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| New Rotary chief takes on poverty |
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by
Ayam Maeresa, 22 June 2003
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15:28:38
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Rotarian Naseem Qureshi took the chain of office for the presidency of the Blantyre Rotary Club on Saturday, promising to step up the club’s charity work to help the poor break the jinx of poverty.
Qureshi takes over from Rotarian Agnes Katsonga-Phiri, who was the first female president of the country’s oldest club established in 1955.
Qureshi, a banker with Finance Bank of Malawi, said his one-year term of office expiring next June, will attempt to assist in correcting some of the country’s socioeconomic ills weighing down human development progress.
“We are going to help in breaking the bond of suffering by helping others help themselves,” said Qureshi.
He said the club will distribute books to communities to help fight high illiteracy levels, wheel chairs to the disabled and engage in tree planting activities to save planet earth. He said the club will spend about K7.5 million for some of the work.
He said the club, whose helping hand crossed borders into Mozambique to donate foodstuffs when raging floods destroyed crops and left thousands homeless, will focus on other needs by communities.
He said most people in the country are still struggling to be back on their own after a crippling food crisis that threatened to starve a third of the 11 million people last year.
Said Qureshi: “The socioeconomic ills that we have are not going to disappear today, tomorrow...but they will disappear one day if we help.”
Katsonga-Phiri said the new president faces a tough task because being a charity-based organisation, the club relies a lot on the input of other members. She awarded several Rotarians for their commitment during the year.
Guest Speaker Dunstan Wai, who is also World Bank country manager, said the bank associates with groups such as Blantyre Rotary Club because they share the same aspirations on poverty reduction.
About six out of every 10 people in the country live below the bank’s poverty threshold of US$1 per day. |
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