e.r.i.c. magazine, winter 2014 - 15

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E.R.I.C. MAGAZINE Winter 2014 - 15

President: Emelie Aho Fältskog Past President: Laura Verdegaal

Vice President: Milos Dragovic Secretary: Zsófi Kulcsár

Treasurer: Rana Kesken

IT Officer: Tanguy Chassé Assistant: Phillip Leonhard Franke

Social Officer: Joana Pires Assistant: Friederike Schlüter Assistant: Lucky Dalena

Marketing Officer: Elia Estragues Assistant: Alodia Garcia-Frisach Assistant: Cloé Bernier Assistant: Marco Menegon

Board Advisor: Brenda MertensBoard Advisor: Michael Ziedins

CONTENTS WINTER 2014 - 15

Elia Estragues Marketing Officer

Alodia Garcia-FrisachMarketing Assistant

Cloé Bernier Marketing Assistant

Marco MenegonMarketing Assistant

Thank you very much Andrea Pizarro and Salvi Estragues for your help in technical issues.

E.R.I.C. BOARD 2014-15

E.R.I.C. MAGAZINE 2014 - 15 [email protected]

SPAINSWITZERLAND TURKEY UK INTERVIEWS W. C. BERNIER Zsófi KulcsárUKRAINEINTERVIEWS W. C. BERNIER Friederike Schlüter Anastasia S. & Bernhard P.MED MDIO FUTURE ROTARACT EVENTS

PRESIDENT’s WELCOME LETTER AUSTRIA AZERBAIJAN CYPRUS DENMARK ITALY LITHUANIA POLAND ROMANIA RUSSIASAN MARINOSERBIA

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2 · ERIC MAGAZINE · Winter 2014 - 15 ·

PRESIDENT’s WELCOME LETTER

Emelie Aho Fältskog E.R.I.C. President 2014 - 15

Sweden & [email protected]

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Dear Rotaractors,

First of all, I would like to congratulate you all to the very successful achievements you have accomplished within your Club or District so far during the E.R.I.C. year of 2014 – 2015!

The E.R.I.C. Board are also very proud to an-nounce and show you the hard work we have put into Rotaract in Europe these last months. One major improvement is that we have a brand new interactive website, we are going to wel-come the new Country Representative from Fin-land at their first REM, you can now very easily apply for the BESP and TCA awards directly online and we also have done all the prep-work to live stream the E.R.I.C. meeting and Opening Ceremony. Additionally, we will start organis-ing a monthly free webinar, giving all European Rotaractors possibilities to enhance knowledge and experience in the areas of Rotaract and continue with the CR Skype calls as well as to continue with our communication strategy – to

make E.R.I.C. as visible and close to you as possible!

Second, I am very proud to let you know that I hade the possibility to meet the President of Rotary International, Gary Huang, during the autumn – and he was very excited about the excellent work E.R.I.C. is going! Mr Huang rec-ognised our REMs and EUCOs as great plat-forms for knowledge and experience sharing, which we will continue develop during the year. Many thanks to, and together with, Rotary and Rotaract in Copenhagen, we discussed how Rotaract and Rotary could collaborate in the future, how we all could be more visible for the public as well as the age limits for Rotaractors. In other words, Rotary International believe E.R.I.C. as an MDIO are an important a…

Third, I would like to welcome you all to REM in Istanbul! REM in Istanbul will not only offer you interesting excursions but also good networking possibilities and of course – the E.R.I.C. meet-ing!

As always - it is important for not only me, but for all Rotaractors to not forget to have fun and enjoy the E.R.I.C. ride during the year. We put a lot of efforts and love into our Rotaract activi-ties - please continue doing it with a smile and let’s help each other!

You + Me = Success.

Rotaractly Yours,

· Winter 2014 - 15 · ERIC MAGAZINE · 3

In May 2014, the Balkan re-gion was hit by the biggest en-vironmental catastrophe in 120 years. A flooding claimed many lives and destroyed large parts of villages and cities. We, the Rotaract Club Graz, together with the Interact Club Graz and the help of four oth-er Rotaract clubs in the region organized a collection of relief goods for a northern severely hit region of Bosnia & Herze-govina. Within two days we managed to collect around 8 tons of water, can food, rice, noodles, sanitary goods and cleaning equipment, worth more than 25.000 €. In addition we received donations of about 5.200 € which were invested into disinfectants and medical supplies. While sorting of the humanitar-ian goods we started looking for a possible option of transporta-tion to the flooded region. This process was more difficult and took longer than we had ex-pected. Finally we had come to an agreement with the Austrian Military troops based in Bosnia. They agreed on bringing the collected supplies to Bosnia and deliver them to the people

in need. We are very grateful for their support.To conclude the project, four members of our club travelled to the affected region and par-ticipated in supply distributions together with Austrian soldiers from the CIMIC (Civil Military Cooperation) unit, stationed in Bratunac. It was important to us not only to collect some-thing and send it to the region but also to get active ourselves and help during the actual work of going to the people.Although the project was set up and planned within one week and conducted directly after-wards, we were amazed and thankful for the immense sup-port from our fellow Rotaract and Interact friends and the people who donated. It showed us how much is truly possible with the efforts of passion-ate people and many helping hands.

EMERGENCY HELP BOSNIA Rotaract Club Graz

AUSTRIA


We are happy to announce our five year anniversary of the “Ich Helfe Laufend” Charity Run in the Viennese Augarten on May 17th 2015.

For the past five years various Vi-ennese Rotaract Clubs worked hard to organize the yearly charity run, always in mind to help those who need it most.

Every year the IHL-Run sup-ports different charitable orga-nizations like “Die Boje”, “Verein Libelle” or “Die österreichische Autistenhilfe” and through these past events we were able to collect more than 50 000 €.

This year’s donations go to the Children Hospice MOMO, an organization located in Vienna, helping families to take care of children with severe illnesses.

Not only helping the children but also trying to support their parents and relatives, MOMO provides medical and psycho-logical support as well as so-cial aid and grief counseling.

Traditionally the IHL-Run will take place in the Viennese Augarten, providing you with a beautiful scenery and just the right atmosphere.

On the track race of exactly 1 km you can test your speed but also your endurance, motivated by our DJ, our moderator and the Vienna Samba Project. We will prepare snacks and refresh-ing drinks during the run. After-wards you are invited to stay and enjoy several meals to re-lax, share impressions and chat.

There will be various activi-ties and games even for the smallest members of the fam-ily to pass the time, while their parents do their laps. You can show your social en-gagement as a single player or in a team, no matter if you run, Nordic walk or stroll.

Every single round counts! You can sign up on our official website (http://www.ichhelf-elaufend.at/). The application fee will be 15 € per person.

SAVE THE DATE

“Ich Helfe Laufen”Charity Run

May 17th, 2015

Ichhelfelaufend.at

15 € per person

“ICH HELFE LAUFEND”, AN AUSTRIAN CHARITY RUNVienna

AUSTRIA


The Rotaract Club of Salzburg warmly invites you to the Multidistrict Presidential Confer-ence (MDPC) 2015 of the Austrian and Bosnian/Herzegovin-ian Districts 1910/1920 from 10-12th April 2015.

We hope to welcome participants from all over Europe again. Although the presence of the RAC-presidents of AUT and BIH is man-datory, all members are invited. The presidents will be able to present a short introduction about future projects of their clubs.

Furthermore you will ex-perience the cultural her-itage of Salzburg by day as well as party by night. The registration already started!

You will find any informa-tion about MDPC 2015 in Salzburg on the fol-lowing website: http://w w w. m d p c 2 0 1 5 . o r g

The board and organizing team is looking forward to welcome you right in the heart of Europe.

See you @ Salzburg!

MULTI DISTRICT PRESIDENTIAL CONFERENCERotaract Club of Salzbourg

AUSTRIA


First half of the term has just passed and a number of great proj-ects are behind.

Term has started with a simple clothes drive project– a number of families in need could get good qual-ity clothes for all family members.

On occasion of Gur-ban holiday, we visited families of World War II veterans, spend time with them and congrat-ulate their holiday. 25 families were provided with food packages with meat and other grocery products with the help of our Rotary club.

Also our members took part in two joined proj-ects with Rotary held

in Saray orphanage for disabled children. While weather was still warm joyful event with a lot of outdoor activi-ties was organized at the seaside, and re-cently, in November, one more holiday was held in the orphanage itself, where children could participate in various developing ac-tivities.

Besides social proj-ects and teambuild-ings, our club mem-bers didn’t forget about personal development - we and friends of the club participated at photographer Naila Akhundova’s color-ful presentation of her photoset “Tour of Asia”.

We also success-fully engaged in Proj-

ect Management training with Rotar-ian Hatice Berktash and were award-ed with certificates. Seeing forthcoming holidays - Christmas and New Year, we started a project called “Santa project”, the aim of which is to bring holiday magic in life of children that need it most. Our members visited a number of low income families with disabled children, appearing as Santa Claus’s envoys and

asked young members of family about their New Year wishes. In addition to the wished gifts, all these children will get new winter out-fit kindly provided by Baku Khazar Rotary Club and, hopefully, this December we will be able to let these kids see that dreams may come true.

Wishing you Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Rotaract Club of Baku

PROJECTS DURING THE TERMRotaract Club of Baku

AZERBAIJAN


Back to School? Well yes! On the 18th Oc-tober all Cypriot Rota-ractors returned back to school for a day and participated in the first “Rotaract Academy” organised in Cyprus.

“Rotaract Academy” is an independent en-tity within District 2452 and aims to train and develop Rotaractors as future leaders in order to be able to advance the object of Rotary and lead the way for new generations.

HISTORY: The idea commenced as a small training course for Rotaractors

of Zgharta Zawieh club in Lebanon, and then expanded to become a training program for all Rotaract clubs in Leb-anon. After the great success in Rotaract Lebanon, the idea was transformed and led to the creation of the “Ro-taract Academy” con-cept in District 2452.

MISSION: Provide to prospec-tive members with the basic Rotaract knowl-edge and professional training on topics such as communication skills and leadership.Train experienced members in order to advance their leader-

ship skills and become more effective as board members or fu-ture presidents within their clubs. Develop Rotaract lead-ers and provide them with an advanced level of Rotaract information in order to succeed in their demanding roles in a district level.During the first Cyprus Rotaract Academy, a variety of Rotaract top-ics were discussed. Among others, VDRR Charis Michael pre-sented this year’s agenda and objectives for both Rotaract Cy-prus and the District 2452. The Cyprus represen-

tatives in MED MDIO - Antigoni Karakoulli, and E.R.I.C. - Antonis Yemenaris, had the opportunity to give a detailed speech about the two organizations respectively. In addition, the District Club Service Director and Past VDRR Kyri-acos Elia Christofides discussed about club service topics. Finally, the past DRR Elena Aroti and the past VDRR and Rotari-an Vural Vural, had the opportunity to share their Rotaract experi-ences.

