“This honor is from our university, but also from the entire city of L’Aquila,” said Roberto Volpe, vice chancellor, who presented the degree along with Pier Ugo Foscolo, dean of the Faculty of Engineering. “From initiatives such as [Rotary's] we will acquire the hope — actually the certainty — that we will have a future of full economic, civil, and cultural recovery.” During the ceremony, AVIS presented Banerjee with a €50,000 (US$69,300) check to further support the rebuilding effort. Rotarians and AVIS have pledged to raise €3 million (US$4,159,000) total to completely rebuild and reopen the campus.

“The honorary degree I am accepting today is really an honor that is directed not toward me, but toward the organization I represent, Rotary International,” Banerjee noted. “One of the things that Rotary has been very involved with has been the rebuilding of the [Faculty of] Engineering here at the university. And I think you’ve seen for yourselves how Rotary has inspired this community, and brought so many together to make this dream a reality.”

Solving humanitarian problems

The University of L’Aquila also awarded the doctorate in recognition of Banerjee’s work to elevate and affirm the role of engineering in solving humanitarian problems. University officials cited his contributions “in a rapidly evolving society, such as India.”

Banerjee shared some of his background with the audience of university and civic leaders and Rotarians. He explained how, after earning his degree in chemical engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur, he decided to join a relative in a venture that led to the formation of United Phosphorus Limited, now the largest agrochemical manufacturer in India.

“I’ve never regretted going to work for a small company instead of a multinational, and now I can see that bypassing graduate school was the right choice as well. I’m getting my doctorate in the end — even if it did take me 45 years,” he quipped.

Banerjee joined the Rotary Club of Vapi, Gujarat, shortly after the launch of United Phosphorus. The club helped transform Vapi from a town with no substantial infrastructure to a city with medical facilities, schools, and colleges.

“Ultimately, the transformation of the city of Vapi came about because of one simple and, I hope, obvious idea: that we all share responsibility for the well-being of our communities and, ultimately, our world,” he said. “It’s the idea that all of us, as individuals and collectively, are fundamentally responsible for seeing that our world gets, not worse every day, but better.”

Francesco Ottaviano, governor of District 2090, noted the importance of the ceremony to local Rotarians, the town, and the university: “This recognition will be news that will go all around the Rotary world and to more than 200 countries.” ]]> http://www.kalyanbanerjee.com/2011/10/university-of-laquila-honors-banerjee-in-recognition-of-rotarian-led-rebuilding-effort/feed/ 20 http://www.kalyanbanerjee.com/2011/10/as-part-of-district-3140s-efforts-to-promote-rotarys-image-a-full-page-advertisement-was-released-in-the-mid-day-one-of-mumbais-leading-newspapers/ http://www.kalyanbanerjee.com/2011/10/as-part-of-district-3140s-efforts-to-promote-rotarys-image-a-full-page-advertisement-was-released-in-the-mid-day-one-of-mumbais-leading-newspapers/#comments Mon, 17 Oct 2011 09:08:59 +0000 gcwadmin http://www.kalyanbanerjee.com/?p=1060

Email: Pramodjejurikar@yahoo.com Cell: 99224 29475

This Project was developed through the inspiration given by RIP Rtn. Kalyan Banerjee, during his visit to Pune on 12th December 2010 & dedicated to him on 4th July 2011 at Pune in honor of his year as RI President for 2011-12.

Introduction of the Project:

This is a success story of a wonderful project implemented by Rotary International District 3131 for providing quality education at affordable cost through Rotary Distance Education Program. (RDEP).

All of us agree that it is not possible for Government to provide basic infrastructure and schools at all places. Even in the existing schools there are no enough teachers, black boards, benches for children. The world has realized that the Distance Education is the only solution to provide quality education at affordable cost. The online education, use of technology, IT tools, and Broad Band facility are the powerful tools to provide education at remote places.

Under this project, Rotary Clubs installs one RDEP center in each needy school. The center consists of one PC, LCD projector and Educational software designed to provide education from 1st to 10th standard. This software is multilingual and at present available in English and Marathi languages.

How the RDEP works.

