What if everyone in our world starts reaching out to others?
This giving will be like an explosion, not in the world nor in the recipients, but in the life of the one that gives.
I thought of this on a full Australian suburban train on our way back from the Sydney Olympic Park.
As a friend of Rotary, my Rotarian husband, John and I had the wonderful opportunity to attend this year’s world conference of Rotary International, held at this park, erected for the 2000 Olympic games.
We were about 10 to 12 South Africans, with 18 000 other Rotarians from 180 countries all over the globe, experiencing how giving changes worlds.
What made me feel special was when the Olympic flame was specially lit up during the conference, acknowledging the contribution of Rotarians during the Olympic games.
Rotary is an international organisation in many countries around the world with about 1.2 million members who raise funds in various ways to give to people in need.
With the ethic of “Service above Self”, the members embark on projects to make a difference in communities and people’s lives.
The needs of the poor and vulnerable are different in each country and each Rotary district sees that the needy is served in a dignified way.
To get to Sydney we travelled over 12 hours by aeroplane.
Just as I was thinking it was far, an American woman from Atlanta said she had travelled 26 hours to get to this conference in Australia.
The people of Sydney went out of their way to make the conference an experience.
They created a laser light show in the harbour area that was unforgettable.
The best was that they gave each delegate free travel passes, which we used on trains, buses and ferries.
Each day of the conference there were special trains to Olympic Park, where the commeradie amongst the delegates was amazing and the sound of people talking on the train almost deafening.
Here we met people like Peter Brown, a builder from Melbourne, who decided to give up his life, and together with his wife move to Fiji to build up the country through Rotary.
People from all corners of the world spontaneously spoke to each other, sharing their ways of helping people in need.
It felt like family.
One highlight of the conference was to hear that Rotary’s thrust to eradicate polio in the world is showing results and that we could say we are very close to eradicating this crippling disease.
Rotary embarked on the Polio Plus Project a few years ago by giving children polio drops in several countries to prevent them from getting this disease.
The good news of this project is that India is now polio free and Nigeria, the last country in Africa that had cases of polio reported, had only three cases this year.
The only country where children have not had the immunisation drops yet is Pakistan.
The conference had many interesting speakers, giving us ideas on how to help others.
Tony Abbot, Australia’s prime minister officially opened the conference with a donation of A$100-million (R999 million) from the Australian government to further the Polio Plus project.
There was also the flag ceremony where it was good to see the South African flag amongst the ones brought out to welcome delegates.
I was proud to say we are from South Africa.
It was good to say we believe in giving to others.
Besides the sessions where we heard about many projects, there also was the Billabong House of Friendship, where the Rotarians around the world showcased their projects.
To see the family health days our Rotary district has each year in our South African communities, was a good experience.
The biggest lesson I learned throughout the conference was at the Peace workshop.
One of the Nigerian woman reminded me that you are free when you volunteer to do something.
It clicked, that’s why Rotarians are such happy people.
They are free because they give.
