A Rotaract Week

I had the pleasure of meeting with not one but two Rotaract clubs this week: the Parque Rodo and Malvin Club Rotaracts. Both groups of young people, ranging in age from 19 to 34, are excited about starting the year strong and undertaking new community service projects. The Parque Rodo Rotaract has already been involved in bringing 200 computers to Uruguay, through their collaboration with Computers for the World (an NGO based in Seattle, WA) and the Emerald City Rotary Club, and currently lends a hand to El Merendero Nuevo Amanecer, a community center that feeds more than 200 children from Piedras Blancas, a low-income neighborhood of Montevideo. The Rotaract club--in collaboration with its sponsoring Rotary club--is currently helping to expand its facilities in order to accommodate more children and offer a wider range of educational activities. The Parque Rodo Rotaract has been in existence for twelve years and has ten members.
The Malvin Club Rotaract (pictured here with a member of the Malvin Rotary Club) has nine members and is currently working on coming up with ideas for new projects. One of the group’s more recent initiatives has been to invite foreign nationals to speak about life in their respective countries. For example, a representative from the Japanese Embassy has already agreed to deliver a speech about Japanese culture and traditions, and, following suit, I have agreed to give a much-anticipated talk about country music and other musical traditions from Tennessee. The club is also helping to organize an inter-district Rotaract conference this July.