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Local Rotarians welcomed by UN

Local Rotarians welcomed by UN

Photograph: Romantic break for two quickly turns into a Rotary break for 17! What might have been a short romantic trip for Assistant Governor Steve Jenkins, Rotary Club of Cardiff Bay, and his wife to New York quickly turned into a larger trip involving 17 club members being invited to stand in the chamber of […]

Photograph: Romantic break for two quickly turns into a Rotary break for 17!

What might have been a short romantic trip for Assistant Governor Steve Jenkins, Rotary Club of Cardiff Bay, and his wife to New York quickly turned into a larger trip involving 17 club members being invited to stand in the chamber of the United Nations to receive a special welcome from the platform.

Ambassodorial Scholar Tom Lewis takes his seat at the UN – New York

The UN – Rotary Day is an annual event which serves to remind of the enduring link between the two organisations. This year, District 1150’s our 55th outbound Ambassadorial Scholar, Tom Lewis, is studying at Columbia University and while their first Rotary World Peace Fellow, Becky Palmstrom, is based at Human Rights Watch in New York.

To keep it simple and flexible enough to meet everybody’s needs, travellers made our own arrangements, so that some could extend the trip to take in the delights of Boston or to visit friends and relatives. All were booked into the United Nations, partners included; and on Saturday 5th November, the eager team duly joined the queue to enter this amazing institution, which 49 Rotarians helped to establish in 1945.

Falling just a few days after the world population reached 7 billion the conference of nearly 1,200 representatives from 30 countries listened to RI President Elect, Sakuji Tanaka, and the President of the UN Foundation, Timothy Wirth, highlight the dependency of the UN on its strategic relationship with key non-governmental partners such as Rotary.

This was followed by a succession of eminent speakers who provided both a global perspective and some successful Rotary stories, in particular in the context of Haiti and ShelterBox. The challenges facing the world today and in the years to come are set out in the UN Millennium Goals and the Rotary Areas of Focus and are familiar to most Rotarians.

The group from Cardiff Bay, Llantwit Major and Cardiff say this was a great way to visit New York and have been greatly inspired by the experience of visiting the United Nations and the sense that what clubs do locally plays such an important part the world over.

 

Published: 23rd November 2011

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