Hyderabad :  Recently sworn-in Global President for Rotarians in over 200 countries Rotarian Sakuji Tanaka was in city today on a maiden three day visit. He arrived in city yesterday night. Addressing media with the support of the interpreter Sakuji Tanaka said he is happy to visit India. And added that, Indians have played a very important role in Rotary. Rotary values India and Indian contribution a lot. One-tenth Rotarians in the world are from India and one-tenth of Rotary clubs are in India he said and added that Rotary International will value India’s involvement, commitment and contribution and will definitely give back to India.

Speaking further he added that Rotary International has spent Rs 5000 crores for Polio eradication in the third world countries. Rotary movement in India is synonymous to Polio. It has declared war against Polio in 1988. By 1988, 122 countries were facing Polio problem.  Today Polio is almost eradicated from the world.  Except India, Pakistan and Afghanistan Polio is not found anywhere. India has no fresh polio incidents in the last two years. If no cases are reported in next twelve months, it will be declared as polio free country.

My theme during this year is Peace through Service. Peace can mean many things for many people, but however we understand peace, Rotary can help us achieve it. Rotary helps us meet the basic needs of health care, sanitation, food, and education.  These can bring peace. In addition, we need peace as well for vaccinators to go into countries such as Afghanistan to prevent children from getting polio. It is through our work as Rotarians that we help to build the foundation for a more peaceful world.  Through service, we can bring peace. This is why our 2012-12 Rotary theme is Peace Through Service, informed Sakuji Tanaka in a brief press interaction.

We will focus on six point program which includes Water, Sanitation, Basic Education, Disease Prevention, Economic and Social development etc he said.

Now Rotary declared its new mission: 100%Literacy in India, South Asian countries by the year 2017.

Rotary movement is India is almost 100 years old. Rotary reached India through Kolkata in 1917. There are 3000 Rotary clubs with a membership of over 1.2 lakhs in India. It spread to Andhra Pradesh through Guntur as early as in 1943 informed Rotarian Yash Pal Das, Rotary International Director.

During his stay in the city, Sakuji Tanaka will inaugurate and address International Zonal Conference christened Namaste Hyderabad organised by Rotary Institute. It will be attended by 800 plus top level Rotary delegates from India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and Bhutan. They include Rotary District Governors, Past Governors, Directors and other top brass.

Rotarians today organised a Golf Tournament in city to raise funds for Polio.

Sakuji will also distribute 500 Tricycles costing Rs 30 lakhs and 325 Sewing Machines costing Rs 20 lakhs on 23rd and 24th November at functions to be held Hitex in city.

Rotary International District 3150 which encompasses 12 Revenue Districts — which include Twin Cities, Guntur, Prakasham, and Telangana Region are contributing $ 75,000 towards Polio this year.  The Rotarians in this region (i.e. Rotarians of District 3150) aim to provide one lakh school desks to the under privileged children in the Government Schools across the State of Andhra Pradesh. It will donate 30,000 school desks in current Rotary year and balance will be completed by the end of next Rotary Year informed Ravi Vadlamani

We have already distributed 50,000 desks so far with the support of partners in Finland, USA, Australia and Italy under Total Literacy Mission. Our mission will continue till every government school in the state has desks, said Ravi Vadlamani.

Rotary International is a global organized whose stated purpose is to bring together business and professional leaders in order to provide humanitarian services, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and help build goodwill and peace in the world. It is a secular organization open to all persons regardless of race, color, creed, religion, gender, or political preference. There are 34,282 clubs and over 1.2 million members worldwide. The members of Rotary Clubs are known as Rotarians. Members usually meet weekly for breakfast, lunch or dinner, which are a social event as well as an opportunity to organize work on their service goals.  Rotary’s primary motto is “Service above Self”; an earlier motto, “One profits most who serves best”.