Antonis YemenarisCyprus Representa-

tive in E.R.I.C.

ROTARACT ACADEMYDistict 2452

CYPRUS


Around 20 Danish rotaractors have participated in Rotaract Leader Training Seminar where local Rotarians pay it forward to the next generation. For one of the clubs it has been a chance to involve all members in the development of a new club strategy.

A firm vision and a three-year strategy plan.

Those are two of the things Marselis Rotaract Club from Aarhus has gained from par-ticipating in District 1440’s Ro-taract Leader Training Seminar – a new initiative in the Danish Rotary family.

The basis idea is to have ex-perienced Rotarians arrange a three-course long seminar, in which board members from local Rotaract clubs can par-ticipate and learn more about leadership, strategy, member development and board work in

general.

The seminar consisted of three meetings of which the last one was held recently in late No-vember. A total of 20 to 25 Danish rotaractors from three clubs have participated in the 2014-edition.

Members take ownership of the clubOne of the participating clubs was Marselis Rotaract Club. Their concrete output from the seminar was the launch of a clear vision and a three-year strategy plan mapped out by not just the board members but basically everyone in the club who wished to participate.

According to current club presi-dent, Helene Sloth, the strategy process, facilitated by Rotar-ians throughout the three semi-nars, gave the club the oppor-tunity to come closer together as a group as well as giving her

as president an easier idea of the thoughts and wishes of the members.

“Marselis Rotaract as a club has made a huge benefit from letting our board members par-ticipate, and, additionally, since we let our ordinary members in on the process as well, we end-ed up giving them ownership of the club’s strategy. Many members felt it was an interest-ing and exciting process to be a part of,” says Helene Sloth, who sees a great potential in expanding the leader training seminars further.

“If this leadership seminar were to become something, Rotary in all the districts did, it is my belief that not only would it build bridges between Rotary to Ro-taract but also supply members of Rotaract with new skills and new knowledge that could be used both within and outside of Rotaract.”

TRAINING TODAY’S AND TOMORROW’s LEADERSDenmark

DENMARK


Could an occasion be more fruitful than the month of Oc-tober, dedicated to breast can-cer’s awareness, for “Apinkis-ing” our district? An ambitious but tangible project which en-gaged every single club thrill-ingly : to defeat this illness that affects many women by means of awareness raising and pre-ventive actions. Thanks to the collaboration with LILT and Piemontese Foundation for Cancer Research, our district Service has a precise aim : the purchase of a last generation ecographer for mammography, which is essential for an early diagnosis of the disease.During the month of October, many events related to #APINK project occurred, such as:

Gala della Mole – III EditionThe “Mole Antonelliana” shines in Pink thanks to Rotaract e LILT, as a symbol of joint fight against breast cancer, so as to raise the awareness of new generations with regard to this issue.On 17th October, the Gala della Mole reached its third edition, totally renewed in a “pink” ver-sion, accordingly with the theme of district service 2014/2015. The event could reach this vis-ibility owing to the city of Turin,

The Institute for Cancer Re-search of Candiolo and the Cin-ema Museum of Turin.The proceeds of the event will be used to help purchasing this new ecographer for mammog-raphy.Mr. Antonelli, the architect who designed the Mole Antoneliana, would be proud!

A bag of rice to fight Breast CancerEvery Sunday in October Ro-taract Val Ticino di Novara prepared his banquet for the purchase of rice, offered by a Rotarian as usual. Many rota-ractors engaged themselves in this successful service , whose profits have been donated to the District Project #APINK, in the occasion of the Breast Can-cer Awareness month.Nord-Est Zone inaugurationFriday 17th October the Nord-Est area of District 2031 inau-gurated its annual activity with an interclub dinner in the fas-cinating Club Unione di No-vara. An eminent figure was also present at the event : S.E. Mons. Franco Giulio Brambilla, Bishop of the city, who dignified the evening. Mons. Brambilla talked about the condition of the Church in the society of to-day, analyzing the most contro-

versial issues of a relationship which is facing growing criti-cism in the common sense ev-ery single day. The proceeds of the event was donated entirely to the District project #APINK.Woman=OpportunityAn evening in company with a special guest: Dr. Curti, equal opportunity assessor of the City of Turin and active pro-moter of integration and com-munication projects. A dinner at the poolside was the back-ground A dinner at the pool-side was the background of an interesting presentation on the opportunities which a “multi-cultural Turin” could carry for-ward. Initially conceived as “Woman=Opportunity” the pre-sentation was enlarged by in-cluding a reality which is rarely considered by Rotarians, but has definitely a lot to do with us. The opportunities offered by the city of Turin resemble our own active services: we help who is in need, we get experi-enced in those peculiar sectors. This time as well, the proceeds have been donated to #APINK Project.

Prisca Rolando · Carlotta Cam-panini · Davide Seggiaro · Mi-chele Marchiaro · Antonio Om-odei Zorini · Lorenzo Spiller

DISTRICT 2031 TURNS #APINK FOR BREST CANCER District 2031

ITALY


The Venice Marathon is recog-nised as one of the most beauti-ful and fascinating world’s running event through the city of Venice.But the Venice Marathon mostly is a “big heart” marathon, which al-ways supports solidarity projects and is active in the promotion of sports as an essential element for the growth and education of young people: a marathon champion of solidarity that has charity as its major mission.

For this year Rotary, Rotaract and Venice Marathon, with the support of “Rete del Dono” Association, will work together to accomplish the job, symbol of Rotarian World to eradicate Polio in the World: End Polio Now.The clubs involved in this project are many and our club, Rotaract Monfalcone Grado, is one of those. We took part in this project giving our support to an integral runner, who combined the challenge of the marathon on November 26th to the fundraising and solidarity.

The whole goal of this project was €20.000 but we already raised

€21.013!OUR runner, the one that our Club chose to support, is Andrea Pa-troncino, President of the Celias-port - Gruppo giovani. He took the 3rd place for District 2060 in the fundraising challenge, in fact our Club target was € 500 but we’ve raised now €1.330!

Andrea ran the marathon with Marta Cunico, another champion both in running and fundraising.

They both ended the Marathon with a time of 3h35.Thank you all for this incredible ex-perience!

We will TOGETHER WRITE THE WORDS END POLIO NOW!

Sara BraidaRotaract Monfalcone Grado, Vice

President

RUNNING TOGETHER TO END POLIO NOWDistrict 2060 and THE VENICE MARATHON

ITALY


Who’s not alone? When we born, when we get old, when we die...every day, there are moments during our life when we feel misunderstood, like there is no place for us, like ev-erything we are and represent isn’t enough just because of the words, mostly lies, attitudes, ac-tions, stereotypes coming from rolls which aren’t under bridges nowadays... they are into our offices, classes, streets and in our communications, choices or in our own words that’s why we have to get as many in-formations, as many help, as many instruments against them As we can.

That’s why “You are not Alone”

This service comes from the union of two different souls: the first one from 2072, a district which wanted to make a ser-vice to help minority groups, the other from 2071, which wanted to get something about bully-ing: that has been the why.

From the why, we have to skip to the how to do... so a real work on the ground.

Rotaractors from all over dis-trict 2072 attended a three-day full immersion in a training made by Cassero LGBT Cen-ter of Bologna to elaborate and present a project for schools to make students more sensitive on the bullism field focusing on cyberbullism, homo phobic bul-lism and mobbing; in the mean-while we ran the congress or-

ganization with the help of two other district , 2071 our twin in his capaign and 2060 which has become our twin in this event.

The congress, which had the same title of the service, You are not Alone, focused on different-grounds giving a lot of sparks in people who attended it, not just because of the thematic,which is really emphatic in a lot of dif-ferent ways, but also because of our guests and speakers:Ernesto Caffo (professor of child neuropsychiatry and President of Telefono Azzurro), Maurizio Betti (psychologist and psychotherapist in charge of Cassero psicological advi-sory), Samantha Gamberini (ju-rist with expertise in mobbing), Geo Ceccaroli (director of fraud squad for Emilia Romagna), Alberto di Gabriele (head in-spector of fraud squad of Emilia Romagna ) and Nadia Monti ( council member for security, youth and legality for Comune di Bologna); they resumed us a

picture of what bullism, cyber-bullism, homophobic bullisim, gender bullism and mobbing are doing in and to our soci-ety such as making people feel anxious on their way to school or work, taking away their right to be what they are with no ba-sis for comparison.

The panel discussion had been introduced by Alesandro Cec-chi Paone and it highlighted some interesting points which would be used in the next steps of the service that is getting ev-ery school in a downfall system with the combined action of ro-taractors and operators from Cassero.

You may say we are putting all our eggs in one basket, that this challenge is too much for us be-cause it involves not only mon-ey, lotteries and parties but also time, feelings and emotions but this is how we do in 2072, we want to roll up our sleeves this time, we want to get involved, we want to change something.

Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.

E.A.Poe

Andrea D’Ambrosio President Rotaract Club Carpi

YOU ARE NOT ALONERotaract Club Carpi

ITALY


The multidistrict 2041-2042 comprehends the city of Milan and the North Lombardy; 35 clubs and 654 enthusiasts’ fel-lows make it. All of them are in-volved in important service acti-vities on their territories.

Our services are developed both at national (as collabora-tion with other Italian districts) and local levels by the multidi-strict and the single clubs.

Among the services developed by the multidistrict this year, there is ROTARACT HOSPI-TAL TEDDY BEAR, our most important project.

The idea takes its origin from an Anglo-Saxon method intro-

duced by several UK hospitals.Our clubs will buy and give as presents “Clemente, the patient bear” to children belonging to their community and affected by different diseases.

Then our fellows will go with the babies and their bears to the doctor.

Rotaractors will apply band aid and fake medication on Cle-mente’s body as if the bear were sick and during the exami-nation the doctors will visit the bears instead of the children: in this way, listening the doctor and seeing the medical exami-nation as third and distant part, the child will decrease his fright and will be more comfortable in

future approaches with the doc-tor and the medical care.

This service is useful to help children, to stay close to their family and to provide a concre-te presence on the territory in helping suffering people’ lives.

Our multidistrict will continue to introduce and to offer this servi-ce in Italy and Europe with joy and great passion.

Francesco AsciotiMultidistrict representati-

ve – Rotaract Multidistrict 2041\2042

Rotaract Year 2014\2015

ROTARACT HOSPITAL TEDDY BEAR Multidistrict 2041 - 2042

ITALY


Lithuanian youth has been growing to socially active people for 20 years. Although Lithuania is a very small country, Rotarian movement there is very active and still spreading.

