E.R.I.C. Newsletter, May 2012 by Mikolaj Dragovic

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May 2012

Newsletter of the European Rotaract Information Centre

EUCO 2012 Moscow! Welcome words from the Host Organising Committee!

ear friends! We are happy and proud that Russia will be a host country of 15 Anniversary European Rotaract Convention 2012! Russia is a country with rich history and traditions, with strong spirit and hospitable people. It’s quiet difficult to explore our country for 4 days of the conference but it’s very simple to fall in love with Russia for this short period of time. For many people in the world Russia is like unknown planet, we want Russia to become for everybody like a best neighbor after EUCO 2012! To familiarize you with Russia we will merge everyone each day to certain epoch of Russian history.

The culmination of EUCO 2012 is planned to be Gala dinner on 26th May during “Modern Russia” day! Did you watch Oscar Ceremony? This time in Moscow you will be able to be a part of this beautiful event! European Best Social project and European Best Twin Club awards are waiting for winners this evening! EUCO 2012 offers to you a huge sightseeing program including 10 different excursions from Kremlin to limousine night. Be sure we don’t forget about parties! Each evening we will gather together to have fun and enjoy! Moscow is ready to open its doors for all our amazing friends to spend fantastic and unforgettable time! Moscow is waiting for EUCO 2012!

During “Ancient Russia” day on 23rd May you will be able to participate in workshops of Russian masters, play ancient games, listen to ancient Russian musical instruments etc. You can feel the spirit of Ancient Russia everywhere! Opening ceremony will be organized with support of Moscow Government and supposed to have many surprises! It’s a great pleasure for us to have at opening ceremony Rotary International representative as an honorable guest!

Welcome! Добро пожаловать! With warm greetings, EUCO 2012 Organizing Committee

On 24th May we invite all of you to the ball of Her Imperial Majesty Ekaterina the Second! You will be totally involved in the atmosphere of Russian Imperial balls of 18-19 centuries with vast dancing program and beautiful costumes of that epoch! EUCO 2012 “time machine” will transfer us to Soviet times on 25th May. Time of great achievements and great patriotism! You will be able to touch the way soviet people live, playing sports, have fun!

EUCO 2012 Moscow Host Organising Committee

Newsletter of the European Rotaract Information Centre

2011/ E.R.I.C. Board /2012 The Epilogue ear sisters and brothers in Rotaract, dear friends, This has been quite a hectic year! When we started our service as an E.R.I.C. Board, back in summer 2011, we had our hearts filled with eagerness for action. Frankly, although it's time for us to pass on the duty to the next Board, our initial eagerness has not faded one bit! What keeps us enthusiastic is seeing how much of what we, as a Board, have envisioned, has actually came to fruition: brand new E.R.I.C. website will be launched in a couple of days, newsletter has undergone a major revamp and with a new assesment&award system competition for Best European Service Project and Twin Club Award have gained on prestige immensely, quadrupling in just one year number of applications. In addition there are major changes in how E.R.I.C. itself operates: planned budgeting of E.R.I.C. has been introduced for the first time and new guidelines, such as „Country Representative Guideline” or „Event Organisation Manual”, insure that E.R.I.C. work will continue to improve. All that and many more could not be done without a great involvement of all the Country Representatives of the E.R.I.C. Committee and help from common Rotaractors all around Europe. Your work makes a difference, thank you for that, Yours in Rotaract, E.R.I.C. Board, 2011/2012

Darko Šovran President

Andreas Rath Vice-President

Nataliya Stoyanovych Social Officer

Nika Anžel Secretary

Giorgio Gandus IT Officer

Javier Roldán Vicente Treasurer

Mikołaj Dragović Marketing Officer

Elif Öztürk ECO Officer

Newsletter of the European Rotaract Information Centre

REM ITALY Torino 2012 Post scriptum ear Rotaractors, we were pleased to welcome you in Turin and we hope that everything was to your liking. This REM was amazing, you made us all proud to be Rotaractors. 762 participants representing 43 nationalities have marked the international aspect of our organization one by one and you have made this possible. Thank you so much to our Service partners - Shelterbox ( www.shelterbox.org ) and Mapability ( www.mapability.org ) for managing the workshops. We had celebrated together one year of Rotaract and a very hard work. We just want to say Thank You, enjoy Rotaract. Giorgio Gandus Chairman - REM ITALY Torino 2012

E.R.I.C. Board and Honorable guests

REM Torino Gala Ball

Newsletter of the European Rotaract Information Centre

E.R.I.C. in Asia

ear friends,

E.R.I.C. is present everywhere in the world and we had 4 representatives in Bangkok, Darko Sovran (ERIC President), Andreas S. Rath (VP ERIC, CR Austria), Annette Alt (CR Germany) and Doris Grimm (CR Germany). We have been participating in APRRC (Asian Pacific Regional Rotaract Convention), Rotaract Preconvention and Rotary International Convention Bangkok 2012.

are more advanced in IT than we are. All presentations were in the last versions of tools for presentations. This makes information more suitable for attendance and it is more interesting as well as very easy to follow.

During APRRC we had the honor to present ERIC during country reports. We invited our fellow Rotaract friends to our main ERIC events and shared with them our concepts. The event organization is different from the one we used to have here in Europe; they are more dedicated to present their national food, dances, drinks, clothes and other motives. We participated in Asian style parties; only thing we were missing just a little bit were the right drinks. People are very friendly and they are all dedicated to Rotary ideas and values. They exchange business cards with two hands and we also learned that we need to accept them the same way, i.e. with two hands. During their presentations we found out that they

Regarding the city visits, we just had possibility to be in Floating market but there were no other possibilities. We were also serving to the community as we spent some time in school where we were painting fence and making lotion from the rise. After the APRRC we moved to official Rotaract hotel where we joined to all Retractors from around the world for Rotaract Preconvention at Rotary International 2012 conference. During Preconvention we have been visited by RI President Kalyan Benerjee and RI President Elect Sakuji Tanaka. In program of the Preconvention we had opportunity to present our incoming events Moscow, Kyiv and Timisoara. ERIC had good representation and contributions during the workshops as Andreas and Darko were asked by RI president and Rotaract-Rotary Committee to serve as workshop facilitators together with international Rotaractors; as well as our past presidents Lerzan and Benoit.

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Multiple events as well as a service project accompanied the Rotaract Preconvention. Social events like a welcome party, having dinner together, a fantastic Tuk Tuk ride as well as a guided city tour through the temple areas of Bangkok. Before the Tuk Tuk ride the Rotaractors were invited to participate in the official opening of a Thai festival together with the high representatives of the city as well as the current RI president. At this event we had the possibility to try Thai food and drinks especially prepared on site and handed to us for free. Have we mentioned that Darko and Andreas had the opportunity to meet Miss Thailand there? Some pictures are presented next to these lines. One of the most touching times was the service project; painting and repairing a children school located in a suburb of Bangkok. We went to this school from the convention area with a Military bus guided by the police and accompanied by a Rotary camera team. After the initial meeting with the children, we were given painting material and started the joint working process. In the evening after finishing our tasks members of local politics as well as the school thanked us; the children in particularly with Thai music and dances. The small children were so sweet as you can see on the pictures. At the Rotar y International

Convention we all the opportunity to talk to lots of fellow Rotarian as well as Rotaract friends, spend time with them and listen to what they had to explain and tell us about the Rotary spirit and engagements in their countries and districts; e.g., Darko and Andreas learned from Rot. Harald Marschner, President of RFIPD â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Rotarian Action Group for Population Growth and Sustainable Development, about their projects in Afrika and from Rot. GĂźnter KĂśnig, National Coordinator Intercountry Committees (ICC) Germany, about ICCs. In the ICC workshop we learned that these committees have a high ambition to also include Rotaractors in their committees to bridge borders and bring the countries/districts/clubs closer together and foster peace and understanding. All in all, APRRC as well as Rotaract Preconvention and RI Convention was a great success for all participants and especially a valuable experience for ERIC members. We can only suggest to all of our friends in ERIC to participate in such international Rotaract and Rotary International events to meet, experience and feel our global Rotarian family.

Newsletter of the European Rotaract Information Centre

Best European Projects by Nataliya Stoyanovych, Social Officer, E.R.I.C. Board

ne of the best memories in my Rotaract life was the day in 2008 when I received email from ERIC that my Club project was in TOP-5 list. For Social Officer it was probably one of the emails she wrote that day, but for me – it was one of the most important news that year. I remember my feelings and emotions till today. So when I was elected as Social Officer, my dream became to create a really special BESP award in 2011/2012.

European Service Projects: · Belgium (many clubs) - “Rotaract Hearts” · Germany (RAC "Ulm") – “Donaubeben - Das Open Air für den guten Zweck” · Netherlands (RAC "Amersfoort") – “Monopoly Amersfoort” · Turkey (RAC "Ankara Anıttepe") - “One Whistle… One Life!...” · Ukraine (RAC "Kyiv-Centre") – “Health as a gift”

With this in mind it was decided to organize official award ceremony in Oscar style. We knew that EUCO team in Moscow will create unforgettable event in May and we wanted to use this fact to attract as much attention as possible of European Rotaract Clubs. Our next step was polishing up application and selection processes. We improved the application forms, added a few questions and focused on new areas of evaluation. Active work of Country Representatives, promotional campaign on Facebook and articles in Newsletter helped us to collect 52 application forms from 17 countries that is 3,7 times more compared to last year. All forms we received were very strong and 11 Rotaract Judges on different stages had very difficult task to choose the best of the best. Our aim was to help the judges to stay objective during the whole process, so we developed a guideline that contained key tips and recommendations for the evaluation. To maintain diversity we even invited Rotaractor from Mexico to join our Judging committee. During selection process we paid most attention to the project idea and its value to the community; involvement of Rotary and Rotaract Clubs and, of course, project results.

To be honest nobody expected that selection process will be that difficult, as there were dozens of amazing projects. But tough competition makes the victory only sweeter!

All of the above created very competitive conditions for all candidates and we managed to select TOP-5 Best

It was the first year when we tried out this new approach for selection applicants for Best European Service Projects and Twin Club Award. After 4 months of active work I see the areas that could be improved next year, so I am sure ERIC will continue move forward! As for my personal recommendation to all Clubs that would like their projects to be included in the list of TOP-5 projects next year I can say the following: think and act differently - put your soul in everything you do! Good Luck to all Rotaract Clubs and let our projects be more and more remarkable!

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Interview with the finalists by Nataliya Stoyanovych, Social Officer, E.R.I.C. Board

To get inspired by most interesting projects, we have interviewed the finalists of BESP award. All the Clubs answered same questions.

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project (like in the pic attached). Every participant made a handprint around it. We want to repeat that at EUCO. We bring a poster with the logo and ask people that like the idea of the project to draw their hands on it and sign it. b) We want to make a poster of a pic showing the kids from the project with one of the participants of the project (something like the picture attached) in live size. We make a hole where the head of the participant is, and people can stick their heads through and we make pictures of them, it should look like they were there with the kids. We collect the e-mail adresses of the fotographed people and sent them their pic if they want to.

