Rotary international president to visit Jamaica

Jamaica is to play host to newly installed president of Rotary International, Barry Rassin, who will visit the island this weekend.

Rassin and his wife, the First Lady of Rotary, Esther Rassin, will be in the country for the installation of Dr Patrick Adizua of the Rotary of Club of Mandeville, who is to be installed as District Governor of Rotary's District 7020, the 10th Jamaican to rise to that position in the history of 7020.

District 7020 is home to more than 80 Rotary clubs from some 10 island states in the Caribbean, which includes Jamaica, The Bahamas, Haiti, the Cayman Islands, and the Turks and Caicos Islands.

The installation ceremony will take place at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel on Saturday.

In support of Rotary International's theme for the Rotary Year 'Be the Inspiration', District 7020 will focus its activities for the year on the motif 'Share your Love for Rotary' as it seeks to win youth and also encourage and strengthen diversity.

Rotary, which has some 1.2 million members globally, is the world's largest service organi-sation. It supports human development by implementing projects and initiatives that improve: water and sanitation; disease prevention and treatment; maternal and child health; basic education and literacy; and economic and community development.

Since 1979, Rotary Interna-tional has been keenly focused on the eradication of polio-myelitis, which has been eradicated 99.9 per cent globally. With the support of partners, such as the United Nations, some 2.5 billion children have been vaccinated in 122 countries against the debilitating and deadly disease, which has mainly affected children. Polio was eradicated in Jamaica in the 1980s.

THE HANWASH PROJECT

Under Rassin's leadership, Rotary International will this year pay specific attention to water access in Haiti, through the HANWASH project, while, at the same, seeking to bring an end to polio. Water is the main vector through which polio is transmitted. The disease remains a problem in war-torn Syria, Pakistan, and recently re-emerged in Papua New Guinea, Nigeria and Venezuela.

Because of inadequate sources of clean water in Haiti, Rassin said potable supplies are restricted in towns and cities across the country at specific hours of the day.

Rassin, a Bahamian, is the first Rotary International president to emerge from District 7020 in the more than 100-year-old Rotary International. He said that under his leadership, Rotary will maintain its focus on sustainable projects that make a difference in the lives of people around the world.

"Together, we see a world where people unite and take action to make lasting change across the globe, in our communities and in ourselves," he said, quoting the Rotary International vision statement. "We take action because we are not just thinkers and dreamers, we are doers."