Breaking barriers

The article “In India, a breakthrough with the Muslim community” [Global Outlook, November] vividly reminded me of an experience I had while participating in a National Immunization Day (NID) in Kanpur, India, in 2004. One of the polio immunization sites that my team visited was organized by the Rotary Club of Kanpur Greater, an all-female club, under the determined leadership of its president, Suchitra Singh. The club had arranged to take over a park located in a predominantly Muslim neighborhood, and the members persuaded the local mullahs to support and encourage the immunization campaign. The club set up an elaborate (and well used) fun zone in the park, as well as an ongoing magic show. When we arrived, dozens of parents and children were lined up for administration of the vaccine; many of the mothers were dressed in burkas, and I have a treasured photo of me giving the vaccine to a child held by her mother, wearing a burka. As indicated in your article, and as illustrated by my experience, Rotary and its members have the power to break down barriers of ignorance in accomplishing Rotary’s many goals throughout the world.

Stephen N. Cool
Arroyo Grande, Calif., USA

Supply and demand

Water [“Granting the world a future,” November] is the critical issue for this century. We can live without love but we cannot live without water, so goes a Turkish saying. While we are spending billions searching for water on Mars, we are abusing what we have on earth. Water shortages exist not because there is less water around us but because there are more of us wanting it. It is simply a question of supply and demand. As an example, the Nile may be the world’s longest river, but it does not have enough water for Egypt’s needs. Despite the Aswan Dam, there are water shortages. Yet the country adds one million people every nine months to its burgeoning population. Simple arithmetic tells us that unless Egypt controls its population, water shortages will become more and more acute every day.

Lochan Bakshi
Athabasca, Alta., Canada

Support fair trade

I read with great disfavor the article encouraging Rotarians to visit Cadbury World while in Birmingham for the RI Convention [Up Front, November]. Rotarians should be aware that the cocoa industry is one of the world’s largest child labor industries, and that the purchase of cocoa by Cadbury (the world’s largest chocolate company) exploits this deplorable condition. The U.S. Department of State estimated in 2000 that approximately 15,000 children between the ages of 9 and 12 were sold into slavery for the Côte d’Ivoire cocoa industry. The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture estimates that 284,000 children are working on cocoa farms performing hazardous tasks. Many of them work on family farms, the children of cocoa farmers so trapped in poverty that they have to make the hard choice to keep their children out of school to work. Fortunately, there is a way to correct the economic imbalances of the cocoa system: fair trade. Fair trade is an international monitoring and certification system that guarantees a minimum price under direct contracts, prohibits abusive child labor, and promotes environmental sustainability. This gives farmers the stable and sufficient income they need to support their families with dignity.

Kevin Mays
Bowling Green, Ky., USA

Editor's note: We shared this letter with Cadbury. The company said that it buys its cocoa beans primarily from Ghana, with the rest coming from India, Indonesia, and the Caribbean. It launched the Cadbury Cocoa Partnership, investing US$66.5 million over 10 years in Ghana to improve farmer livelihoods. Cadbury is one of the industry funders of the International Cocoa Initiative, in which the industry, NGOs, and trade unions are tackling questions of child labor.

One debate to avoid

I would not like to see The Rotarian become another battleground in the culture war over abortion. There are plenty of other venues available for that. The series of letters you published previously regarding family planning only hinted at the degree of controversy and depth of emotion surrounding issues related to human reproduction. The letter published in November raised the issue of public policy and compared the protection of human life with that of endangered species in the United States. This is baiting. There is tremendous variation in the positions of the world’s leading faiths regarding issues of life and death, all of which are represented within the membership of Rotary. Accommodating this debate in your pages will foster unnecessary and destructive conflict within Rotary at all levels. Please don’t go down this path.

Chris Jueschke
Covington, Ga., USA

Polio fundraiser plus

I read with great interest the articles about PolioPlus and, in particular, “Fundraising to match the challenge” [Global Outlook, November]. I would like to share a recent fundraising success for District 5050 that has wonderful PolioPlus implications. The Rotary Club of Arlington, Wash., USA, teamed with the Rotary Club of Resita, Romania, in a Matching Grant program to outfit the newly built wing of Casa Dorca Children’s Orphanage. During a site visit in June, I was impressed with the scope of projects undertaken in the scant five years of the Resita club’s existence. The club is proud of having discovered, promoted, and popularized the art work of Vasile Popovici, a 39-year-old, severely disabled polio survivor. The club published a compendium of Popovici’s work, which helped to sell several of his paintings and dramatically improved his living circumstances, and auctioned several paintings at its annual December ball and awards banquet. In September, I was able to secure one of Popovici’s paintings – the first time his work has been seen internationally. At District 5050’s Rotary Foundation dinner and auction, the painting was “the big winner,” bringing in US$1,750 for PolioPlus. The opportunity to duplicate this event on a wider scale exists, with benefits for PolioPlus as well as this deserving polio survivor.

R. Lee Harman
Arlington, Wash., USA

Virtual network

In addition to Rotary International’s use of technology and the Internet, Rotarians and Rotary clubs worldwide increasingly are adapting to the best available communications technologies, in order to network and improve Rotarian fellowship and service projects. They are even having fruitful Internet meetings between Rotary clubs. In order to get feedback on how technology will best help Rotary in the future, Rotary e-clubs have been created. Their experience shows that the use of high-tech makes it possible to increase the numbers of quality Rotarians who otherwise would not have been able to join a Rotary club and to retain those whose circumstances would have forced them to leave Rotary. E-clubs increase fellowship because the Internet contact among the membership is daily and face-to-face meetings take place when Rotarians visit Rotary clubs when traveling and at Rotary projects, conferences, and conventions. The 2010 Council on Legislation has a unique opportunity to decide how Rotary can incorporate the best of high-tech. Rotary will be strengthened and best prepared as it advances toward its goals in this, its second century.

Marco Kappenberger
Apia, Samoa