This year will be the first year, when Lithuania has its own district – 1462. Kaunas Rotary club has been the first club in Lithuania and so is Kaunas Rotaract club. This year Kaunas Rotaract club will celebrate the 20th anniversary.

Kaunas Rotaract club has 8 big projects during one year and it is quite a number. “Our main purpose this year is not only to make good works, but to make our team stronger. We are not only colleagues or people, who have similar aims, but also we are friends” – claims the President of Kaunas Rotaract club 2014/15 Arnas Dudonis.

Among all the projects, Kaunas Rotaract club has several that they initiated and are proud of – “Warm winter” and “Swings”. The projects now exist for 2-3 years and they gain more attention every year. “Warm winter” is a 3 year old project, which is made to help the children of poor families and their family members have something to wear during the cold season. Another project, called “Swings” is a bit older and this season it will celebrate its 4th anniversary. The aim of it is to renew the old playgrounds in the public yards of block flat

houses. With a financial help of Rotary clubs and the habitants of the yards, every year 4-6 playgrounds are being renewed and made more attractive to children.Kaunas Rotaract club has very good relations with all the Rotary clubs and has gained their trust during the years. The old members are welcomed in Rotary clubs and all the projects are overviewed and supported besides the significant role in all the events of Rotary.

SOCIALLY ACTIVE PEOPLE FOR 20 YEARS Kaunas Rotaract Club

LITHUANIA


“More than 100 Smiles” is a project aimed at socially most sensitive group of people - lonely and poor elders. This Vilnius Rotaract club‘s ini-tiative focuses on cheering up the life of solitary and disadvan-taged elderly people by helping them to have their wishes and dreams come true during for most people rather beautiful and cheerful time of a year – Christmas time.

For a 7th year in a row Vilni-us Rotaract club help to fulfill dreams of more than one hun-dred socially vulnerable se-niors. “More than 100 Smiles” is carried out in cooperation with non-governmental organization CARITAS and Social Support Center in Vilnius Municipality.

This partnership allows Vilnius Rotaract club members to get in touch with social employees and seniors and in this way to find out needs and wishes of every elderly individually.

Many people would be sur-prised to learn that very little is needed to bring a glimpse of joy to the eyes of elders - most of them wish for modest things such as whole grains, canned food, honey, vitamins, warm slippers, etc. Only a few dare to ask for more considerable gifts.

It is greatly satisfying to see how this project is growing ev-ery year - although during the previous years Vilnius Rotaract club members were ale to visit approximately 130, then 150

seniors, last year they visited more than 260 poor elders who literally have forgotten what the festive joy means.

Furthermore, “More than 100 Smiles” continues even af-ter the festive season is over. There are more than 30 elders that live in extreme poverty and share very poor health. Those seniors require permanent and special assistance, therefore, Vilnius Rotaract club members visit and support them through-out the entire year.

“MORE THAN 100 SMILES”A project that enlightens a life of lonley and disadvantaged seniorsVilnius Rotaract Club

LITHUANIA


Dynamic, proactive, highly-motivated and adhering to the high-est ethical standards.

No, this is not a de-scription of a Super hero, but instead of a student participating in one of Vilnius Rotaract club`s project - “Rotary Academy”.

The main purpose of this 7th year in a row running mentoring scheme is to facilitate the transfer of profes-sional knowledge and experience from es-tablished professionals to ambitious students and also to grow future Rotarians by introduc-ing Rotary values to the participants.

The “Rotary Academy” is being run in Lithu-ania’s 4 biggest cities, attracting the most ac-tive and dedicated stu-dents seeking to gain knowledge and experi-ence from beyond the

University campus.During the project, se-lected students par-ticipate in a range of events and attend lectures on creativity, entrepreneurship. Fur-thermore, assigned “Rotary Academy” mentors work individu-ally with participants to help them achieve their targeted goals.

The “Rotary Academy” is a very popular proj-ect, annually receiving approximately 1,000 applications from stu-dents from all over Lithuania. Neverthe-

less, usually only 60 students are chosen. When the “Rotary Academy” is over, these students are en-couraged to join Rota-ract clubs and, even further – at some point become a part of Ro-tary community.

ROTARY ACADEMY A way to grow young leaders and future Rotarians

LITHUANIA


ROTARACT IN LITHUANIA: 20 YEARS OF OUTSTANDING SERVICE Lithuania

This year is special because of a few significant occasions for Rotary and Rotaract in Lithu-ania. Not only history of Rotary started 80 years ago, as an-niversary was celebrated to-gether with the initiation of RI District 1462, but also Rotaract marks 20 years of outstanding service in Lithuania.

Rotaract club Kaunas is the first club chartered in 1994.Today there are 8 active Ro-taract clubs within Lithuania which unite nearly 200 young perspective leaders eager to make positive change within the society and manifest val-ues of Rotaract in their every-day activities. What is essential to mention, through the history of organi-zation a number of former Ro-taractors are now members of Rotary clubs and continue their mission on a wider scale while

still participating in major an-nual projects they had begun in order to achieve continuity.

This wide society is the main reason why Rotaract in Lithu-ania has managed to maintain the practice of successful proj-ects and now counts decades of great experience.

A few to mention would be “Rubber duck racing“ of Ro-taract club Vilnius, “Rotary academy“ – developed to be country wide project conducted by 6 clubs so far, tuberculosis prevention programs and many more.

Serving for the society moti-vates us and makes us proud to know we help hundreds of people every year.

Considering ourselves as quite young but mature community of Rotaractors in terms of ser-

vice and self-development, at this anniversary we start direct-ing towards international expe-rience.

We encourage our members to participate in various Rotary events abroad, hosting and taking part in youth exchanges. In a few years we look forward to hosting one of Rotaract Eu-ropean Meetings and show you the beautiful country you probably have not been to – Lithuania.

Let‘s be friends – like our page on Facebook @ Rotaract Lith-uania

Laurynas SuodaitisChair Council of Rotaract clubs

RI D1462

LITHUANIA


On the 24th of Octo-ber, thanks to an invita-tion from the President of Rotary Club Szc-zecin, Mr Włodzimierz Dominiczak - we were given the opportunity to participate in a jazz concert at Trafostacja Sztuki.

We have met marvel-lous musicians from all around the country, e. g. Sylwester Ostrows-ki, Francesco Bruno or Makoto Kuriya.

After the concert you could purchase the art-ists’ CD, with the prof-

On the 5th of Novem-ber 2014 we took the kids from the “Jaś i Małgosia” community centre to the “Słodka Cytrynka” sweets workshop.

After a brief introduc-tion, during which the children, among other things, guessed what are the lollipop dyes made of, the fun be-gan. In overlarge gloves and on special platforms, yet fully focused, ev-

its destined to charity.

We’d like to thank Ro-tary Club Szczecin

eryone had the chance to design a lollipop on their own – thus teddy bears, kittens, snails and even cars were made! Furthermore – all out

of natural ingredients.

Michał Ziemski Rotaract Club Szczecin

District 2230

for the invitation and congratulate them on the organisation of the event!


District 2230

OUR SEETEST TREATRotaract Club Szczecin

JAZZ MEETINGRotaract Club Szczecin

POLAND


“Winter does not have to be cold” or annual collection of clothing be-hind us! Once again, we re-ceived a lot of packages of clothes, toys and ac-cessories, for which we thank the donors beau-tifully! This year, all the collected items will pass the poorest families from the village of Buk and surrounding areas.


District 2230

On Sunday November 23th, 2014 we had the honour to take part in the charity concert, promoting young and gifted artists of the Pol-ish musical scene.

The concert, named “’Talents of Szczecin” had been organised for eighth by the Club Rotary Szczecin Inter-national. The proceeds from the event is intended for the pupils at the Physi-cally Disabled Children and Youth Aid Associa-tion “Tęcza”, the Spe-cial Educational Centre

VII CHARITY CONCERT, “TALENTS OF SZCZENCIN”Rotaract Club Szczecin

in Tanów and for the Disabled Children from Maria Grzegorzewska Centre in Police.

The conert’s idea be-gan in 2007 and, con-tinued up to this day, aims at combining the advancement of Szc-zecin’s talented youth and providing relief for the needy, helping them overcome the most critical obstacles and problems.

Michał Ziemski Rotaract Club Szc-

zecin District 2230

WINTER DOES NOT HAVE TO BE COLD Rotaract Club Szczecin

POLAND


On Sunday, (19th Oc-tober 2014) together with Rotary Club Szc-zecin Center and the DKMS foundation we conducted the registra-tion of potential mar-row donors.

The turnout was huge - We managed to reg-ister 165 people!!!

Thank you very much to everyone who had made up their mind and expressed their will to offer that what matters most.

Michał Ziemski Rotaract Club Szc-

zecin District 2230

REGISTRATION OF POTENTIAL MARROW DONORSRotaract Club Szczecin

POLAND


On Saturday (the 8th of Novem-ber), we had the pleasure to help with “Shoes for the Win-ter”, an event organised by the Rotary Club Szczecin Center.

150 children from large fami-lies, as well as from residential institutions, are now enjoying warm winter footwear.

This regular event had been held for the fifth time and for the fifth time it was extraordinary!


District 2230

SHOES FOR THE WINTERRotaract Club Szczecin

POLAND

22 · ERIC MAGAZINE · Winter 2014 - 15 · · Winter 2014 - 15 · ERIC MAGAZINE · 22

Feel more than wel-come to buy Chari-table Calendar 2015, edited by Rotaract Club Warsaw Down-town.

The calendar is a A5 paper size notebook dedicated to all women fighting breast cancer. It contains 12 beauti-ful and exceptional pictures of our friends from Rotaract, backed with touching state-ments as their answer for question why it is worth helping. Inside, you can also find use-ful information about prophylaxis of a breast cancer.

If you want to contrib-ute to fight this dis-ease, support an on-cology foundation No pasaRAK and thereby, give a present to your-self or the intimate.

Buy our calendar by the website http://kal-endarz.rtc-srodmies-cie.pl/ or contacting one of the members of our club in person. Pricing: 15€/10€ for first 50 buyers

Models: Beata Borkowska, Hanna Dropko, Julia Dudziak, Aleksandra Gontarc-zyk, Alicja Gwiazda,

Halina Krzysztopor-ska, Edyta Niezgoda, Małgorzata Niezgoda, Joanna Ogińska, Edy-ta Palczewska, Maja Sidor, Lena Zielska.

Photographers: Wojtek Biały, Bartłomiej Ko-morowski, Ignacy Śmigielski.Make Up and Stylist: Zuzanna Jaroszkie-

wicz, Karolina Naji, Ewelina Suchodolska.Graphic Design: So-nia Pałęga, Marta Zielińska.

