Kalyan Banerjee- RI President 2011-12

Our first emphasis of the year is family. Good families lead to good neighborhoods, and good neighborhoods build good communities. Good communities make great nations. For there to be a strong family, there must be a strong and safe home. Only then there be health and hope and harmony within its walls. And then, we start looking at safe housing, at water, and sanitation, at health care, at all issues affecting mothers and children.

Our second emphasis is to build on what we do well, on continuity. There are so many things we are indeed good at: working clean, safe water; spreading literacy; working in so many ways with the new Generations, our youth, in our newest Avenue of Service and answering them to become the leaders of tomorrow. Of course, we stay focused on eradicating Polio. We must continue to work with our strategic plan – expand on it., reinforce it, and take it to next level. We must support The Rotary Foundation on its Future Vision Plan.

Our third emphasis will be change, and we start by being the change we wish to see in the world ourselves. If we wish for peace, we start by living in peace ourselves, in our homes and in our communities. If we wish environmental degradation to stop, if we wish to reduce child mortality or to prevent hunger, we must be the instrument of that change – and recognize that it must start with in us, with each of us.

To being about changes, we will need to think out of the box. We need to explore the possibilities of working together with others similarly engaged as we are. Rotary and the United Nations form a symbiotic relationship. We can take this forward by our engagement with Millennium Development Goals, striving to meet the needs of our communities. The newly approved but well-tested Rotarian Action Groups – working in areas such as safe water, microcredit, AIDS prevention, or literacy – will significantly strength our arsenal of weapons to serve effectively and efficiently. We are in Rotary to change the world, for why else would we be Rotarians? We believe our future will be better than past.

Two areas where we shall need to constantly revisit our goals are first, finding more Rotarians to do work of Rotary. We must focus on getting newer younger, current-generation, You Tube and Facebook savvy Rotarians. And the other area we must look at is telling well the story of Rotary to the world. As you go ahead, you will find that what really matters is just your willingness to meet the need, and not the size of the project. The difficult jobs can be done right now. The impossible may take just a bit longer. Along with the big things, let’s not ever forget the small gestures that change lives. And you will then see that almost everyone will smile back. Laugh and the world laughs with you.

Let’s make one year, in addition to all that we do, a year of laughter and joy and happiness, with at least three smiles each per Rotarian and spouse every day. That’s eight millions smiles daily. In this life, you will find we may not always be able to do great things, with great love. But we can always do small things, with great love. As we get ready to commit a precious year of our lives to Rotary, let us clearly understand that each one of us has a part to play, to perform, to deliver. We cannot simply say that we shall try our best. We need to commit ourselves absolutely, fully, and say what I must do shall indeed be done. Each one of you will succeed because the resolve and strength to do this – to do anything – comes from within yourselves. In order to achieve anything in this world, a person has to use all the resources he can draw on.

The only place to start is with ourselves and within ourselves. And the questions we need to ask ourselves are: Why am I here? Why are you here? It is because we all seek a sense of fulfillment in life, and the responsibilities we are about to take up are a part of that fulfillment.

To achieve fulfillment, we have to find harmony between our inner self and outer self; the inner dimensions are our desires, our will, our spirit, and our outer dimension is the action we take and the image we create. That is why I am asking you to reach within and unleash your inner power and then use it to embrace everything and everyone around you. “First reach within yourself, and then move on confidently, firmly. Toward the targets you have set for yourselves. Discover yourself, develop the strengths within you, and then unhesitatingly, unflinchingly, go forth and encircle the world, to embrace humanity. And that, my brothers and sisters in Rotary, is going to be our theme for our year:
“Reach within to Embrace Humanity”

Kalyan Banerjee
President, Rotary International, 2011-12