Presidential Conference in Korea
The first presidential conference for this Rotary year was held at Gyeongju in the North Gyeongsang Province, Korea. Rotary’s two areas of focus — Disease prevention and treatment, and environment care — were discussed. RI President Shekhar Mehta was the chief guest and he honoured Park Ji-min, a member of the popular South Korean boy-band BTS, for his contribution of 100 million won ($84,000) to the Polio Fund.
President Mehta urged the Korean Rotarians to participate actively in the Each One Bring One (EOBO) initiative to strengthen Rotary’s membership and focus their service initiatives to empower girls.
Other notable speakers at the conference included former Environment minister Kim Myung-ja, Ehwa Women’s University professor Choe Jae-chun, former Korea Environment Corporation chairman Chun Byung-seong, Korea University professor Choi Jae-wook and Dr John Alderman Linton, chair of the Severance Hospital’s disease control department.
Over 60,000 delegates from across Korea signed into the programme which was streamed live on Youtube. President Mehta later attended the Zone Institute for zones 11 and 12 at Gyeongju.
