Rotary Club of Kumasi-East handover and fundraising dinner raises GH¢100,000 to support service projects

The Rotary International calendar begins on July 1 and ends on June 30 the next year. A President in waiting, known as the President-elect, usually elected a year and a half in advance, takes over from the sitting President to continue the service to the club and most importantly, service to humanity.

This year, the Rotary Club of Kumasi-East, saw a smooth transition from the outgoing Rotary Club President, Rotarian Sharon Afriyie Ofori-Kuragu to Incoming Rotary Club President, Rotarian Matilda Adukuma Adomolga - Adageba at a Handover and Fundraising Dinner that was attended by numerous Rotarians and dignitaries from Kumasi and other parts of Ghana. The event showcased the Club's unwavering dedication to service and its ability to rally support for positive change.

The report by outgoing Rotary club President, Rotarian Sharon Afriyie Ofori-Kuragu was given after which the incoming Rotary club President, Rotarian Matilda Adukuma Adomolga - Adageba was sworn into office. She shared her Board’s vision for the upcoming term, emphasizing the commitment to community service and collaboration, and support for the District Governor's initiatives in providing Cold Chain storage facilities for storing vaccines across the country as well as being part of the District’s 100,000 trees a year "Rotary Greens Ghana" initiative, and also elaborated on the Rotary International President’s theme for the Rotary year 2023-2024 “Create Hope in The World” in line of which she had chosen two flagship projects for her term:

Creating mental health awareness and donations to the psychiatric unit at KATH and Cheshire home at Kwadaso.

Creating awareness on the protection of our environment in basic schools and donation of books on the environment.

The fundraising segment where an amount of over Gh¢100,000 was realized was a resounding success, with generous donations from attendees, sponsors, and partners. The amount realized from the fundraising event will fund Rotary’s efforts to support service projects including mental health initiatives.

“After fearlessly imagining Rotary last year, the stage is set to create hope in our world.”

Rotary members improve lives and bring positive, lasting change to communities around the world by promoting peace, preventing disease, providing clean water, supporting education, saving mothers and children, growing local economies, and protecting the environment. Rotary’s top priority is the global eradication of polio. Rotary launched its polio immunization program, PolioPlus, in 1985 and in 1988 became a leading partner in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.

The effort which has reduced the number of cases from about 350,000 in 1988 to just ten this year has taken time, money, dedication, and invention from thousands of people fighting to end the disease.

Rotary and its partners, notably the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, commit $1.2Bn annually towards the Global Polio eradication effort. Members of Rotary Clubs across the globe, every year, join health workers to go from home to home, school to school, market to market, seeking children who may be at risk, to have them immunized.

More than 16 million people who could have easily been paralyzed by Polio, are walking today because Rotary International, with its members and finances, made the move to eradicate Polio. Since 1988, more than 2.5 billion children have been immunized.