Message Delivered by RIPE R. Gordon R. McInally at the RCM Weekly Membership Meeting

President Herminio, Honoured and Distinguished Guests,

Thank you, PDG Everett, for that fulsome introduction. You are much too kind. Good afternoon, it is so good to be with you. I bring you warmest greetings from Rotary International and from my home country of Scotland.

I am conscious I am not the first Rotary International President Elect or President to visit the Philippines and many of my predecessors speak with great fondness of times they spent here. Neither am I the first Scotsman to visit. A number of my fellow Scots were here 360 years ago when Britain briefly occupied Manila and indeed it was a Scot, Prime Minister John Stuart, who approved that course of action on 6 January 1762. Of course, since then many other Scots have chosen to do business here and even settle in this part of the world.

Enough of history – to Rotary! Believe me when I say, it is a real PRIVILEGE to be here at the first and oldest Rotary Club in Asia. A club that has sponsored countless other Rotary Clubs as well as other organisations over its history. Organizations like THE COMMINUTY CHEST FOUNDATION, THE PHILIPPINES BAND OF MERCY, THE PHILIPPINES SAFETY COUNCIL and the BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA PHILIPPINES ISLAND COUNCIL, to name but a few. I am humbled to stand before you. You know, it’s only when you stop and take stock as to what it really means to be a Rotarian that you realize what a wonderful opportunity we have ALL been given to be part of this great movement.

The most important thing I want to say to you today and please don’t think me patronising as I say it is THANK YOU. I am always conscious the two words THANK AND YOU are the only remuneration we receive in Rotary and equally conscious that these words do not always come from those whom we help. So, on their behalf I make no apologies for repeating myself and saying once again THANK YOU.

These past 103 years have clearly been very special and important in the lives of the members, past and present of the Rotary Club of MANILA, but with respect, at the end of the day, the sort of time it has been for the Rotarians of MANILA does not matter one iota compared to the sort of time it has been for those whom you have supported and served over that period. And you have supported and served a great many in so many innovative ways, I think of those who have benefitted from your medical and surgical missions to serve indigent patients in depressed areas. I think of your support of the SAGIP KABATAAN project to rehabilitate street children and juvenile offenders. I think of your Seamanship Training Project with the Propellor Club of Manila. And I think of your recent initiative, only four weeks ago, when you planted trees and held a special clean up activity. These are but four, of the many wonderful examples of the good you do. All of which have allowed you to improve the lives of those around you.

Rotary has come a long way since our Founder, Paul Harris, met with three of his friends at the first ever Rotary club meeting and established the organisation of which we are so proud to be members. Rotary has come a long way since your Founder President LEON J. LAMBERT along with Rotary’s ROGER PINNEO from Seattle, met with four of Manila’s most prominent businessmen on the 12 January 1919, when they resolved to form this Rotary Club, before going on to hold you first regular meeting in the Manila Hotel just over two weeks later on 29 January. And now, here we are in 2022, and STILL the flame of Rotary that was kindled in the windy city of Chicago USA in 1905 and here in MANILA 14 years LATER burns brightly not only in these two places but throughout the entire world.

I often wonder if on that cold, damp February day 117 years ago Paul Harris could have imagined in his wildest dreams what Rotary would become and what Rotary would achieve over the course of its history. I wonder if LEON J. LAMBERT and the original 38 members of the Rotary Club of MANILA could have imagined in THEIR wildest dreams what IT would achieve over the course of its history.

Over the last two years, we have heard many politicians all round the world talking about the importance of BUILDING BACK BETTER. I don’t particularly like that expression as I would rather see us BUILD FORWARD BETTER. And it strikes me the Rotary Club of Manila has been BUILDING FORWARD BETTER for over 103 years…

As I was preparing for this meeting, I was thinking about how you might explain in a few words exactly what IS IT that Rotary does? What is our purpose? D’you know, that’s not always the easiest question to answer, but let me try...

