Engaging and empowering young people should be a top priority for every civil society organisation that seeks to truly bring about change in the world, according to Rotary International president K. R. ‘Ravi’ Ravindran.
“We are proactive with youths. We do not look down on them but we try to get them into our circle because, ultimately, we will learn from young people and they will learn from us older members,” Mr Ravindran told the Times of Malta.
For more than 100 years, Rotary International, which provides humanitarian services, has promoted peace and goodwill while encouraging high ethical standards in all vocational work.
There are 34,000 Rotary clubs across the world, embracing about 1.2 million members. Rotary Club Malta has been around for 48 years, and together with Rotary Club La Valette and Rotary Club Gozo they have nearly 180 members.
In Malta to address last week’s Commonwealth People’s Forum, Mr Ravindran drew from his own experiences as a young member and insisted that, by providing youngsters with opportunities to develop their skills, they would not only be of great service to the organisation but also to those benefiting from their work across the globe.
A businessman and member of the Rotary Club of Colombo, Sri Lanka, since 1974, Mr Ravindran said: “I joined Rotary when I was 21, and I only did so because I was looking for friendship. I had been living a very lonely life in a plantation. Then, before I knew it, the service just grew on me. Here I am, 40 years later, in the role of Rotary president.”
I joined Rotary when I was 21, and I only did so because I was looking for friendship. Before I knew it, the service grew on me
A good starting point to bringing about positive change in the world would be to look closely at the needs of the different communities before moving on to tackling greater issues around the world, he said.
“In India, for instance, a lot is being done to tackle illiteracy and, to do so, toilets have been installed at every school. Those with access to proper sanitation might not immediately link toilets to improving literacy but, in India, girls would drop out of school because there were no toilets. Now that there are, literacy figures are improving.”
For this reason, the number of members was never enough, Mr Ravindran said, especially when working on global projects. “It is futile to sit at conferences and say governments must do this and that. I’ve also said this to the people of Malta: if you don’t join Rotary and you don’t work to support your community, who else is going to do it?”
Over the years, Rotary International has taken up different projects: addressing illiteracy, battling cancer, promoting peace and more. For over 30 years, the organisation has also worked tirelessly to provide every child in the world with vaccines against polio. As a result, polio cases have gone down to 56 cases annually from 1,000 a day in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Mr Ravindran last week joined UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and Commonwealth heads of government in committing to end polio, a paralysing disease on the brink of global eradication.
“We are pretty close to completely eradicating the diseases but we have to keep going. If you drop inoculation levels now, the virus will return. So we will keep going until we find that one last person and make sure this wild virus is stopped.”
Mr Ravindran called on world governments to cooperate with organisations such as the Rotary International to achieve this, and more: “Governments may have the money but we have other skills.
“My message to all governments is to always focus on what is good for the people and, to do that, the people need to be included in all activities.”