these seven components through matching grants, low income scholarships, 3H and other grant experience.

-           Rotary is well respected among other non-profits and NGO’s allowing partnering to help assure success and tap local contacts for reliability.

-           Rotary has members in the developing countries that can help with assessing local needs, monitoring the project, assisting with local governmental influence and engaging in hands on work

-           Through the polio eradication experience Rotary has gained tremendous respect among the governments of the world.  This experience also helped developed governmental contacts to assure developing country governments will cooperate with and support the project.

-           Similarly, the polio eradication experience has development governmental contacts with developed countries that may provide additional funding.

-           Partnering with several Rotary districts each individually developing expertise in each of these components will assure efficient and effective implementation of the model.