Belgium (many clubs) - “Rotaract Hearts” 1. Why it is important to your Club to win BESP award? It might surprise, but for our club it is not so important that we win the BESP. The most important thing is that we made a change for the deaf and mute kids, so that they can continue their life with at least the feeling that they are still loved! 2.

What was most difficult during application and selection processes? We did not have a specific difficulty, the only difficulty is the waiting :) 3.

What would you recommend to applicants next year in order to be in TOP-5 list? Just do it! But focus on the project, make the difference with the project, not the application! 4.

What crazy action are you ready to make in case your project will be chosen as Best European Service Project? This action could be done in Moscow during EUCO or anywhere else :) We are considering two crazy options, in both we like to connect them to our trip to South Africa and involve as many people at EUCO as possible. a) In South Africa we did a big poster with the logo of the

Germany (RAC "Ulm") – “Donaubeben - Das Open Air für den guten Zweck” 1.

Why it is important to your Club to win BESP award? Winning BESP would be very important for the “Donaubeben”: 1) It would help the project to get publicity in the press, which is important to sell tickets and help in improving the fundraising; 2) In future, being BESP would help us to find sponsors that support the festival and thereby the social projects 3) To honor all volunteers for helping in organizing the “Donaubeben” year by year. 2.

What was most difficult during application and selection processes? Writing down our motivations and impressions about the “Donaubeben” every year. This kind of social project you have to join to feel the motivation of all participants. 3.

What would you recommend to applicants next year in order to be in TOP-5 list? Select good pictures which “perfectly explain” your project. 4.

What crazy action are you ready to make in case your project will be chosen as Best European

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Service Project? This action could be done in Moscow during EUCO or anywhere else :) Since the “Donaubeben” 2012 is at May 26th, we would like to broadcast the festival live at the gala dinner (for a short time). ;) Netherlands (RAC "Amersfoort") – “Monopoly Amersfoort” 1. Why it is important to your Club to win BESP award? This project could be an inspiration for other Rotaract Clubs in Europe. If our project wins the project it will be in everybody's sight. As said in our application, over Europe there are a number of companies who can produce a custom-made Monopoly game so this project is easy to adopt in many countries! 2.

What was most difficult during application and selection processes? The most difficult was the waiting for the decision of the jury (wink)! Now seriously, it was hard to be clear and brief in our application. It was hard not to write down too much detailed information about our project, about which we are so enthusiastic! 3.

What would you recommend to applicants next year in order to be in TOP-5 list? Be creative, come up with a project that hasn't been done before. Work hard and use all your connections to achieve your goals.

motto in order to embrace humanity by using the power within us. We aim to share our project with other Rotaract clubs in different countries and promote our efforts and success in our project by receiving the Best European Service Project Award. Our main goal in receiving this award is getting the opportunity of announcing our project globally and becoming as a positive example to the other Rotaract clubs whose countries are also under the risk of earthquake. Furthermore, we would like to be a motivating example for other Rotaract clubs in our district. We believe that, if we take this award, this will motivate our district's clubs for both carrying out bigger and better projects, and applying for the awards given byERIC. On the other hand, if we gain this award, we will draw more attention to Rotaract and Rotaract projects in our country via announcements through national and international press. 2.

What was most difficult during application and selection processes? Since we made the application via e-mail, we were limited with a fixed data size. Therefore, we needed to resize the photos in the application form. We believe that it would be better that if an online application submission system through the ERIC website was occupied. This would both fasten the application process and give applicants the opportunity of providing the visual documents, such as photographs and videos, with higher resolution and image quality. 3.

What crazy action are you ready to make in case your project will be chosen as Best European Service Project? This action could be done in Moscow during EUCO or anywhere else :) Of course we will play a game of Monopoly Amersfoort with a drink on the side with anyone who'd like to! Would you like to play with us?

Turkey (RAC "Ankara Anıttepe") - “One Whistle… One Life!...” 1. Why it is important to your Club to win BESP award? As Rotaract Club of Ankara Anittepe, we always realized our projects with the motto of “Service Through Friendship” up to now and our main goal is proceeding our projects with the same

What would you recommend to applicants next year in order to be in TOP-5 list? We would recommend the applicants to carry out long-running projects, so that they could reach a mass of people. For this purpose, it would be better if they start the preparations right now and initiate the project just at the beginning of 2012-13 Rotaract year. We also recommend them to employ all the club members and guests in the project, so that the relationships among the members and the guests will be improved. A task distribution would make among the club members and guests and they should participate effectively. This success does not belong to just one person, so participation and task distribution of club members and guests is so important. On the other hand, it would be great if they can cooperate with their sponsor Rotary club and/or other Rotary clubs, so that they will have the

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What crazy action are you ready to make in case your project will be chosen as Best European Service Project? This action could be done in Moscow during EUCO or anywhere else :) One of the most important things we made in project was distributing “emergency whistles”, which were specially designed for“One Whistle... One Life!...” Earthquake Awareness Project, to people, so that they could have the chance to be heard from under the wreck. If our project is chosen as the Best European Service Project, we would distribute emergency whistles to all of the EUCO participants and try to make a great echo with the sounds these whistles when our name is announced in the hall. We would start whistling as the members of Rotaract Club of Ankara Anittepe and expect everyone to join us which we believe to help to set up a warm atmosphere among all the participants. Moreover, we can also design a melody that will be played with the whistles before the EUCO by making prework and shout the name of Ankara Anittepe and Turkey along with this melody when our name is announced in the hall.

What would you recommend to applicants next year in order to be in TOP-5 list? To be honest, we have set ourselves very high standards and most of us did not believe in success of such big project. Therefore, our recommendation will be to set yourself the highest goals and take steps to achieve them. It's simple. 4.

What crazy action are you ready to make in case your project will be chosen as Best European Service Project? This action could be done in Moscow during EUCO or anywhere else :) Oh, good question. If we win, we will give the statuette to Rotaract Club «Göttingen» until the next REM in Kyiv and hope that they will return it. Without them this project would have been different. Also it would be interesting to look at faces of our Club members, when we arrive home without a cup. One more promise - all the finalists will drink champagne in Kyiv with us.

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1. Why it is important to your Club to win BESP award? First of all it is important to all our Club members. «Health as a gift» is the greatest project of our club since 2003 when it was founded. In general, the fact that we are in the final list is already our big achievement. 52 application forms and Ukraine among the Top 5! This is a great motivation for us to organize new interesting projects. We are very grateful for this opportunity to ERIC. But the most important for us is understanding that our project results are beneficial to

What was most difficult during application and selection processes? It was difficult to choose the most important information and thus show in the application form all the efforts we put into this project. The text never fully shows everything we have done :) And it was crucial to us to demonstrate the contribution of our friends from other Rotaract Clubs in different countries.

Ukraine (RAC "Kyiv-Centre") – “Health as a gift”

ordinary people in the country side of Ukraine.

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opportunity of making use of the Rotarians' experiences. Moreover, they should prepare a project budget and start to search for sponsors as soon as possible where they would better use the help Rotarians in finding sponsors. They should draw attention to Rotaract and Rotaract projects via announcements through national and international press. In this way, they will be introduced the Rotaract and Rotary families in a good way to other peoples who do not know Rotaract and Rotary. We believe that this will lead to a great promotion of Rotary and Rotaract and motivate new people to join us.

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Rotaract Hearts for South Africa

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The Experience of a Lifetime â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Changing a life

Rotaract Brussel Coudenberg Simon Ginis, Country Representative Belgium

otaract Hearts (www.rotaracthearts.com) is an initiative by Rotaract Brussel Coudenberg. Our ambition is to cooperate with different Rotary clubs all over the world and support them in their local projects that share the same vision as we do: 1. The local social project should be focussed on kids; 2. Rotaracters from all over the world should have the opportunity to join the project; 3. The local Rotary club needs to commit to this social project on a long term.

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On top of that it is officially a school, but since all the kids at the end of the school day just stayed around the school to sleep, they turned it into an orphanage with the help of some donors. But since they are officially only a school they are only funded for that, needless to say that the facilities of the orphanage are not up to date after more than 10 years of being used. Letaba, where the school is situated, is part of the province of Limpopo in South Africa. This region, 400 km upwards Johannesburg is one of the poorest regions and also the one with the highest HIV infections. This school/orphanage has 205 kids (3-16 years), of which 90% is affected by HIV, of which 80% are orphans, and study in 6 classes with 12 teachers. Being in contact with different European clubs and really knowing that this project realises all what Rotaract stands for, we convinced several Rotaract clubs from Belgium, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany, Cyprus and Austria to step in this adventure. Experience the moment of your life, by impacting the life of a kid!

A Beautiful European Gift to South Africa An exciting international project will provide deaf and mute school children with greatly improved facilities. This project, named Rotaract Hearts for South Africa, is being run by European Rotaractors and their South African counterparts from the Rotaract Warriors and the members of Rotary Club Letaba (D 9400). Being deaf and mute in South Africa is one of the worst things for a child, because their parents canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t communicate with them and think that the child is stupid and many just abandon them. Therefore the deaf and mute kids from the Yingisani School immediately caught our attention when we visited them in 2011.

The life changing experience In March 2012, the first part of the project started, giving the orphan house facilities that attain a basic standard to ensure a

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...continuing from the previous page decent and safe environment for the kids to grow up in. Around 20.000 € was sponsored by the different partners and joining Rotaract Clubs and so we went to Letaba with 14 European Rotaractors to make it happen and also enjoy a bit of South Africa…

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“After travelling more than 24 hours by train, plane and bus we arrived at the Warriors’ base camp, welcomed by the 15 Rotaract “Warriors”. After sleeping in rudimentary African style houses,

we woke up in the morning in the middle of a jungle. Some monkeys were in the trees, while we enjoyed the wonder of this beautiful part of nature.” In the school we focused on the renovation of all the dormitories. Walls and ceilings had to be sanded, repainted, 150 beds had to be repaired, 200 matrasses to be replaced, all the bathrooms retiled… “Every child got slippers, toothpaste and a toothbrush on its bed. The children had no school at the day of the inauguration, so they were around us, getting ready for the ceremony and they were so excited about the little gifts. One of my most beautiful moments this week was when one of the little boys, he is about three years old, took my hand with a big smile on his face, went to his bed and

showed me proudly his tube of toothpaste. I felt like he wanted to tell me: “Look here, I even got my own toothbrush!” He was so happy that he showed me his gifts three times. Other kids were holding their new slippers and squeezing them as if they were a teddy bear.” Greetings, Marieke, Laura, Michele, Kirsten, Judith, Katharina, Viviane, Karolina, Thijs, Gaëtan, Stephan, Sönke, Herbert and Marc and Rotaract Warriors www.rotaracthearts.com

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“One Whistle… One Life!...”

