Rotary in India: An example to follow
October
2006
Dear Rotary
family,
Recently, I
returned from a short but extremely busy trip to
India. In eight days, we visited seven cities,
held six Rotary Foundation seminars, hosted six
dinners and four luncheons to raise funds, met
with several potential donors, and inaugurated
two projects and visited four others. Never did
I imagine that we would accomplish what we did.
In Mumbai, I had
the opportunity to meet an exemplary Rotarian
and witness his personal donation of US$1
million to our Foundation — the first individual
contribution of this amount made by a Rotarian
from India. A few years ago, a donation of this
magnitude would have been unheard of. As the
result of our efforts during this trip, an
additional $2 million was received by The Rotary
Foundation. What generosity! What a tremendous
spirit of service!
Among donor
countries in 2005-06, India ranks fifth in
contributions to The Rotary Foundation. Who
outside of this beautiful and enchanting country
could have foreseen this level of fundraising
success?
Rotary and Rotary
Foundation activities in India should make us
all very proud. The projects being carried out
there are important, but what’s most important
is the personal commitment of the Rotary family
in India to the ideals of our organization and
to the work of The Rotary Foundation. Our
friends followed the words of wisdom of Albert
Einstein: “It is the responsibility of every
human being to aspire to do something
worthwhile, to make the world a better place
than the one he found.”
My sincere
congratulations to our friends in India and to
everyone who follows these principles and
strives to achieve similar feats around the
world. You make all of us proud to be Rotarians.
Sincerely,
Luis Vicente Giay
Trustee Chair, The Rotary Foundation, 2006-07
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