All of us are aware of the highly dangerous and troubled world we live in today. But the critical issue is that “most of us, particularly the leaders and intellectuals of the world, know what are the major problems of the world… illiteracy, poverty, crimes, wars and so on. And they also know the solutions. For illiteracy, you have to invest in education; it’s simple and not such a big deal. Only a week’s global military expenditure can help in educating all the children of the world… 200 million children who are out of school can go to schools with just seven days of global military expenditure,” said Nobel Peace Laureate ­Kailash Satyarthi, delivering the ­keynote address at a plenary of the Kochi Zone Institute.

The magic of Rotary doesn’t just happen among senior leaders. It happens where you are — in your clubs, in your communities, every time you act on an idea and change someone’s life. Thank you for all you do to create a better world,” RI President Stephanie Urchick said at the TRF seminar, prior to the Kochi Institute. Urging Rotarians to continue donating to TRF, she shared a couple of her experiences highlighting TRF’s role in transforming lives and communities.

While Indian Rotarians were doing a great job in attracting new members to Rotary, attrition continued to be a problem and the challenge was to address issues related to attrition in different forms, RI President Stephanie Urchick said in her inaugural address at the Kochi Zone Institute.

The next Rotary peace centre could come up either at the Symbiosis University in Pune or in Seoul, TRF Trustee Martha Helman, a member of RC Boothbay Harbor, US, told Rotary News in an interview at the Kochi Institute. She has been instrumental in getting the huge funding of $15 million from the Otto and Fran Walter Foundation, which made possible TRF setting up its latest Rotary Peace Center in Istanbul, Turkey.

In a massive bid to address the huge problem of adult illiteracy in Madhya Pradesh, where the 2011 census put the number of adult illiterates at 1.07 crore, Rotarians across the state, led by RID 3040 (MP has four Rotary districts), have been working with the state government agencies addressing illiteracy.

Remember the good old song by Andy Williams that was so popular in the early 1960s?

The Rotary Club of Chennai ­Bharathi, RID 3234, has adopted a fairly new and interesting method to tackle mental wellbeing…. by pressing into service a triple combination of sound, art and dance therapies to engage a large number of people, with the special focus being on those who are dealing with various issues related to mental health.

Addressing the Vision 2030 membership conclave organised in Madurai by incoming RI Director M Muruganandam, RI President-elect Mario de Camargo made it clear that membership should be the topmost priority of Rotary leaders at all levels, and went on to explain in detail the key and crucial terms and phrases in Rotary, which were often misunderstood.

When it was his turn to address the massive TRF Multi District conclave in Kochi, TRF Trustee Chair Mark Maloney effortlessly lightened the mood and lessened the fatigue of sitting through a long conference with his wit and humour.

During his recent visit to India, incoming RI President Mario de Camargo took out some time in Madurai to sit down for an interview with Rotary News. As candid as always, he did not mince his words as he expressed serious concern about Rotary’s stagnant, and even falling membership in some countries, and said this was “because we are still male, pale and stale”.

The recent depression over the Bay of Bengal caused widespread flooding across Andhra Pradesh (AP) and Telangana. The rainfall which began on August 30 intensified through the first week of September, with AP bearing the brunt. Over 27 per cent of the state’s annual rainfall occurred in just 48 hours; an IMD report explains that this extreme weather event was driven by a land-based cyclone, which drew moisture from both the Arabian Sea and the land heat of eastern India, the combination of which led to the two states witnessing an astonishing 500mm of rain in just 24 hours on August 31.