Posted by DG Alex Nyaga on Jun 01, 2022
 
Year In Review
 
Happy New Month Rotarians and Happy Madaraka Day to all Kenyans!  June is designated as Rotary Fellowship Month where Rotarians are encouraged to participate in organized groups with those who share a common recreational interest or vocation. This month is also when the Rotary Internation Convention in Houston Texas USA is taking place, hot on the heels of our successful One Love District Conference in Diani last month. 
 
I was able to hand over leadership to our District's 2022/23 Governor, Azeb Asrat in the presence of Rotarians from our District and I am confident in her leadership to take our  District to greater heights.  This month will see similar transitions at our club level as members continue to conduct ceremonies to install their new presidents and board of directors.  The 2021/22 Rotary year is now coming to a close and I take this opportunity to acknowledge what we have accomplished this year.
 
 
Rotary clubs in District 9212 just like elsewhere are breaking barriers, determined to change lives in the community as well as those of their members. And as we go about this fulfilling and transformative journey – we see great enthusiasm in what we do. We started this year with the intent to do more and grow more and this is demonstrated through the notable achievements we have had so far backed by our solid District Strategy. 
 
Paula and I are in awe of the warm welcome and unconditional love we experienced during our club visits. We visited a total of 136 clubs, travelled more than 8500 kilometers by road and 21,276km by air, rode on a donkey (we hope the donkey survived) and had a memorable homecoming visit to the host club- The Rotary Club of Nairobi Langata. We responded to more than 20,000 emails, we spent a considerable amount of time on phone and virtual calls, we tasted diverse cuisines, we learnt a lot of culture and experienced Rotary vibes that created worthy lifetime memories that we are grateful for.
 
We had the honors of hosting the RI President Shekhar Mehta where we had interactions with the Prime Minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and The President of Republic of Kenya. We had a fruitful discussion around Girl empowerment, Eye hospital, Global Partnership Education, Heart surgery, 1M trees initiative, raising the profile of Rotary, Peace initiative, Blood bank among others.
 
The allure of making a lasting and positive impact in people's lives has seen membership grow. More want to and are being part of the ONE LOVE journey as part of Growing More. This has seen an increase of 10% in membership, now at 3,805 Rotarians with 349 new members as from the 1st of July 2021. In Rotaract, we have also experienced considerable growth with 135 new Rotaractors.
 
At the Club level, there are 6 New clubs that have been added in the district and now standing at 140 clubs. These are RC Kericho, RC Laikipia Highlanders, RC Lamu, RC Kaimosi, RC Kitui and RC Ngong Road. We have Nabo IF, Jabali IF, and Maadali IF that are coming up. With Rotaractors, there was the chartering of 4 new Rotaract clubs being Rotaract club of Nairobi Magharibi, Nyeri, Gachie and Lavington Jioni, with 2 more In Formation. Our Interactors chartered 6 new clubs this year.
 
In Giving to the foundation, we have raised USD 257,065.42, against a target of 500,000. This is from 93 clubs, and we are keen to ensure we attain this target before the end of the year. The bulk of the contribution has been from Kenya with 80%, Ethiopia at 12% and South Sudan 8%.  One of the key strategies has been the Haba na Haba campaign where we encouraged clubs to be all giving clubs to the foundation by the end of this Rotary Year.
 
We have held 6 successful foundation dinners in Nairobi, Mombasa, Ethiopia, Kirinyaga and lately Kisumu to represent the regions, which attracted the participation of over 500 Rotarians. So far, 200 Paul Harris Fellows have successfully been matched, which is 100% of our target. These included old PHFs advancing and New PHFs. We got 11 Major donors and have a few more in the waiting.
 
As part of Doing More, our grant portfolio is currently worth USD 11 million for 138 Grants. Projects funded from these grants have ensured that we continue supporting our communities, Impact lives and become an avenue for us as Rotarians to serve. So far, we have 75 Grants worth $ 6,925,352 in Kenya, 32 Grants worth $ 3,166,793 in Ethiopia and 3 grants worth $238,325 in South Sudan. I challenge clubs that have never benefited from these grants to make an effort and apply, so as to ensure we provide solutions to challenges facing our communities. On matters qualification, 43 clubs have so far been qualified to participate in global grants applications.
 
Rotarians are getting involved in projects that continue to make a difference: promoting literacy among special needs children, donating 23,000 books in this Rotary year, provision of clean water to over 20,000 families to help fight waterborne diseases and protecting children against polio through Immunization and awareness creation.  We have further ensured economic empowerment  for young women and the youth, planted more than 650,000 trees by 86 clubs as part of addressing climate change issues and conducted 91 successful heart surgeries, with over 100 children in waiting through the Gift of Life Initiative, among others.
 
The Ethics and Governance committee is a new committee that was formed to address some of the ethical issues affecting our interactions as Rotarians, and also instill proper governance in running the affairs of the District and of our clubs. So far, the committee has done a good job in ensuring that all the serving and incoming district officials are vetted, and the team has led the development of key policy documents that will ensure that we professionalize the running of our affairs in Rotary. So far, through intentional training and sensitization efforts by the committee, majority of the Rotarians are aware about the committee’s mandate as the point of recourse in case they are aggrieved at any level.
 
In building the skills and capacity of Rotarians, we have so far undertaken 15 Key world-class trainings, targeting the District leadership, Club leadership and Rotarians and have been able to reach over 3200 Rotarians with these trainings. This has enhanced their knowledge of Rotary, their effectiveness in running their clubs and enriched their intervention in the community
 
As part of our linkages with our stakeholders, we have entered into key partnerships in the district with different partners. These include: 
Gertrude's Garden Children's Hospital, who have been instrumental in supporting our Gift of life initiative and the heart surgeries.
Davis and Shirtliff who are our WASH partner in borehole drilling and Wash projects
PZ Cussons, who have been at the forefront in the fight against COVID through enabling our hand washing, Hygiene and sanitation effort.
UNEP who has a key partner on matters environment through various district wide projects like the Adopt a river, tree planting and various other efforts
Other key partnerships include Harleys, POLYCARE with the Kenya Police, WWF, UNICEF and lately, the Global Education Fund. 
 
With regard to our public image, we have been able to optimize the use of digital media as a way of communicating our interventions and activities. We also were able to launch the Club Runner as the focal point for clubs to the PR Space, and we would like to encourage clubs to take advantage of this space to showcase our projects, tell more of our impact stories, especially our One Love Stories more intentionally. This will not only improve our impact related image out there, but we will generate more interest in what we do as Rotarians and attract quality members to our clubs.
 
Overall, as a District, We Did More, We Grew More. Strategically, 93 clubs have club strategies which they have been implementing for the second year running, and this ensured that many more community service activities are undertaken in the district.
 
My fellow Rotarians, and it has been a real pleasure working with all of you. District Governor Elect Azeb Asrat, The District Executive Committee, the Country teams in South Sudan, Ethiopia and here in Kenya, the ever-supportive Past District Governors, All the Assistant Governors, My Esteemed Change Maker Presidents, Our Rotarians, Rotaractors and Interactors, our key partners including the Corporates and all our stakeholders, thank you, thank you, thank you, we did well! The journey is not over yet, Let’s finish strong with One Love!
District Governor 2021/22
Alex Nyaga