CHARITABLE CALENDAR 2015 Rotaract Club Warsaw

POLAND


Help Kids Smile for Christmas!, or “Help kids smile for Christ-mas”, organized by Rotaract Warszawa Zamek (Rotaract War-saw Castle) since 2002, is an unusual project, which is based on a simple idea: chil-dren - all by them-selves or with a little help from their parents - write letters to Santa Claus.

In those letters, they write what they would like to get for Christ-mas. Those are the gifts of their dreams, that their families are not able to afford. Thanks to the raised funds, our club is buy-ing all the dream pres-ents. On the morning of Christmas Eve, Santa arrives at their homes with a bag full of gifts!

From the very begin-ning, we are cooper-ating on this project with the Social Welfare Centers in Warsaw, helping us to reach the beneficiaries in need.

If you would like to help us raise the funds please contact us by e-mail: [email protected] or by Facebook (link to the fun page below).

Fb: Rotaract-Warszawa-Zamek-Warsaw-Castle

Twitter: @Rotarac-tWCastle

„GRUNT TO CHOINKA“ or HELP KIDS SMILE FOR CHRISTMAS Rotaract Warszawa Zamek (Rotaract Warsaw Castle)

POLAND


Once in October in Poznań the sidewalk by Masztalarska Street was filled with women wearing dotted dress-es, with their hair set in high ponytails. Lots of gentlemen were cap-tivated by mysterious looks those beauties gave them from under their black-lined eye-lids. Everyone finally entered the hidden door – leading to “Sce-na na piętrze” (“The Stage on 1st Floor”).

Among them, there we were – Rotaractors from Poznań. “Scena na piętrze” was the place where the Pin-up Picnic was organized as a celebration of our sponsor’s, Rotary Club, 25th Presidency. A boogie-woogie song “Mr. Sandman” per-formed by The Hot Lips Band welcomed the host of the eve-ning, 25th President of Rotary Club Poznań Mr. Wojciech Górski. He briefly reminded the audience of the history of the Club and its outstanding found-ers, considering the ability to cooperate and the high standards set by first two Presi-dents – professors Ge-rard Straburzyński and Zbigniew Młynarek.

The main attraction was though still to come - and it turned out to be an amusing performance delivered by the members of The Smile Comic Group. Comedians made witty remarks on our current political and sociologi-cal situation of course in a light, joyful man-ner.Memories fade with time, but it does not apply to the ones pre-served in photos. Don’t you think the effect of photo session made during the celebra-tion can compete with world-famous por-traits of the pin-up icon Marylin Monroe?

Paul Harris once said: “This is a changing world; we must be pre-pared to change with it. The story of Rotary will have to be rewrit-ten again and again”. We, the Rotaractors of Poznań, respect the great contribution Poznań Rotary Club gave to the develop-ment of Rotary in Po-land and hope to be their worthy succes-sors!

Hanna PrzezwickaRotaract Club Poznań

District 2230

PIN-UP PICNIC!Rotaract Club Poznań

POLAND


Rotaract Club Trójmiasto is or-ganizing Share your toy event for the third time already. The point of the event is to collect toys, games, books and any other things that will be deliv-ered to families in need before Christmas. This year Rotaract Club Trójmiasto is trying to es-tablish cooperation with manu-facturers and shops so the new toys could be delivered to one of the children’s hospice in Tric-ity in Poland. If any of you would like to join and share your toy

This years’ Rotaract Autumn Meeting for District 2230 took place in Sopot in Poland. Ro-taract Club Trójmiasto worked really hard to prepare the con-ference and was doing the best to leave the participants with unforgettable experience. The conference took 4 days so all the Rotaractors could choose the best suitable day of arrival. On Saturday, 25th of October the day started with panels. The host club invited Mrs. Dorota Kabat and Mr. Sla-womir Chmiel- two experienced speakers. The panels won ev-eryone’s interest and attention. Mrs. Kabat, a Business Coach with 16 years of experience conducted workshops: Commu-nications GPS- how effectively and consciously lead conver-sation with others. Mr. Chmiel, a Consultancy Manager at Gdańsk Foundation of Man-

that you no longer need or play with- contact us on Facebook.

For more information, please visit our facebook pro-file: https://www.facebook.com/ract ro jmiasto?fref=ts and the event page: https://w w w . f a c e b o o k . c o m /events/743880425730765/

Hopefully we will collect even more toys this year so join us or keep your fingers crossed J

Kasia Kasprowicz

agement Development gave us a speech about planning our careers. There were also other speakers- former Dis-trict Governor- Piotr Wygnańczuk, District Gov-ernor Elect Barbara Pawl-isz and Rotaract District Chairman Krzystyna Jan-icz-Szyszkin. After the whole day of pan-els, Rotaract Club Trójmi-asto invited everyone for the gala party which took place in one of the clubs in Sopot. Not only was the end of the conference the point of the party. Rotaract Club Trójmiasto was also celebrating its 15th An-niversary during the gala ball. It has been a wonder-ful weekend full of joy and new experience.

Kasia Kasprowicz

SHARE YOUR TOY Rotaract Club Trójmiasto

ROTARACT AUTUMN MEETING IN SPORT Rotaract Club Trójmiasto

POLAND


Swimmathon 2014This project is all about teamwork, competition and charity!We participated at the beginning of July at a lo-cal swimming competition organized by another local NGO, but the prizes were not for us but for a group of children from Iasi with special needs. Those children come mostly from poor families and we tried to collect money to build a house where they can come for a meal and some fun activities. This cause was suggested to us by Saving Children Organization from Iasi and the final result was 35 laps on long course pool, lots of fun and money for the new home.

Promenada Inimilor, 2014Cardiac diseases, such as myocardial infarction and hypertension, have a very high prevalence amongst romanians. In light of this, we decided to participate at this sports activity called “Prom-enada Inimiilor” on September 24th, 2014 in Iasi, to encourage people of all ages to exercise and take care of their health . It was a success-ful project organized by Rotary Clubs in Roma-nia where not only members of Rotaract/Rotary Clubs participated, but also a large number of teenagers participated in the running and had the chance to prove that health is a priority.

Iasul Dezbate, 2014We organized the second edition of “ Iasul Dez-bate”, a competition designed for high-schoolers who practice academical debate (Worlds Schools format). The event took place between the 7th and 9th of November and the participants were able to attend a conference on Human Rights, followed by a series of debates on prepared and impromptu motions. Such tournament offers the chance of practicing abilities of speaking in pub-lic, of developing opinions on various topics and encountering people with the same interests.

SWIMMATHON, PROMENADA INIMILOR & IASUL DEZBATERotaract Club Iasi Copou

ROMANIA


It is not the most popular sport in the city, and it is even less popular in the country. How-ever, for the past two years, in Craiova, voleyball has become more than just a sport. Now, it is a synonym for social activ-ism, the involvement of people in the community life in order to make a change for the better.

The secound edition of Rota-ract Beach Vollayball Cup took place in the last weekend of summer, on the 30th-31st of August. One year ago, we invited friends as well as people who were passionate about sport and representatives of local public institutions to play vol-leyball in order to raise founds for the renovation of Hospital no.2 Filantropia. We were very

pleased by the enthusiasm and the wish to help of the partici-pants, all contributing through donations which were later used to suply the department of Pediatrics of the hospital. This year, we decided to involve more the comuntity in charita-ble projects than we did in past years. So, we organised the secound edition of Rotaract Beach Vol-layball Cup with the Motto: „You play volley, we rehabilitate a kindergarten!”. For the most fortunate children, the kindergarten is a modern place where they enjoy spend-ing their time. However, for many others, it is just a dull, old and unhygienic place where they are compelled to go. There-fore, we set as our goal to help these children and managed

to raise the necessary founds to recondition and sanitize the Kingdergarten no.35 from Sim-nic, Dolj. Together, we helped the chil-dren to learn in a clean, sani-tized and friendly environment and to benefit from all the facili-ties that a 21st century kinder-garten must have. Teams from public institutions , of local and national comanies and well as volleyball amateurs signed up for the competition. For 2 days, 30 teams played matches to qualify to the next stage.We had an awesome weekend and are looking forward to find-ing another cause for next the summer session

http://www.rotaract-craiova.ro/ Fb: https://www.facebook.

com/rotaractcraiova

ROTARACT BEACH VOLLEYBAL CUP“You play Volley, We rehabilitate a kindergarten”Rotaract Club Craiova

ROMANIA


their guests and members of ICC Russia-Ukraine gathered to plant maples in Botanic gar-den. It was the first step, and it became a tradition!After one year we planted ma-ples again - this time for anoth-er special occasion - interna-tional day of Disabled people. This time we did it together with charity organizations of Kras-nodar.This year it’s 10th anniversary of our Rotaract Club, and to celebrate that we have planted lilacs all together at the Botanic Garden and were very proud of our work!These wonderful plants ex-press our team spirit, family

atmosphere and link between generations. That’s why this project became very important for all of us!In future we want to make spe-cial bookcase with free books and information about Rotary and Rotaract in this garden. Special stones with engraved rotary symbols are already or-dered, and we are looking for-ward to expanding the borders of our wonderful project!We really hope that maples and lilacs will make happy not only us, but also visitors of the Garden and YOU, Rotaractors and Rotarians, are kindly invit-ed to visit our beautiful Rotary Alley in Krasnodar!!!

Another stage of successful long-term project - a Rotary Al-ley at the Botanic Garden - was recently finished by RAC Kras-nodar.The story started two years ago, when Rotary “Krasnodar” celebrated its 10th birthday. It was pretty hard for our Rota-ract to think of a good present for them, but the decision came itself. Our Rotary Club for many years wanted to create a Rota-ry alley in the city, but for differ-ent reasons never made it. We decided to help them fulfill their dream as a gift!It wasn’t easy to organize, but on 8/12/2012 members of Ro-tary and Rotaract Krasnodar,

ROTARY AND ROTARACT ALLY AT THE BOTANIC GARDENRotaract Krasnodar

RUSSIA


You are not Alone: aware-ness campaign against bul-lying

The service of the year that in-cludes many clubs of District 2072° is focused on this topic: raise awareness and fight a real disease: bullying.

We are now on the third step of the service: after the period of training on the issues of bully-ing, cyberbullying, homophobic bullying and their psychologi-cal impact and developments and after the an annual con-gress focused on the topic, we are now preparing our meeting in secondary schools of San Marino to let students be award of the problem and the several ways we have to fight it.

