HOW DO WE KEEP THE MOMENTUM GOING ON LITERACY?

The topic of this week’s meeting was inspired by my viewing of a draft of the PowerPoint presentation which Chico Schlabitz ( Brazil) will deliver at the RI Convention (Tuesday, 22 June, from 15:45-17:15), in the Palais des Congres, Quebec, Canada.

Chico’s presentation shows the impressive contributions to literacy made by Rotarians in Brazil …and then he raises the question, for Brazil’s Rotarians (and the rest of us) How do we keep the momentum going?

My impression is that in Brazil the answer to the question could be that zone coordinators Chico, Paulo Eduardo and Mauro will continue to run a multi-zone literacy resource group almost as if the RI Literacy Resource Group were to continue to exist. The three of them, I am guessing and hoping, will continue to do what they have been doing …making districts and clubs aware of literacy project opportunities and standards of excellence, constantly urging clubs to get involved and constantly praising those which do, and making District Literacy Awards at the end of 2011, 2012, etc.
I believe that will work in Brazil because Chico and Paulo Eduardo have put the infrastructure in place and because they seem to have a very supportive RI director in Antonio Hallage.
What about the rest of us? Are there any other possibilities of creating a zone or multi-zone version of the RI Literacy Resource group in the Latin American Area? North American Area? Europe? Africa? Asia? The South Pacific?
Even if you realize that your zone doesn’t have the capacity for such an effort in the absence of strong support from the RI president, what about your home district? Could you, should you, work to make your district’s literacy committee the agency which continues the work started by the RILRG? That option appeals to me so much that I agreed to be the district literacy chair in my district next year. What about you?

No response to me is required on your part. But if you envision a possibility in your area, zone or district remember the wise counsel of our leader, John Kenny.
Richard Hattwick
(RI World Literacy Coordinator)

May 2010
PHOTOS: Literacy icone 1; Chico Schlabitz and Antonio Hallage (Brazil); Literacy icon 2 and 3; John Kenny visits with a gift of life, patients who received cardiac surgery through a multi - district  project, in Hungary.