• The Rotary club chooses the school to establish the RDEP e learning center.
• The school provides room, benches etc. which is converted into an audio-visual lab.
• The Rotary Distance Education team installs the RDEP center with one computer set, LCD projector or TV & other electrical accessories. At this school. The computer is installed with the educational software which matches with the school syllabus.
• The Program monitor is appointed by the school that is trained by Rotary to operate the software.
• The Rotary club appoints the co coordinator from the club to supervise the project.

Cost of the installation:

The Approx cost of one RDEP center is around Rs. 68,000/- which includes one PC,LCD Projector & software . The cost can be reduced by about 15000/- if LCD TV is used instead of LCD projector for a smaller room for about 25/30 students.

Out of the above cost, 1/3rd cost is to be paid by the school & the 2/3rd is funded by Rotary club & the Rotary District. The total cost varies as per the facilities already available at the school.

Number of Schools completed:

Up till now, Rotary has installed such RDEP centers in more than 200 schools in Pune & Raigad Districts of Maharashtra. About 1,25,000 students are provided education through this program. One hundred teachers have been trained as Program Monitors to implement this program in schools. The total investment in the project by schools, Rotary Clubs & Rotary District is more than Rs.125 Lakhs. The district has initiated one global grant of about USD 40,000/- for this project with Rotary Club in USA. The rest of the money is funded from schools, personal Donations & Rotary club & District grants as explained above.

The Advantages of Rotary Distance Education Program:

• Each lesson in the school is taught by best method.
• All the lessons can be repeated any number of times.
• Examination/Tests are conducted with innovative methods and with use of animations. This creates great interest among the students.
• Evening classes are also run for school drop outs or for working children who cannot attend the day schools.
• Best teaching facilities are now available at remote places.
• The teachers can use this software for self learning
• Now with this RDEP, the students who never use to attend schools daily on one reason or the other are now attending the schools even on Sundays on their own due to interest created by these new teaching methods.

The clubs and the schools have developed enormous interests in this project and there are literally hundreds of teachers and students are visiting our Rotary RDEP centers to see this new concept.
IT companies, Rotarians with IT and educational background, Rotary clubs and the District RDEP team are working together for the success of this project. This project is sustainable, its impact is measurable and it relates to Rotary’s thrust area of focus i.e. “Basic Education and Literacy”

Maintenance :
The entire set up is maintained by a professional company with three years of annual maintenance contract. The cost of first 3 years in included in the package. The software is upgraded periodically to keep pace with the changing in syllabus.

Additional Facilities :
In addition to regular teaching program, the students are provided many other software programs relating to personality development, educational games, aptitude tests etc.

Basic Literacy program:
In addition to above school software , Rotary is also providing excellent software developed for totally illiterate people to develop reading their skills. They attend the school in the evening & develop the reading ability. Thousands of illiterate people can develop reading abilities through this program. A reputed company TCS has provided this software.

Future Plans:

The Rotary will expand this program in next 3 years covering more than 400 schools depending upon availability of funds. We will start the second phase from 1st of July 2011. We wish to conduct a big seminar on Distance Education on 5th September 2011 to mark the Teachers Day. In the third phase all these schools will be net worked with 3G technology to run additional on line programs.

Reactions about RDEP

Views expressed by students, teachers & various people about Rotary Distance Education Program

• We have no enough teachers in our school. This Rotary Distance Education Program is helpful to us to continue teaching with the help of this software.
• The Rotary Distance program is useful for rural areas where there are no enough teachers in the school.
• The students can learn any lesson ,any number of times with this Rotary Program
• We are going to use this Rotary Distance program to run a school in the evening for drop out students & children who cannot attend school in day time.
• The lessons in the software exactly match with regular syllabus so it is more useful to our students
• Our village is a small place & we have no coaching class facility in our area so this Rotary Distance education facility helps us to conduct special extra classes in the evening
• Our teachers also learn from the Rotary Distance Education package about new methods about teaching.
• The RDEP program is getting tremendous response from the schools & we are excited to see such a demand
• This is real Rotary project which creates maximum PR in the community
• The Rotary Distance education Program caters the needs of community about basic Education & Literacy.
• The project is sustainable & its outcome is measurable.
• The IT Companies, Rotary Clubs , Educational Institutes & Rotarians all have come together in this Distance education project & it’s a perfect example of working together for a common cause
• The Rotary Distance education program is making bigger impact on the community
• The distance e3ducation can provide quality education at affordable cost.
• The Rotary Distance Education Program is a perfect example of how technology & IT tools can be used for rural upliftment. & to take quality education at remote places.