One of the many obligations you accept when you become a member of the Board of Directors of Rotary International are the regular trips to RI Headquarters in Evanston, Chicago USA. I went to the USA a number of times during my time on the RI Board. Towards the end of my term, I was stopped by an Immigration Officer at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport who, leafing through my passport, reviewing the previous entry stamps, asked me the question; “Why do you come here so often?” I explained that I was a Rotarian and that I was attending a meeting at Rotary’s Headquarters. A quizzical look came over his face as he went on to ask me a second question; “Rotary - what do they make?” Realising this was probably not the best time to go into a long and detailed discourse on precisely what Rotary “made”, I replied; “What does Rotary make? - it makes a difference”. We then shared a few more minutes about what Rotary is, what Rotary does and what Rotary stands for before I headed for the exit door and he turned his attention to his next customer.

That brief encounter set me thinking, as I travelled on from the airport. Making a difference is EXACTLY what Rotary does – a difference within the world in which we serve and THAT is our PURPOSE. BUT, exactly what sort of difference DOES the Rotary Club of MANILA make? What sort of difference does every Rotary Club represented here today make? What sort of difference does Rotary International make?

It seems like a long time ago now but, whilst on the Board of Directors, I was lucky enough to be in Chicago on the 4th November 2008 – the night Barack Obama was elected to be the 44th President of the United States. Although it’s now more than thirteen years ago, I am sure many of you will recall one of the buzz words of Obama’s 2008 Presidential Campaign……..

That word was “HOPE” I would suggest that, at the most basic level, the difference Rotary makes is that we bring people HOPE – HOPE for the future. By lifting people out of poverty, and giving them HOPE, I believe we can go a long way to making major inroads into strife and, as a consequence, help create a more peaceful world.

Over the past few years, I have seen many examples of how Rotary brings people hope – and I know many of you have too – but perhaps it’s worth reflecting on just a few of those examples.

I have seen the look on a children’s faces in Kwa Zulu Natal in South Africa as the evening light faded and as the solar powered lights we had taken to them came on allowing them to continue studying their schoolbooks. They were going to pursue their dream of an education and a future, or not, depending on Rotary.

I have seen small children living on the Rubbish Mountains in South America, digging with their hands for what they might find to eat. They were going to stay there and die, or not, depending on Rotary.

Just before the pandemic struck and we could no longer travel, I saw people in rural Kenya prepared to walk miles on their own to a dental clinic in a remote village because Rotary has promised to stop their pain. They were going to suffer - or not - depending on Rotary.

And these are only three examples of countless examples I could give you of where Rotary is needed and where each and every one of YOU make a difference though the creation of HOPE.

One of the finest ways Rotary is creating hope at present is through our EMPOWERING GIRLS AND WOMEN initiative… Equality is a fundamental human right that’s necessary for a peaceful, prosperous, and sustainable world, and yet we all know that girls and women worldwide still face inequities in many areas including health and education, and experience violence and poverty at higher rates than men. In truth, although Empowering Girls was designated a Presidential Initiative during the last Rotary year, Rotary has been empowering girls for many years and, I am happy to say will continue to do so through into 2023-24.

Let me tell you about Mary….. Mary was born in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda in 1987. Shortly after the 1994 Civil War broke out in Rwanda, her father became a victim of the Genocide. Her mother was mass raped by members of the paramilitary responsible for the Genocide, and she subsequently contracted HIV/AIDS which eventually led to her death, leaving the 16-year-old, newly orphaned, Mary as head of her family, with the responsibility of caring for her two younger siblings.

Shortly after I met her for the first time, during a visit to Rwanda in early 2004, Mary was accepted onto a joint initiative between Rotary in Great Britain and Ireland and the UK based NGO Hope and Homes for Children known as Rotary’s Africa Hope. Over the succeeding years, Mary and her siblings were given the support necessary to survive and grow - the support necessary to enjoy life like other children - the support you and I would take for granted within a loving family. Mary had had to drop out of school to care for her mother until her death and then afterwards to care for her younger brother and sister. However, thanks to Rotary’s Africa Hope, she completed her High Schooling in December 2007, passing her School Leaving Certificate with excellent grades.

