Rotary Moment 6/7/23
The Rotary International Convention was held in Melbourne, Australia in May. The convention was organized around this year’s theme “Imagine Rotary” and attendees participated in sessions that focused on promoting peace, protecting the environment, and eradicating polio. Next year’s convention will be held in Singapore and will revolve around the 23-24 theme “Sharing Hope With the World”.
At the convention, Rotary International President, Jennifer Jones, announced the recipient of the third annual Programs of Scale award. This year’s recipient is United to End Cervical Cancer in Egypt, an initiative to reduce the number of cases while raising awareness and improving women’s access to preventive care. The four-year program in and around Cairo will vaccinate more than 30,000 girls ages 9-15, provide cancer screenings for 10,000 women, and launch a public awareness campaign to reach 4 million people.
Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter Gaby Morena performed at the convention. She also traveled to Guatemala with Rotary International President Jennifer Jones as part of Jones’ Imagine Impact Tour. Their trip to Guatemala included visits to the schools supported by The Guatemala Literacy Project (GLP). The GLP is one of the largest grassroots, multi-club, multi-district projects in Rotary. The focus is to improve education for underserved students in Guatemala. To date the program has served more than 278,000 students.