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Profile of District 9200 |
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Geographic | Economic | Rotary Membership | History of the District | District Leadership Plan | District
Conference | The Rotary Foundation Programmes | Conclusion | District Leadership
Geographic
District 9200 covers 5 countries in eastern Africa namely Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. District 9200 is one of the largest districts in Rotary International in terms of size with approx 3 million square kilometres.
Economic
Agriculture remains the backbone of all these countries with 75% to 80% of the population living in rural farming communities and the majority of are engaged in subsistence farming. It is estimated that more than 50% of the rural population live below the poverty line.
The region faces immense domestic challenges from HIV/Aids, low savings and investment, poor infrastructure, conflicts, and a weak education system. Government led public education is widely available but the quality of education is poor due to the socialist influenced curriculum in certain instances, poor school facilities, and poor standard of the teachers. Private education on the other hand is expensive and not so readily available. A weak education system creates a shortage of human capital and acts as a constraint to technology transfer and new investment.
There is a need to improve the overall investment climate of the East African economies through better governance, capacity building, improved education and small, medium enterprise development.
Some economies have fared much better in the last 10 years due to liberalisation from centrally planned and nationalised industries. Privatisation has enabled these countries to make rapid advances in export trade, tourism, mining and commercial farming.
Rotary Membership
There are 113 active Rotary clubs in the district located in 5 countries as follows. Eritrea 1 club, Ethiopia 8 clubs, Kenya 35 clubs, Tanzania 16 clubs, Uganda 52 clubs.
(Please note that the number of clubs will fluctuate over the year; click on the country link to see the current number of clubs in that country. - Ed.)
Total membership is approximately 3200 persons and average membership per club is 30 members. Clubs in the capital cities have membership of 50 plus and clubs in small rural towns have membership as low as 20 or even less.
The majority of the clubs meet after work for tea/coffee meetings with light snacks in order to keep the cost of Rotary reasonable. The rest of the clubs prefer lunch meetings. There are few dinner clubs and no breakfast clubs.
Approximately 20% of the members are lady members.
History of the District
The first Rotary club in the Eastern Africa was Rotary Club of Nairobi and it was chartered in 1930 and was part of District 55 for countries south of the equator. New clubs were formed in Mombasa and Dar es Salaam in 1944 and 1949 respectively. As Rotary spread throughout Africa new districts were formed and clubs were redistricted. District 9200 emerged in 1995 with the 5 East African countries of Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. More...
District Leadership Plan
The district adopted the RI recommended District leadership plan in 1999. This system has helped the District Governor to administer the large number of clubs in such a large geographic area. The district, besides the RI recommended administration process, adopts a separate country wise administration under the respective Country Chairs The regional approach is to provide service to its clubs and members. Each of the country committees includes country officers for important primary district positions as deemed important including each of the divisions under the District Foundation structure and District Trainer. There are presently 25 Assistant Governors spread geographically throughout the 5 countries providing support to clubs and enhancing communication. Communication is further advanced through an efficient District Website www.rotary9200.org and a district Email database of approximately 2000 Emails. The district website has a mini website for each of the clubs and a database for projects needing funds. Training has been decentralized simultaneously through out the district conducted by the AG’S for the clubs under their respective jurisdiction. Seminars included are Club Officers Training Seminar, TRF Stewardship Seminar, Training for Trainers Seminar, Rotaract Officers Training Seminar, Interact/New Generation Seminar and Membership/TRF Seminar. More than 150 seminars are held so far since July. The AG Seminar and regional country wise PETS seminars are held by the District Governor under the trainer system. Member Orientation CD, Rotary Library CD, PETS and AG Seminar Training CD and a consolidated balance seminar CD are distributed at grass root Rotarian level.
District Conference
The District Conference and the District Assembly are held fused together in May each year generally in the home town of the District Governor and attended by between 600 and 1000 registrants. The jamboree is a venue of networking with old friends and making new ones. The program includes plenary sessions and break up group discussions.
