Dear Rotaractors all over Europe, I kindly invite all of you to read this first E.R.I.C. Newsletter of the new Rotaract year. Full of interesting articles, projects and a lot of information, this Newsletter is once again a great result of our Marketing officer. I therefore would like to especially thank Jordan Terziyski. Standing at the beginning of the E.R.I.C. meeting in Amsterdam, I'm already convinced that this will become a great weekend! We can see that the E.R.I.C. meetings are getting more and more popular and this progress makes the ERIC board as well as the country representatives very happy. I sincerely thank all the Rotaractors who are participating in the ERIC meetings. They are the proof that both the ERIC board and country representatives are working and collaborating in a good way. Dear friends, enjoy reading this newsletter and don't forget to follow up our new pan-European Ecological Projects. Add your color to Rotaract, Lerzan ĹžentĂźrk, MD President 2010-11 European Rotaract Information Center (E.R.I.C.)
BOARD Lerzan Senturk Medical Doctor. Working in the Pharmaceutical Industry in the Global Medical Affairs.
What are your hobbies? Rotaract, Cooking, Travelling, Old-timer cars What is your board job description? (in summary please) President The President is the Chief Executive Officer of E.R.I.C. She presides over both the E.R.I.C. Committee of Representatives and the E.R.I.C. Executive Committee. She represents the E.R.I.C. members with respect to all other organisations within the Rotary/Rotaract world and actively encourages participation. Working towards the inclusion of the remaining countries within Europe which aren't currently represented. It is the responsibility of the President to appoint members of the Executive Committee and work closely with them over the year to attain the goals they have set out. A key part of the role is to provide support and guidance to all Rotaractors in E.R.I.C. working closely with the Exec team and the E.R.I.C. Committee to do this. what is your goal for this term in the board? Increasing the information sharing within the countries by grouping the ERIC-countries due to the geographical distances. Building up an online archiving of ERIC by communicating with the past 22 terms' board members. Creating awareness around Europe for Ecologic Rotaract Responsibility with an appropriate marketing campaign. Going on organising the traditional ERIC projects and adding new one's for increasing the INFORMATION SHARING ınbetween the Rotaractors under the umbrella of ERIC.
Lorenzo Cardelli What is your board job description? ERIC Vice President
rotarACTORS! Do meet, enjoy, share, and keep in touch with new friends, this is a way to “add your color to rotaract”! ERIC gives us the opportunity to combine our colors and create new perspectives, ideas and thoughts --> Let's do it! During this year, I'll do my best to allow your 'colors' to get mixed.. Any suggestions? Contact me!
Jan Helsen Engineer/PhD Student What is your board job description? Secretary/Coordinator for ERIC Ecology Projects
What are your hobbies? Tennis, Sailing What is your goal for this term in the board? My goal for the coming year is to support the rest of the board in achieving the goals set by our future ERIC president and her team. To create minutes of the meetings of good quality. To promote ERIC around Europe and beyond. To launch the term Ecologic Rotaract Responsibility. Besides our social responsibility to the community we should also be aware of our responsibility towards the environment. We should facilitate economic growth and at the same time use natural resources respectfully. Secondly we should be aware about the energy poverty within the world. This is a very unknown kind of poverty, strongly limiting the chances for development. Therefore my goal is to create awareness around Europe for this important responsibility with the cooperation of the full board.
Linus Dreier Architecture Student What is your board job description? Treasurer What are your hobbies? Sports, Literature What is your goal for this term in the board? I want ERIC to think about wether we can provide future REMs and EuCos by (longterm constant) budgets or will we have to raise the fe in order to keep up the quality.
Jordan Terziyski Architect What is your board job description? Marketing Officer of ERIC
What are your hobbies? Sports, Art What is your goal for this term in the board? To publish the ERIC newsletter, to provide pins, information brochures and other marketing tools.
Timi Töltszéki What is your board job description? Social Officer of ERIC
What is your goal for this term in the board? - Social Awareness Projects - Best European ServiceProject (BESP) Award - Twinning - Social section of the web site – inc. the twinning database and project library in conjunction with the IT Committee Carla Isabel Keller Advertising Account Executive/Consultant & Marketing Communications Manager What are your hobbies? Horses, Single Malt Whiskies, Rotaract, Skiing
What is you job description? Assistant Social Officer What is your goal for this term in the board? Raise awareness for resources, the issues of waste, energy use and poverty of energy and it's consequences on this planet.
