Dear friends:
Traditionally in April in Rotary we celebrate Mother and Child Health month.
As you know, one of Rotary’s priorities is to provide access to quality health care for mothers and children in vulnerable situations, so that they can grow up healthy and hope for a dignified life. Rotary’s commitment means that we are working together to try to give this opportunity to some of the nearly six million children around the world who die every year before their fifth birthday due to malnutrition, lack of medical care or lack of sanitation. If this figure is frightening, imagine that all of this could be avoided, but…. but how can we help to prevent this from happening?
You know that Rotary’s programmes, through the Rotary Foundation, focused on this area are supported by the projects that can be carried out thanks to its funds. Without those funds no help is possible. I know that this year we have problems at home that make us look more to our immediate environment than to global problems. This only leads to more and more precariousness. This year we also have to help our Rotary Foundation so that these mothers and children can have a future. We are generous and I do not need to remind you of the need of others, you already perceive it, now you only need to take the action that moves you to make a donation, however small it may be, that allows us to give hope of life for them.
I would like to quote the words of our president Holger Knaack to The Rotarian:
“It takes a long time, or a lot of money, to change your image in this world. Two things are important: you have to know that it takes time, and then you have to be honest. It is not for marketing reasons that we have to change. We have to tell a real story of why we are doing things. To really be part of Rotary, you have to be proud of the organisation and we have to be proud of our work. It’s not about what you’re doing. That’s selfishness.”
I tell you that with each passing day of this Rotary year I feel prouder that we have all become more adaptive, more caring, more supportive, more understanding people and we contribute our energy to making possible those changes that make for a better life. Being a Rotarian is a source of pride, I keep telling you, but not because it is a learned mantra. It is the realisation of the wonderful people who are involved in this fantastic organisation called Rotary International.
We are an motor of life in every project we start, in every step we take in our daily work. We have made values our banner and I am happy to be the flag bearer in a year like this: where the best of us has come to the fore.
To be Governor in times like these is the best thing that could happen to me in my Rotary life. Never a better stage than this, never a better play than our work, never a better cast mate than you. We are working to make the Rotary of the 21st Century vibrate with emotion, this Rotary that is all of you and that has already deeply marked the sensations in our hearts, that has brought us to reflection, to dialogue, to debate, to conclusions of the needs for change and adaptation that are essential for us to continue to have the future that Rotary represents in the world.
We are Rotarians, we are People of Action who see how Rotary Opens Opportunities.
Ricardo J. Molina
District Governor 2020-2021