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By Iheanyi Chukwudi
Nigerians especially the well-to-do in the society, has been called upon to see the need to involve in community service, to alleviate the sufferings of the masses.
The District Governor, Rotary International, District 9142 Nigeria, Rotarian Akan Emah, who made the call said the present situation of things has made it imperative for the rich to engage in community service.
Emah, who spoke in Enugu during The Rotary Foundation Seminar/Dinner ’23, tagged “The Coal City Xperience,” held at Hotel Sylvia, Independent Layout, said that because government would not do everything, it was only reasonable that the well-to-do in the society join organizations lie Rotary International to reach out to the communities.
He therefore, appealed to the people to make giving their life style so as to add value to their communities and lift them higher than they met them.
Rotary International, District 9142 Nigeria, consist of all the Rotary Clubs in the five South Eastern states and two South South states of Akwa Ibom and Cross River.
The Rotary DG said, “We come from a community where many people don’t understand the importance of community service, people believe what is in there for me not what can I do to add value to that community, so that is a great challenge for us in our society, in our community, but we are gradually overcoming it. We need more members, we need more contributions for our projects because government cannot do it alone.”
Speaking on the Rotary Foundation, Emah said, “Basically, we are trying to appraise our impact to our communities. Rotary has a foundation known as Rotary Foundation and so we came to appraise our Foundation, our giving so far, see how our Foundation is impacting upon our communities and what Rotarians are doing to ensure that their giving is increased every other time to the Foundation."
“I need you to know that it is funds from the Foundation that Rotary has used from 1983 to fund polio immunization globally. And so every year we have partners like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation who marches every dollar we give with two dollars.
And so we need to look at our polio eradication initiatives because even though Nigeria has been certified polio free, we still have to observe national immunization rounds so that no child will be infected any longer.
“And then we still have polio in countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan that we need to make contributions to, so that is basically what we come to do, to appraise and celebrate our Foundation. So we have a dinner ceremony here.”
On performance of the District, the District Governor said, “We are not doing too bad considering the challenges of the exchange rate, Rotary has a different exchange rate and we noticed that our exchange rate was three hundred and forty something naira to a dollar and so when we began the Rotary year by July 1, it shut to 700 and almost 790 naira and this came with a lot of pressure on Rotarians. So we are not doing badly as a District considering the pressures of life.
“The truth is that giving is a life style, giving is an attitude, so Rotarians are people who have a life style of giving, of adding value to their community and ensuring that they left the community better than what they have found it, that’s the beauty of Rotarians and Rotary.”
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