Anton Gradišek Physicist, PhD student What is your board job description? IT officer - responsible for communications, maintaining the ERIC website and administering the mailing list What are your hobbies? Guitar, Travelling
What is your goal for this term in the board? Keep the communication running, facilitate the exchange of informations.
Giorgio Gandus What is your board job description? E.R.I.C. Assistant IT Officer What is your goal for this term in the board? The Assistant IT Officer is responsible for supporting the IT Officer in the information technology administration of E.R.I.C. services. Review the added value of the E.R.I.C. website and its content
EUCO Warsaw 2010
On Wednesday the 28th of April 2010 the Polish capital for several days turned intoa heart of European Rotaract. Despite the initial concerns over the cloud of volcanic ashes, more than 500 rotaractors from over 30 countries arrived to Warsaw to take part in EUCO 2010 (the European Rotaract Convention). It was the largest event in the history of Polish RAC, organized by six Warsaw clubs, supported by Rotaract friends from from all over the country. On Tuesday, the Rotary International President's envoy, RI Rotaract Committee Chairman Professor Dong-Joon Lee arrived in Warsaw. Professor Lee honored us with his presence together with his wife Diane and it has been their first visit to Warsaw. Professor Lee was actively involved in the whole 5-day event, being the inspiration for rotaractors, encouraging openness to new ideas, explaining how the Rotary and Rotaract cooperate worldwide. He strongly stressed the essence of the rotaractors' participation in international events, especially in the upcoming Rotaract Pre-Convention Meeting in Montreal. His presence on EUCO was extremely valuable to us. On Wednesday evening, after the majority of participants registered the hotel Novotel Centrum Warsaw, we officially opened the Convention, in the presence of Professor Lee and Governor of the District 2230, mr Tadeusz Płuziński. After the flag presentation, the head of the organizing committee, Natalia Pihowicz from Rotaract Club Warsaw Stare Miasto, officially inaugurated the event. Then the microphone was passed to Richard Berkeley, a Brit living in Warsaw and promoting the city. His speech about Frederic Chopin as a native Varsovian has been fantastically illustrated by a young Polish pianist Marek Bracha, recently classified as one of seven Poles to the International Chopin Competition. After the Opening Ceremony Rotaractors got a chance to visit Warsaw's pubs. On Thursday, participants had a full day to explore Warsaw on their own. The evening released in all of us extraordinary energy at a rotaract-exclusive party at the Sketch club. Everyone was supposed to dress in a way that emphasized their country of origin. 5
Some have chosen the ethnic costumes, some have dressed in the colors of their national flags, still others came in T-shirts specially designed for the EUCO. And in this atmosphere of cultural diversity we felt a great unity, having fun together and dancing till the early morning. Participants, however, were not able to have a good sleep, because immediately after the breakfast, the E.R.I.C conference began and lasted until the evening. Here, after the opening by President of ERIC, Claire Tennant, we had an opportunity to listen to a very interesting presentation by Professor Lee, as well as to one by Dr. Johan Maertens, president of the Rotary Club Maldegem who came to us all the way from Belgium. Dr. Maertens presented the case of drugs addiction among the youth as a problem where the Rotary and Rotaract can get involved and try to minimize the consequences. The E.R.I.C. Conference was also a moment of public presentation of the achievements of the RAC in each country and announcement of the winners of the contest for the best European project (Best European Service Project – a children support project of the Italian District 2030) and the best partner clubs (Rotaract Sofia-Balkan with Rotaract Belgrad Metropolitan). The Board of E.R.I.C. for the next year was also elected during Friday's conference. Lerzan Senturk from Turkey will be the E.R.I.C. President for the year 2010/2011. Furthermore E.R.I.C. provided many other interesting presentations, which enriched the conference program and were an opportunity to exchange experiences and inspiration for the future. Friday night began with a tram party – the participants had a tram-tour of Warsaw in the rhythm of music. Even the limited amount of space did not prevent them from dancing. Everyone met later in Warsaw clubs and discos. Saturday was the day of extra tours. Our guests had the opportunity to visit Warsaw from the bottom to the top. The tours showed both the historical part of town - including ghetto areas, and Old Praga district – and the modern parts of Warsaw such as the construction site of the National Stadium. rd Those who chose to relax could watch Warsaw while sitting in a hot tub at the 43 floor of the InterContinental Hotel or dine in an exotic for most milk bar. And finally came time for gala - the last point of EUCO 2010 agenda - dinner, dancing