A PROUD JAMAICAN ROTARY CLUB

MANDEVILLE, Manchester - Water, health, food aid and literacy will be high on the agenda of the Rotary Club of Mandeville over the next 12 months, according to the new president of the organisation, Dr Olajide Adekeye.

Speaking at the 2009 annual Installation banquet at the Mandeville Hotel recently, Adekeye said that under his leadership Rotarians in Mandeville would be required to abide strictly by the motto of "service above self" - their reason for "being". The membership would also be asked to maintain their integrity and "high ethical standards" in public and private life.

Adekeye, a Nigerian medical doctor who has lived and worked in Mandeville for several years, said the service club had a responsibility to assist in the process of providing "clear and clean water" to those in need, "especially in schools". Mandeville, like much of Manchester and south-central Jamaica, suffers from chronic water problems.

The new president claimed that efforts to combat hunger should be a matter of great concern. "How can there be peace in the world when some people are going to sleep hungry?" he asked.

The Mandeville Rotarian tradition of providing assistance to the Mandeville Regional Hospital would continue with efforts being made to give US$50,000 in equipment during the coming year.

Computers and books would be provided for basic schools and the service club would be building a partnership with a local cable station for educational programmes at the CXC level, Adekeye said.

Outgoing president McClooney Blair gave a glowing report of the service club's achievements over the past year in education and health, inclusive of the presentation of medical equipment worth millions of dollars to the Mandeville Hospital. Over the period the service club had raised $800,000 from fundraising projects, Blair said.

Guest speaker at the banquet, Spanish Ambassador to Jamaica Jesus Silva, emphasised the value to Jamaica's tourism of billions of dollars in additional hotel rooms and infrastructure made possible by Spanish investment of recent years. The result was that Jamaica was now probably "the country with the most developed (tourism) infrastructure in the Caribbean" and was ideally placed to benefit when the globe exits the current economic recession, he said.

Senior Medical Officer at Mandeville Regional, Dr Peter Wellington, was honoured by the Mandeville Rotarians for his services to medicine.