Rotary Fellowships are international groups of Rotarian's organized around shared interest. Many of these groups will be part of the House of Friendship exhibit during the International Convention.
Barry Rassin, of the Rotary Club of East Nassau, New Providence, Bahamas, is the President of Rotary International for 2018-19. As president, Barry aims to strengthen our public image and our use of digital tools to maximize Rotary’s reach.
“Those who know what good Rotary clubs do will want to be a part of it, and we must find new models for membership that allow all interested in our mission to participate,” he says. “With Rotary more in the public eye, we will attract more individuals who want to be part of and support a membership organization that accomplishes so much good around the world.”
Barry's path to Rotary International President was extraordinary. He was asked to serve following the unexpected death of Sam Owori July 2017 just two weeks into his term as Rotary International President-Elect. When one of our District 6290 representatives at an October 2018 Zone event thanked him for stepping in he responded quite simply - "it's what we do, isn't it? When asked, we serve."
RI President Barry Rassin’s theme for 2018-19, Be the Inspiration, asks Rotarians to inspire change in the world and in each other. “I ask all of you to Be the Inspiration to help Rotary move from reaction to action — to take a hard look at the environmental issues that affect health and welfare around the world and do what we can to help.”
Barry stressed the power of Rotary’s new vision statement, “Together, we see a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change — across the globe, in our communities, and in ourselves.” This describes the Rotary that leaders must help build, he said.
To achieve this vision, he said, Rotarians must take care of the organization: “We are a membership organization first. And if we want to be able to serve, if we want to succeed in our goals — we have to take care of our members first.”
World leaders reaffirmed commitment to eradication at the G7 summit.
Advance notification of cVDPV1 in Papua New Guinea: Following identification last month of an AFP case from which VDPV type 1 had been isolated, genetic sequencing of two VDPV1s from two non-household contacts of the AFP case, has now confirmed that VDPV1 is circulating and will be officially classified as a ‘circulating’ VDPV type 1 (cVDPV1). The National Department of Health (NDOH) is closely working with the GPEI partners in launching a comprehensive response. The cVDPV1 will be officially reported in next week’s data.
Advance notification of new cVDPV2 in DR Congo: Advance notification of a new cVDPV2 case was received this week from Ituri province, in the north-east of DR Congo, close to the border with Uganda. Initial investigations are ongoing, but early reports are that the child had onset of paralysis on 5 May 2018, and has a recent travel history with Haut Katanga. Genetic sequencing indicates the case is linked to the Haut Lomami/Tanganika/Haut Katanga outbreak. The case will be officially reported in next week’s data.
Summary of newly-reported viruses this week: Three wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) positive environmental samples reported from Pakistan, and two from Afghanistan. One circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) environmental sample from Somalia. See country sections below for further details.
NA: Onset of paralysis in most recent case is prior to 2017. Figures exclude non-AFP sources. All cVDPV are type2. cVDPV definition: see document “Reporting and classification of vaccine-derived polioviruses” at [pdf]
Keep Reading for an Endemic Country Summary (as of June 19, 2018)
Barry Rassin, of the Rotary Club of East Nassau, New Providence, Bahamas, is the President of Rotary International for 2018-19. 
