THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING!!!

Since 2004, Elias Thomas has been making an annual trip to India, principally for the purpose of immunizing children against polio – which is still endemic in four countries: Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nigeria and India. In 2004, Elias led his first team of Rotarians and Friends of Rotary to the northern part of India, where the team members participated in a National Immunization Day (NID), working in the slums of the oldest section of the capital city of Delhi. They worked in small groups of two or three and administered drops of oral vaccine to literally hundreds of children. Since the NID was carried on throughout the entire country, more than 175 million children under the age of five years were immunized all in one day.

This coming February, Thomas will lead another group to India, this time with two purposes: first and foremost, the group will participate in an NID on February 7. Joined by volunteers from throughout India, as well as hundreds of Rotarians from around the world, they will target areas in the states of Haryana, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, where a few hundred cases have been diagnosed during this year.

The second project will be to actually work as common laborers, alongside local laborers, in the construction of a catch-dam to be located in a dried-up river bed in the state of Rajasthan. Through this construction, the group will aid in the creation of a water harvesting project, whereby a reservoir will be created following the monsoons, causing a rise in the water table and allowing for irrigation for crops in the area. Three small villages will benefit from this project, increasing the annual crop production from one to three crops.

What is particularly interesting regarding this group is the fact that among the nearly forty team members, own of them will be coming from Russia. Elena Sergeeva, President of the Rotary Club of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk and joining the team. Over the past several weeks, Thomas and one of his former team members, Rotarian Bob Weel of Anchorage, Alaska, have been working to arrange for all of the paperwork to be processed in order to include Elena in the ROTARY DREAM TEAM – INDIA 2010. Since Rotary International was only recently established in Russia, it is particularly significant that not only are there two members of Rotary Clubs in Russia joining the group, but especially since they are both women.

Other members of the Dream Team will come from throughout the United States, as well as Canada, England and France. Thomas is still awaiting details as to whether or not members from Iceland and Italy will also join the group.

Just this past week, Elias received the following Email from Elena, which he feels exemplifies the true meaning of being a Rotarian:

My regard friends!
My speech to you:
I am Elena Sergeeva from Russia. I live on Sakhalin; it’s a big island near Japan. I am the President of the Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk Rotary Club of the current year.
But I neither speak nor understand English, therefore this trip is a big challenge for me.
Though I am a big woman (XXL), successful business lady, a mother of two kids, I would like to ask you to take care of me, not to forget me to the excursions and lunch.
And please do not forget to take me to the dam construction, because I am a physically strong person and you will need me for sure.
Though I am scared, I am a true Rotarian because ‘Service is Above Self’.