Polio Immunization and West Africa Project Fair Trip for Rotarians – November 2015

In November 2015, North American Rotarians will travel to Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, for a life changing experience.   Have you ever heard a Rotarian speak about their personal experience participating in a polio eradication exercise, a cleft lip/cleft palate mission, or work on a humanitarian grant?  These trips have a profound effect upon the individual.  For those of you who have gone on one of these trips you know, and for those of you who have yet to enjoy this experience, you should.

 

The experiences you have stay with you forever.  You get up early in the morning, travel with local Rotarians to a village, health clinic or impoverished neighborhood, and for the next few hours, you change.  Small children come up to you to say thank you.  Mothers and fathers smile at you knowing that you are giving their child a chance for a better life.  You meet with the leaders in the village to learn of their needs and their hopes.  It is hot; it is dusty; it makes you uncomfortable; it is exquisite.  

 

The West Africa Project Fair is endorsed by Rotary’s Reach Out to Africa Committee (ROTA), who is trying to generate greater connectivity between the African and North American Rotarians to generate greater support of the projects of Africa.  Your involvement, or your club’s involvement, in this Fair would not only provide an opportunity for project support, it would also help your members to grow and to understand the benefits of being a Rotarian.  Involvement in Rotary gives the ordinary Rotarian extraordinary opportunities to do things that they could never do anywhere else.  This trip is just such an experience. 

If you wish to participate and go, the details are as follows;