District Projects
28 July 2002

Any Rotarian harbouring doubts on whether District projects are worth his or his club's support or whether there should be District projects at all should think again. Granted that RI places great reliance on the leadership of a district to set and achieve its district goals, and for that matter encourages each club to develop its own identity and signature projects, continuing advances in technology, in particular information technology, coupled with irreversible globalization, have put pressures on clubs and districts to consider giving up their respective roles and hithertofor much valued specific features in deference to the greater good articulated by a higher heirarchy.

This is actually not a new concept. In the mid 1980s, RI asked districts and clubs to raise funds for the Rotary Foundation so that the human race could rid itself of polio as it had of small pox, by the year 2000. Rotarians worldwide responded with vigour and achieved the target well ahead of time, only to be advised that the first targets were too low and that a lot more work was required.

Looking back, Rotarians and RI in particular could draw useful lessons from the PolioPlus Campaign. Now, let us quickly state that we do not have the slightest intention to belittle the dedication or the commitment of Rotary and Rotarians to work with national and international health organizations towards the goal of polio eradication by the year 2005. Bearing in mind that the entire efforts of the world could be foiled by one carrier on one flight, and bearing in mind that international conflicts continue unabated, it is not inconceivable that we could not declare with confidence by Rotary's 100th anniversary that we are still working towards that noble goal. But our quest should continue. Indeed, that scenario should motivate us to redouble our efforts towards our commitment to PolioPlus, which is why individuals and individual clubs should be encouraged to think global.

A corollary to this is that individuals and individual clubs should at least think district and endeavour to support district projects. A case in point is the Hepatitis B Project for Mainland China. The object is to immunize 1 million new born babies in the Mainland in the next ten years at a total present day cost of $25 million. This would reduce the percentage of Hepatitis B carrier in the Mainland from the present 10% to 1%. This may appear to be an ambitious project, but compared with PolioPlus, is very much more practicable and practical. More importantly, it is a project close to the heart of everyone in Hong Kong, and therefore one that we should all support.