Speakers Rudi and Gaynor

Posted by Gaynor Schols

SPEAKERS:

Gaynor and Rudi Schols told us about their trip to South Korea and the 107th Rotary International Convention, in Seoul

The highlights of the Convention included:

The changeover of RI Presidents from KR Ravindran (Sri Lanka) to John F Germ (Chattanooga, Tennessee). President John's theme for 2016/17 will be "Rotary Serving Humanity".

The President Elect is Ian Risely, from the Rotary Club off Sandringham, Victoria, Australia.

The next International Convention will be in Atlanta, Georgia from 10-14 June 2017. To register click on http://www.rotaryconvention2017.org

Gaynor highlighted two of the convention talks in particular:

1. "Until All are Free: How to End Slavery in Our Lifetime", Gary Haugen, CEO of International Justice Mission (IJM) -

There are an estimated 46 million slaves in 167 countries. That's three times the number taken from Africa during 400 years of Atlantic slave trading.
4 Billion people live outside the protection of the law - police, courts and laws are broken, corrupt and dysfunctional so there is nothing to shield poor people from violence.
IJM partner with local authorities to rescue victims, bring criminals to justice, restore survivors and strengthen justice systems.

There is a ROTARY ACTION GROUP AGAINST CHILD SLAVERY (RACSRAG). For further information please go to www.racsrag.org or contact Gaynor for a newsletter.

2. "The End of Orphanages: Another Milestone in the making for Rotary International" - Mark Waddington, CEO, Hope and Home for Children -

The vision is a world in which children no longer suffer institutional care
It is a proven fact that every 3 months spent in an institution before the age of 3 stunts a child's growth by one month
In the last year Hope and Home have closed 18 orphanages, freeing 1,429 children
and placing them in families.
They have trained 3,576 volunteers and professionals to support 160,000 children in vulnerable families.

Rudi also updated us on Polio Eradication, for which Rotary has pledged another US$35 million:

Polio Type 2 has been eradicated from the world
There have only been 16 cases of Wild Polio Virus Type 1 in 2016
Only 2 countries remain endemic, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Nigeria has not had a case since August 2014.

Videos of all the Convention presentations are available at the "My Rotary" website