She then started to support her family by working as a teaching assistant in a local nursery school and also served as the vice-president of a housing cooperative in the district where she lived. But it was always Mary’s dream to go to university and study business. She had the entry qualifications, but it cost around $1000 per year at that time to attend university in Rwanda, a fortune in Rwandan terms, so a dream it looked like remaining, until……

Having met Mary during a visit to Rwanda with me in November 2010, a young, newly qualified Scottish Lawyer, called Sarah, much the same age as Mary, committed to sponsoring her $1000 a year university expenses for each of the next four years. One empowered girl empowering another. Mary subsequently enrolled at ULK, Kigali Independent University, and graduated in Business Studies from in 2015. She now holds down a good job within Kigali’s commercial sector.

Mary’s life was turned around and where once she had nothing, she was given the great thing anyone could ask for – Hope. Hope of a future free from poverty. Hope of a future free from conflict. Hope of a future where she could AND IS NOW providing for herself living outside of any dependency culture Self-reliant – but most importantly with self-respect. Empowered.

But there’s more… When Mary became self-supporting, she was anxious to “give something back” by way of saying “thank you” for the support she received and, to that end, she accepted into her family a fourteen-year-old girl with learning difficulties who was, herself, an orphan. So, Mary the empowered girl began to empower and continues to do so to this day.

The hope she was given made a difference to her life. But it is not enough to simply give HOPE and make a difference. In giving hope, in making a difference, what exactly is it we wish to achieve? I am sure many of you are familiar with the works of Robert Burns, Scotland’s National Poet. Robert Burns, although he lived over two hundred years ago, promoted many of the same ideals that we do in Rotary in his hope for Liberty, Brotherhood and Peace for all of mankind. In his poem "Is there for honest poverty" Robert Burns tells of his hopes for the future – listen to the last verse of that poem because I would suggest to you that it reflects precisely Rotary’s aspirations for the future:

Then let us pray that come it may (As come it will for all that) That Sense and Worth over all the earth Shall bear the gree and all that! For all that and all that, It's coming yet for all that, That man to man the world over Shall brothers be for a' that

That verse was written in 1795 – exactly 110 years before Paul Harris founded Rotary but I believe those last two lines: That man to man the world over Shall brothers be for a' that would make an ideal description of the purpose of Rotary. What better goal could we set ourselves than to be able to look on our fellow man as our brother, our fellow woman as our sister?

Of course, another place Rotary has been making a huge difference just lately is to the lives of those affected by the war being waged on Ukraine by Russia. I have shed tears of sorrow at the atrocities that we have watched play out on our television screens as the days have turned to weeks and the weeks to months. I have also shed tears of pride and joy at Rotary’s response: $15.5 million donated to our Foundation Disaster Relief Fund and tens of thousands of members of Rotary all round the world providing real, practical, hands-on help to those affected. And this my friends, is the magic of Rotary; to be able to reach out and help our fellow men and women the world over as we would our own brothers or sisters.

I am conscious that time is always the enemy on occasions such as this so, conscious of the time it is time for me to draw my remarks to a close and utter the two words you have probably all been longing to hear.

IN CONCLUSION

In conclusion, Members of the Rotary Club of MANILA – you have done much of which to be proud over the past 103 years. Today enjoy basking in you glories and achievements, but tomorrow, and the next day and every day after that, remember that there is still much work to be done in the name of Rotary both here in MANILA and in the Philippines and throughout the world. All that has gone before will count for nothing if you do not continue your service into the future. I HOPE that you will continue that service Actually, from what I am learning of you I KNOW you will continue that service.

Thank you once again for all you do, Each and every one of you is a credit to the badge you wear And I am proud, very proud to belong to the same organisation as you.