The 4th Objective of Rotary

We all take the oath of ‘strive to establish peace and goodwill among all’ before every meeting but how many of us are really thought about it or worked on it. Are our district leaders thinking about it?

I believe the world is facing unrest in different forms of conflicts, large number of people have lost their lives and a large number are living in misery and fear and it is high time that Rotarians do justice to their oath.

Rotarians have long been active in efforts to encourage and promote peace. The fourth ‘Object of Rotary’ is to advance” international understanding, goodwill and peace”. In 1942, prior to the creation of the United Nations, Rotarians from 21 nations organized a conference to develop  ideas for advancing education, science, and culture across nations. This meeting was the foundation of what is now UNESCO.

Rotarians were involved in the creation of the United Nations at the founding meeting in 1945 and continue to serve in an advisory capacity to the UN.

Each year, Rotary selects up to 100 individuals from around the world to receive fully funded academic fellowships to pursue a Certificate Program or Masters Degree program related to peace and conflict resolution and prevention at one of the participating peace centers. Each individual Rotary Club or Rotary District can endorse a member for the Peace Fellowship Program.

It is believed that 65million people are displaced by armed conflict and 90%of them are civilians and half of them are children

So what a Rotary club can do is to address the underlying structural causes of conflict like poverty, inequality, lack of access to education,ethnic tension etc in their location

Also support and endorse an eligible member for the Rotary peace fellowship program so that they can work towards building peace and goodwill.

Being a rotarian representing the land which taught the world about nonviolence and peaceful resolution of conflicts also have a moral responsibility. Let me end by quoting from the champion of nonviolence, our own Bapuji

"It's the action, not the fruit of the action, that's important. You have to do the right thing. It may not be in your power, may not be in your time, that there'll be any fruit. But that doesn't mean you stop doing the right thing. You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result."