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Earthquake Awareness Project

RAC Ankara Anittepe By Z. Burcu Akalp, President of RAC Ankara Anittepe Ipek Senyuva, Country Representative Turkey

arthquake is a natural phenomenon caused by the seismic waves that occur because of a sudden energy release in the Earth's crust. These waves shake the Earth and leads to destructive results. In many countries such as Guatemala, Sili, Peru, Indonesia, Iran, Pakistan, Portugal, Turkey, New Zealand, Greece, Italy, Japan and the USA small sized earthquakes occur frequently. Earthquake is inevitable and a bitter truth for us because of the geographical location of our country. When we considered the earthquake disasters occurred in recent years in our country and the losses encountered in these earthquakes, we realized that there is a great lack of awareness and consciousness about earthquake. Therefore, we decided to raise the people's awareness and inform them about earthquake.

We started our Earthquake Awareness Project with the motto of “One Whistle… One Life!...” and aimed reaching to people living in the potential earthquake regions as much as we could. We aimed to raise an awareness among people through the brochures with the subject of “Earthquake is a part of our life, but how much are we prepared to this disaster?” that we delivered to them. Our main aim was to teach people, especially children, how they must live with earthquake, to teach them

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what should be done before, during and after the earthquake, to teach where to hide during the earthquake, to show them how to help rescue teams in an emergency, and to teach them how to make their voices heard under the rubble. As the experts always say, it is not the earthquake but the low quality buildings that kill people. As a result of this, tens of people die who are trapped under the rubble after the buildings collapse because they are not able to make their voices heard to the rescue teams. Therefore, we decided to deliver emergency whistles with Rotaract logos designed as key chains to people during our events. We thought that people can easily carry those whistles with their keys, in their bags, purses or keep them in a place they can easily reach in their houses. By this means, we aimed to give them an opportunity to make their voices heard in case of an emergency. We tried to reach as many people as we can, not only to people in one region, by going to different cities individually. We decided organize events in 10 different cities in order to inform people from different age groups about earthquake after taking required permissions from the authorities of the cities. We carried out our project in stages in the cities of Ankara, Bolu, Düzce, Adapazari, Izmit, Istanbul, Izmir, Manisa, Usak and Afyon which posses a high degree risk of earthquake. In all stages of our project, members and guest members of our club participated effectively. We had travelled from one city to another with our cars and the earthquake simulation truck covered with Rotaract logos, and

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carried out our awareness raising efforts in each city. We tried to reach people both with talking to them and giving them the informative brochures. In a total of 10 cities, we delivered 10.000 emergency whistles which is one of the most important materials to be found in an earthquake emergency kit. We aimed that the whistle sound be there and give life to a person when it is needed. Having these aims in mind, we performed our awareness and consciousness project in city centers, squares and shopping centers that are frequently visited. Formal correspondence was realized with General Directorate Disaster and Emergency of the cities we visited in order to get permissions for setting up stands in city quarters. Throughout the project, in 10 cities, we delivered 10.000 earthquake awareness leaflets. We included a presentation about “What is Rotary & Rotaract?” in the informative brochures and stuck Rotaract logos on the emergency whistles. By these means, we believe that we introduced the Rotary and Rotaract as well as we performed our project. We made announcements of our project to the Rotary and Rotaract Clubs in the 10 cities we have visited. By this means, we had a great the interaction both with the Rotary and Rotaract clubs in these cities and obtained many contacts for potential future cooperations. The most impressing stage of our project was in Taksim Square, Istanbul which is the most crowded and important city in Turkey in terms of economical and cultural aspects. In this stage, we brought the earthquake simulation truck of Bogazici University Kandilli Observatory and Research Institute, and gave the people the chance of experiencing earthquake in the truck container without getting hurt and having a brief education about earthquake from the specialists of Bogazici University. In the other stage, we visited the Polis Amca Primary School which is placed in a neighbourhood with a low socio-cultural

level in Ankara. We made presentations to 475 students about what should be done before, during and after the earthquake and delivered them emergency whistles and informative brochures in order to inform them and their families about earthquake. Our project was announced in local and national press. We performed our consciousness and awareness project in these 10 cities by delivering 10.000 emergency whistles and 10.000 informative leaflets. By using leaflets, we reached 10.000 people directly and 40.000 (with their families) people indirectly. By means of press, we reached 3 million people all over the country by mass and printed media. Eventually, we are happy that we have realized our project. We believe that our efforts will lead to saving lives of many people as we raised an awareness among them. Additionally, we improved the interactions among the club members/guest members and made a great contribution to the promotion of Rotaract. Moreover, the project had a great contribution to the development of our relationships with our protector Rotary Club. As Rotaract Club of Ankara Anittepe, we always realized our projects with the motto of “Service Through Friendship” up to nowand our main goal is proceeding our projects with the same motto in order to embrace humanity by using the power within us.

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Donaubeben Festival

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1500 visitors Rotaract Club Ulm with

By Jens Kolb, Rotaract Club Ulm, Doris Grimm & Annette Alt, Country Representatives Germany

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his year the Rotaract Club of Ulm (D-1930) organizes the Donaubeben Festival (in English: Danube-quake Festival) the sixth time (May 26th).

The Donaubeben Festival was established in 2006, when the Rotaract Club Ulm decided at their Christmas party to organize a music event for young people, which is different from the typical classical music concerts, Rotaract Clubs normally conduct as fundraising projects. Therefore, pop, rock as well as metal and reggae bands play on the festival for mainly young people between 14 and 35. The Rotaract Club of Ulm acquired party sponsors after that Christmas, so that in summer 2007, the Donaubeben could be held the first time. It was a huge success with over 700 participants.

The Donaubeben is held as an "Open Air Festival", which is located downtown in the city of Ulm and takes up to 11 month of organization (i.e., organizing sponsors, bands, technical equipment, beverages, official permissions and so on). Close to the river Danube every year 14 bands perform on two stages their music for 11 hours in front of 1.500 spectators, non-stop. Most of the bands play for free and the rest of them get the transportation costs refunded. Some very interesting German newcomer bands are part of this festival as well as uprising small local bands. The festival day itself is managed by the organizing team (20 members) as well as 50-70 volunteers who work in teams as cashiers, bar tenders, backstage staff, stage and sound technicians,

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securities and so on. Furthermore, the backstage area for volunteers and bands contains around 800 square meters and is located inside a skateboard-hall. Sofas and interview corners are set up in a halfpipe, while next to the quarter pipe a huge buffet (with the famous chocolate fountain) is located. Bands and volunteers love the way they are being treated and the visitors appreciate the happy and relaxed musicians on stage.

So far the festival could generate about 14.000 Euro (without 2012) for aid intended for the Ambrosius School in Okahao in the north of Namibia. The school was built and is supervised by the Rotary Club of Ulm to guarantee the optimal usage of the money. As second project the Donaubeben Festival supports the Popbastion in Ulm, a local rock/pop youth development program, which supports young musicians to professionally make and record music and keep them away from hanging around on the street.

Germany

For more information, check out the following pages: http://www.donaubeben.de http://www.facebook.com/pages/DonaubebeneV/109073805791849 http://www.youtube.com/user/Donaubeben https://twitter.com/#!/Donaubeben

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Monopoly Amersfoort

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- more then just a game Rotaract Club Amersfoort Laura Verdegaal, Country Representative The Netherlands

ast year Rotaract Club Amersfoort launched a very ambitious project: creating a Monopoly game starring the city of Amersfoort and selling it to raise money for charity.

The Netherlands

raised enough money by sponsoring and pre-orders of the game to produce the minimum production standard of 1100 games, we would continue this project and if not, we could cancel it free-of-charge.

The idea came from a German Rotary Club, with which we have friendly ties. They created a game, based on the popular Monopoly game, with local street names and businesses as their sponsors. In itself it was a great idea but we felt it could be done better: the game was developed and printed under own management and the town is quite small compared to Amersfoort. It was a success in that small German city, but with much more inhabitants and companies this success could be bigger in Amersfoort. So we adopted this idea and made it our own. First we made contact with a game developer in Rotterdam Identity Games. They own the rights to produce custom made official Monopoly games in the Netherlands. They were excited too and wanted to help us with some issues such as the financial risks. We made an agreement: if we

After that, we contacted the president of the Dutch Leukaemia Foundation, based in our home town Amersfoort. His son, a former member of Rotaract Club Amersfoort, has suffered from leukaemia but survived this disease. He assisted us in contacting some local businesses and companies. Our plan was clear: First sell the streets on the Monopoly game board to local businesses and companies. In return, we would print their logo on the game board and the sponsor could change the street name in a name of choice as long as it is a street name in Amersfoort. Local Rotary's stepped in and 'bought' the stations. Our second goal was to sell 1100 games to companies and individuals to reach the minimal production. To promote our project we had the opportunity to

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...continuing from the previous page advertise on city busses: on the side panels of busses, a huge add was printed: "Buy Monopoly Amersfoort! A project of Rotaract Amersfoort". With all the attention on the busses, in local newspapers and via Twitter and Facebook, business was booming! The streets on the game board were sold out and we had so many pre-orders for the game that we increased the circulation to 1500 copies! In the end all the streets were sold, a local bank sponsored the bank notes, advertisement space was sold on various Community Chest- and Chance cards and 1560 games were printed and sold! It was a huge success: we raised â&#x201A;Ź 30.000 for the Dutch Leukaemia Foundation! The profit went to a research institute at Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam (www.erasmusmc.nl). We transferred the money directly to the research department so that every euro will be spend on the research. The amount of â&#x201A;Ź 30.000 is enough for two years of experimental research. The research focuses on obtaining stem cells from blood out of the umbilical cord and how to alter and multiply these cells faster.

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Health as a Gift

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equipement and renovation of a medical centre

RAC Kyiv-Centre Olena Gyrenko, Country Representative Ukraine

nfortunately, there are some rural medical centers in Heart of Ukraine that need urgent renovation and modernization. RAC ”Kyiv-Centre” has found one of such places in the small village of Besidka, 124 km from Kyiv. The medical center services 3200 people in Besidka and around. The nearest other medical facility was 30 km away. The building was run-down and its only equipment was baby scales and a gynecological chair. The canter is staffed by a qualified dentist, nurse and attendant. So “Kyiv-Centre” decided to renovate the premises with help from Rotaractors from around the world and to equip the center with basic medical equipment. The result was a great improvement of primary medical services to a poor, aging and ill-served rural community

Ukraine

current state is below satisfactory level. For example, in Besidka village, where ”Kyiv-Centre” decided to equip medical center, there was no simple first-aid kit. The only two pieces of equipment we have seen were baby scales and gynecological chair. All inhabitants (more than 3500 people) had to go 30 km to get the simplest first-aid. The budget of the project was more than 9000 EUR, and RAC ”Kyiv-Centre” raised the whole amount step by step. In the beginning Ukrainian Rotaractors developed a strong advertisement campaign. The idea of the project was announced worldwide via Facebook and YouTube, ”KyivCentre” encouraged Rotaractors and Rotarians from all over the world to join this project.

