100th anniversary of Rotary year celebrated

Rotary International District 3281 organised a ceremony at a Hotel in Dhaka on 8 October (Saturday), to mark the centenary of the current Rotary year.

District Governor Eng MA Wahab, Former Governor Khairul Alam, Barrister Mutasim Billah Farooqui, Governor (Elect) Ashrafuzzaman Nannu, Governor (Nominee) Ibrahim Khalil Al Zayad Pinak, District Secretary General Arif Zebtik and others also spoke in the program.

Event Chairman Rotarian Zahurul Islam conducted the meeting, reads a press release.

In the meeting, District Governor Engineer MA Wahab said, "This year, the Rotary Clubs are continuing their activities at the local level, inspired by the slogan of the District Governor, 'Every Hour Rotary Care'. At least Tk30 lakh are being spent on over 300 service activities every month since last July, 2022."

The governor said that to encourage the service activities of the clubs, he has already visited around 200 clubs in the first 100 days of the year. The governor also said this trend of more than two club visits per day will continue.

The Rotarians were also informed in the meeting that in the first 100 days, pledges of $7 lakh to the Rotary Foundation have been received. In addition, a global grant worth about $5 lakh has been approved, through which Rotary International will conduct various projects in Bangladesh along with local clubs.

Speakers in the evaluation meeting emphasized that the visit of Rotary International President Jennifer Jones and former President Holger Nake to Bangladesh in the first 40 days of this year are two rare events. Earlier no Rotary International President visited Bangladesh at the beginning of the year.

District Governor Engineer MA Wahab called upon the meeting and said that Rotary needs to be more adaptive and flexible to keep pace with the changing global situation.

He said that this year, as a proof of environmental protection, digitization of important publications like district directory, OCV document, GML and making the governor's office paperless has been launched.

Reiterating Rotary's eternal commitment to world peace, the Governor said, Rotarians in Bangladesh are eager to help in the Ukraine crisis, but Rotary Bangladesh will continue to respect the restrictions on sending financial assistance from Bangladesh at this time due to the global economic situation.

Half a thousand Rotarians from different parts of Bangladesh attended this evaluation meeting.