Rotary International President hopeful of eradicating polio from the world by 2016

Rotary International President 2015-2016 K. R. Ravindran - Pic by Daminda Harsha Perera

By Sarah Hannan

Having served in club level, district level and international level K.R. Ravindran’s journey with Rotary began in 1973. Taking his seat as the President of Rotary International (RI) for 2015-2016 at One Rotary Centre in Chicago last month, he becomes the first Sri Lankan, 10th Asian and 105th Rotarian to hold office. As the head of Rotary International he is responsible for the Rotary Club’s spread over 200 geographical regions and countries consisting of approximately 1.25 million members.

He has been involved in several multi-million dollar projects of Rotary benefiting Sri Lanka. He was also the Chairman of Rotary Polio Eradication Committee which made Sri Lanka polio free in 1994. He subsequently served RI as a Director and as its treasurer and as a trustee of The Billion Dollar Rotary Foundation. 

Ravindran is Co-founder and CEO of Printcare PLC, a publicly listed company and a global leader in the world’s tea packaging industry. During his recent visit to Sri Lanka he obliged for a brief interview.

Following are excerpts:

 

Q: Being the first Sri Lankan to take the Rotary International President’s seat, what advantages will Sri Lanka receive?

A: I doubt that my friends and colleagues in Sri Lanka put up my name to be President so that our country can be benefitted! In fact they have loaned me to the world, to provide leadership and to possibly uplift the organisation. However, there are indirect benefits that will necessarily accrue to Sri Lanka owing to my current position.

The number of people who want to do projects with Sri Lanka has increased and projects that are millions of dollars’ worth will come in to the country. This is not because I made a request, but a natural phenomenon of me holding this high visibility job.

The visibility of Sri Lanka has certainly increased and will continue to increase exponentially. I travel to 40 or 50 countries. I meet Heads of States. Our National Anthem is sung wherever I go and the Sri Lankan flag flies each day at our World Headquarters. The spinoff to Sri Lanka is large in terms of public relations.

 

Q: Polio eradication has been your pet project and you chaired the project for Sri Lanka receiving a Service Award for a Polio-Free World. What is the current status of this project in the world and the challenges that Rotary has faced while executing it?

A: When we started over 20 years ago there were more than 1,000 cases a day. This year it has come down to around 28 cases over the last eight months and that too only in two countries; Afghanistan and Pakistan. On 11 August we will mark a historic milestone; one full year without polio in the African continent. We are now down to these last two countries. This year we are hopeful that we can eradicate polio from them as well.

We have one formidable challenge in Pakistan which is the Taliban who for reasons best known to them are sabotaging our operations and even shooting our vaccinators. So we had to take many steps to circumvent this obstacle. If not for them we would surely have eradicated polio from these two countries by now. Polio is the second disease after small pox, which could be eradicated in the world.

 

Q: Can you elaborate on this year’s theme of being a gift to the world? How will it resonate on the ongoing projects and the new initiatives within the year?

A: Each year the elected President announces a theme for his year. This is an internal affair not to be confused with our motto; ‘Service above self’. The theme is not projected outside but it acts as a bonding force for each year bringing together the RI President, the team of Governors and Presidents at the Zone, District and Club levels.

‘Be a gift to the world’ is my theme for this year.

The theme tries to put in to words; one’s own philosophy in life. So my philosophy in life is that, we come here and live within a temporary period of time 70, 80, 90 or more. This short period is just a dot out of the millenniums that this world has existed. In order that our sojourn through life is meaningful, the planet should have benefitted from your presence; earning money alone cannot be a goal in life. We must strive to be a gift to this world; and not a liability to Mother Earth. I am urging Rotary members to give their gifts of time, talent and knowledge to improve lives in communities across the globe.

I believe this theme resonates in every good deed we do in life; whether it be a simple hand in help to someone or partake is a major project benefitting thousands. Rotary’s services in Sri Lanka have been far reaching.

The best example that I could recall is the Women and Children Hospital that we built in Maha Modara, Galle after the Tsunami. This hospital has seen over 100,000 child births and with the intensive care units and neo-natal facilities on place, it ensures that lives of infants and mothers are saved giving them the gift of life.

The Cancer Early Detection Centre that we had setup recently has screened 35,000 women and found about 5,000 positive cases. The centre specialises in breast and cervical cancer which detected early can be treated.

The schools we built after the Tsunami all around the island costing over Rs. 1 billion; takes care of the primary education of nearly 15,000 children. These schools are very well equipped with auditoriums, playgrounds, computer labs, etc.

 

Q: Rotary urges the growth of public private partnerships. How have you got around promoting these concepts? 

A: The Polio Eradication Initiative is the best example of a public-private partnership that has ever been done. Rotary initiated this whole program. We have partnered with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Health Organization, the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, UNICEF and governments of the world. Rotary will have contributed over $ 1.2 billion to a program that is expected to total approximately $ 11 billion by the time that transmission is interpreted in all countries. Since 1985 as a result of the efforts of Rotary and those of our partners, more than two billion children have received oral polio vaccines. More than 650,000 cases of polio are now prevented each year.