So how & what was the project?:) “Health as a Gift” is at the moment the biggest project among Ukrainian, Polish and Belarusian Rotaract Clubs (District 2230). The preparation started in the end of 2010. First of all RAC ”KyivCentre” has made the promo video of the project and spread it on the internet (there are more than 1200 views of the video); the project was announced in TV-shows, magazines, publications of Rotary, Rotaract and E.R.I.C. The goal of this project was to equip and renovate medical center in the village of Kyiv region. In Ukraine institutions that really need significant help are rural hospitals and medical centers. Unfortunately their Thanks to active advertisement campaign, was found Rotaract Club Göttingen (Germany) that decided to support the project. They organized party “ Profs@Turnta” with University professors who were DJs during disco. This event raised high interest among all students in the city and helped organizers tocollect around 7500 EUR for the project “Health as a Gift”. So RAC ”Kyiv-Centre” immediately supported initiative of their partners decided to organize similar project where famous Ukrainian sportsmen tried themselves as DJs “Sport stars at turntables” attracted great attention of local media (TV shows, magazines, Rotarian publications and Kyiv-Centre”

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...continuing from the previous page had a lot of guests on this event who donated around 1000 EUR for charity. within the framework of the project Kyiv-Centre took part in Charity auction that was organized by their Rotary Club where they sell various pieces of art and collected around 500 EUR. RAC “Kyiv-Centre” also got financial help from Rotary Clubs and private sponsors. In general Club organized a series of projects aimed to collect needed amount for equipping rural medical center in the country side of Ukraine.

With joint national and international efforts RAC “Kyiv-Centre” collected more than 9000 EUR and purchased the following equipment: 1. Dentist center 2. Glucometer 3. Medical scales 4. Cardiograph 5. Apparatus for ultrahigh-frequency therapy 6. Electrophoresis 7. Quartz apparatus 8. Inhaler 9. Oxygenous pillow 10. First-aid kit 11. Dry-heat sterilizer 12. Medical instruments 13. Tube adapter 14. Apparatus for blood pressure checking This medical equipment was delivered to village Besidka that is located 124 km from the capital of Ukraine – Kyiv. To make this project more remarkable Rotaractors from Ukraine decided to organize a special opening ceremony and help this center with basic renovation. The official opening ceremony took place on August 27th 2011. RAC “Kyiv-Centre” was happy to welcome representative of their partner Club - Göttingen

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(Germany) in Kyiv. At the opening of the medical center were also guests from RAC Kyiv, Kyiv-Multinational, Kharkiv (Ukraine), Moscow-East (Russia), Minsk-City (Belarus), Rotary Clubs Kyiv-Centre and Kyiv-Multinational, RC of Newport (USA). All guests eagerly helped with some physical work: tiding and painting all window frames of the medical center and benches on its territory. Kyiv-Centre showed detailed presentation about various steps of the project “Health as a Gift”. In return grateful villagers organized a small tour through the rural school, excursion on a cart with horses and traditional home-made Ukrainian lunch. Everybody enjoyed the weekend in Besidka village that recently got new equipment from Rotaract Clubs -villagers were touched with our efforts and we are happy to serve our society! P.S. After five months after opening of our Medical center and more than 1000 people had already used the equipment. Adults and children from Besidka and other neighboring villages keep on thanking us for everything we did for them. We are very thankful that Rotarian family helped us to realize the project and make this world a better place! We have already found our next “point of destination” for similar activities in in the very near future we will inform you and with our next step in equipping more centers around Ukraine!

A N S E RV I C

OJE CT

BEST

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Charity Auction RAC Vien Belvedere Andreas Rath, Country Representative Austria

Austria

ur club kicked off a brainstorming process with its club members for fundraising ideas in July, 2010. Club members were motivated to hand in their ideas how the club could raise money for a social project. The ideas where discussed within the club and we decided to start a charity auction. After deciding on the fundraising idea, we invited several NGOs to present themselves at our club in order to define a social project to donate the money to. Our club decided for the Caritas Socialis Hospice Rennweg. The hospice system in Austria is only funded on a very small scale by the federal government although it is a highly valued service for our community. We started this project in February 2011 by contacting 350 art galleries and about 500 artists all over Europe and asked them to hand in a painting, photos, sculptures or any other piece of art to our charity auction. 112 artists agreed to donate a piece of their work. We travelled up to Germany and drove several thousand kilometres to meet artists and gallerists to collect their work. In December 2011 our club created a catalogue which described every piece of work of the auction and gave a brief information about every artists. The auction house Dorotheum supported us through a professional auctioner and their facility. In addition, it displayed the paintings and sculptures five davs prior to the auction in their hall. The auction took place on February 14th, 2012 with about 250 live participants. More than 50 people gave written bids for the art pieces and about 20 people were live in the auction via telephone.

The results: We were able to raise 100,000 EUR for our social project. This has been the highest result of a charity auction ever in Austria.

Due to the large amount of donation, the Hospice Rennweg is going to be able to enlarge their facility. Therefore, the number of Hospice places in our community was increased through our auction. Also thanks to a large amount of money raised and our press work, we received several clippings in daily newspapers (e.g. Kurier with 800,000 readers or Heute with 600,000 reads) in which we could promote the idea of Rotaract.

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Ich helfe Laufend Rotaract Clubs of Vienna Andreas Rath, Country Representative Austria

Austria

ch helfe Laufend is a German play of words. It literally means "running to help", but also "to help continuously”. In 2010 RAC members from in and around Vienna founded the association “Ich helfe Laufend” to organize the first Rotarian Charity Run in the Viennese Augarten. Despite bad weather, more than 200 runners covered a distance of more than 1900 kilometres. In total, almost 20.000 € were raised for a club in Graz that offers therapy and advice for autistic children and their parents. With this money they were able to build a playground and purchase therapy toys. On May 20th this year, there will be again several hundred runners that participate in the effort to support autistic children. In the main run, participants have 2 hours to complete as many rounds in the Viennese Augarten as they can (or want). Furthermore, there will also be the relay, in which teams can compete against each other. The “Vienna Samba Project” is going to support the runners with Brazilian rhythms. We would like to invite all fellow Rotarians to join us in the effort! Further information is provided on our website: www.ichhelfelaufend.at and/or our Facebook page “Ich helfe Laufend”. Due to this big success, “Ich helfe Laufend” organizes the Charity Run in the Viennese Augarten for the second time. This year, money will be raised to support the “Österreichische Autistenhilfe” (association to support autistic persons in Austria) in order to pay for assistants. These assistants help the children to cope with everyday life and enable them to attend regular schools. Therefore, the children have the chance for a regular school degree and a self-sufficient life when they are grown up.

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RACycle Rotaract Club Ruse by Ventsislava Nikolova, President, RAC Ruse Angel Kanchev, Country Representative Bulgaria

iving on the fast lane, stressed, tensed and under pressure, we hardly have time and energy to look around and see how our lives are changing. We put big efforts in satisfying our big necessities, letting ourselves turn into absolute consumers without giving a thought of what the consequences might be. Unintentionally but consciously we load ourselves with unnecessary stuff: food, which is hardly nutrient; information which is actually misinforming; entertainment, which brings no joy. We decided to raise awareness and incite children’s, youngsters’ and elders’ interest on the 3 environmental principles REUSE, REDUCE, RECYCLE by separate waste collection, protecting the environment and showing a responsible attitude towards nature and ourselves; showing that things which we forget or neglect and are ready to throw away, can turn out to be valuable resources or can help us decrease our expenses or be a source of inspiration.

Bulgaria

Our kick starter was RACycle at school- we created a picture story of the Super Boy Zhivko who invented the separate waste collection in his imaginary world, cleaned his building yard and showed his neighbors that their city can be clean and beautiful. In April–May 2011 this story went through 10 classrooms in 10 elementary schools in our city and more than 250 kids aged 6-12 had the chance to learn how to separate the garbage and how important is to keep the environment clean. Then RACycle went green. We organized a 2 day open air festival (June 18-19) in the biggest city park. More than 1000 people got involved in the activities and happenings which we have prepared and it was of a great interest for people from all ages, especially young families with kids. The kids had the chance to learn and play old forgotten outdoor games. We organized various workshops – one circle for creative activities (how to make interesting usable and decorative things from

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...continuing from the previous page garbage) and another one for educational activities where our partnering organizations were explaining a lot of nature preserving practices and simple actions which everyone of us can do in order to keep clean and live healthy. There was free organic food and for the good mood we had a stage with full time live performances and concerts. The promoted in phase 1 Scrap-Art Design Contest took place and more than 30 unique exponents, created by students age 6-14 were presented. A jury of 5 experts selected the winners and awarded them with special certificates, interesting books on environmental issues, T-shirts, eco bags and many other gifts, kindly provided by our sponsors.

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‘The festival motto was: Nature is our most precious treasure and it is extremely important to keep it alive!’ The festival’s success and the positive feedback which we got from the participants, sponsors and partnering organizations gave us courage for the project’s continuation and motivated us to turn it into a tradition. So here comes the second edition of RACycle Summer 2012. We are already preparing exciting open air activities for the kids, new workshops and presentations for their parents and new entertaining programme for all the citizens of Ruse. We would like to use this opportunity and invite Rotaract Clubs from Europe and around the world to adopt our initiative and organize RACycle in their cities.

If you think that you could also get involved in this project - with ideas, volunteering, financial support or just show us your thumbs up, please contact us via ruse@rotaract-bg.org.

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I know Campaign for Enhancing Awareness on HIV and AIDS Prevention

RAC Sofia-Tangra by Denitsa Encheva, RAC Sofia-Tangra Angel Kanchev, Country Representative Bulgaria

“

- Now, at this moment, how many people know you have AIDS? How did your parents react?