View Photos

Times of India, Crest Edition dtd. June 25, 2011

Visit at Pune dtd. 4th July, 2011

Visit at Nagpur dtd. 6th July, 2011

Visit at Vapi dtd. 7th July, 2011

Visit at Delhi dtd. 9th & th July, 2011

Visit at Cochin dtd. 12th July, 2011

Visit at Bangalore dtd. 13th July, 2011

Visit at Chennai dtd. 14th July, 2011

Visit at Calcutta dtd. 15th July, 2011

These accomplishments were much appreciated by the Chief Minister.

Click here to view photos

Kalyan Banerjee, 2011-12 RI President-elect’s

New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

25 May 2011

Good morning and namaskar, as we say in India.

Standing up here before all of you is without a doubt one of the most incredible moments I have had in Rotary. To see all of you, so many people, my brothers and sisters of Rotary, from so many nations, gathered here in New Orleans under the flag of Rotary, is simply amazing. And to have the call to serve as the first among equals in this great organization in the coming Rotary year is also a truly humbling experience.

Some time back, we had a phone call from our granddaughter Tia, who lives in Australia and whom you met just a little while ago. Every week, she and her friends have to tell in school about what is going on at home with their families. Well, apparently when it came her turn to share the family update sometime back, she put up her hand and said, ”My grandpa is going to be the president of the world”.

Strangely enough, her teacher had a hard time believing that. She said, ”He is going to be what? And little Tia absolutely insisted. She said, He is going to be president of the world. I know, because my mummy told me so”. Well, Tia’s teacher phoned up the mother, and after what had happened was explained, peace and calm returned. But today, whenever Tia meets up with me, she can’t resist saying, with her mischievously sweet smile “Hello, President of the World”.

You know, coming into this assignment in Rotary right now, I can tell you that our President Ray, our own Rotary cowboy, is going to be a tough, tough act to follow. But today at least I’ve got the advantage, I think, because if there is anything bigger, better, and bolder than a cowboy, it is a cowboy and an Indian together.

And here in New Orleans, we’ve got a lot of history, and even a lot of Rotary history as well. As I was preparing my remarks, I had a look at the proceedings of the last RI Convention held here, in 1976, when Ernesto Imbassahy de Mello of Brazil was the president of Rotary and Gerald Ford was president of America, which was celebrating its bicentennial. President Ford, who was himself a Rotarian, was to come to address the convention, but at the last moment he had to drop out and be replaced by another speaker, who quoted a valedictory speech given by a young lady at a Mississippi high school, who had said: ”The trouble in America today is not so much the noise of the bad as the silence of the good.”

Well, speaking from a perspective of more than 34 years down the line and also of a somewhat different culture to that of the young lady at the high school, I would agree that it is a problem, but I would not call it a problem that is peculiar to the United States. It’s true, really, all around the world, that we hear much more about what is wrong with the world than about what is right. We notice much more the people who don’t care than the people who do. The people who create trouble rather than the people who get things right.

But here in New Orleans today, we have abundant evidence that there are people who do care – people who are doing what is right – people who are doing good. And let me tell you, the good that you are doing in this world of ours is making a difference.

Let me ask you, if I may: Why are we here today? Indeed, why are we all in Rotary? I believe we are here because we care, and because we see both what’s wrong in the world, and what’s right. And we want to carry forward what’s good, build on it, expand on it, help it grow – while taking a hard look at what needs to be changed in our lives and then doing what we can to change it.

Because at its core, I think, Rotary is about change. It’s about not being content with things as they are. It’s about not going gently into that good night.