and the possibility socialize with everyone. The official part comprised of endless acknowledgements and thanks. Members of the organizing committee, composed of Magda Lachowska (RAC Warsaw Victory), Ewa Jankowska (RAC Warsaw Wilanów), Mikołaj Dragović (RAC Warsaw Zamek) and Darek Krzysztoporski (RAC Warsaw Śródmieście), under the strong leadership of Natalia Pihowicz (RAC Warsaw Stare Miasto)were awarded the special commemorative medals from the E.R.I.C. In addition, the Board of the European Rotaract Information Centre has agreed to donate € 500 towards the gala charity. All the money collected during the gala raffle was donated to a girl with a rare and extremely difficult to treat type of cancer – Ania Hermanowicz. We managed to collect over 10 000 PLN (2500 Euro). EUCO was a magical adventure for us. Not similar to any other project, it gave us an opportunity to learn more than we thought we would. And we had a lot of fun too! It is a great honor that we could host such an event in Warsaw. Next EUCO will be held in Dortmund. And for now we have memories, photos, and positive energy. It was amazing to see that we have so many committed, dedicated and helpful people in the Polish Rotaract and Rotary environment. Thank you all for being there.
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Bosnia and Herzegovina finally has its own ERIC Country Representative! After more than a ten years of Rotaract in Bosnia and Herzegovina, we finally have our own ERIC Representative. In the past years, mostly because of the fact that citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina still need visas for most of the European countries (this should hopefully change this autumn), we gave our vote to our friends and neighbours from Croatia who successfully represented us in ERIC. From this year we decided to more actively take part in work of ERIC. This is primarly because we feel more confident about ourselves - we are growing rotaract community: from this spring, beside 3 existing clubs, we again have a club in Sarajevo that is reunited and working again. We don't want to stop at this and chartering more Rotaract clubs will be one of the highest priorites for this Rotarian year in Bosnia and Herzegovina. We are also eager to get to know better our European friends in Rotaract and already looking forward to see you at the REMs in Amsterdam and also in Belgrade where lot of us will be attending. On the other hand we also would like to host you here in Bosnia. Rotaract club Banja Luka just finished a successful project called Rotaract Rafting Weekend 2010, and their plans are to make it traditional, so you will all be invited. We are very glad and honored to be part of the great family called Rotaract and we are looking forward to another Rotarian year that is going to be nothing but success, just like all previous ones. Nemanja Kovacevic ERIC Country Representative BiH 2010/11
Dreaming to be a Human We are Erenkoy Rotaract Club, a club of District 2420. We try to help children and people to have better conditions for their lives. According to our aim, last year we chose an elementary school for whom we can support the needs of children continuously. This school has 79 students and their economical statue is very low. School is in a suburb location. The conditions of the school are very inadequate, there are only two classrooms in the building, the 1st and 2nd degree students share one, and the rest of them share the other classroom. The school hasn't got a heating system, they use a heating stove for heating which is very harmful and dangerous for the children. They don't have cleaning materials. The factories near school donate some chemicals, and the employees of the school produce cleaning material by these materials. And also this fact is very dangerous and harmful for the health of the children. The students don't have any books or notebooks, there is no library, no lesson 7
equipment, and also no need to say but, they have never seen a computer in their lives. They don't have a toilet in the building, there is a shack in the garden as a student toilet. There are only two teachers in the school. The children don't have a boot, most of them wear a slipper in winter. There is a risk for children such as these students, as giving up education. We expect to prevent this risk for these 79 students. If they have enough conditions to learn something, they will love school and learning, and won't have harmful addictions. We need educated people in this world, and we don't have any luxury to lose any of these children. According to these conditions the aim of the project is, providing the right circumstances for these children to have their education, and also for living as a human. We regularly visit the school and see what they need more and if they began to love education. We talk with children about their future plans and dreams in order to see if they a goal in their lives, and make them learn how to make the right decisions about their lives, and make them children which have dreams about their lives, and also for the world. We gave boots and clothes to the children as presents. At the same day two dentists from our club members, taught children how to brush their teeth. At our next visit to the school we brought notebooks, books and writing materials and cleaning materials for the school. During this period we arranged a firm to change the preschool class. The firm did wallpapers to the walls of the class and carpets for the ground. The class seems perfect with the new look. After all these donations, the smiles on their faces let us know that we are on the right way and we still continue to help this school by providing writing materials for children and cleaning materials for the school. Berk Tanel District 2420. President of Rotaract Club of Erenkoy