- Well, not very nicely. They told me they were afraid of me. They think, as many others, this is a plague. And a lot of friends withdrew from me, they do not want to see me or talk to me anymore. But I do not live for people. I do not consider myself a scum or a despicable person. I do not feel myself much different from the others. I am completely normal, it’s just I wake up in the morning with a handful of pills…” – an excerpt from an interview with a HIV-positive person. On the initiative of Rotaract Club Sofia–Tangra we have started a research on people’s sexual health in Bulgaria. The results of the research on the awareness regarding the different ways of transmitting the disease, the prevention, and the HIV and AIDS testing revealed extremely low awareness, especially among young people. According to the data available, 64% out of 13,000 questioned individuals between 14 and 25 years of age have never tested themselves for sexually transmitted diseases. The reasons for that are complex– ignorance, prejudices, fear, and shame with regard to the possible result. Last but not least, many people do not dare to visit the relevant consulting rooms for an anonymous and free test due to the wrong public opinion according to which these consulting rooms are predominantly visited by prostitutes, drug addicts, and people of non-standard sexuality . Rotaract Club Sofia–Tangra got provoked by these results and started the „& I know” campaign following additional analysis and research. Lectures and training seminars are periodically held at the Technical University, Sofia

Bulgaria

University, New Bulgarian University, Insurance and Finance College, etc. The world anti-AIDS day was commemorated in the framework of the „& I know” campaign with an organized procession in the city center of Sofia which was attended by over 200 people. A free mobile consulting room was provided for those who wanted to test themselves. The campaign’s conception is based on the idea that the early diagnostics of HIV is crucial because it prevents the transmittance of the virus which is done through infecting healthy individuals. Thus the infected person has the chance to switch onto a sustaining therapy which may secure tens of years of life to him/her. The „& I know” project launched with a press conference at the Bulgarian Telegraph Agency, and so far continues its successful implementation by turning the awareness into manifested human duty and stand. In the course of the press conference the newly established Internet site www.hivtest.bg was presented. It has been set up especially for the campaign’s purposes. The development of the site aims at disseminating the message to a great number of young people who could

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pass on the campaign’s idea and vision to their friends and acquaintances. The campaign’s main goal is to enhance the awareness among young people and the general public in the country with regard to the progress of the HIV epidemic, thereby cooperating for raising the sensitivity on this matter. Thus young people may be stimulated to protect themselves against infection by using condoms and undergoing periodical tests of their HIV-status. The project’s progress also implies holding information campaigns in the schools throughout the year. In addition, our goals include extending the campaign’s scope outside the territory of Sofia city, and gradually – throughout the world which could be done with our Rotaract friends’ assistance. We hope your choice turns into a common cause of ours – to help, thus setting an example for society that being informed is the right way to change one’s life for the better and that it is never too late to change the direction, to

Bulgaria

become more responsible and more disciplined with respect to yourself and those around you. Unfortunately neither the dissemination of leaflets, nor the press conferences and the lectures could persuade one into going and having themselves tested for AIDS. Intelligence does not exclude fear for one’s life, however awareness might prevent doubt. „& I know” is a campaign about adults’ experience, young people’s awareness, and our children’s hope for a HIVfree life. Following our participation in the Best European Service Project we hope this project turns into a common cause, so that we keep being a model for society, in the spirit of the Rotary values.

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Challenge Homelessness

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Rotaract Club Bournemouth Steven Read, Country Representative Great Britain and Ireland

What inspired the Challenge Homelessness project? Our project was the Challenge Homelessness project, which we started because Lynette (DRR) and Amy (President) were helping a homeless man in their area and then decided they wanted to do more to help other homeless people. It was discussed at a meeting and we decided to do a sponsored sleepout to raise money for Michael House and then the project has gone on from there.

awareness of homelessness in the area and raise funds for local service providing supported accommodation to the homeless, Michael House. The project involved being inducted and trained in selling the Big Issue magazine, attending a soup kitchen, the YMCA, begging for food, rummaging bins for card to sleep on and sleeping rough in a cold, wet churchyard. Presentations were held the following day attended by the Mayor and Mayoress of Bournemouth to highlight homelessness in

What was the aim? Our aim was to raise awareness of homelessness in Bournemouth and across the UK, to provide food, warm clothing and compassion for the homeless and vulnerably housed in Bournemouth, and to support those in need toward rebuilding their lives. What did we do? In September 2011 six Rotaractors were sponsored to spend 24hrs out on the streets of Bournemouth to raise the area and celebrate the dedication and hard work of local services in the area, followed by a Community Lunch for the homeless and public to join together. Last Christmas (December 2011) we organised a Christmas meal for 50 homeless and vulnerably housed individuals providing double helpings of Christmas dinner, puddings, entertainment and presents of food parcels and warm clothing. Starting in February 2012 we set up our own soup

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kitchen as a trial which ran every Sunday providing a hot meal for rough sleepers and vulnerably housed individuals. This has grown in popularity and levels of food provision in just 6 weeks and we now intend to continue all year round hoping to reach larger numbers of rough sleepers in the area. What has the reaction to the project been? Most club members have got involved and been keen to help with this project. We are raising awareness of homelessness by discussing our findings with other Rotaract clubs in our District and hope to involve them with future projects. We have also given presentations to Rotary and they have been helping us with funding and have

provided some volunteers for our soup kitchen. When we do our Outreach, members of the public have come up to us and have asked how to get involved and often tell us what a great job we are doing. We have been told that we will soon be in the Echo, our local paper, as a reporter wants to do a story on our Outreach projects. Conclusion Aside from helping others, Challenge Homelessness has provided great insight and opportunities for learning/personal development to all members involved. It has reached the wider community, witnessing the importance of community work to the public and highlighting homelessness to Rotarians to encourage further action in the Rotary family. We plan to broaden our work with the homeless by giving them volunteer opportunities alongside Rotaract to increase self-worth and support moving towards employment.

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Bremen Runs

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for Bremen and the world Rotaract Club Bremen Arlena Skalecki, Rotaract Club Bremen Doris Grimm & Annette Alt, Country Representatives Germany

n the 8th of May 2011, the Rotaract Club of rd Bremen (D-1850) held the 3 edition of a charity run in Bremen, which is called “Bremen läuft… für Bremen und die Welt” (this means “Bremen runs… for Bremen and the world”). The goal is to collect money for two organizations, one located in Bremen, the other one somewhere in the world. In 2011 we decided to support the „Hans-WendtStiftung“, a foundation in Bremen, which gives children from low income families a place to relax and to spend a kind of holidays on a farm with a big garden, with 50% of the money. The other half was to support the disaster relief organization “Shelterbox Germany”. As a location for the charity run we chose the market square (“Domshof“) in the heart of Bremen. The route with a total distance of 600 meters (ca. 656 yd) went across the market square and then through the pedestrian area. This helped us to gain maximum attention during the event.

Having fun while running Bremen laeuft

Germany

The charity run included two different kinds of runs: first a relay for teams from companies, clubs, etc., then a free run for everybody. On the market square we organized a supporting program.

Fun also for the small ones at Bremen laeuft The organization of the event started in November 2010, including visits at all Rotary Clubs and Inner Wheel Clubs in Bremen and around Bremen (about 20), organizing permissions, advertisement, catering (water and fruits for the runners, coffee, drinks, cake and popcorn for the visitors), a supporting program, etc. After we received all permissions from the city we created our own homepage (www.bremen-laeuft.de) and started to search supporters that would donate money for every round which was run. We got the big chance to promote our event on the public transportation of Bremen, so for the two weeks previous to the event our flyers were in the distribution baskets in all buses and trams in Bremen. In total we could distribute 5.000 flyers there. The event was also announced in the local

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Registering Start of Bremen laeuft newspaper and on radio. On the big day everything went perfect, even the weather was great (it was the first good weather weekend of the year). Rotaractors and Rotarians met at 7 a.m. on the market square and started to prepare everything: build up the stage, the booth for selling cake, a huge arch saying „Start – Finish“, the ShelterBox information village in which two tents could be used as changing rooms, the bouncing castle, the decoration etc. A bank which is located at that market square allowed us to hang a huge Rotaract flag from their balcony. At 10 a.m., the patron of our event arrived: Frank Baumann, a former soccer player of Werder Bremen and the national team of Germany. He said a few words

on stage about the project, competed with visitors at the soccer kick and ran a round with the big group. At 11 a.m., the first guests and runners arrived. We started with the relay. After this, the individual runners started. All in all, we had around 180 runners and over the day a total amount of about 600 people on the “Domshof“. The mood was fantastic! The supporting program with a stage, music, an aerobics instructor, catering, bouncing castle, soccer kick, face painting and a lottery was a big success as well, people even danced on the square and enjoyed the day. We managed to bring up a total donation amount of 12.520€ (which is about 16.500$), which meant we could give 6.260€ to each supported organization! All of this is just great and we're really happy that we managed to organize such a successful event with the Rotaract Club of Bremen.

Ready, Steady...

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An Opkikker of €17.500,Rotaract Club Almere Laura Verdegaal, Country Representative The Netherlands

The Netherlands

tribute for all young people that passed away much too early, like our friend. That is what it needed to be. A small and atmospheric space for about 200 people. A few nice – preferably very known – comedians on the stage and the event would be complete. We started with a few members of our club. We knew that it would be a lot of work, because we did not have a clue about the whole comedy scene. But it did not take long for us to realize that there is much more to this project than we even thought. For example: are we going to rent a small or a big room? Which comedians are we going to approach and in what way? How do we do all the technical stuff of the event itself? And how do we make a light plan.

From 200 to 1.000 As many clubs will do, we first looked into our own network to see if we could find people from the scene. And we were lucky! Jörgen Raymann, a very known Dutch comedian, is member of Rotary Club Almere. With a lot of positive energy we decided that we would try to contact him. And we succeeded! He was very enthusiastic about our project!

We could not be more happier. But he had one condition: it would be the biggest comedy show that Almere has known until that moment in time. We agreed on this and the space for the event grew from about 200 people to close to 1.000 people. Our stage would be the biggest theatre in Almere. But Raymann assured us: “we will make it.” With the growth of the amount of visitors, the challenges grew as well. For example: the costs for renting the space were much higher. So we needed to find sponsors. Fast! We increased our effort on marketing, since we want that space full. And not unimportant: we need to find our comedians. And before we knew it, the day was there…

Judgement Day September 11th, 2011. Judgement Day. The day where all the pieces of our carefully prepared puzzle need to fall in one big image. We prepared the event with a couple of members of our club. We instructed the on-sight personnel, we prepared the texts, we prepared the location with our promotion materials and a lot more

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...continuing from the previous page things we described in our scenario. While we were busy, suddenly one of the comedians stood next to us. An almost unreal feeling arises. Within one hour all the comedians were here: Jörgen Raymann, Jandino Asporaat, Klaas van der Eerden, Roué Verveer, Jeffrey Spalburg and Arie Koomen. Every single one of them is a very known comedian in The Netherlands. You can imagine how proud we were! Together we sat down and had dinner, while the comedians planned their performances. Meanwhile, the first visitors already entered the Schouwburg.

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Largest donation Now it is time for us to sit back, relax and enjoy the show. Just like the almost 1.000 people in the audience. Only the frog, which is the mascot of the charity, and the catering need some accompaniment. That was what we thought… What we did not knew was that Raymann had arranged for a surprise act. The American comedian Tony Woods. Very nice, but not for our nerves. Why? Because Tony was on his way from Rotterdam to Almere while the show had already started. Luckily for us, he arrived 10 minutes before he had to go on stage. The audience did not notice anything. The magnificent show came to an end after Tony's act. The only thing we needed to do was hand over the cheque, with a value of €17.500,-- , to the charity. What a great feeling! Very proud, but unreal at the same time. Partly due to this donation, “Stand-up voor Leukemie” was the biggest thing

we ever did with our club. The foundation will use the money to organise a Opkikkerdag. These days are organised for children who are ill for a very long time. The goal is to give them at least one day without any worries. On this day, nothing is impossible. The kids can fly in an helicopter, race in a Ferrari, chase villains in a speed boat, catch bad guys alongside the police, be a runway model, meet your greatest idol or simply be a princess for a day.

