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SERVING THE COMMUNITY OF NATIONS
Our club is a member of the worldwide network of Rotary clubs
under the umbrella of Rotary International. We support
the goals and objectives of RI by making contributions
to the Paul Harris program and contributing to the Rotary
International Foundation. We have also contributed to
disaster relief programs and contributed to the building
of a hospital in Africa. Rotarians serving on the front
lines of a natural disaster are truly the epitome of "Service
Above Self."
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S T A R T I N G A R O T A R Y P E A C E N E T W O R K
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A Peace Initiative from North Bethesda
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Rotary Club of North Bethesda
STARTING A ROTARY PEACE NETWORK
Presented by Claes G. Ryn
A frightening prospect is on the horizon: an era of major international conflicts.
Samuel Huntington at Harvard is just one prominent commentator who warns of a “clash
of civilizations.” Can Rotary help head off such disasters?
Clearly, defusing tensions requires major and sustained effort. The Rotary Club of
North Bethesda would like to explore one particular way of lessening conflict. It
proposes a pilot project for starting to build an international grass-roots network
of Rotary clubs and individual Rotarians dedicated to mitigating tensions. Luckily,
the multifarious alliances across national and civilizational boundaries that Rotary
International has already created provide a foundation for building the intended
network.
To promote cordial, respectful relations among peoples and civilizations is ultimately
a matter of morality. Only people of good character can be expected to deal with others
in a peaceful, considerate manner. To collect such people and have them influence their
communities for the better has always been the central mission of Rotary. The Four Way
Test sums up how human beings ought to interact. We want to show that the Test can also
be applied to relations among peoples and countries. The Four Way Test is an ecumenical
distillation of the great moral systems of the world. By pointing to a common human
ground the Test points to a basis for peace.
The Rotary Club of North Bethesda wants to draw more attention to the Four Way Test and
demonstrate its high relevance for international relations. The Club would like to
designate one or more experienced and intellectually qualified Rotarians who can speak
to clubs on the common human ground of the Four Way Test and show how it responds to the
urgent need for reducing conflict. We want to approach clubs in another country about
receiving these individuals as speakers and/or for informal discussion. The emissaries
will stress the character traits that Rotary has always favored and explain how they can
be fostered though education and upbringing. Clubs will be encouraged to use their
influence in local institutions to ensure, in particular, that education supports the
formation of this kind of character. The purpose is not to try to replace but to enhance
local and national culture by strengthening their moral core. The people who are most
rooted in the best of their own culture tend to be the most respectful towards people
from other cultures, whereas, to coin a phrase, culturally rootless people are often the
most ruthless.
Our emissaries will encourage other clubs to send out their own representatives. Spreading
an improved understanding of the Four Way Test can evolve into a large grass-roots peace
network. Our initiative is the first step in a program that may be for the decades. Having
great potential, it might one day become a core program of Rotary International.
A caution: This pilot project and any larger RI program must be wise to the ways of the
world. There is no room for feel-good emotion and merely boosterish “international
understanding.” If conflict in the world is to be reduced, the project must be based on a
hard-nosed, down-to-earth assessment of the moral and other obstacles that have to be
overcome.
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Vestheim Rotary Club, Oslo, Norway - The Election Committee
From the left: Terje Granum Johansen, Trond Melbye, Thorleif Barreth, Michael Klem, Hans Petter Yssen, Dag Aarnes, Erik Garaas, Siri Rosberg (in front)
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The Election Committee discussed the candidates
and prepared for the interviews having Pizza
before the session.
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After the
interviews, the evalutation process and the
final selection.
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The 2006 Rotary Fellowship Program has been awarded to Hanne Steensnaes from Oslo. Ms. Steensaes is a full time student at BI Norwegian School of Management- Bachelor of Finance and Administration. She is also working as a journalist in Finansavisen, one of Norway's leading daily Financial newspapers.
Click here to read more...
| The Rotary Fellowship
program for 2006 has been awarded to Hanne Steensnaes,
from Oslo, Norway.
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Vestheim Rotary Club, Oslo, Norway - The Election
Committee
From the left: Terje Granum Johansen, Trond Melbye, Thorleif Barreth, Michael Klem, Hans Petter Yssen, Dag Aarnes, Erik Garaas, Siri Rosberg (in front)
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The Election Committee discussed the candidates
and prepared for the interviews having Pizza
before the session.
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After the
interviews, the evalutation process and the
final selection.
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The 2006 Rotary Fellowship Program has been awarded to Hanne Steensnaes from Oslo. Ms. Steensaes is a full time student at BI Norwegian School of Management- Bachelor of Finance and Administration. She is also working as a journalist in Finansavisen, one of Norway's leading daily Financial newspapers.
Click here to read more...
Houses for the Poor at Habaraduwa
Basil de Silva with 3 other
Rotarians went to Habaraduwa, 140 km from Colombo
to lay the foundation stones to the 2 houses that
Rotary Club of Nort Bethesda have financed to build.