A man named David Selbourne, a British social commentator and historian, wrote a little book called Moral Evasion. And in it, he listed 11 reasons why people avoid making moral judgments, why they avoid looking at something and saying, this is not right and we must do something about it. That sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Let me recount a few of those reasons:

• ”There is no quick fix.”
• “There is nothing you can do about it.”
• “The problem is much more complex than you think.”
• “You are focusing on the wrong issue.”
• “It has never been any different.”
• And, of course, the perennial, ”Who are you to talk?”

Well, who indeed are we to talk?

Who are we? We are Rotarians.

We are the doers of our communities, the leaders, the ones who are most involved, who see the problems and have the means to find the solutions. As our strategic plan so elegantly and aptly defines it: We are a worldwide network of inspired individuals who translate their passions into relevant social causes to change lives in communities.

I’m fond of quoting Mahatma Gandhi, who said, ”You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” I believe we are in Rotary to change the world – for why else would we be Rotarians?

We are not here to listen to the naysayers, the doom-mongers, those who say the world can be no better than it is, so why even try to change? We are here because we believe in change. And let me tell you, my brothers and sisters – that change, any real change, has to come from us, starting from within us, from inside each one of us.

Because, if what we want is a world with more kindness, more caring, more joy, and more love – well, if we want all of those things in our world, we have to put them there! ”Where do we find those things?” you ask. Well, I believe we will find them by looking within ourselves. That’s where the search begins.

In order to achieve anything in this world, a person has to use all the resources he or she can draw on. And the only place to start is with ourselves and within ourselves. And the questions we need to ask ourselves are: Why am I here? Why are you here? I believe it is because we all seek a sense of fulfillment in our lives, and to achieve that fulfillment, we have to find harmony between our inner self and the outer self. The inner dimension is our desires, our will, our spirit – and our outer dimension is the action we take and the image we create. That is why I am asking you to reach within and unleash your inner power and then use it to embrace everything and everyone around you.

Go ahead: First reach within yourself, and then move on – confidently, firmly – toward the targets you have set for yourselves. Discover yourself, develop the strengths within you, and then, unhesitatingly, unflinchingly, go forth and encircle the world, to embrace humanity. And that, my brothers and sisters in Rotary, is going to be our theme for the coming year: Reach Within to Embrace Humanity.

How we do this will vary, club to club, culture to culture, country to country. Each of you knows best what your own community needs. But together, around the world, we Rotarians will be guided by three emphases: the family, continuity, and change.

Our first emphasis will be the family. It is our first emphasis because the family is the beginning, the starting point for everything we are trying to accomplish.

The family is the building block of the community, and as the family goes, so goes the nation. If we wish to see a world that is more joyous, we first have to make sure that the families of the world are more joyous, that they have the things they need to be happy, to thrive, and move forward. So we have to look at housing, at clean water and sanitation, at health care, at all the issues affecting mothers and children.

For there to be a strong family, there must first be a strong and safe home – only then can there be health, hope, and harmony within its walls. Indeed, a home is where the family begins.

Back in the year 2001, the state of Gujarat in India, where I come from, had a terrible earthquake, measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale. It occurred on the morning of the 26th of January, the day India celebrates its Republic Day, and at a time when children are usually at their schools, participating in ceremonial flag hoisting and march pasts. Well, the severity of the quake destroyed many towns and killed thousands, many of them schoolchildren attending the morning’s ceremonies.

One day later, I rushed there from Mumbai, 1,100 km away, and visited Anjar, one of the towns worst hit. And as I sat there with the shaken Rotarians, all of them fortunately alive and safe, working out how best we could help people rebuild their homes, in walked a lady – perhaps 65 years of age, carrying a small cloth bundle – who said: ”I hear you Rotarians are planning to rebuild our homes. Well, I have here some money; please use it if you can.” We opened her bundle and counted out 120,000 rupees-that’s about US$2,500 – and thanked her for it. She just said: ”Just use it up. And I’ll try and give you more.”