Heartwarming Johnny Alosery from the foundation, Stichting Opkikker, says: “It is really heart warming to experience what a group of enthusiastic young adults can achieve from a common thought. We are very honoured that we are the beneficiary of this impressive initiative. On behalf of Stichting Opkikker, I would like to thank the organisation of Rotaract, and all parties involved, for their great support and effort. Thanks to your support we can ensure that a large number of families with chronically ill children will get their well deserved Opkikkerdag. Thank you!”

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ShelterBox Challenge Rotaract Club Hilversum Laura Verdegaal, Country Representative The Netherlands

The Netherlands

he ShelterBox Challenge was a two-day event. To participate in the event each team (holding 4 teammembers) brought a minimum donation fee of 375 euro. Among others the startshots of the event were given by Tom Henderson (CEO and founder of ShelterBox), Paul Knijff (Director at Rotary International) and Eric van der Burg (municipality of Amsterdam). After the startshots the teams navigated through the centre of Amsterdam carrying an empty ShelterBox with them and wearing ShelterBox shirts. On their way they passed several checkpoints at some of the highlights in the city, creating a lot of attention from the curious public. At the checkpoints the teams faced several challenges. With these challenges the teams scored points, which in the end decided the winner. We made very different types of challenges, a few examples: creative (drawing the Rembrandt statue), public involvement (5 minutes to make as many people walk through a ShelterBox tent on the Dam square), sportive (rowing with a boat), teamwork (blindfolded walking), ShelterBox related (packing a full ShelterBox or setting up a ShelterBox tent as quickly as possible), music (dancebattle), navigation etc. This ment each team had chances on their strong points. To create a real ShelterBox experience all teams slept in an actual ShelterBox tent. The event envisioned to raise awareness for ShelterBox among the general public in the Netherlands. The awareness we created was enormous, this was illustrated by a lot of press attention (two

interviews on national radio, several national newspapers reported and even a mention on national tv), a well visited press conference, the opening of the Amsterdam Stock Exchange and a lot of questions, curiousity and participation from the general public during and after the event. The fundraising was also a great success, the teams raised EUR 19.893 euro (equal to 26 boxes)! The ShelterBox Challenge was initiated by members of the Rotaract club of Hilversum. Due to the fact the event became bigger rapidly the organization team was extended with Rotaracters from other clubs. In September 2010 the team held people from 5 different Rotaract clubs (Hilversum, Utrecht, Almere, Amsterdam and Den Bosch). The event als managed to bring all the members of the Rotary family together in one event as participants or volunteers. We had 7 Rotaract clubs, 5 Rotary clubs, 1 Rotex and 1 Interact team participating in the event. We also had a lot of very special partners of the event, such as the municipality of Amsterdam, the Royal Dutch Navy (they hosted us at their naval base), Grand Hotel NH Krasnapolski and the Amsterdam Stock Exchange. Want to support ShelterBox while enjoying and discovering the great city of Amsterdam in september this year? Go to shelterboxchallenge.nl and register as a volunteer or team as soon as possible, we welcome all Rotaracters in Europe to come and experience the ShelterBox Challenge themselves!

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Contest for Young Leaders

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by the name of Andrzej Walentynowicz Rotaract Club Tricity Jarek Sauczek, Country Representative Poland

Poland

ack in the year 2003, Rotaract Tricity came up with an idea to continue the legacy of a deceased Rotarian who both had a great impact on our local society and a crucial role in chartering our Rotaract Club in the 1990s. Since 2004, RAC Tricity is holding an annual contest that will help young individuals who act in same way as Mr. Andrzej Walentynowicz had. Every year RAC Tricity opens the registration via the event website and gather all the applications. Afterwards, the contest jury consisting of local Rotarians, Rotaractors, and Mrs Jadwiga Walentynowicz (the ex-wife of Mr Walentynowicz) picks the top applications which were submitted in a particular year. During this process, the jury might apply the following criteria in order to choose the best project: applicants' leadership skills, benefits for the society members, positive social impact of the project, realization of the project with no or limited support of third party organizations, how much effort applicants put in their ideas, degree at which the project may change the way people act in a positive way, creativity, innovation, persistence and consistency in actions. The applications the jury is particularly looking for

are those which describe projects that promote social activities in small communities or encourage other citizens to â&#x20AC;&#x17E;make a changeâ&#x20AC;?. This year's contest edition winners included projects that incorporated: organizing round trips to Warsaw for disabled children from one of the primary schools in our Voivodeship, supporting single mothers and promoting blood and marrow donations. RAC Tricity announces the winners of every edition of the contest at a gala held in the Posejdon Hotel in GdaĹ&#x201E;sk. The aim of the contest is to promote remarkable initiatives that emerge in the minds of the young and socially conscious people who wish to make an impact on the world surrounding them. The most promising young leaders are offered a financial grant for the expansion of their non-profit projects. Over the years, RAC Tricity have managed to aid dozens of young leaders and indirectly impact hundreds in our societies. Moreover, the Club have started a long-term cooperation with local medias and companies that support us financially. It gave many people a head start with making a change in the area they live.

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„Vitim” - CPR and first aid

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Rotaract Club "Baikal-Eco" Miroslava Kantyreva, International Service Director, RAC Baikal Eco Vera Popova, Country Representative Russia

Russia

otaract Club "Baikal-Eco" jointly with State M e d i c a l U n i v e r s i t y, D e p a r t m e n t o f Anesthesiology, Resuscitation and Intensive Care, with the assistance of a pharmaceutical company Gedeon Rishter, conduct social project "Vitim ". The aim of this project is to train and inform the general public the basics of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and first aid in emergency conditions.

Goal Train and inform the general public the basics of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and first aid in emergency conditions.

Target Group The population of the city of Irkutsk and the Irkutsk region in different age categories.

Description of the project. 08.10.11. at 12:00 in Irkutsk in the main square of the monument to Alexander III established three working places (tables). For the first workstation (desk № 1) resuscitation, referred to as "Lecturer", a mini-lecture on the methods of pre-hospital emergency first aid for fainting, sunstroke, heat stroke, drowning in fresh and sea water, epilepsy, fractures and bleeding. In the second place of work (table number 2) is resuscitation, referred to as "Instructor", which conducts

training on the technique of working with the simulator "Vitim" and explains the principles and approaches and algorithms SLMR ABCDEFG. Education at this stage, through pictures - pictures depicting the trainer "Vitim." The third job (table number 3) is a simulator for SLMR "Vitim," for whom resuscitation works, referred to as the "coordinator". It monitors the correct execution SLMR on this machine. In parallel with the process of training members of the Rotaract Club to inform people about current events and attract potential participants. This task is accomplished

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and approaches and algorithms SLMR ABCDEFG, „Baywatc " go to the desktop number 3, where the simulator and training SLMR "Vitim."

Project results Taught the technique of chest compressions according to the latest European standards. with the help of flyers and brochures. All interested members of the Rotaract Club is directed to the first workspace (desk № 1) and then the participants divided into groups of 4-6 people, forming a pair of "Baywatch" for training on the simulator «Vitim». After listening to a desktop number 2 instruction on the technique of working with the simulator, and, having learned the basic principles

Taught the technique of mechanical ventilation "mouth to mouth" and "mouth to nose" according to the latest European standards. Taught the techniques of emergency aid for fainting, sunstroke, heat stroke, drowning in fresh and sea water, a fit of epilepsy, fractures and bleeding.

Event attended by about 300 people. This project is also planned for the spring of 2012. Repeat the project two times a year for greater efficiency.

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„Fairytales”

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Rotaract Club Beograd by Milan Marković, President, RAC Beograd & Marina Sećerov, Country Representative Serbia

Serbia

roject “Fairytales” was made with the aim of raising awareness of the general public on life of persons with impaired hearing, promoting full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by persons with hearing impairment and respect for their inherent dignity. „Fairytale” is a bilingual theatre play, performed by the Association's Inclusive Amateur Theatre "Listen to my hands". It is performed simultaneously in Serbian and in sign language in order to be understood both by the general population, and persons with impaired hearing. It brings us closer to the world of imagination, processing famous fairy tales, emphasizing the idea of equality and human respect. The play was visited by 180 people. Venue was arranged through establishing partnership with one of the most reputable theatres in Serbia „Jugoslovensko dramsko pozorište“, and partnership with Kolektiva portal was established in order to provide on-line ticket purchasing. Project was presented to 5 Primary schools in Belgrade and 2 foreign language schools (Equilibrio and Trotalenguas), where the best pupils received free tickets for the play. A total amount of 400Eur collected from ticket sale was donated to realization of the project “Public

lecture”, a project consisted of street performance done by members of the Association, throughout their performances lyrics of the famous songs are being translated to sign language. Media coverage was provided in the best rated media channels in Serbia: Politika newspaper, Blic newspaper, 24 sata newspaper, B92 television, Studio B television, and numerous internet portals. This project was supported by 3 Rotary Clubs, all Belgrade Rotaract clubs and Rotaract Club Pancevo. Support was shown through buying tickets for the theater play and publishing article about the project in the only official Rotary magazine in Serbia. All in all, this project revealed the universal problem of persons with impaired hearing, which gets beyond the country boundaries. “Fairytales” shows in the best light the spirit of Rotarian community - one club engaging not only its own members, but all the Rotaract and Rotary Clubs in Serbia, creating partnerships with other stakeholders, with aim not only to resolve specific problem in the society, but to raise awareness and inspire future actions, and above all to celebrate the unity and synergy created during realization of the project. Rotaract stands for service above self, but only acting in partnerships we can make the difference.

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By Youth – For Babies

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A Formula for Smiles RAC Abat Oliva Condal Ana Belén Sainz, President, RAC Abat Oliva Condal Javier Roldan, Country Representative Spain

Spain

his project started in September 2011 as a contribution to the international Project held in Gambasse (Guinea-Bissau, Africa) (awarded with ERIC BESP 1st Prize in 2006 and handled by rotaractors of RI District 2202) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtDUDG2lnKo)

opportunities to continue developing in the future are adversely affected and could be highly limited. So, creating a school and a nursery there but neglecting the nutrition of the babies would be a non-sense on a long term basis. Thus, we started to think on how to provide children with a basic nutritional diet.

The rate of children with malnutrition problems in the town and its surroundings is very high (about 30% of the children suffer malnutrition according to the Nutritional Center of Gambasse).

The formula specially prepared for babies and infants has many vitamin complements that help to nurture them, in particular those who suffer from malnutrition. It is an expensive product but it is easy to transport and can be stored for quite long periods of time. Furthermore, we had witnessed cases in Gambasse in 2009 where only by means of this formula babies' lives were saved.