Rotaract in music

In collaboration with eight clubs of the neighborhood we are or-ganizing an musical evening at the theatre to collect some con-tribution to the female hospital in Reggio Emilia. The event will take place on 8th march on the

international day for women Our new Pins

In the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the club we de-cided to create our own com-memorative pin with the Rota-ract logo and the emblem of our Republic.

Anyone interested in buying the pin can contact the club ([email protected])and make arrangements for shipping or to receive it directly to the upcoming international events. The cost is 10 euros

African evening for Casa Ma-ria

The Rotaract club San Marino, will join the event organized by the Rotaract Club Imola sup-porting the fundraising for the national project “Casa Maria” for an orphanage in Africa.

On 9th of January there will be a themed evening with food, artists and typical products of the African tradition, an event already successfully organized

during the past social year by the Club of San Marino.

International New Year Eve

Members of our club are glad to attend the event created by district 2120 to celebrate the in-coming new year in the amaz-ing city of Bari.

Rotaractors from that district had already shown their abil-ity to organize great events supported by breathless land-scapes, extraordinary food from southern Italian tradition in an atmosphere of terrific hospi-tality.

The guys are working for you too, so if you want to join us we will be happy to celebrate with our European friends. Check availability, program and packages on www.capodan-norotaract.com

[email protected]

ACTIVITIES IN SAN MARINORotaract Club San Marino

SAN MARINO


„Rotaract club Zrenjanin“ has last year, for the sec-ond time organized an ac-tion “Winter booth” which lasted from 24.12.2013. to 06.01.2014.The entire concept of this event is that it lasts during Christmas and New Year holidays, and it includes dis-tribution of mulled wine and hot chocolate at promotion-al prices. All products are prepared on the spot. „Rotaract club Zrenjanin“ has for the sec-ond time organized event of this kind, and we at the club are aiming towards making this one of our traditional ac-tions, in which we will dur-ing New Year holidays every

year enable citizens of Zren-janin to get themselves warm beverage and participate in humanitarian activity, and all of it is happening in the city centre.All proceeds that we collect with the sale of beverages is intended for treatment for Milica Knežević, our co-citi-zen who suffers from quad-riplegia.During this years event we managed to collect funds in the amount of 500 EUR.This years event was held with the help of Rotary club Zrenjanin, Inerwheel club Zrenjanin, Touristic center of city of Zrenjanin, compa-ny Gomex, Wine club from Zrenjanin and Caffe Mac-chiato 023.

WINTER BOOTHRotaract Club Zrenjanin

SERBIA


The Rotaract Club Ori-huela begins it’s proj-ect “A glass of wine, means a smile” with effort and hope. This is the mind for starting each of our projects at Rotaract Orihuela, a new brand club where, although being aware we have a long way to go, we keep raised our team spirit up, undertaking and looking forward to keep g r o w -ing and s t r i v i ng for make t h i s w o r l d better.T h e r e -fore, “A glas of wine, means a smile” was born according to our values and work philosophy, a charity wine tasting and span-ish finger food which will took place at Ori-huela’s cafe La En-cantà on Friday 12th of december2014. The event, where a wide variety of the an-nounced beverages donated by the brand Mateo Wines altruisti-cally could be tasted, it’s organised as a way to finacing entertai-ment activities at two retirement homes in Orihuela, and also at

the hospital children area, giving presents, sweets or toys for mak-ing the stay easier for childrens and old peo-ple.The visit will be done on 17th, 22nd and 23rd december, going respectively to Centro Residencial Savia de Villamartín, where we will join choir of Nues-tra Señora del Carmen School, to Vega Baja’s

Hospital and Ori-h u e l a ’ s r e t i r e -m e n t home.In order to ac-complish

the taks, the group was divided into two working groups. The first group managed logistics and sponsors, collecting contributions from business and lo-cal trades from the city area to defray the cost of mounting the wine stage, poster print-ing, etc. The second, was ordered to get the agreements from the managers of each insti-tution, collecting dona-tives from contributors and visiting retirement homes and hospitals.

Sandro MaciáClub Rotaract Orihuela

“A GLASS OF WINE MEANS A SMILE”Rotaract Club Orihuela

SPAIN


Last 26th of October, Rotaract Club Abat Oliba Condal went hiking through Collserola, the natural park of Barcelona. The hiking was around 17 ki-lometers in which we enjoyed nice views of the city. We start-ed in the University area of Barcelona and it ended at Vall-vidrera, stopping at Santa Creu d’Olorda. At Vallvidrera we en-joyed barbacue altogether.The participation fee was €20, including lunch cost and a con-tribution destinated to Matres Mundi Project “Life for Africa”. This project consists in the con-struction of a medical university

hospital for prenatal medicine, in Addis Abeba. Capital of Ethi-opia, country which has one of the highest rates in infant mor-tality.Other relevant activities were taking part during the month of October, reason why we had few participants during the ac-tivity. Although, 11 Rotaracts could enjoy of a delicious lunch, in-cluding green salad with car-rot, tomatoes, olives and on-ion, dressed with olive oil and white wine vinegar. Also, some meat, such as pork chops, lamb ribs, pork sausage, creole sau-

sage and choricillo with “all I oli” sauce. All accompanied with toasted bread with oil, garlic and tomato. For dessert the op-tions were green apple, tanger-ine and grapes, and water and montsant wine to drink. At the end the total amount col-lected was €150, 32 and it was given to Matres Mundi on the 4th of December. All participants were proud of participating and contributing to Life for Africa project.

Rotaract Club Abat Oliba Condal

HIKING FOR THE “MATERNITAT”Rotaract Club Abat Oliba Condal

SPAIN


As you all know, the rotarian community is very close to eradicate polio. But still there is lot of work to do. We took advantage of the International Day against the Poliomyelitis to put our two cents to fight this battle. Our club Rotaract del Vallès and together with both Rotary Club Sant Cugat and Rotary Club Sabadell, organized an event where we projected a TV documentary from the National Television of Catalonia entitled “Polio: chronicle of a Negligence”. This documentary recounts the testimony of people who suffered from polio during Franco dictatorship in Spain, where there was a denial to access the vaccine to prevent this disease. After the projection there were a debate moderated

by a well-known TV presenter and with the presence of two of the people who suffered from polio, who also appeared in the documentary. The debate was prepared by Dr. Amargós from Guttman Institute and by another Rotarian Dr. Rodrigo, specialized in vaccines and advisor of the World Health Organization (WHO). All attendees also enjoyed the little cocktail prepared with Rotarian Cava and Catalan pastries. With the obtained from the event we got more than 1130 vaccines. Having more than 200 attendees, we are already thinking of next year’s event.

Rotaract Club del Vallès

“LA PÒLIO: CRÒNICA D’UNA NEGLIGÈNCIA”Rotaract Club Vallès

SPAIN


During the October 31 to No-vember 2 in Lloret de Mar, virtually all of 2202 inbounds district have been celebrating Halloween party together in a beautiful spot on the Costa Brava in Catalonia.

In Lloret Costa Encantada hotel, guests by the youth committee of the 2202 District came all, 25, boys and girls in this lengthy exchange of 2014-2015, some of them accompa-nied by their host families. This is the first meeting orga-nized by the 2202 district, and it wanted to strengthen the

friendship of all boys and girls between them and also with different foster parents, thus giving an impression that we are a great Rotary family. At this meeting were also Rotar-ians and rotexs Rotaracts dis-trict.

During the two days that lasted the meeting, they have been able to enjoy much of being together, doing various activities at the same hotel as zumba, basketball, costumes, and makeup and also visit the historic gardens of Santa Clo-tilde.

On Saturday 1 were received by the governor, Mr. Ignacio Martinez Cardeñoso and those responsible for youth com-mittee of the 2202 district, as well as the mayor of Lloret and were treated to some poles and other gifts by the Rotary Club of Lloret which hosted the meeting club.

For all participants, the meet-ing was fantastic and good sunny weather and warm temperatures have made it an agreeable.

Youth Commitee District 2202

INBOUNDS 1st MEETING OF DISTIRICT 2202 IN LLORET DE MAR

SPAIN


27 chess parties were played on 13 September 2014 in Schlieren, Switzerland.

For the benefit of ShelterBox Peter Pfiffner, dedicated mem-ber of the Rotary Club Zürich-Limmattal, played a good four hours of simultanous chess against motivated Rotaractors, fellow Rotarians and one or two young chess talents.

Out of the 27 parties, he won 22, 4 resulted in a draw (remis) and only 1 was lost.

Thanks to the generous volun-

tary contributions of the par-ticipants, sponsors and specta-tors an amount of CHF 13’750 could be raised.

Shelterbox is a green box that contains all necessary items a group of 10 people needs in order to survive for several months during a crisis. Includ-ing transportation to the area of crisis, a box costs CHF 1’000.

Since the ShelterBox project was founded in the UK in the year 2000, well over one mil-lion people in almost 90 dif-ferent countries have received

help through a shelterbox.

Thanks to the successful chess event from the Rotary and Ro-taract Clubs Zürich-Limmattal almost 14 additional boxes were donated.

We would like to thank the members of the Rotary Club Zürich-Limmattal, the gener-ous contributors and most of all Peter Pfiffner for such a great event! It was a pleasure to be part of it.

Fiona Huber Rotaract Club Limmattal

27 CHESS PARTIES FOR SHELTERBOX Rotaract Club Limmattal

SWITZERLAND


Rotaract Club of Bostanlı has been supporting the education of children for many years.

Our aim is to ensure the quality education and improve the learning skills of children.

We choose a twin school in our city, visit them, recognise the needs, provide the education materials and teaching equipments for children who are in first grade.

We organise a seminar about “How to raise a happy child” for parents and arrange some interactive training for children.

HAPPIER CHILDREN, BETTER FUTURE Rotaract Club of Bostanli (Ismir)

TURKEY


We want to light up Rotaract with our shining projects this year.One of our biggest aim of this year is to realize a district twin-ning between two districts and realize an international project in District level. With District Twinning; we want to emphasize the in-ternational aspect of Rotaract service and friendship and to es-tablish a long-term relationship with other clubs in our twin dis-trict that will lead to ongoing and effective projects.

We want to enhance the understanding of another culture and each other’s differ-ences.

When the Rotary Day Event was in İzmir and during the Rotary international President Gary CK Huang’s visit to Dis-trict 2440, we were so happy that Vice DRR of District 2032

Giovanni Spigno came and during the intercity meeting we all signed ‘District Friendship Agreement’ as being the first step of our friendship between two districts. And With this idea of twinning, Governor of District 2440 Mecit İsce and Governor

of District 2430 Rotary Korhan Atilla supported this and Rotary International President Gary CK Huang is also supported that twinning between two dis-tricts.