The Rotary Foundation Programmes
Humanitarian Grants. In view of the enormous social and economic difficulties facing all the countries it is gratifying to see that nearly every club is very active in providing meaningful service to their communities. Community service projects are undertaken in hand with international service and Humanitarian Grants of the Rotary Foundation and on a club to club basis through World Community Service. District 9200 is the largest single district recipient of Foundation grants with currently over US $8 million in progress. There are currently nine 3H-Grants to the sum of nearly US $3 million and 204 Matching Grants to the sum of approximately US $5 million. In the last 3 years there have been 80 Rotary volunteers with Individual Grants.
- Group Study Exchange
The District participates in a minimum of two and usually in three GSE’s every year. One Traditional GSE is funded by the World Fund, a second GSE is funded by a generous endowment by PDG Yusuf Kodwavwala from Nairobi, and a third GSE is usually double funded by the overseas District by their District Designated Fund. District leaders believe that both the inbound and outbound GSE’s are an excellent opportunity to establish international sponsor contacts for funding projects in the district. The majority of the GSE’s have been with districts in Canada & USA.
- Scholarships
The districts DDF fund balances are not sufficient to award Ambassadorial scholarships. On average the district raises US$50,000 to $60,000 in annual giving to the Foundation. This would enable the district to award either one or possibly two scholarships and leave no balance for supporting matching grants with DDF. District leaders have taken a decision to use all their DDF for supporting the humanitarian grants of the clubs.
Whilst the district understands and appreciates the importance of education nevertheless it believes that is more equitable to support 20 to 30 clubs with DDF for their matching grants that ultimately assist thousands of families, than to spend all the DDF on scholarships for 1 or 2 persons.
The district has made modest donations and actively participates in the Rotary World Peace Scholarships and the Ambassadorial Scholarships funded by the Scholarship Fund Pool for Low Income Countries. The district invites and receives about 20 applications every year for the Peace Scholarship and about 150 applications for the Ambassadorial Scholarship. In the last 4 consecutive years the districts nominations for both scholarships have been approved. In addition the district receives about one or two donated scholarships every year from different districts. In 2003-04 District 5340 donated an Ambassadorial scholarship to study Peace & Justice at the University of San Diego, and District 1090 donated one Ambassadorial scholarship to study agriculture at the University of Reading.
The District would like to build up a portfolio of several donated Ambassadorial Scholarships that could be depended upon on a regular and sustainable basis.
- Polio Plus
Clubs in the district have been very active in the PolioPlus programmes. Clubs have raised funds for PolioPlus ($40,000 in 2003), they have provided local funding and logistics at NID’s, provided funding for surveillance activities, and many clubs received PoiloPlus Partners matching grants for bringing in Rotarians to participate in NID’s in Ethiopia and Eritrea. All countries in the district were ready to be declared Polio free in 2004 but unfortunately there are fears that the infections can be imported from war-torn neighbouring countries. As a result Supplementary NID’s are planned in threatened border areas.
- Annual Giving
Even though we live in very poor countries Rotarians have contributed admirably to the Foundation. Every year we raise about $50,000 to $60,000 through new Paul Harris Fellowships, and Sustaining members. Clubs are aware of the Every Rotarian, Every Year programme and contributions large and small are being received. Charitable donations are not tax deductible in any of the countries in the district and as such corporate donations are very rare. Tremendous emphasis has been placed on ‘Giving’ in 2005/6 and the response is overwhelming.
Conclusion
District 9200 is unique in its size and multi national establishment. Nevertheless Rotary is active and expanding and the district functions like any close knit Rotary family. Great distances, many languages, different cultures, different religions and tribes, etc do not separate us but underscore the fact that we are united by Rotary in enjoying fellowship, believing in vocational service, and providing service to our communities together with clubs worldwide in the name of International Service.
In Service Above Self
District 9200 profile prepared by:
PDG Hatim Karimjee
DRFC
 District Officers
History of the District
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