It is well known that healthy and nutritive diet at the first stages of life is essential for a good physical and psychological development and that without it, a child's

We started to contact different NGOs for help. Fundació Ordesa donated 500 kg of infant formula and NGO Silo, which also works in Gambasse area, collaborated with us by transporting the formula we got in their shipping container sent in October 2011. Food finally arrived to its destination in April 2012. In the meantime, Fundación Sonrisas donated 35 kg of infant formula and anonymous citizens another 15 kg. All these food was transported by a group of

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Spanish Rotaractors -including our member Diana Campowho traveled to Gambasse on the 18th of November 2011. Diana Campo is still in Gambasse feeding the children. Moreover, the 1000 euros collected during Rotary Club Barcelona Condal Christmas raffle will be used to buy Infant Formula and will be distributed in Gambasse next summer. Nevertheless, proper nutrition is sometimes not just a limitation but simply the difference between life and death. Because of that, we became aware of the fact that child malnutrition is unacceptable and so the club committed to fight against it also in other places in the world. In February 2012, we providing infant formula to the association Enfance Espoir that shelters orphaned babies and infants under the age of two in Marrakech (Morocco). We visited the orphanage and we purchased and donated 20 kg of formula, which provided the necessary supplies for about one and a half weeks. But we want to get it to a bigger scale and we are now contacting important Spanish dairy companies pharmaceutical companies to increase the number of donations.

The final idea is to provide infant formula to institutions that treat babies and infants with malnutrition problems donated mainly from dairy companies and local pharmacies creating a permanent donationreception network so that it is not only a punctual action but a long-term work.

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The Gala Ball

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„One night dream”

Rotaract Club Lausanne by Audran Vallogia, Rotaract Club Lausanne Cloé Bernier, Country Representative Switzerland

Switzerland

n 2010, the Rotaract Club of Lausanne had the desire to organize an event in order to collect a sum of money that would entirely be handed over to the “Etoile filante” Foundation, aimed at realizing the dreams of Swiss children and teenagers seriously ill or with heavy handicaps. With this project, we had the ambition to reach three aims: to accomplish a new kind of social action in our club, to learn to work altogether during a full year for a project and to strengthen relationship between the Rotaract Clubs but also with Rotary Clubs of our district.

This project changed their vision of Rotaract. And finally this event gave a very positive image of the Rotaract. More than 220 people were present at our Gala and since this event, our club has been growing significantly and we have heard some extremely good feedbacks all around us. We invite you to visit our website, where you can find more information about this event and also some pictures: http://rotaract-lausanne.ch

We were successful in all of these three goals. We know that our support to “Etoile filante” - we gave them the sum of 10'800.- Euros - allowed some children to reach their dreams during the time of a journey or a visit in spite of severe illness or handicaps. This project gave us the opportunity to create relationships with other clubs of the district, we created new friendships and we will participate in new projects together in the future. Thanks to this event, the Rotary Clubs discovered or rediscovered our actions.

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Flying croissant

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Rotaract Club Zürich Christina Aiko Mayer, Rotaract Club Zürich Cloé Bernier, Country Representative Switzerland

lying Croissant is a cooperation between Rotaract Club Zürich and ZIWA (Zurich International Women's Association). Together they run a weekly engagement: every Thursday evening, a volunteer driver and helper collect left-over bakery goods from small stores and bakeries in central Zurich. The food, which would otherwise be wasted at the end of the day, is distributed to needy charitable organizations in Zürich. The project happens in the middle of a society that outwardly shows little poverty; we manage to go deeper and see a face beyond that of well-known Zurich. With the given resources we help people in need and at the same time, we avoid senseless waste of perfect food. Furthermore, the project is a good opportunity for volunteers to meet new people : often there is a joint venture between a Rotarian and a Rotaractor or helpers from outside the Rotary family. So

Switzerland

Flying Croissant also intensifies the relationships and dialogue - not only between Rotaract and Rotary but also within society. And all of it without a single Swiss Franc!

Quotes from participants “In a city with great wealth, it is heartening to realize the kindness of businesses. The distribution of unsold food to projects across Zurich by Flying Croissant helps to show that the helping hand is there against indifference.” “It's a pity to see how much food would be wasted without the engagement of Flying Croissant.” “I can donate my help and my time into this wonderful charity activity.” “In Flying Croissant I can help less fortunate people and it makes my heart beating.” “Flying Croissant provides a fun and exciting opportunity to do something good for our community.” “Flying Croissant is a stunning project that contributes to benevolence.” “Flying Croissant gives every participant the possibility to help poor people with only a few hours work. On one hand the participants help the poor receiving a meal, on the other hand they avoid the valuable resource of food being trashed in an affluent society.” For more information, please check www.flyingcroissant.ch

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Have you ever been

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in the dark Rotaract Club Agora Ipek Senyuva, Country Representative Turkey

Turkey

he project was about sight-disabled people and we executed it on December 3 which is the International Day of Persons with Disabilities.The primary goal of our project was to help to the sight–disabled people by raising awareness in between the community. The idea was: “Creating a dark room (in a shopping mall) which is safely decorated like a regular living area and make people live there for 5 minutes. While people experiencing this feeling, we will be watching them from outside with night vision cameras”. On December 3rd and 4th (execution days) we decorated interior of the container, we set up night vision cameras. In order to be attractive, we arranged a powerful sound system in order to attract people's attention to make them come there and experience this feeling. We arranged these dates on a week-end in a shopping mall because we wanted reach more people and it happened as we expected. Some dight-disabled artists and organisations were also there to support us. Our sponsoring Rotarians have joined our project with their ideas and presence. During the preparations and execution of the project; 15 Rotarians, 25 Rotaractors (excluding our club) and 20 Rotaractors of our club (all

members) were there for two days to work, to join and to experience this event. Approximately 100 people have entered this container and experienced this feeling. A lot of press institutions and agencies visited our project. They made interviews and took photographs of Agora Rotaract members and attendants. On the 5th of December 2011 morning, our project was on the printed press and internet newspapers. Seven internet newspapers made our news. We developed our image and our place in Rotaract society by sharing these news at the mail group of District 2440. We think that our project provided an inspiration for other Rotaract clubs and made them think about sight-disabled people. Our project and our club won the general approval from both Rotary Society and Rotaract Society. Also, we think that our project has an innovative feature both as mentally and budgetary in Rotaract Society.

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There is a very well known aphorism which is "Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t give me a fish, teach me to catch a fish". This is actually what we did. We have created an awareness in between the community. If we would help sight-disabled people directly (by donating something), that would last for a short time and would be forgotten. But the effect of this project will last for longer times

because we made people experienced being sightdisabled. By making people experience of being sightdisabled, we made them impressed and raised awareness. By this awareness, these people will always aware of sight-disabled people and remember how a sight-disabled person lives. We are sure that, 100 person who experienced our simulator, are going to do something for sight-disabled people for their entire life.

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Peace at home Peace in the World

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Rotaract Club Antakya Ipek Senyuva, Country Representative Turkey

Turkey

he idea of this Project has appeared after several activities done with mentally disabled children. When the individuals presented great performance and ability more than the expectations in the activities, it became essential to create a Project both to develop these individuals and to raise awareness in the society. Antakya is a city where many cultures, religions and races live in harmony and peace. We wanted to evoke this togetherness first to our nation and later to the whole world. We also wanted to use the advantage of our city as being famous for its mosaics. Thus, the Project has developed with its main points. However, it was essential to solve the financial aspect of the Project. We applied to EU Youth funds and our project approved by EU and funded with €2950.

one to one works were done and small pieces were combined. Firstly, the students tried to do animal and fruit figures. Later, they started to work on the abstract figures as they developed their hand skills. At the end of the Project, we created a main mosaic with the motto on it: “ PEACE AT HOME , PEACE IN THE WORLD”. Thanks to the permission received from the museum, this mosaic is going to be exhibited in the entrance of the museum for a month. Eventually, both the idea of peace and successful works of the disabled children will meet tens of thousands of visitors. On the dates of 2-3-4 May 2012, the works of the children will meet the society through an exhibit with the participation of both the protocol and community.

Regarding our Project, firstly, we organized a trip to HATAY ARCHEOLOGICAL MUSEUM, second biggest archaeological museum, to attract the interests of the children. Our students became more excited when our guides told them mythological stories. At the end of the trip, the students had an idea about the meaning of mosaic, stone, and art.. The place of the Project and a workshop were realized. 80 mentally disabled students participated in mosaic education three days a week. Other 2O young people sometimes participated in this education. In this activity,

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Autism

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Awerness Project

Rotaract Club Goztepe Ipek Senyuva, Country Representative Turkey

Turkey

utism is not an illness and has complication with mental handicap. We had mission about that start point which to make people understand what autism is and what are the wrong attitudes to autistic people. On this project we had five steps; Swimming Course of Autistic Children, Meeting of ODER (Autistic People Association), Seminar of Autism to Families, Dokuz Eylül University Celebrity Seminar With Jehan Barbur and Celebrity Party Donation to Our Swimming Course, Presentation of Autism to Dokuz Eylul University Students. If we explain steps one by one: first, swimming course of autistic children project includes 10 autistic children which every of them has different levels of autism. At Ege University Olympic Pool, we build this project with three professional swimming teachers and one of our member inside the pool, three emergency member and controller helping outside the pool and two life guards of the pool. With the help of Göztepe Rotary Club which our parent Rotary club, we had free pool entrance and one professional teacher. There were 10 children and just one of them could swim.

Nine of them start the course with no-swimming point they had just swam with hugging us and at the end of project they all can swim their selves without any help. We started the course on January 2011 and pause at June 2011 means six month period, on each Wednesday at 11:00 to 12:00. The autistic children ages were 5-9. Other step of project is meeting of ODER (Autistic People Association) with our members. Our missions were understanding the Autism and our project cause first inside the club before audience. ODER Association President and his wife, who help us to find course children, came to our meeting and told us about Autism and its strong sides of living with that. They also have an autistic child. 26 people include our members and Rotarians were in the meeting and we all understand deeply the meaning of project. Third step is Seminar of Autism to Families. After we understand what autism is we decided to help and teach the detail of autism to autistic children parents. We organize a seminar on 2th April 2011 at 120 seats saloon by the help of Göztepe Rotary Club and our moderator was psychologist whom profession is

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autistic people. Moderator told about their rights, emergency periods and what autism exactly is. Forth step of project is; Dokuz Eyl端l University Celebrity Seminar With Jehan Barbur and Celebrity Party Donation to Our Swimming Course. On this step, one of our members offered cooperation with Dokuz Eylul University Faculty of Business Celebrity Seminar, by the project of Jehan Barbur Tea&Talk Seminar and our Autism Awareness Project. Cooperation includes that, students are organizing the day and Rotaract and project owners invite people to seminar, then they issue tickets on entrance that money they collect was going to donate to our swimming course project. At the same time, as a step of their project they have a party after seminar to students, they issue tickets also in the party entrance and they decided to donate that money to our swimming course project, too. By the this donation to our project we organize a bus to autistic children which were coming to course, by that way none

Turkey

of them was late and none of them get sick through the road on rainy days. Last step of our project was connected with forth step, by cooperation with faculty we had chance to aware university students about autism. We gave them the same seminar of parents to 450 students, and worn them about attitudes to autistic people on their life.