Four months later, we had the shelters ready — 200 of them built with all the money we had put together. Indeed, much help poured in, from Rotary clubs in Japan, today sadly damaged and recovering from its own quake and tsunami disaster; from the USA; and also from Italy and other parts of the world. The homes were modest but adequate, and as we organized a simple handing over, suddenly there came up from amongst the crowd the lady who had given us her savings. She came up and said: My brothers and sisters, I want to tell you how happy I am today, and I want to thank you Rotarians. You see, I have lived in Anjar all my life with my family. Two years ago, my son and his wife were killed in a bus accident. But I survived the catastrophe, only because of Munni, my granddaughter, who was the light of my life. And then, on the 26th of January, Munni went to her school and never came back. I was devastated. But then, when I heard that you Rotarians were rebuilding our town, I gave you whateverI had saved for going on the Hajj for pilgrimage. After Munni went, I didn’t want to go on the Hajj anymore. And today, you have given me back what I lost with Munni. I don’t need to go to Mecca now.My Mecca is right here.. And then she broke down and wept, and I must confess, so did we.And so, that’s why I say a home is where the family begins.

Our second emphasis will be on continuity, on continuing and strengthening those things we do well. There are so many areas in which we have been successful –working for clean, safe water; spreading literacy; working in so many ways with Generation Next, our youth. And of course, our greatest project, polio eradication — where our success has come slowly, but is no less certain.

As the saying goes, the difficult is done immediately; the impossible takes a little longer. If we want to really achieve the impossible, we have to have not only persistence, but vision – we have to be looking past what we are doing now, at what we can and should be doing in the days and years to come.

And so, our third emphasis in 2011-12 will be change, and we start by being the change we wish to see in the world. If we wish for peace, we start by living in peace ourselves, in our homes and in our communities. If we wish environmental degradation to stop, if we wish to reduce child mortality or to prevent hunger, we must be the instrument of that change — and to recognize that it must start within each of us.

And to bring about these changes, we will need to think in new and different ways, explore new ways of seeing. If we do what we have always done, we will get what we have always got – nothing better, nothing more. This would not satisfy us professionally, and it certainly should not satisfy us in our Rotary service, where the stakes are so much higher.

Past RI President Bill Huntley used to tell the story of the old woodcutter who passed on his much-used ax to his son before retiring, saying: \Son, this is the ax that our family has used for generations. And except for eight new handles and 12 new blades, it is the same ax I and your forefathers have always used. It is now yours. Rotary is a bit like that, isn’t it? As we explore Generation Next in our new fifth Avenue of Service, as we focus on our strategic plan and Future Vision, I believe it is time for us to move into a future-forward mode- not just in the next year but in the next decade and beyond. These are exciting times, changing times, and times when we keep our feet firmly on the ground, anchored in our core values, but look beyond the far horizon. And as our Generation Next connects through Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and iPhones, I believe the time has come to join hands, urge them forward, and go ahead developing our own Rotary social network, as we hope to do in the coming months.

Yes, my brothers and sisters in Rotary, the time has come for us to change- change from our pallor of gray and go green, to embrace our new generation of newer, younger members. They are all out there waiting to come in, and we need to open our doors and give them space. And I don’t know how you feel, but I have always believed that the younger generation of today is perhaps more committed to the ideas of service and friendship than many of us were at that age. And we must understand the reality of the new generation of Rotary and help them balance expectations with realities. They are under pressure constantly, being involved in multiple endeavors, and yet have a strong  work-life balance.

And I understand too that even though they may be constantly on call with their careers and managing multiple responsibilities, they are as dedicated and passionate about being a Rotarian as you and I are.

On a recent visit to Myanmar to look at the possibility of Rotary’s return to that lovely country, I was out dining with a local person from big business. And he told me about his son who had done his MBA at a top university here in the USA, got himself a job with a five-figure salary, but after two years gave it up to join an NGO [nongovernmental organization] engaged in spreading literacy in countries in South Asia, with a 75 percent salary cut . but a 100 percent enhancement of job satisfaction. Oh yes, they are all there, future and potential Rotarians, but we have to tell them our story, the story of Rotary. We need to work harder on our public image, we need to tell them who we are, what we do, and what we stand for. And the time to do it is now.