DRR of District 2440 Can Sezi-

ci, Vice DRR of District 2032 Giovanni Spigno, Rotary in-ternational President Gary CK Huang, Governors of District 2440 and District 2430 and Director of Zone 20B Şafak Al-pay signed that District Friend-ship Agreement during the

intercity meeting in İzmir / Türkiye. This Friendship agreement is the first step of our twinning. With this agreement, our aim is to create ‘Friendship be-tween two districts with a service’. And we thought about ‘Protect Your Dis-trict Heritage Proj-ect’ that we want-ed to inform all the

Rotaractors around the world about both districts’ historical and traditional places, foods and heritages.

Also we are creating a web-page that will include the heri-tages of both districts.

DISTRICT FIENDSHIP AGREEMENTDistrict 2440 and District 2032

TURKEY


“ A Piece of Peace”

We jointly organized our 2nd of our term and 532nd meeting of our Club at Kılçık Balık Restaurant with Deliklicınar Rotaract Club. We gathered to-gether with the idea of “ A piece of Peace” at a pleasent dinner with the participation of residence of Denizli Aged Care Facility. We had the chance to con-serve with our elders and celebrate our reli-gious festival. Thanks to their participation and the smile on their face, we experienced a spectacular evening.

“ Today 1 Hour Tomor-row 1 Life” As Denizli Rotaract Club, we invited METU Devel-opment Foundation Deni-zli Primary School Stu-dents to the event held within the scope of Project of “ Today 1 Hour Tomor-row 1 Life” on 06.11.2014 at Forum Camlık and we informed them by show-ing “ Mock-up Colon” and raised their awareness about food habits. By tak-ing photos and videos, we aim to introduce every-one our region and inform people and enjoy the mo-ment.

“A PIECE OF PEACE” AND “TODAY 1 HOUR, TOMORROW 1 LIFE”Denizli Rotaract Club and Deliklicınar Rotaract Club

TURKEY


Rotaract Club of Dokuz Eylül’s aim is to create awareness for an inter-national project and we realized it.

Firstly our project’s name is Ottoman Foodprints from Ae-gena to Balkans.

We think that archi-tecture and aesthetics play an essential role for representing Turk-ish culture and also it is a remarkable project for representing soul of Rotaract because many Rotaractors who live in abroad help us and give a self denial .

This project is about collecting photogra-phes old one and new one the architectural works made suitable for Ottoman architec-ture at Aegean and Bal-kans in Ottoman period of time especially be-ginnig of 1990’s and taking new photos with the same aspect and same pose .We real-ized it with the help of Rotaract friends who live in Balkans. Our Project continues at full speed in area of Distict 2440 and also Balkans , Greece , Montenegro ,Bulgaria , Bosnia Her-zegovina.

OTTOMAN FOODPRINTS FROM AEGENA TO BALKANS Rotaract Club of Dokuz Eylül’s

TURKEY


This project was held by Rota-ract Club of Güzelyalı from Tur-key and Peschiera e del Garda Veronese Rotaract Club from Italy.

The motto of this project is ‘Gained from Art, Spent on Art’,

In this year we renewed our Twin Club agreement which was started last year. In 1th of Nowember 2014 the concert held in Ahmed Adnan Saygun Art Center in Izmir, with the support of the musicians of two nations, as a name of ‘Turkey and Italy Friendship Concert’.

The concert performed by Pre-schiera e del Garda Veronese Rotaract Club member who is the Xylophone player Alessio FRACCROLİ, the piyanists are ,one is the candidate member of Güzelyalı Rotaract Club Çağrı ARSEL. another piyanist Selen BALIKCI who is the Profes-sional piyanist, Soprano Livio ANGELİSANTİ and Karsıyaka Municipality Polyphonic Choir, which performed Turkish and Italian songs,

The preparations began one month in advance, as a result of the concert tickets sold to 300 participants.

During the concert week, five of the members from Peschiera e del Garda Veronese Rotaract Club were hosted by Güzelyalı Rotaract Club in Izmir for cul-turel exchange and to realise

this multicultured event.The concert revenue will be spent to art class which is go-ing to be constituted at Mehmet Lutfiye Donmez Elemantary School, Izmir, Turkey.

The concert was published in various newspapers, websites and social media pages in Italy and Turkey to promote the two clubs and Rotaract.

TURKEY & ITALY FRIENDSHIP CONCERTRotaract Club of Güzelyalı and Peschiera e del Garda Veronese Rotaract Club

TURKEY


As Rotaract Club of Kon-ak of İzmir Türkiye, a member of District 2440; we are glad to announce that we have success-fully implemented a new social project for educa-tional improvements on our neighbourhood.Project’s objective is to build a new special “Lower Class” in primary schools for the children who are having learning disorder problems which Turkish Ministry of Edu-cation makes it obligatory for each primary school as of this year.“Lower Class” term is about learning talent poorness of the students but it’s not related to eco-nomic disadvantage, en-vironmental factors, or cultural differences. It ‘s a special class established

for special children who are already in primary school age however, suf-fering from severe learn-ing and learning difficul-ties.We have realized im-provements on one of the regular classes in Dum-lupinar High School and we are very glad to see that ; Dumlupinar High School’s very first “Lower Class” is ready now by our substantial contru-butions before the new education year in 2015 starts.Students with learning disorder problems having some different needs in order to be more consan-trated and safe. There-fore these facts were taken into serious con-sideration for our project and implementation. The walls are painted as one single colour with lighter tones. The stone ground floor was dangerous for the students and it was replaced with laminated flooring in order to pre-vent having an accident may occur when they fall. Classroom door is renewed; the windows and window frames are repaired and painted. Computer and air con-ditioning unit have also been donated in order to improve educational op-portunities.

SUPPORT AGAINST LEARNING DISORDERRotaract Club of Konak (Ismir)

TURKEY


Following the Rotaract Global Model United Nations Confer-ence in London organised by the Rotaract Club of Westmin-ster it was time for two of the club’s members and two con-ference committee chairs to hop across the pond to the Big Apple. The occasion was the annual Rotary UN Day held in the United Nations Headquar-ters in New York on 01 Novem-ber.

During the day the group heard senior UN representatives talk about topics such as global post-2015 development plan-ning and took part in breakout sessions on economic develop-ment as well as peace and con-flict resolution. The London Rotaractors also

met RI president Gary C.K. Huang.The reason for the journey though was to spread the word about Rotaract MUN. In one of the sessions the four delivered a presentation to increase its ex-posure within the Rotary family. Rotaractors Zsófi Kulcsár and Jakob Zimmermann detailed the concept and vision behind Rotaract MUN and stressed its value for Rotaract itself.

By presenting at the UN a dream came true for Na-jaf Raza and Su-haas Savio Ema, c h a i r p e r s o n s of the Human Rights Council and Peacebuild-ing Commission

at Rotaract MUN. Both are ex-perienced MUN veterans and passionate about the UN. They explained the academic side of the conference and the reso-lutions passed by their com-mittees. Those dealt with chil-dren in armed conflicts and the fight against the Islamic State.

After the conference the Ro-taract Club of New York at the United Nations organised a fundraising social event, where everyone could net-work with fellow Rotarac-tors from around the world.

MUN as part of Rotaract is still in its infancy. Therefore, the trip to New York was important to ensure that Rotaract Global MUN will grow and will in future be firmly anchored in the world-wide Rotaract calendar.

With the announcement of Bel-grade as the 2015 hosting city another step on this journey has been made.

Jakob Zimmermann DRR D1130 2014/15

ROTARACT GLOBAL MODEL UNITED NATIONS Presented at UN headquarters in New YorkRotaract Club Westminster (London)

UK


What is Rotaract Global MUN? What’s its purpose?

Model United Nations confer-ences or short MUNs are aca-demic conferences where par-ticipants (who during the event are called county representa-tives and/or delegates) – stu-dents, youth workers and/or leaders and young profession-als from across the world, as-sume the role of representing a country and debate in formal sessions current political, social and economic issues. MUNs represent an opportunity to learn how to influence decision-making at international level.

What skills are needed to par-ticipate in MUN?

There isn’t a clear list of skills that we expect from partici-pants, as we had delegates ranging from having no expe-rience at all to this being their 28th conference. The focus is more on the inter-ests that we share: diplomacy, public speaking, UN causes, public speaking, politics, in-ternational relations, develop-ment, human rights, peace and conflict resolution, economic

development etc.

What skills can you develop during MUN?

From day 1 you learn about public speaking, negotiating, how to present your argument in 2 minutes, how to address UN officials, quick and objec-tive decision-making, planning ahead, seeing the bigger pic-ture. You become a diplomat for 3 days when you have to act in the best interest of the country you represent. As it’s a speedy learning curve, you realize how quickly you can adapt to new situations and learn new skills. By the end of the event you are walking in a UN representative’s shoes and

The first meeting of the UN took place in London on the 16th January 1946, hosted by District 13 at the Caxton Hall, presided over by RI President Tom Warren, who declared it to be the ‘touchstone for a ges-ture of international goodwill unique in the history of Rotary’. President of RIBI, Tom Benson said ‘UN is a new beginning in

Zsofi Kulcsar RAC Westminster, United KingdomHOC Rotaract Model United Nations 2014 London

international cooperation to make peace; Rotary, wher-ever established, is pledged to the ideal of service to man-kind in international affairs’. Due to the close ties between Rotary and the UN, Rotaract MUN is a great educational platform for Rotaractors to have their voice heard in the international community.

feel that your voice does matter and can make a difference.

MUN seems like a very seri-ous event… Can you tell us more about the relaxed part of it?

Serious? Well I guess it is, as it requires delegates to attend the academic conference (from 9 to 6) for 3 days. And when you are negotiating the future of your country in a certain situ-ation, you don’t want to be too hangover). After such an in-tense weekend we of course offer evening entertainment, where the main purpose is for the delegates to relax, get out from the country delegate mind set and have fun. Since we had

ROTARACT GLOBAL MODEL UNITED NATIONS from the inside with Zsófi Kulcsár

INTERVIEWS WITH CLOÉ BERNIER


more than 25 countries repre-sented, we had an international evening, where we could learn about each other’s culture, we went beer tasting and of course a little party never killed nobody. On Sunday we had our End Po-lio Scavenger hung: its purpose was to raise awareness of polio in central London and for del-egates to see the mind-blowing landmarks of London.

What made you want to orga-nize one in London?

I was always interested in the missions of the UN and its aim to try and make this world a better place through education. There are many ways we can contribute to this, firstly being part of Rotaract and organizing local and international chari-table projects. But I always be-lieve there is so much more we can do. One of the key causes

really close to my heart is edu-cation. Giving the platform to young leaders to express them-selves, to learn and develop, is the key to a more peaceful fu-ture. Rotaract MUN brings together young professionals and stu-dents who are keen in making real changes and providing this platform is helping and facilitat-

ing them to reaching their and our goals.