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Magic garden of childehood

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RAC Uzhgorod Olena Gyrenko, Country Representatives Ukraine

veryone would agree that Childhood is the best time in everyone's life. This is the time when you believe in Santa Claus, when your toys are the best friends with whom you share the deepest secrets. At the same time we discover the nature: we are surprised when the trees are covered with the green leaves in summer, and naked in winter, we believe that each animal in the forest is able to talk, we learn about the difference between the food which grows on the trees and which grows from the soil. The closest relatives try to help children to learn about the nature, but grandmothers and grandfathers play a very specific role in this process - they give the essential course of relations "individual-nature". With the great delight every child watches as the trees and vegetables are being planted and how after some period of time a small corn or seedling grows into enormous size. Unfortunately, not every child can get adults` help while discovering the nature. Such children may be orphans and those who are educated separately from their families. But we want to emphasize that there are too many orphans in all countries all over the world, and they need our attention and help. The idea of planting fruit trees for children living in the orphanages of the family type embraced in summer 2009, when one of the project coordinator Oksana Matsak was standing near a tree planted by her. She realized that the area with the planted fruit trees and bushes is very important for children, however not only because of its aesthetic and practical functions, but of educational purpose as well. And how important is to convey to children the importance of taking care of the garden and the benefits that trees bring. The main goals of the project are to give the orphans from the orphanages of the family type the fundamental knowledge in the field of environmental protection, and to create in each orphanages of the family type, involved in

Ukraine

the project, the functional area stands of fruit trees and bushes, which will serve the educational, aesthetic and practical functions. The project has long term duration. There are over 30 orphanages of the family type in Transcarpathion region and their number is constantly growing. These ideas were supported by our local Rotary clubs “Uzhgorod” and “Uzhgorod-Skala”. Members of these clubs gave for us, RAC “Uzhgorod”, the financial support and transport services. Rotaractors asked for help from other individuals and companies as well. Department of Sociology and Social Work of Uzhgorod National University helped in the scientific substantiation of the

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necessity of this project. Service for Children of Transcarpathian Regional State Administration helped to involved children's houses of a family type and attracted the media. Private entrepreneurs have sold the garden and planting material at discounted prices to charitable purposes, employees of enterprises have also provided professional advice on trees planting. Up to date Rotaract club “Uzhgorod” has led activities in 4 phases: April-May 2010 September-October 2010 March-April 2011 October 2011 During these phases the main stages of the project were implemented. Fruit trees were purchased from entrepreneur who specialized in breeding of fruit trees for more than 10 years. Employees of the entrepreneur

provided professional advice on trees' cultivation and care. Garden tools were purchased too. The present day project has been implemented in seven orphanages of the family type in Rativtsi, Serednie (Uzhgorod district), Mukachevo (Mukachevo district) in Transcarpathian region. 55 children aged from 3 to 19 years live there. This project helped children to become more acquainted with the basic knowledge about the environmental protection and to get known how to take care of plants. Members of RAC “Uzhgorod” have helped foster parents to organize educational events for children. By combined efforts were planted more than 60 fruit trees and ornamental trees and shrubs in seven orphanages of the family type. Rotaractors together with foster parents and guests of these actions have discussed the problems of functioning orphanages of the family type in the Transcarpathian region. We hope, that spring will come to hearts of children, their parents & all people all over the world not only with onlooking of it, but also with active participation in a different activities and not only in a spring-time!

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Free mind Rotaract Club Pozzuoli Luca Tondini, Rotaract Club Pozzuoli Filippo Ogno, Country Representative Italy

Italy

thousand books for two hundred prisoned women of the female women's prison in Pozzuoli.

On March 8th, exactly on Woman's day, the new prison library, “Paul Harris“ was inaugurated. Created by the Rotaract Club Pozzuoli as a cultural re-education centre for women. The initiative was organized by the detention house and the partners of the Rotaract Club Pozzuoli. The project was called “Liberamente” (free-mind) and the books were given by the partners of the RAC Pozzuoli and also by partners of other clubs all over the region Campania. Thousands books for the two hundred imprisoned women.

The president of the club Francesco Zaccariello stressed the fact that the Club didn't only dedicate its attention in giving books , but also providing to the desks , the shelves and other kind of furniture. The president also said “ We want to change the library room of the jail and let it become an harmonious and light room , so to give the jailed women a valid help in their cultural and social re-education and rehabilitation and a useful relationship between civilian and local institutions“.

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Crazy Carnival Rotaract Clubs of Malatesta Zone Letizia Cardelli, Country Representative San Marino

ear friends from all over the Europe and beyon!

This year we have decided to do something completely different from the past for the last day of the Catholic period known as Carnival. One party, named Crazy Carnival, 5 Rotaract Clubs (Malatesta Zone), 2 Countries. Where: @Kart Legend, San Marino, but very close to the Italian border, as far as the other 4 Clubs are Italian. When: Saturday, 25th February. Everything started with a “massive advertising” in all the cities close to ours, made by coloured Arlequins and funny messages everywhere – from sms text to e-mail and FB, from public posters to formal invitations –; then, we proceeded with the decor: festoons, coloured lights everywhere, drink and music. Lots of music. Last step: find interesting prizes to motivate a big amount of people to participate and, more important, to dress up as someone/something very original, odd or unusual. We agreed that a suitable deal could be to bring down a bit the entry price for those who were dressed up, and it worked perfectly: about 300 people participated, and everyone voted for the Best Male and the Best Female dress (of course the prizes were one night for two people in a hotel with its own SPA & bath and a free 30-minutes drive on the electrical karts), while dancing on the floor. All the members from the 5 clubs contributed in some way – plan the merchandising, publicize the party, take deals with the DJ and the security, help at the start and at the end of the evening with the coats, give everyone the chance to vote for the best dresses by walking around with the ballot

San Marino

Italy

box... –, and we really enjoyed ourselves, besides present Rotaract to friends and acquaintances from its two sides: the one about charity (the aim of the party was to collect enough money to buy ingredients for preparing cakes to sell during the Easter’s days off and then donate the money raised after both the events to a Telethon project which our 6 Rotarys are carring out since 1 year), the one about fun, friendship, sharing, growing up, compare with lots of people who want to change something and who know they can, because the learned how to make things work all together. Maybe it was just another one of the million Rotaract projects, but we like thinking that each one has its own genesis, its difficoulties and its differences, due to different people who work on it, but in the end the most important thing it’s to contribute in creating and sharing something good enough to let people think about it, and to let Rotaractors be proud to be part of our big, international family. We are!

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The evening of charity and cuisine Rotaract Club Maribor Uroš Šinigoj, Country Representative Slovenia

Slovenia

Every year they manage to raise a ridiculously big amount of funds for charity in one evening!!

auction takes place. Almost every year members of Rotaract club Maribor manage to get an item, that is sold at the auction for more that thousand euros. This year they got the official jersey of the most successful northamerican hockey team of all time, Detroit Red Wings, with signatures of all the players, that was graciously donated by Slovenian member of that team, Jan Muršak. Beside that, they auctioned a painting from a famous academic artist Beus Petara and held a lottery for jersey of current national champions in football. But the most astonishing part of their work is their ability to get a wide array of sponsors (despite the recession). They are a good example for all other clubs in our country for persistance they show in gathering sponsors. All in all, in

Have you ever wondered how some clubs organise an event and raise and donate a significant amount of funds to people who need it very much, and at the same time, every time you organise a charity project, you strive very hard just to cover the expenses?? Maybe this will help you. This year we had a difficult time choosing the best project of our country. In the end we decided to reward the hard work of Rotaract club Maribor, who is consistently managing to raise the biggest amounts of funds for people that need it. We think, that it is not just good intentions that count, the results are also important! And Rotaract club Maribor delivers year by year.

one evening, they were able to raise and donate five

thousand euros to Youth centre for troubled children The winning project is The evening of charity and cuisine. As you probably have guessed, the main focus of the project is cuisine and charityJJ. Accompanied by the sound of music, guests enjoy the best cuisine, that is prepared by chefs in the high-class restaurant Rožmarin. Along that an

and Troubled children and teen. I would like to thank club president Matej Krampač for great cooperation and now, let's hear about the organization of the winning project, The evening of charity and cuisine, from the mouth of their member

Newsletter of the European Rotaract Information Centre

...continuing from the previous page

Slovenia

Sara Nikolić: “Few years ago, we came to an idea to combine several ingredients and cook something delicious. So, we mingled tasteful cuisine, marvelous vine, extraordinary music, openminded people and last, but not the least ingredient – charity. What we got - The evening of charity and cuisine. It is traditionally held in the peaceful, beautifully designed, high-class restaurant “Rožmarin” in Maribor on the last Saturday of November. Our club organizes it by sharing responsibilities and mutually trusting each other. We always try to maximally use the skills of our members, so that everyone feels the

power of the eternal battle to help the ones in need. Firstly we set the goal who are we going to help with the money we are going to collect and how much will cost to organize the event and collect the money. Then, we make the list of desired achievement in precise amount of time. Finally, we share the tasks. One group takes care of the donations and the auction, the other of the cultural background of the event, the third one cares about the suitability of food and drinks. One group does the marketing and sells the tickets for the event. Our president actively participates and coordinates the groups and during our meeting we share ideas and evaluate our achievements. At the end, despite the bad weather in Maribor, on the 26th of November, we managed to collect five thousand euros and donate it to Youth centre for troubled children and Troubled children and teen. At the same time, our guests enjoyed the music, conversations with their acquaintances or friends and good cuisine Rožmarin offered to us.” It was a pleasure contributing to The Rotaract Europe newsletter in my mandate of being in ERIC, good night and good luck. Uroš Šinigoj, Country Representative for Slovenia

Newsletter of the European Rotaract Information Centre

Route Istanbul District 2420 by Serhat Sengul, International Services Committee Coordinator

Turkey

Route Istanbul 2012: District 2420 Hosted 23 International Rotaractors in 4 Fantastic Days The annual event organized by District 2420 International Services Committee, namely "Route Istanbul" has a primary objective of introducing the Rotaractors all over the world to Turkish culture through an insider-led Istanbul experience. The event was held between April 18-21, 2012 and the program was put together meticulously to include the major sightseeing attractions of Istanbul as well as hostaccomodation and a Rotaract project participation. Different than previous years, this year's event is organized in order to reflect the season's style and to stand out in a crowd, supporting the D.2420 seasonal motto "Let's Make a Difference". 23 international guests from all over Europe and Middle East had a unique Istanbul experience through visits to the landmarks of the city including Hagia Sophia, Topkapi Palace, Grand Bazaar, the Princes' Islands and enjoyed the

beautiful view of the city during a party onboard a boat on Bosphorus. All of the guests have expressed their happiness upon their return which proved that Route Istanbul 2012 team has managed to let their guests see Istanbul through their eyes and also created an opportunity to get in close contact with wonderful Rotaractor friends and establish friendships that will last for a lifetime... Route Istanbul team is hoping to see the Rotaractors from all over the world in Istanbul, next year...

Editor: MikoĹ&#x201A;aj Nikola DragoviÄ&#x2021; Marketing Officer, E.R.I.C. Board marketing@rotaracteurope.org