Two families have been selected and that we have layed
the foundation stone for the two houses.
We expect the houses to be completed end of January
2006
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Christmas Gifts received in Sri Lanka
During a recent visit by the Colombo West Rotary Club to the Habaraduwa (the location of the two new houses to be built) the two families and the local staff person, Prasad, received Christmas gifts from the North Bethesda Rotary Club. Some pictures are taken outside of the houses being built. The gifts were very well received by the children and their parents.
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The Rotary Summer Fellowship program
has been awarded to Ms. Elizabeth Barry of Bethesda, Maryland
The Rotary Summer
Fellowship, co-sponsered by the North Bethesda
and Vestheim (Oslo), Norway, Rotary clubs has
been awarded to Ms. Elizabeth Barry of Bethesda,
Maryland, a sophomore at Davidson College.
Elizabeth will attend the International Summer
School at Oslo University June 25-August 5.
Students from Montgomery County were especially
encouraged to apply for the Rotary Summer Fellowship.
The selection criteria included academic strength,
leadership and career potential, interest in
international relations, adaptability to new
situations, and ability to represent America
and the North Bethesda Rotary Club.
Elizabeth is a graduate of Walt Whitman High
School. Her grade point average there was 3.95
(yes, that means straight "A"s). She
has a strong academic record at Davidson, where,
according to one of her professors, she is in
the "top tier of her class." Another
professor called her "mature, self-possessed,
and very smart." She was also called "self-motivated"
and a "self-starter." Elizabeth is
majoring in English and is very fond of literature,
but has broad interests that include social
and political issues. Since her high school
days Elizabeth has been active in extracurricular
projects. It is a sign of her stature on the
Davidson campus that, though only a sophomore,
she has been selected as the next editor-in-chief
of the college newspaper.
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Ms. Elizabeth Barry |
Three applications
for the fellowship were given close scrutiny. The
review committe, Ole Pedersen, our club's international
director, Claes Ryn, and Lasse Syversen agreed that
Elizabeth's application stood out, and she was invited
for an interview. The interview confirmed the high
expectations of the committee, and she was selected
for the award. When Elizabeth went on to apply to
the International Summer School at Oslo University,
they went out of their way to let us know how impressed
they were with her application, which was immediately
accepted.
Elizabeth is articulate, pleasant in manner and makes
a generally very favorable impression. She is much
looking forward to learning more about Norwegian history,
society and literature and to get to know the Vestheim
Rotary Club. Elizabeth will visit our club before
she departs for Norway.
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The 2002 Group Study Exchange Team to District 1080
in East Anglia, England.
The members, from left, front row are:
Carole Molloy, Coach/ Lecturer, Westminster, MD (sponsored by Westminster Rotary Club) and
Jenny Plummer-Welker, Land Use Planner, Calvert County, MD (sponsored by
Rotary Club of Prince Frederick). From left, second row: Martin Lippy, Police
Sergeant, Baltimore County, MD (sponsored by Towson Rotary Club), Team Leader
Barry Thompson, Physician/ Geneticist, Rotary Club of North Bethesda, MD, and
C.D. Glin, Diversity Recruitment Specialist, Washington, DC (sponsored by the
Rotary Club of Washington.)
The group was in England in April and May,
spending a week each in Cambridge, East Dereham, Norwich, Sudbury and
Lavenham visiting historical sites, learning about the local culture and
enjoying vocational exchanges.
PolioPlus Program. Our members made generous contributions
to Rotary’s campaign to eradicate polio (and certain other diseases)
from the world by 2005. The "PolioPlus" program brought together
all Rotary clubs throughout the world for a common purpose: to
provide oral polio vaccine to children of all nations. PolioPlus
has reached millions of children. More than 200 million children
in Southeast Asia received oral polio vaccine during December
1998 and January 1999. Although donations by members were personal,
it is estimated that our club contributed over $50,000 to the
PolioPlus program.
Ambassadors of Goodwill. Rotary encourages the one-on-one
relationship between foreign students and professionals and their
counterparts in this country. This is accomplished through Rotary’s
Ambassadorial Scholarship and Group Study Exchange programs. Our
club members have actively participated in meeting and greeting
these international visitors. Some members have provided housing
for visitors during their brief stay in our area. Other members
have arranged tours of their businesses to better acquaint our
foreign visitors with how we do it in the United States. This
also includes meeting with local legislators and learning about
how our laws are made.
Rotary International Convention. The annual RI
convention is held in various cities throughout the world.
The conventions typically draw over 25,000 Rotarians.
Our club’s president-elect attends this five-day event
and provides a report to club members at a breakfast meeting.
Convention speakers are excellent, RI committee meetings
are informative, and the impact of Rotary worldwide is
inspiring. It is an exciting and rewarding educational
experience on the workings of Rotary and RI’s many and
varied humanitarian projects. All those who have attended
an RI convention return home with new ideas and a renewed
enthusiasm for Rotary and local community projects.
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