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Rotary Global History Fellowship

"We live in the present, we dream of the future,

 but we learn from the past."

Discuss this feature at www.rghfforum.org

 

Why I Am A Rotarian

January 10, 2006

 

Every Rotary meeting, I remember my grandfather when I contribute to Polio Plus. My grandfather was born in India over one hundred years ago and contracted polio when he was seven years old. He was crippled for life and was unable to run and play the normal childhood games.

 

          I, too, was born in India, but was lucky enough to move to England at age 6 and was given the newly discovered polio vaccination. I do not know anyone who has contracted polio.  I always think how my grandfather would have been pleasantly surprised to learn that now the scourge of polio has been eliminated in most of the world and that the remaining small pockets may soon be wiped out.

 

We who live in developed countries have been blessed by having the resources and necessary organization to adopt health measures such as polio vaccinations. I believe in Rotary because it gives us an opportunity to share with the billions of people who are less fortunate.

 

I also believe in Rotary’s commitment to Peace through Understanding. As a boy I witnessed the intercommunal rioting that followed the partition of India into the separate countries of India and Pakistan. Up to one million people were killed only because they were of different religions. Understanding was notably lacking, and the lesson that I learned very early on in life was that the more one gets to know other people with different religions and cultures the more difficult it is to see them as the enemy. With its Youth Exchange Program and its Cultural, Ambassadorial and World Peace Scholarships, Rotary has played an important part in bridging the divide between different peoples. I am proud to be part of this activity.

 

Peter Leslie,

Vail Eagle Valley Rotary Club,

District 5470,

COLORADO USA 

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The contents of this website, our electronic features and newsletters have been researched, collected, compiled, and written by Rotarians.

RGHF Mission: As an effort to serve others, RGHF accumulates and preserves the complete history, values and philosophy of the Rotary movement, as well as encourages others to do the same at every level of the Rotary movement, and publishes those histories, values and philosophies on the internet, as well as other forms of media as expedient. 17 March 2003, amended 20 December 2007, Rotary Global History Fellowship Board of Directors.

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