RI General Secretary John Hewko's address to the Brazilian National Congress on 27 February 2012.

1. John Hewko, RISG
Address to Brazilian National Congress
27 February 2012
Page 1 of 4
Honorable Senator Valdir Raupp, Honorable Senators, District Governors,
Rotarians, Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen …
Good morning!
It's great to be here in Brasilia, and especially to be here at the Brazilian
National Congress, celebrating Rotary Day here in Brazil. I can’t think of a
better way to mark the month of Rotary International’s 107th birthday than
with this acknowledgment of the amazing work of Brazilian Rotarians. And
I was very glad to have the chance to come back to Brazil, where I worked
as a lawyer back in the 1980s. It’s always a pleasure to be in this beautiful
country, and as you see I’ve been hard at work brushing up my Portuguese
in order to honor my hosts.
We’ve got both Rotarians and non-Rotarians—and I hope also some future
Rotarians—in the room here today, and so what I’d like to do for the next
few minutes is to provide you with some background on Rotary for those
who aren’t as familiar with our organization, and then update you all on
what’s going on with Rotary lately, from my own perspective as the general
secretary and CEO of RI.
Well, Rotary has been active in Brazil since 1923, and in that time Brazil has
supplied Rotary with no fewer than three international presidents. At present
there are 2,376 Rotary clubs in Brazil, with 56,702 members. And while it’s
great to have those kinds of numbers, what’s more important is what’s
behind the numbers: the Rotarians themselves, and the kind of work that
they’re doing.
In Brazil, they’re providing jobs training to high schoolers, and getting
nutritious food and after-school care to school children. They’re helping new
mothers take better care of their babies, and training a corps of literacy
teachers thousands strong. All over Brazil, Rotarians are active, they’re
involved, and they’re making their towns and cities better places to live.
Because that’s what Rotarians do, not just here in Brazil but all over the
world—in every one of the more than 200 countries and geographical areas
where Rotary has a presence.

2. John Hewko, RISG
Address to Brazilian National Congress
27 February 2012
Page 2 of 4
And I must say, the more I travel around the Rotary world and the more I get
to know Rotary, the more I am in awe of our organization—the more I am
simply in awe of all that Rotary does. The majority of Rotary’s work is done
locally, through local service projects—and these are the projects that are
quietly and effectively making an absolutely tremendous difference in the
lives of individuals and communities, all around the world, every day.
Those local projects cover a tremendous range of areas, from water and
sanitation, to health, to education and literacy. Globally, we also have one
priority goal as an organization, and this, of course, is the total eradication of
polio. That’s been our corporate priority now for well over two decades, and
it will remain our priority until the world is certified polio-free—and that’s a
goal that is now looking closer than it ever has before.
The biggest news in polio eradication is that last month we marked one year
of no new cases of polio in India. India was for many years considered the
most difficult country in which to conquer polio; not just its sheer size, but
also the problems of poverty, sanitation, a mobile population and a very high
birthrate, combined to form a formidable epidemiological challenge. We’ve
been saying for years that if we could eliminate polio in India, we could do it
anywhere—and now, that refrain has gone from a challenge, to a rallying
cry.
With this great step forward we’ve redoubled our efforts not only from a
public health perspective, but also from a public relations perspective. We
want the world to know that polio is nothing short of a global public health
crisis. Polio is close to gone, but it’s not gone, and this moment, this point in
time, is the most crucial point of the journey yet.
This is why we’ve launched a global End Polio Now illumination project, in
which every year, on the week surrounding Rotary’s anniversary, we’ve
been illuminating iconic landmarks around the world with the End Polio
Now logo. We’ve projected End Polio Now onto the Sydney Opera House,
the Tower Bridge in London, the Roman Coliseum, and Egypt’s Pyramid of
Khafre. Here in Brazil, this year, we saw End Polio Now on the side of the
historic Sitio Arqueológico de São Miguel das Missões in Rio Grande do
Sul, and the neo-classical Palácio Garibaldi in the city of Curitiba.

3. John Hewko, RISG
Address to Brazilian National Congress
27 February 2012
Page 3 of 4
Rotarians worldwide have participated in polio eradication in every way
possible, from serving on advisory boards at the highest level to hiking
through the remotest regions, on a race to vaccinate every last child. And
they’ve contributed more than US$1 billion to polio eradication, including
$11.2 million raised right here in Brazil.
Brazil itself is polio-free largely due to the efforts of Rotarians, who worked
tirelessly with government and public health entities here to help eradicate
polio from the Americas, which have been certified polio free since 1994.
I’m proud to say that even though Brazil itself has not seen a case of polio
since 1989, Brazilian Rotarians continue to work to achieve a world in
which all children are free from the shadow of polio. This is because
Rotarians know that no child is safe until polio has been eradicated
everywhere. The polio free countries of Russia and China have both
suffered outbreaks of polio in the past two years. Like Brazil, these are large,
economically powerful countries with strong health systems, and yet the
polio virus found a way in. We’re at a point where we can either go full
speed ahead, and reach the end—or, if we were to slacken our efforts, we’d
very shortly find ourselves back where things were decades ago. And that’s
not something anyone wants to see happen.
The contributions that Brazil made in the polio eradication efforts in the
Americas were essential to its success. Its technical leadership and expertise
were absolutely vital, and more recently Brazil has provided valuable
technical support in countries, such as Angola, which are still struggling with
polio.
I hope that in the months ahead, Brazil, as a country which quickly conquered
polio and which is among the best in the world at immunizing its people, will
step forward to apply this leadership and expertise to capitalize on the historic
opportunity before us to save countless children from the suffering inflicted by
this terrible disease. Rotarians welcome the opportunity to work with the
government of Brazil to promote polio eradication as a global priority. This
will ensure Brazil’s own polio-free future, and will establish Brazil firmly in
the ranks of governments whose caring and foresight extend far beyond their
own countries’ borders.
Rotary is an organization with an incredible history and there is no question

4. John Hewko, RISG
Address to Brazilian National Congress
27 February 2012
Page 4 of 4
that its best years are yet to come. I am confident that day by day, year by
year, we will see the Rotary flame burn ever brighter—so that working
together we can continue to make the world, and Brazil a better place for our
families, for our communities and countries, and for future generations to
come.
Thank you very much.