President Mwangi The 10th Vision

In Chicago town USA, four men met every evening and they would rotate the venue of their meeting to the business office of one of them. Whenever any of them would need to answer to a call of nature, they had to call off their rendezvous and go home as there were no public toilets. They resolved to build a public toilet in the local. This service project endeared their friendship to the local community and everyone one wanted to belong to that friendship. In 1905, they decided to formalize their friendship by inviting the local community to join them. And thus Rotary was born in February, 1905. The fellowships continued rotating from home to home and they chose a rotating wheel as the emblem of their friendship. To date, the wheel is still rotating.
Today we proudly belong to this movement for social change. In the 10years of our clubs existence, we have enjoyed a smooth transition and tremendous support from one president to the next. Knowing that this is a slippery concept we do not take this tradition of our club for granted. On 30th June, 2023, we invited you to come and witness this trusteeship changing hands, at the installation of Mwangi the 10th.
This year, our strategic plan as aligned to the 2 year strategic plan of district 9212 aims to Increase Impact, Expand Reach, Enhance Participant engagement and improve our fundraising for the foundation.
This year we target to charter three (3) Rotary Clubs and at least a Rotaract club or an interact club. The goodness of rotary has been concentrated around Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, Nakuru and a few other major towns. This rotary year, we shall take rotary to hitherto unexplored areas. We train our eyes on Sololo, Nyahururu, and Wote towns.
A Rotarian can never really enjoy rotary without losing oneself to rotary. However, often times the exigencies of life get the better of Rotarians and participation in hindered. This year, we shall make effort to ensure that it is easy and possible for Rotarians to participate. We shall have multiple projects planned by various member groups. Some the projects waiting for us include the White Cane Project which we plan to launch in Nakuru County. Our goal is that this project benefits the blind children. For the First time, Our club shall organize and host a Medical camp. This medical camp shall be a collaborative partnership with the Rotary Club of Muthaiga.
In Kajiado County, we adopted Saikeri Village. We found a community at war with its neighbors fighting over water. We pacified the community with the help of the community Barazas and restored sanity and brought cohesion. We were also able to build a bridge and we have secured children in school for basic education. During the drought period, we were able to avail a school feeding program. The community has embraced alternative economic activities. They are ready to receive and steward a global size community service project. Now we shall commission a community borehole and water vending kiosks and build a new market.
Adopt A River we shall build community parks, community bathrooms, we shall clean the Nairobi River and plant trees along the Riverbanks. We will undertake this project in partnership with the Portuguese Mission in Kenya and UNEP. Under The DIGITAL FOREST initiative, we will plant and map trees on a digital app-The tree Mapper, by use of GPS Coordinates. We target to plant 15,000 trees this year. This journey began on 16th July, 2023 when the project was launched by the District Governor Eng. Leonard Ithau
Marsabit Girls’ Project the life span of this project has come to an end. We shall review this project and explore better and sustainable means of delivering sanitary towels and other assistance to school girls of Marsabit more sustainably.
ROTARY MODEL SCHOOL we will regenerate public primary schools to modern and responsive learning institutions of the 21st Century. We are in process of formalizing partnerships with other rotary clubs including, RC Muthaiga, RC Thika Road, RC Embakasi and RC Samawati. We are keen to partner with corporate citizens that demonstrable interests in sponsoring projects around behavioural change. I am most excited because the signature project of my club, Mother & Child, shall make the first solid step(s) into the phase 3, this rotary year.
I call upon you, my fellow rotarians to come forward and plug in, in any of the club’s service projects. I promise you that you shall have a satisfying and a successful year knowing that a life has breathed easier because you have lived and participated in any of our club’s service projects.
COVID 19 hit the world and our behaviours and perspectives on many things in life changed in a big way. We were confined in the plastic and gloomy tunnel of online fellowships. This year we shall turn up and bask in the sun. We will arrange and attend Destination Fellowships – Voi; Nanyuki; Naivasha and many more. Therefore, dust your passports and apply for multiple entry visas. The Silent Disco shall make a comeback. We shall celebrate our members’ birthdays physically and listen to interesting speakers on curious topics. We also look forward to the 10th anniversary celebration dinner on 2nd December, 2023. This will be yet another opportunity to celebrate our achievements and progress with pomp and colour. Get Set! This is the year to go back to the club we knew before the Corona pandemic. The happy, warm and outdoor club. At the turn of the year, we shall turn back, pat each and say this was truly our year in the sun.
For a long time, our club has made the Buddy Groups the nuclear unit of the club. We intend to re-energize the buddies’ system by reorganizing them into interest groups. I am optimistic that Rotarians shall discover new passions, learn and practice new skills, visit new places and our Rotary club shall be an engine of your own renewal. We shall visit more rotary clubs and conduct joint fellowships in order to meet more Rotarians. In that regard, we look forward to sponsoring a bowling team at the upcoming bowling tournament on 22nd September, 2023.
Finally, we have a duty to give to the foundation. We shall mobilize more resources and donate more to the foundation. Aim to attain a PHF status or to add another level of PHF(+). For the recent entrants can take advantage of the DG’s matching challenge to achieve PHF status. For the senior members, I invite you to take up the challenge to make it to major donor level. This is the only way we shall increase the amount of global grant funds that can be repatriated back to our communities through community service projects. I encourage all of us to move to the next level of giving.
My fellow Rotarians, I ask of you to bring your TIME, TALENT and TREASURE to our Club to serve the less fortune and to create hope in the world. As Mother Teresa would reckon, we know only too well that what we are doing is nothing more than a drop in the ocean. But if the drops were not there, the ocean would be missing something. So, Let us march together and create hope in the world.
I look forward to one of the happiest purpose driven years in rotary.
Yours in service,
Mwangi The 10TH