Attending the RI Convention in Birmingham last week with PP Ghislain, has given me quite a different and a much broader perspective of Rotary. Through the Convention, I realised, how privileged we are indeed, to be part of Rotary. But with this privilege comes responsibility, the responsibility towards our fellow Rotarians, our Club, our community and fellow citizens and towards Rotary International. Being a Rotarian means that in a certain way, life has been kind to us and we must in return serve the ideal of Rotary and give back to the community, especially to those who are less privileged than we are. While there is no doubt that the needs of the community, in a developing country like ours, are significant, we on the other hand, collectively possess the means to make a difference somewhere and somehow, in the lives of our fellow citizens in need. We have either or all of such abilities as managerial competencies, technical knowhow, intellectual capacity, financial resources or a rich network which can be tapped to serve the ideal of service. However, the reality remains that we never seem to have enough time to dedicate to service and this is the biggest challenge of our club as of any other service club. The success of a club is not the success of a person but of all it’s members and similarly the failure of a club is not the failure of one person but that of all it’s members. President Kenny has chosen a broad theme to ensure that not only the ideals of service in the focus areas of Hunger, Health, Water and Literacy, are served but also to ensure that the cause of Rotary International itself is better served. Already our Incoming director of projects, PP Kirk, has set the pace for a challenging theme for our club for this year…the theme as most of you know, is Phoenix Ville Durable. With the help of all members we look forward to establish projects under the four avenues of Service, to take the Future of Rotary in our hands and make Phoenix Ville Durable a reality…certainly not in one year but through the years to come.

Together we’ll do it.

Vishwanee Lingachetti
President