What problems did you en-counter during the organiza-tion and the event itself?

Since it was the second edi-tion of the event, there are of course loads of things we need to learn and discover. You need to prepare a fair bit for the aca-demic side of the conference, and since we didn’t have much experience of the conference format, there were some things we discovered we were missing on the day. But of course noth-ing we couldn’t handle. Organizing and event in Lon-don can be a bit challenging es-pecially if you want the partici-pants to see most of the touristic attractions and you only have the evening to do this. Living in London for 5 years now, you tend to forget that distances are different, you don’t notice how many people are on the tube until you are trying to get

INTERVIEWS WITH CLOÉ BERNIERZsófi Kulcsár


60 people in the same carriage, from A to B on the weekend J Name a few things that made it worth going through those problems to pull off this event !I think we would all do this all over again, you know what they say, you’re wiser the second time. We as a team learned a lot but enjoyed the experience really much. As a HOC for any E.R.I.C. event, you go though really busy and hectic periods, you’re running in 100 places during the event, but then when you’re saying goodbye at the end of the event you realize that friendships were born, participants had a great time and it was a unique an unforgettable experience.

What was your favorite mo-ment of the weekend?

There were quite a few favor-ite moments throughout the 4 days, but one that pops into my mind is the international

evening. Each delegate had to present their country (with-out telling the name of it) by describing 1 unknown custom, speaking in their language and singing a traditional song or dancing. Delegates were a bit shy at the beginning but then we all ended up singing and dancing together: we expe-rienced dancing moves from Ghana, Mexico, Ireland, USA and beautiful songs from Spain and UK and more.

This is when we all felt that we are all part of a greater world, it didn’t matter where you were coming from or which language you were speaking, we were celebrating our cultures to-gether and the only languages we spoke were friendship and laughter.

Is there anything else you want to tell us about MUN that most of the people prob-ably don’t expect?

Together with Rotaract TEAM Baia Mare, RAC Westminster is hoping that many Rotarac-tors will join this movement and attend future events. Our aim is to grow this international youth platform together to give a chance to young people to get their voice heard by the United Nations.

We are delighted to announce the 3rd club hosting Rotaract Global MUN in 2015: Rotaract Club of Beograd, Serbia!

INTERVIEWS WITH CLOÉ BERNIERZsófi Kulcsár


Forgetting about the horror and difficulties of living in a zone of military operations, citizens of Sloviansk have been coming to … the library.

They sought not only the books and found so much more than just literature! 1170 books – all new and colourful, hard-covered, carefully chosen and delivered from Ivano-Frankivsk – came to be not only a source of literature in Ukrainian, but a powerful message. A message from “the west” to “the east”, a message of support, love and sharing!

The idea of the project appeared during the trip to Sloviansk, which Olechka Kosovych from Rotaract Club Ivano-Frankivsk made to deliver humanitarian aid, vyshyvankas (traditional Ukrainian clothes) and letters to Ukrainian soldiers. Librarians in Sloviansk told about their lack of books in Ukrainian language.

After returning Olechka Kosovych inspired our Rotaract club to start the project. Educationalists and librarians and school students throughout Ivano-Frankivsk were more than willing to join the project, so we soon had as many as 1170 books. Students and adults signed almost every book with words of sheer support, warmth and encouragement for their peer-students and colleagues in Sloviansk.

“Unpacking a box after a box librarians were happy as kids: “Unbelievable, here is Harry Potter and Shevchenko, the manuals on painting pysankas, encyclopedias and lots of other books” – everything that was so much awaited here, but never affordable”, writes the journalist form Sloviansk and an active volunteer Elena Kuleshova on her Facebook.

Rotary club Sloviansk helped

with the delivery of our big and valuable packages to the libraries. So we thank Serhiy Pustovit, Artur Nasibian and Denys Babynskiy (RC Ivano-Frankivsk) for cooperation! Besides the books there were also letters and pictures from our little citizens, in which children traditionally wished our soldiers to win and come back alive! Letters and pictures went to National Guard soldiers and 95 airmobile brigade.

Also a much needed present for our soldiers, a potbelly stove, was sponsored by Mykola Kubishyn from Rotary Ivano-Frankivsk.

Hard times will soon pass, we believe. Together we’ll stay strong.

Olga Tomilova Rotaract Club Ivano-Frankivsk

BOOKS FOR SLOVIANSKRotaract Club Ivano-Frankivsk

UKRAINE


This year turned into so unexpected and quite complicated one for our country. Events started in November 2013 stepwise creat-ed a new page of the Ukraine’s history. Collaboration of Rotary and Rotaract became so important for rebal-ancing in the society as never before. Current projects al-most of all clubs except ordinary club servicing changed to coopera-tion for helping those people who need it the most. During last 10 months associations with Ukraine have being changed principally. Instead of the usual image of the country with rich, old history, wonderful nature and incredible people we are more often associ-ated with the country in fire. The rotaractors have got an idea to re-mind of the peaceful Ukraine.Calendar «Ukraine 2015» is a joint proj-ect of 9 Rotaract clubs

in Ukraine: Rotaract Club Ivano-Frankivsk, Rotaract Club Kyiv Multinational, Rotaract Club Kiev-City, Rota-ract Club Kyiv-Centre, Rotaract Club Lviv, Rotaract Club Poltava, Rotaract Club Rivne, Rotaract Club Kharkiv, Rotaract Club Yalta.For the basis were taken copyright photos from different parts of Ukraine with goal for reminding of fabulous beauty of our mother-land.

Printing run – 300 is-sues. Calendar – 3 lingual: Ukrainian/English/Pol-ish. Layout sheet of the calendar’s title page, A3 sizes. On spring, chalk Cost: 10 EUR 1 copy

This is a Tunnel of Love which is situated in Rivne region and it is a secret attraction of Ukraine. More wonder-ful places are to find at the Calendar - 2015Money received from

calendars’ sale will be given for the joint proj-ect of Rotaract clubs in Ukraine – equip-ping orthoptic cabinet in specialized kinder-garten № 16 «Rush-nychok» (specialized, compensating for men-tally retarded children and children with visu-al impairment) located in Sloviansk, Donezk region. Institution was established in 1972. Here are 64 children. Among them 20 handi-capped, 4 orphans, children from large and dysfunctional families.Aim of the project: gift-ing health for children and giving an oppor-tunity to enjoy the col-ors of the world around us. Due to statistics of the World Health Or-ganization about 20% of pre-schoolers and each fourth pupil have got eyesight problems that may lead to partly or full loss of eyesight.

Most cases can be pre-vented in case of start-ing specific sessions with children.We invite you to join our project. Buy a cal-endar - help us to help others.Fill in the form and we will send you Your Lucky Calendar from Ukraine with special wishes from Rotaract Ukraine Kind Regards,

Country Representa-tive, Ukraine:

Anastasia Sleptsova [email protected]

+380976540178 RAC Odessa

Project coordinator: Olga Kosovych

[email protected]

+38 066 917 04 70 RAC IvanoFrankivsk

CALENDAR “UKRAINE 2015”9 Rotaract Clubs of Ukraine: Ivano-Frankivsk, Kyiv Multinational, Kiev-City, Kyiv-Centre, Lviv, Poltava, Rivne, Kharkiv and Yalta.

UKRAINE


Friederike! Rotaract Europe Meeting Bremen took place 2 months ago… How are you feeling?

Strange – but in a good way. During very stressful phases I was looking forward to that qui-et “normal” time after bREMen. But – to be honest – I don’t re-ally like this quietness, so new projects are in the pipeline.

Before it started, what did you expect from the REM? What did go your way and what did not go according to the plan?

Well, we planned the REM in our heads, started to organize and while planning we con-stantly adjusted our plans as new ideas came up… We had always three main goals: pre-pare an affordable event (e.g. no extra fees for parties, cheap drinks), introduce our beautiful city in as many ways as pos-sible and promote the E.R.I.C.

Meeting as the REMs center-piece. All in all I feel we’ve man-aged to achieve that.

What are your best memories from REM Bremen?

The last hours of the Gala ball: we were listening to our favorite songs, singing along, dancing, enjoying the feeling that we did it and hoping that our Rotaract

friends liked it! Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t enjoy that ev-eryone left at all! When we had the idea to or-ganize the REM, we thought of those cool weekends with all our international friends and friends-to-be. But in reality as main organiz-ers we had hardly any free minute to actually talk to our guests and friends.

Friederike SchlüterRotaract Club Bremen, GermanyHost Organizing Committee of Rotaract Eu-rope Meeting (REM) 2014 Bremen

“POST REM BREMEN” with Friederike Schlüter



What did you learn from REM Bremen?

Delegating. I learned that you just can’t do everything yourself and that you need to delegate. In the beginning, that was really hard. I had to learn to find a bal-ance between trusting the peo-ple to do their tasks and at the same time checking on them without controlling them. As well I had to learn that some-times they did a task differently than I would have done it – not better or worse, just differently.

What did REM Bremen change in your club?

The REM definitely strength-ened the group feeling in our club and showed us what we can achieve together. It intro-duced the members to Rotaract on an international basis and to

the E.R.I.C.! It also started – not only in our club, but also with Rotary Clubs in our surround-ing – some critical discussions on Rotaract values and expect-ed Rotaract behavior, after we had to manage some unpleas-ant situations during REM.

With the experience you have now, what would you say to future REM organizers and candidates?

Talk to former organizers – they’ve been there! Ask them all your questions and if you then still feel like organizing a REM, apply. During the organi-zation you will face challenges, and most certainly former orga-nizers faced similar challenges. And keep a close contact to the E.R.I.C. board, they have a lot of experience with REMs and will always help!

Anything else you would like to add?

I am grateful that the Country Representatives in Riga trusted us to organize the REM and I hope that all our participants enjoyed the event as much as we liked planning it!



How did you end up in the position of E.R.I.C. Country Representative? What at-tracted you in that position?

Bernhard: “Ladies first!”

Anastasia: “I knew you would say that :-) Well, it happened quite unexpectedly. We were 3 candidates and Rotaract Ukraine offered me that posi-tion even though I had been in-volved in Rotaract for one year only. I liked the idea of the in-ternational dimension of it: get-ting to know people from differ-ent countries and cultures.”

B: “Stephanie, the previous Country Representative for

Anastasia, you’re being Country Representative for the second year in a row, which means that you have quite some experience in the job already. What piece of advice would you give Bern-hard and other new Country Representatives?

