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Rotary Opens Opportunities

2020 is a very challenging year for mankind. We are among the lucky ones as the Pandemic here is relatively mild in Hong Kong, Macau and Mongolia.

We are expecting economic downturn in many parts of the world. There will be more people suffering from poor hygiene and starvation in the communities.

Our way of meeting has adapted to online taking on the challenges during the pandemic. We even finished our training events with the addition of online mode. For the first time ever we started to broadcast our events to Macau and Mongolia. Online meetings are becoming the new norm ranging from club meetings, installation ceremony, and anniversary to service projects such as micro-fiction competition and arts competition, etc. This just proves that we can adjust according to the condition. Some club having had to adopt the online meeting approach even increased their member’s attendance online.

The Theme for Rotary International 2020/21 is Rotary Open opportunities. We are opening opportunities for all in need.  Let’s be proactive and become known as the people who spot opportunities for positive change that no one else sees. Let’s join hands to make a difference.

The District Focus is on health, peace and environment. We need to promote health among ourselves and our beneficiaries. We are planning to have a peace camp to promote peace to our young generation. We need to be aware of preserving our planet in every aspect as Rotary International already put environment into the Area of Focus. Let’s become a green District.

This is the moment that we open opportunity to connect people around the world to make greater impact and let people know what Rotary is all about. This is the opportunity for innovative ideas of meetings, service projects and trainings. This year we put emphasis on collaboration with the local and international community such as the local volunteer organisations, chamber of commerce, university, government, sister clubs and other Districts.  We can do projects in any parts of the world. We should plan our projects, with innovative and sustainable ideas.

Engage your family, friends and colleagues to Rotary.  Opening opportunities for them to learn about what Rotary is. Invite them to join Rotary clubs, Rotaract, Rotary Community Corps and all our events. Welcoming talents and community leaders to Rotary. Rotary is evolving, so lets bind together to be part of Rotary’s present, future and history.

About DG Eric Chak

A Specialist in Orthopaedics and Traumatology, DG Eric Chak graduated from the Medical School of the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1995. Right after his internship in the Prince of Wales Hospital and the Tuen Mun Hospital in Hong Kong, he joined the Department of Traumatology and Orthopedic in Tuen Mun Hospital as an Orthopaedic Surgeon. During his service in Tuen Mun Hospital, DG Eric achieved his Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgeon qualifications in Hong Kong and the UK.

Having achieved his professional qualifications, DG Eric visited Japan, Switzerland, France and Finland to have enrichment courses in Spine Surgery. He was deeply impressed by the advance technique of the spine surgery and showed great interests in spine surgery in his practice.

As an experienced Orthopaedic Surgeon, DG Eric is the Fellow of the Hong Kong Academy of Medicine, the Hong Kong College of Orthopaedic Surgeons and the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh British Orthopaedic Fellow and Fellow of Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, UK.

DG Eric joined a medical group in 2007. He then established his own Specialists Clinic in 2009 and he is one of the directors of the clinic at the moment. He is working together with two specialists and a physiotherapist. Apart from doing surgery and seeing patients, DG Eric also conducts medical assessments offering expert opinion to patients with work injury or traffic accidents.

DG Eric was inspired by the Rotary Values and joined the Rotary Club of Peninsula in 2010. He served as a Club President from 2013 to 2015 for two terms. The prolonged presidency laid a strong foundation to his unimaginable Rotary journey. One of the most impressive programs he had worked on was the “Dream come true” project, which was a joint effort across multi Areas. He chaired this project for 2 years from 2013 to 2015. Rotarians reached out to the disabled and underprivileged young people, and shared with them skills that help to achieve their ambitions. “Skills transferred” from Rotarians to the youngsters ranged from doing magic, dancing, playing musical instruments, etc.

DG Eric applies his medical profession skill into services frontier. He led a Vocational Training Team to Mongolia in 2015, with a mission to train local doctors in orthopaedic operations, and to perform surgery for children with inborn hip and foot problem. Professional training of this type is unique to Rotary’s services. DG Eric did and will do his best to promote Rotary service values to the medical profession, such as organizing professional training and international seminars for the profession as well as the community.

DG Eric had served as an Assistant Governor and Chairman of the 4th Rotary Hong Kong Ultramarathon in RY 2017/18, and later he was elected as DGND in spring 2018. While Eric was a DGN in 2018-19, he did not slow down but taking a step forward to serve as a District Secretary for Area 9 & 10 in Mongolia. He arranged PETS for the Mongolian President-Elects. DG Eric also served as Rotaract Support Fund Chair in 2018-19 and District Strategic Committee Chair in 2019-20. DG Eric’s philosophy is trying to reach every Rotarian, Rotaractor, Interactor in the entire D3450 as many as possible. All his good will and efforts prove the Rotary motto of “Service Above Self” and “He who serves the best profits the most”.

We will focus on 3 major areas:
Peace, Health & Environmental Protection.

Promotion of Peace has been a long-standing tradition of Rotary International, as evidenced in the fact that Rotary was amongst 42 organizations invited to offer advice at the United Nations Charter Conference in 1945. Rotary operates Peace Centers in different parts of the world. Last year, we supported a young man on a study program in non-violent conflict resolution at the Rotary Peace Center in Thailand. He has since become our Rotary Peace Fellow and is running online courses or training camps about conflict resolution skills for Rotarians and Rotaractors. We’ll continue to offer scholarships for programs at Rotary Peace Centers, where young people could learn and promote understanding about world peace.

To enhance health awareness among Rotarians and the general public is another work focus in my year. We will step up education efforts about dementia, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (“CPR”) and organ donation. Ageing population has been an issue facing us and to know more about these subjects will be beneficial to the general public at large. Last December, we held a major event on dementia with occupational therapist and doctor as speakers for more than 300 Rotarians who were then sent to visit elderly people living alone, in the hope of identifying any elderly people with symptoms of dementia at an early stage. We will also hold more educational events on CPR, so that students in secondary schools and universities, as well as our young people could acquire CPR skills. It is important that everyone knows what to do to save a life in emergency.

On environmental protection, we will continue with our tree planting programs to help minimize the impact of greenhouse effect, and we will drive beach cleanup campaigns throughout Hong Kong. We continue to encourage energy-saving by reducing the use of air conditioning for indoor areas, and cutting down the use of plastics or printed matters. We will also organize a green cooking contest to sharpen our knowledge of food sustainability.

Last but not the least, young people are the driving force of sustainable development for Rotary. The 75 Rotaract Clubs with around 4,200 Rotaractors are valuable to the sustainable growth of RID3450. RI has been working on elevating the status of Rotaract Clubs. Rotaractors are our partners rather than program participants. We will invite Rotaractors to join District Committees in order to deepen their understanding of the values and operations of Rotary International. It is our hope that some of them would become our successors. RID 3450 will go on to host “Interota 2020 Hong Kong”, the global conference for Rotaractors which is delayed to June 2021 due to the COVID 19 last June. Interota is open to all Rotaractors and young people from all over the world. This is where we promote our services that come in a wide range of global peace and humanitarian programs.