Let me ask you a question: What does each one of us seek in life? I bet the word is happiness. Now let me ask you: Could Rotary be the source for that happiness? The law of duality affects human lives, yours and mine: Where there is joy, there is sorrow; with positive, we see negative; with heat, there is cold;with light, there is darkness. Yes, with love, there is hatred. Only if we could find a balance, we could probably seek the emotional situation that we call happiness. I submit that this equilibrium is present within each one of us. As a well-known Sufi poet and scholar in the 13th century said: \Inside me there is good news. Others look for good news outside themselves.. There dwells within you the power and the spirit that can evoke the energy that you may not realize. You have to reach that inner voice, and you can do so provided you have the hunger for it. You have to be hungry enough to reach within and release the energy which will help you embrace humanity. I believe this is the state, the equilibrium, we call happiness. And I have just given you the prescription for it. Rotary can help you achieve the happiness in life that you seek.

I had started this morning by referring to a speaker at the last convention in New Orleans, and I would like to close today by remembering something he said that morning, because that is the way I feel too.My fondest wish for you, he said, is that at the end of the day, each day, you can look back and think: “I wrote a little line today in the history of good.“ Some days, you might write a paragraph in the history of good. There might be a day once when you could write a whole chapter in the history of good. I think that’s what motivates Rotary. I think that is indeed what motivates men and women of goodwill every place on the face of the earth.

Indeed it does. And so, as you go back from this convention, perhaps today, maybe tomorrow, as you go back to your homes and to the countries you have come from, as you go back to Japan, as you go back to England, as you go back to India, as you go back to Brazil, and as you go back to South Africa and Australia and all the other great countries of the world of Rotary, go and tell your clubs and your communities that you are ready to take on the challenges that face us today, the challenges of distrust, of fear, of intolerance, of helplessness, of violence, and that the Rotarians are ready to go and work .with hope, with enthusiasm, with courage, and with vision . and to stand firm and strong and tall like Mount Everest, firm in our purpose to spread love and happiness and to work for peace.

My wife, Binota, and I look forward to the privilege of joining hands with each one of you as you Reach Within to Embrace Humanity, and continue to write the history of the good.

Thank you.

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Welcoming the participants, Chairman Deepak Kapur remarked that the battlewas half wo, with the graph of Polio cases down to the lowest mark in the history of the campaign.He added that the new leaders will create history by hosting the victory flag by eradicating Polio Virus from the country. Trustee RF Ashok Mahajan called on incoming Rotary leaders to give their best so that the sweat of millions of Government health workers and volunteers of partner agencies who have worked for two decades will not be wasted
Admiring the amount of work done by Rotary, PRIP Raja Saboo said that Rotary is not just a partner in Polio eradication campaign but is the Principal Partner who had initiated the campaign at the global level He advised Rotarians of India especially from Polio-free states to remain careful before any situation like Murshidabad or Malegaon emerges.

PRIP Wilfrid Wilkinson praised the work done by health workers and volunteers of Uttar Pradesh where no Polio case has been reported since last 1 year. Praising the efforts of Rotarians across the globe, he said, “I remember the dedication of Rotarians when the campaign was launched and year after year Rotarians are working to increase immunization coverage of polio vaccine. I have traveled in trains and buses to reach the masses. I have also been to slums in Delhi urging parents to bring their children during immunization. India is full of challenges for such a campaign and if we can replicate in all India the success gained by overcoming the challenges in U.P., polio can surely be eradicated from India.”

Dealing with the technical aspects of the campaign, Dr. Hamid Jafari of WHO in his presentation “Polio virus knows no boundary” described how the virus has travelled from one part of the globe to another, increasing the eradication challenge manifold. He added “Reports show that children of migrant parents miss vaccination as compared to other children because of their movement. And to eliminate this dangerous disease it becomes very important to cover this migrant population spread across the country.”

Rotary International’s incoming President Kalyan Banerjee during his speech praised National Committee Members and other Rotary leaders for successfully bringing the number of polio cases down to a historic low level. He said, “Initiatives taken by Rotary, providing cellular phones to village volunteers in UP, engaging Muslim Ulema Committee in Lucknow, approaching Health Ministry in Punjab and reaching to Chief Minister of Bihar to accelerate the campaign in this decisive year has produced fruitful results for the campaign.” Addressing the new Rotary leaders who will take charge simultaneously with him, he added, “In this decisive year of campaign I need your passionate support for the campaign”.

