Rotary's Areas of Focus

Posted by Dave Hall 
 
Last week I chatted a bit about the International Service opportunities that are out there and why, to Rotary, that is so important. I wanted to take some time this week to highlight the areas of focus that currently have the attention of the world's foremost service organization (that's us in Rotary, by the way) and what we're doing to move forward in such vital areas!!
 
The six areas of focus are as follows:
  • Peace and conflict prevention/resolution
  • Disease prevention and treatment
  • Water and sanitation
  • Maternal and child health
  • Basic education and literacy
  • Economic and community development
As you can see, they cover a wide range of issues, but issues of immense and very real importance to people. Disease prevention and treatment; how better can we express our belief and focus on this than through our stand to eradicate polio!!! Water and sanitation; something each of us in this club takes for granted every day, and that we as an organization are committed to bringing to the rest of the world!! Maternal and child health; as with the eradication of polio, it's making sure children have the opportunity for life and growth regardless of where they live. Basic education and literacy; making sure that the children we save by focusing on health and disease prevention have an opportunity to craft a better life. Economic and community development; the putting together of all these steps to craft a better environment for people in which to grow and prosper. And finally, as a culmination of all this work, peace and conflict prevention; none of this will work unless we focus on bringing disputes/conflicts/wars to an end, allowing people to live their lives as they choose without fear of reprisal or attack.

It should be clear now that these are all closely intertwined and you need all of them to succeed I life. Yet there are people in the world who still don't have clean drinking water, who suffer from diseases that are so very simple to prevent given the expertise available in the world today, who never learn to read or write, and miss so very much of the world. WE can make a difference! Through our desire to work hard to fix problems in the world, to work hard to make life better for people, we every day exhibit our organization's motto, "Service Above Self" and it makes me proud to be a part of such an organization and to serve alongside such great people as you!!!!

Have a great week!

Dave