“The most important is to com-municate. In every country, Ro-taract is different and it’s the same for communication. You have to find a way to make it work for you and your country. What I did was investigating to know how Ukrainian clubs were feeling about the interna-tional dimension of Rotaract. On one hand, I could see that

Austria, is a member of my club and a very good friend. I accompanied her to interna-tional events last year and also gained a lot of Rotaract ex-perience as Assistant District Representative. I am deeply interested in the national side of Rotaract for what it can bring of joint projects. I also like get-ting to know different cultures. When I was thinking of becom-ing a Country Representative, I knew I would move to Zurich (Switzerland) and I figured that this position would be the per-fect one to stay active in Rota-ract without having to be physi-cally in my country.”

Anastasia SleptsovaRotaract Club Odessa, UkraineIn Rotaract for 3 yearsPosition in E.R.I.C: Country Representative for the second yearAge: 26 Occupation: founder of Geekslab, educational project related to small IT-entrepreneurship development, consulting

Bernhard PribylRotaract Club Graz, AustriaIn Rotaract for 4 yearsPosition in E.R.I.C: Country Representative for the first yearAge: 24Occupation: Master studies in Energy science and technology


WHAT IT TAKES TO BE A GOOD E.R.I.C. COUNTRY REP-RESENTATIVE with Anastasia Sleptsova and Bernhard Pribyl


about being a Country Rep-resentative, and on the op-posite, what is the most challenging thing you’ve en-countered since you’ve been in that position?

B: “What I love the most is be-ing in the position where I need to know what is going on in my country, dialogue with the club presidents in Austria and communicate all of this at the European level with pride. The downside would be that I find

you so far?

“Two main things! First, when you become a Country Rep-resentative, you start working with your predecessor to know what’s going on at the Euro-pean level, you learn what the potentials are. Second, having to attend the E.R.I.C. Meeting at REMs and EUCOs makes you realize that those events are not only about sightseeing and partying. By attending the meetings and workshops, you get to know the other Coun-try Representatives, you talk about joint projects, you help each other solving problems, you open your mind to how Rotaract works in other coun-tries…”

What do you love the most

there were always quite a lot of Ukrainian Rotaractors at-tending the European meet-ings, but on the other hand, when it came to answering my e-mails regarding collaboration for newsletters, I didn’t receive many answers. So I tried to find an alternative system. Instead of only sending newsletters to all Rotaractors in Ukraine, I looked for one person in each club that would be my contact for international affairs, an am-bassador, someone who will in-spire their club members to get involved.”

Bernhard, you’ve been a Country Representative for a few months only, but I’m sure you’ve learnt a lot al-ready. Can you tell us what this position has brought

INTERVIEWS WITH CLOÉ BERNIERAnastasia Sleptsova and Bernhard Pribyl


it relatively hard to communi-cate within the whole country, pass the information along to the presidents and have them forward it to their members. Knowing the club presidents is not always enough as they often have lots of other infor-mation to forward and interna-tional is not on top of the list. I am currently working on an al-ternative solution: summarizing news from Europe and send them less often to have greater impact.”

A: “I am happy I have met so many amazing people thanks to the E.R.I.C. I can say it was my

first international experience in project management: commu-nicating with so many people from so many different places, trying to explain the Ukrainian clubs about the E.R.I.C. The greatest challenge I’ve faced is personal development. It might sound selfish, but being a Country Representative made me move forward. I am now a member of “Global Shapers”, a community linked to the World Economic Forum and I believe working in the E.R.I.C. lead me there!”

What relation do you have with Rotaractors in your

country ? How do you inter-act with them?

A: “In Ukraine, there are about 300 Rotaractors, clubs are quite small. Last year, I visited a lot of Rotaract events of Rotaract Ukraine, and I ended up know-ing most of the Rotaractors. I also gave a workshop about REMs and EUCOs to Rotaract and Rotary in Odessa, explain-ing what it is and why Rotarac-tors should attend those events. Now, they are thinking about it more and more. This year, I have less time, so I am discussing with the board about organizing another work-shop about E.R.I.C. for all Ukrainian Rotaractors, in my city of Odessa. Lots of people have already told me they would like that!”



B: “Last year, at the district con-ference in Graz, I met a lot of Rotaractors and started build-ing friendships. Since then, I’ve communicated mostly by e-mail and over the phone. Then, I noticed than at the Europe-an Convention in Nice, there were more Austrians than ever, which makes me think that in-formation circulates better, peo-ple become more outgoing and want to get to know Rotaractors around Europe. And now that Anastasia has mentioned this country work-shop about E.R.I.C., I think I should organize this kind of seminar as well. I thought I would do it just for my club, but

why not doing it at a wider lev-el?”

What would you say a Coun-try Representative should have to be a GOOD one ?

B: “Being outgoing! Being pas-sionate by how things work in other countries and wanting to find different methods to help others and improving what we do.”

A: “I totally agree with Bern-hard! A Country Representative should have a deep interest in international communication, should want to inspire other people and visit the main Euro-pean events.”

What would you tell someone to convince them to become a Country Representative?

A: “It seems that I’ve already convinced someone, actually. I

just felt like I had to tell her that besides the fun, it’s also hard work and takes quite a lot of time! It’s important to know all the sides of it to do a good job!”

B: “I would tell this person: “come with me to an internation-al event and I’ll show you why it’s good” and let them dive into the international community of Rotaract. I like showing things to people, let them realize why it’s a good thing by bringing them to the conference, instead of just talking about it.”

What are your plans in the E.R.I.C. for the future?

B: “I can see myself in the E.R.I.C. board in the future, be-cause getting involved in the E.R.I.C. gives you more pos-sibilities to keep Rotaractors updated about what is going on in Europe and assist them in working together. Plus, it would also be great for my personal development!”

A: “I’m not quite sure yet, but I could see myself in the E.R.I.C. Marketing Team!”

Anything else you would like to add?

B: “Thanks for giving a voice to new Country Representatives in the magazine! Thanks for lis-tening to our ideas even though we have not been in the “busi-ness” for so long!



Title

This multi-district information organization is called ‘Rotaract Mediterranean Multidis-trict Information Organization (Med MDIO)’.

Rotary Districts around the Mediterranean Sea

Rotaract clubs and districts located around the Mediterranean form diverse and cultur-ally rich communities out of which the lead-ers of this MED MDIO have come with the idea to enhance communication, informa-tion dissemination and assist participating districts to work together.

For now the Med MDIO is composed by 20 Districts in almost 20 countries.

Tools of the Organization

They are:- organizing international meetings and events- creating and updating the MED MDIO Website- distributing the MED MDIO Newsletter on a semi-annual basis- compiling a directory including the ad-dresses of the Rotaract clubs of the partici-pating districts- providing a Mediterranean event calendar

Organizational Structure

It consists of the executive board and the country representatives.

Mediterranean Convention (MEDICON)

It is a three-to-five-day event held prefer-ably in late spring or early fall of each year.

The agenda of the event shall include a full day for the convention and workshops as well as half a day for the Med MDIO Execu-tive Board meetings.

It is preferred that the MEDICON be orga-nized in a different country every year with a rotating criteria in order to give the pos-sibility for each country to organize this im-portant international event

Mediterranean Board Convention (MBC)

It is a three-day event held preferably in au-tumn of each year. The agenda of the event shall include a full day for the Med MDIO executive board meetings.

This meeting is useful for it enables the Country Representatives to meet each other physically and to define together the headlines of the Med MDIO year.

It is preferred that the MBC be organized in a different country every year like for the MEDICON.

INTRODUCING THE MED MDIO

MED MDIO


MED MDIO


Best European Service Project & Twin Club Award

Want to promote your club’s projects?Want to be part of some healthy competition?

Here is your chance!Apply for BESP & TCA!

More details: http://rotaracteurope.org/get-involved/apply-

for-besp-or-tca/

Applications start in January

Stay tuned!


INTERNATIONAL WEEKEND / 20th CHARTER-PARTY! February 21st, 2015, 19:00h Vienna (Austria)RAC Wien-Stadtpark

Februaruy 2015

2015 AUSTRALIAN ROTARACT GAMES January 31th - Februaruy 1st, 2015 Botanic Park Adelaide South Australia Australia

TRIP A.I.R.A.U.P. Cost: USD 250 San Fernando del Valle de Catamarca Provincia de Catamarca, Argentina

2nd Rotaract District 2451 Conference March 12th, 2015 Dubai City, South Sinai, Egypt

March 2015

FUTURE ROTARACT EVENTS rotaracteurope.org/upcoming-events/


April 2015

INTERNATIONAL SKI WEEK March 7th - 14, 2015Depending on packageSaas Fee Switzerland Rotaract Switzerland

GERMAN CONFERENCE (DEUKO) 2015 Cost: 80 March 27th - 29th, 2015 Kongress am Park Gögginger Straße 10, 86159 Augsburg Germany

MEXICO LANGUAGE TRIP 2015 Cost: 379 EUR March 29th, 2015 – April 9th, 2015 Centro Cultural Luis Nishizawa Mexico City Mexico

RYLA 2015 ISTANBUL Cost: 60 EUR April 16th - 19th, 2015 Istambul Turkey

FUTURE ROTARACT EVENTSrotaracteurope.org/upcoming-events/


May 2015

EUCO 2015 BUCHAREST ROTARACT EUROPE CONFERENCE April 29th - May 3rd, 2015 Bucharest, Romania

EXPEDITION GERMANY All over Germany May 5th 18th, 2015 Cost: 299 Germany

ARIZONA TRIP 2015 (USA) May 14 - 24th, 2015 Tempe, Arizona

ROTARACT BRUSSELS INTERNATIONAL WEEKEND PART IIIMay 15th - 17th, 2015 Boulevard Adolphe Max 1000 Brussels Belgium

FUTURE ROTARACT EVENTS rotaracteurope.org/upcoming-events/


August 2015

ROTARACT PRECONVENTION 2015 SAO PAULO Cost: USD 50 June 4th - 5th, 2015 Colegio Rio Branco Avenida Higienópolis 996 - Consolacao, São Paulo, Brazil

ROTARY INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION 2015 SAO PAULO Cost: USD 70-130 for Rotaractors June 6th - 9th, 2015 Anhembi Convention Center Avenida Olavo Fontoura, 1209 - Santana, São Paulo Brazil

RYLA NORTH AMERICA CONFERENCE 2015 Cost: USD 400 21st - 26th July 2015 AGE of delegates: 18 to 30 years old Washington, DC, USA

12th ASIA PACIFIC REGIONAL ROTARACT CONFERENCE (APRRC) 2015 INDONESIA August 8th, 2015 Indonesia

June 2015

FUTURE ROTARACT EVENTSrotaracteurope.org/upcoming-events/


Winter 2014 - 15

@rotaracteurope www.rotaracteurope.org [email protected]

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e.r.i.c. magazine, winter 2014 - 15

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