During the concluding session on the second day of the event, President-elect Inner Wheels India Chair ,Dr. Vina Vyas said that women power can play a very important role in convincing the female folk of families who resist Polio vaccine because of rumours. She further added that two of the ten goals given by her for Inner Wheel clubs can help in eradicating Polio from India. “One of which is adoption of a village by Inner Wheel club to provide basic health facility in that village and second one is conducting Women Development Programme which provide knowledge of good parenting and healthy sanitation practices in villages,” she added emphatically.

Speaking on the occasion; Rod Curtis, Communication for Development Specialist,UNICEF, thanked Rotarians for their valuable contribution in strengthening social mobilization and advocacy aspect of the campaign. “UNICEF is working to sustain and increase high level of community and political ownership of Polio Eradication Campaign. We are also working to reduce missed children particularly in High Risk Groups for Polio spread,” he added.

RIDE Shekhar Mehta called on DG’s to make area specific strategy for their respective regions for the coming year. He also called on Rotarians to do everything possible for the campaign and give their best to make sure that Polio virus doesn’t emerge again in India. In his speech, RIDE Y. P. Das emphasizing the importance of commitment to the cause whole heartedly at this stage of the campaign urged Rotarians to work selflessly for the benefit of millions without caring about credit.

Also, during the meet NCM Manjit Sawhney was recognized for his leadership in implementing the strategy of Rotary’s Polio Campaign in Western Uttar Pradesh.

The Rotary Foundation and Rotary International’s INPPC honors Ms. Rajashree Birla

At a special function hosted by The Rotary Foundation and Rotary International’s INPPC on April 26, 2011 at Hotel Taj Mansingh, New Delhi ,Ms. Rajashree Birla was honored on her being awarded the Padma Bhushan by the Government of India.

Ms. Rajashree Birla, has contributed more than USD 4.5 million to Rotary towards eradication of Polio.

Dignitaries of Rotary; RIPE Kalyan Banerjee, PRIPs Rajendra K. Saboo & Wilfrid J. Wilkinson, Trustee RF Ashok Mahajan, DGs & DPPCs (2011-12) and other Rotary leaders from India were present to mark the event. The function was presided over by Mr.Deepak Kapur, Chair, Rotary’s INPPC.

RIPE Kalyan Banerjee, conveying his hearty congratulations to Smt. Rajashree Birla for her outstanding work said, “Smt. Birla, by contributing to Rotary and other social causes, you have led the way for Business leaders in the society. You are the pride of our country and we Rotarians are honored to have you here with us today.”

Trustee RF Ashok Mahajan spoke of Smt. Birla’s tireless efforts in Corporate Social Responsibility which have left an indelible impression on the corporate leaders in India. “Smt. Birla has always been a great moral support for Rotary in India. She has been financially contributing not only towards Rotary’s goal of Polio eradication but also for numerous social causes”, said PRIP Raja Saboo. During his address, PRIP Wilfrid J. Wilkinson said that it is because of generous contribution from corporate houses across the world, Rotary has reached so far in raising funds for the Gates Challenge Grant. “I believe that contribution by Smt. Birla will inspire more corporate leaders to come forward and contribute for the campaign,” he added.

Responding to the citation presented by the Rotary Leaders, present at the occasion Smt Birla said, ”I am so closely associated with Rotary which is no less than a family to me and today this honour has further strengthened the feeling of belongingness that I share with Rotary,” She added,”I am a mother and being a mother I would always wish a healthy life for my children and so does every mother. I would like to congratulate National PolioPlus Committee for the remarkable effort in bringing down the number of polio cases to 42 in 2010.

Smt. Birla was awarded with the Padma Bhushan, India’s third highest civilian award, on January 26 2011 by Her Excellency, President of India, Pratibha Patil in recognition of her exemplary social and humanitarian service to the underprivileged in the country.

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