GIFT. ACT On January, 15th 2010 Rotaract Club of Olsztyn and Rotaract Club of Warszawa Zamek launched their first joint innovative project called GIFT.ACT. It was soon to be voted the best service project in District 2230 (Belarus, Poland, Ukraine) in year 2009/2010. Rotaractors from Olsztyn and Warsaw asked Rotary Clubs, Rotaract Clubs and friends all over the world to send one item which was characteristic and unique for the region or country they were from.The response was amazing! We were receiving gifts from everywhere – from countries ranging from Nepal to Canada and from Sweden to Brazil! Thanks to worldwideinvolvement and proactive cooperation of Rotary and Rotaract community over 30 fantastic and unique gifts were sent to Poland. th All of the received presents were assigned for the auction and lottery which took place on the 24 ofApril 2010 in Warsaw. The prize draw was followed by short presentations,carried out by invited guest speakers, about countries the donated gifts were from. The event was a blast! The guests were absolutely fascinated with all the items they had possibility to purchase and thanks to their generosity 1.000 Euros was raised. This amount of money enables Rotaract Club of Olsztyn and Rotarat Club of Warszawa Zamek to offer yearly scholarships for two gifted and talented kids which are going to be awarded on October 15th, 2010. GIFT.ACT was a project created with the aim of helping talented, gifted and promising children from challenging backgrounds to explore their abilities, talents and potential development. It gives support to the development of children's outstanding capacities; children that have little means for additional education. 8
But the purpose of GIFT.ACT was also to promote proactive cooperation and participation among Rotaract Clubs and our friends from all over the world as well as foster cooperation between clubs of the same district but different cities. Bridging cities, countries and continents at its full! Marta Pierzkała Vice President, Rotaract Club Olsztyn, Poland Love Bridge The project “Love Bridge” is a cultural project which aims to improve the knowledge of Pomak Turks living in Bulgaria on both Turkish and Turkey, and also give them the opportunity to meet with people who share the same roots with them and had immigrated from Bulgaria more than hundred years ago and settled in Turkey. This project brought us “The Best International Service Project Award” in 20092010 term in District 2440. Improvements for Laka Village Being one of the distant villages of Izmir, Laka village is one of the villages which need help for improving its living standards. As we have discovered the shortage in this village, we decided to take action. We have made all necessary agreements and provided a dental scan for everyone in the village. In our national holiday April 23th, we took the children of the village for sightseeing and introduced them another world that they haven't been able to see before. To keep the people notified about the world, we have established a computer laboratory in village school and provided certificated courses on how to use computer. Without any sponsors, we believe we have made a difference in the lives of Laka village people. D2440 Rotaract club EFES
ROTAGURME Almost everyone likes to gather around a table with friends eating great food and having drinks. This year, Nilufer Rotaract Club will do this with a cause, with a project on mind: ROTAGURME. For the 2010-2011 term we are aiming to visit nearly 20 restaurants in our lovely city, Bursa. We will get to know all the different cuisines, restaurants in town and do reviews of them. Starting on the 15th of September we will visit our first restaurant and also launch our blog for this project. By keeping this blog we will be helping people who will search the internet for restaurants they can go to in Bursa. When they will search the net our blog and reviews will come up and they will find all the information they need in our blog. In this blog there will also be a section which will tell more about who we are as a club and what we are doing as Rotaractors. By doing this site we will kill two birds with one stone with this project. We will be able to do our own presentation in a useful way that benefits both the local people and the visitors in town and also benefit our Club and the Rotaract publicity. Coruh CUBUKCU Nilufer Rotaract Club, Bursa, Turkey, D.2440 President 2010-2011 coruh@tikirmakina.com 9