Articles from the Rotary Year 2013-2014

Flooding on the Somerset Levels

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Letter of Thanks - Somerset County Council

Letter of Thanks - Sedgemoor District Council

Polio - the good and the bad

(Update March 2014)

The great news is that, not only has India been declared Polio-Free having had no case of polio for well over three years, but the whole of the South East Asian Region is now officially polio-free as well.  Something we thought would never happen.

There is even better news as well because there have been no new cases this year in the epidemic areas of the Horn of Africa and Syria.

Add to this the fact that there has only been one case in the whole of Nigeria, and only four (imported) in Afghanistan, and we are well on target to see the last case in the world this year.

However, the North West Frontier area of Pakistan is almost a no-go area and it is here also that some workers have been shot while trying to reach the children.  Because many thousands of children have not received any vaccine we are sitting on a time-bomb and we are worried that, unless we can clear this reservoir of the virus, there will be more cases, and more spread.

The cases in Syria and Afghanistan have all come from this area of Pakistan, and Pakistan has now had over forty cases this year.  A very worrying trend.  If we cannot get in and immunise the children, the polio virus will find them instead.

There is a small outbreak in Cameroon and Guinea but WHO and UNICEF are  working wonders to get National Immunisation Days organised.

Out breaks are not the real problem - they can be combated.  The problem is the reservoirs of the wild polio virus in Pakistan and also in Nigeria.

Keith Barnard-Jones
(Polio Plus sub-committee Chairman)

General News Items

• RIBI President's Visit to District 1200 - Apr 2014
• RIBI Environmental Group Newsletter - Apr 2014
  

Update (Feb 2013)

We need to keep up the pressure, and that includes contributing, so hopefully, in February you have plans to do so. It is after all our ‘birthday’ on the 23rd. Also check out http://www.endpolio.org and you can read a section of the text of the Bill Gate’s (Dimbleby) lecture here:

“The question is no longer, “How many children are there and where might we go to find themall?” It is now, “How do we most efficiently vaccinate every child on this map?”

Innovations like this are a key reason for my optimism. But innovation has no moral valence by itself. It is not inherently good or bad, just irresistibly transformative. To make sure innovation transforms our world in positive ways, human beings need to point it in the right direction. That takes “public will.”

Many organizations helped push the eradication resolution through the World Health Assembly, but the one you wouldn’t expect is Rotary International. Rotary is a service organization with 1.2 million members in almost every country in the world, including more than 50,000 in Great Britain and Ireland.

Rotarians pledge to put service above self, their motto, but they have no specific global health mandate. They are not polio experts. They are regular people who go to work and spend time with their families. For three decades, they have also spent time advocating for polio eradication, raising money to support vaccination, and giving kids polio drops all over the world.

Other partners include the Centres for Disease Control, UNICEF, and the World Health Organization. We rely on them to excel at their jobs. But that is not enough. We also need people whose jobs have nothing to do with the health of poor people to act. That is public will.”

Rotary beats $200m polio fundraising target (Jan 2012)

The fundraising milestone was reached in response to a USD$355 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, set in 2007, which would be given if Rotary had raised USD$200m by June this year. All funds have been earmarked to support polio immunisation activities in affected countries where this vaccine-preventable disease continues to paralyse children.

In addition to delivering the promised USD$355m challenge, an additional USD$50m from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is being committed to the global fight against polio. This brings the total funding to USD$610m for polio eradication.

Rotary members not only reached into their own pockets to support the challenge, they engaged their communities in a variety of creative fundraising projects, such as Thanks for Life and other community based events.

RIBI President Burman said: "Raising this incredible amount is thanks to the support of our communities. Rotary is very much part of the community and seeks to support it but we also need the community to support us and I would like to say thank you to everyone who has helped to stop polio. Every time someone donates to Rotary's End Polio Now campaign, we take another step closer to saying goodbye to the disease and saving children from a lifetime of crippling pain."

Since 1988, the incidence of polio has plummeted by more than 99 percent, from about 350,000 infections annually to fewer than 650 cases reported so far for 2011. The wild poliovirus now remains endemic, meaning its transmission has never been stopped, in only four countries: Afghanistan, India, Nigeria, and Pakistan. However, India on January 13th this year marked a full calendar year without a case, paving the way for its possible removal from the endemic list.

Other countries remain at risk for polio cases imported from the endemic countries. In Africa in 2011, Chad and the Democratic Republic of Congo had significant outbreaks. Also in 2011, a small cluster of polio cases in China, which had been polio-free for a decade, was attributable to a virus from Pakistan.

Circa 1200 News

The District Communications team are delighted to bring you the Circa 1200 News service, hosted on the Rotary website at www.rotaryd1200.co.uk.  (Direct link www.rotaryd1200.co.uk/Circa/ )

This is a news service in a weblog (BLOG) format, allowing the posting of Rotary-related material including pictures of newsworthy events from Rotary clubs in District 1200 to reach a wider and more diverse audience; being available to the public as well as all Rotarians.  All Rotary District 1200 members can register, login and contribute postings of news about recent and up-coming events, international activities, fundraising, community service and anecdotes about Rotarians serving, and enjoying the fellowship, in their clubs.  We are hoping that not only will club Webmasters and Public Relations Officers use this facility to promote their news, their charities and their good works but also that the District Officers and Teams plus the Executive will use it as an information highway, in conjunction with the District Website, to get news out to all our members.

There are safeguards in place: if, in a posting, there is information provided for a more selective audience then access to articles can be password controlled, also all postings are moderated (unless posted by a moderator) to prevent anything from being posted which is unwisely composed or unfortunately phrased.

The Communications team are also inputting news and information from around the District, with access instructions and other information available from the main District website, within the Circa Section in the Communications, Marketing and PR action group section of the website. ( Direct Link:  http://www.rotaryribi.org/districts/committeedetails.php?DistrictNo=1200&DistSubCtteeID=2163 )

This is the new model for the dissemination of news in our District; the format is stimulating and colourful via an immediate, same-day, service whilst providing a historical resource which can be keyword searched from an internet enabled PC near you.

A recording of the entire 'An Audience with the Presidents', which was webcast live from Birmingham during the RIBI Assembly, can be viewed here

Membership magic - great new marketing tool

Have a look at this very emotional new video (login required)

http://www.ribi.org/restricted/membership-marketing/join-rotary-video

Also available are the powerful new Make a World of Difference DVDs: now in the online RIBI Shop. Click here for a preview, but place your order here... and show your potential new members why they should join Rotary.

Bivalent oral polio vaccine delivers powerful blow.  Read this article for terrific news on polio eradication - click here   

Rotary Today - Online

It appears that many people don't realise that Rotary Today (current and past editions going back to 2008) is available to view online here. This is particularly relevant to those members wanting to get all the information about the Dublin Conference and the Annual Report, Accounts and Resolutions for the Business Meeting on the Saturday, all of which are published in the current edition.

Promoting Your News 

Do send to the District Webmaster your news and events, so we can assist in promoting and publicizing them.  Exciting things are happening throughout the District and we look forward to helping you make a difference. 

New Rules for Some Youth Activities

New rulings now added in the Youth Activities Section.  Check them out for Youth Speaks, Young Photographer and Young Writer.  

The Monthly Mailings

These are now accessed on-line in the Secretary's portion of the Administration Section.

Rotarians have been serving communities in this area for over 85 years.  
Please explore our website and if you would like to get in touch with someone in District 1200, please use the contact form provided.

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