Good Morning

By John Wan, DRFC Chair (D-3450) 2003-2006

I am happy to see so many of you here. You represent the better people of the world, people with loving kindness who are interested to help others, who want to refine the art of loving and giving, and who want to share such good news to others. 

Gloria has asked me to talk about the Foundation Goal. Talking about the Goal is simple, but getting there would require hard work, and we cannot achieve the goal without your support, without the support of every club and every Rotarian, AT the last District Assembly, DG Peter announced his goal for the year, as far as Annual Giving was concerned. He aimed to raise US$220,000. This is a modest sum, which is less than the project sum of US$300,000 that our district has committed on a project that seeks to vaccinate about 200,000 children against Hepatitis B in Anqing City, Anhui Province, China. 

I am proud to announce here that the Rotary Foundation Trustees have just approved a Major Matching Grant of $157,000 to enable us to carry out this project. The sum will match amount to be contributed from the DDF of four districts, $120,000 from D-3450, and $10,000 from each of the three international partners, namely, D-3300 of Malaysia, D-3520 of Taipei and D-3650 of Korea. Let us congratulate ourselves and the three generous districts for this wonderful and unprecedented feat. 

This is wonderful news indeed. It is the biggest amount ever we had from the Foundation; and you will hear more on this project later. It is made possible because our district has accumulated substantial amounts of DDF over the years. However, we would almost exhaust our reserves on this project, which is why all of us would need to continue to contribute. Under the leadership of DG Peter and with your industry and support, I am confident we would achieve and possibly exceed our goal. 

Now, the Rotary Foundation is a dynamic foundation, constantly growing and evolving so that it can continue to help the people in the world who badly need our help, which is why we need to update ourselves regularly and on a continuing basis. No amount of training would be too much when it comes to the Rotary Foundation, which is why we have here this morning our RRFC PDG Dens Shao, coming all the way from Taipei to share with us his wisdom and knowledge on the Foundation. Use him, ask him questions on the Foundation that you have always wanted to ask but were afraid your DRF Chair might not have the answers. He is here for one day, and he is all your today. 

Let me tell you something about Dens and his lovely wife Becky. This is indeed a wonderful couple. 

Dens has been a Rotarian for 21 years. He is from D-3520, a district with long association with ours, in more than one way. He was Governor there in 1999-2000, or a Millenium Governor and a classmate of our PDG Dipo Sani. He has extensive knowledge and experience in Rotary at many levels, and most recently, has been appointed RRFC for Zone 4B from 2005 to 2008. 

Dens is a dentist by profession, but his aim is life is to be a true and dedicated Rotarian and Gentleman. He now spends regularly 8 to 10 hours a day on Rotary matters. He has written extensively on almost any aspects of Rotary, including training and of course the Foundation. His motto is “Love to Serve, Willing to Take”. 

Fellow Rotariansm one does not meet Rotarians with such dedication and wisdom every day. Let us welcome our speak for today, RRFC PDG Dens.