The crisis in Ukraine is having devastating consequences on civilians as families flee their homes. According to the United Nations, more than 2 million people, most of them women and children, have sought refuge in neighboring countries and across Europe, while about 1 million more people have been displaced within Ukraine.

Rotary and Rotaract clubs in Europe and around the world have taken swift action and are working with members nearby to provide food, water, medical equipment, and shelter for refugees.

Rotaract Europe

The European Rotaract Information Centre, a multidistrict information organization that serves Rotaractors all over Europe, created a United for Peace site that compiles information for refugees and volunteers.

• The site offers information about free rail, bus, and air transportation available to refugees and lists details about what’s needed and how to help at specific national borders.
• It also has fundraising details for hospitals in the western Ukraine city of Lviv, as well as for clubs that are helping in various places and for other organizations in the region.
• The site lets Rotaractors coordinate shelter for refugees stranded at the border. Volunteer hosts can sign up through an online form and specify how many people they can house and for how long. Begun as an initiative to help fellow Rotary members leaving Ukraine, it’s now being used by Rotaract and Rotary members all over Europe to offer help.
• A tool on the site links a demand for goods with available supplies. It was created within 48 hours after a team of 60 members from 10 countries met by videoconference about how to meet the most urgent needs.

Ukraine

Ukraine has 62 Rotary clubs and six satellite clubs with about 1,100 members, and 24 Rotaract clubs with more than 300 members.

• District 2232 (Ukraine and Belarus) formed a committee to help people affected by the crisis. It has launched an appeal to Rotary members worldwide for funds to provide basic necessities.
• The city of Lviv has had an influx of people displaced from other cities around Ukraine. The Rotary Club of Lviv International, working with local authorities and major hospitals, created an online spreadsheet of relief items that can be accessed by people who want to help. Members arrange for the donated items to be delivered to hospitals and coordinate storage with local warehouses.

Poland

Poland has taken in more than a million refugees, and Rotary clubs all over the country created a central account for contributions.

• The Rotary Club of Olsztyn is collecting and managing donations for more than 150 Ukrainians who are staying at Ostróda Camp, a conference and recreation center. Most of the occupants are unaccompanied children whose parents stayed in Ukraine. Four cars full of supplies including food, clothes, toiletries, and toys were donated hours after the center began accepting refugees.
• Members of the Rotary Club of Zamosc worked with a member of the Rotary Club of Wolsztyn, who owns a medical supply distribution company, to coordinate a partnership with other organizations to collect supplies and equipment.
• The Rotary Club of Gdansk Centrum is providing accommodations for four refugee families, and members who own businesses are offering them work.

Other countries that border Ukraine

• The Rotary Club of Kisvárda, Hungary, is coordinating contributions and mobilizing members to donate necessities and deliver the items to where they’re needed.
• Rotary members in Romania and Moldova have created a central fund for contributions and set up WhatsApp groups that organize food donations and coordinate shelter for refugees.
• In Slovakia and the Czech Republic, clubs have partnered with a railway and cargo company to offer transportation to nearly 2,300 refugees.

Kim Widlicki and Claudia Brunner contributed to this article.

POLIO MOVIE EVENT – THE DUKE 

The Polio Movie Event is a very popular way for clubs to raise funds for End Polio Now.  It’s also a great opportunity for people in our communities to have some fun together.  With lockdowns in so many parts of Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands, the pent-up demand for a fun event is stronger than ever.

To enable more communities to participate, this year’s Polio Movie Event has been scheduled to start later than usual—from 2^nd December.  The movie is THE DUKE: ·“a ridiculously charming British comedy” and “stranger-than-fiction true story”
·with two very popular stars—Jim Broadbent and Helen Mirren.
·Rotary has a three-week pre-release window—it’s not open to the general public until Boxing Day.
·Check out the trailer.
The Duke is a 2020 British comedy-drama film directed by Roger Michell, with a screenplay by Richard Bean and Clive Coleman. The film stars Jim Broadbent, Helen Mirren, Fionn Whitehead, Anna Maxwell Martin, and Matthew Goode. It was Michell’s final film before his death in 2021.
The film was awarded 5 stars from The Guardian^[4] and The Daily Telegraph^[5] following the World Premiere at the Venice Film Festival.^[6] It is scheduled to be released in 2022.

Apart from fun and fundraising, this year’s event also provides an opportunity to help your local cinema to recover from the pandemic.  The amount paid to the cinema would not normally be less than $10 per seat and a typical ticket price might be $20.

To arrange an event, talk to the group booking person at your cinema and make sure they plan to offer this movie to the public.  The cinema can then make all the arrangements to source the movie from the distributor, Transmission Films—there’s no need for clubs to get involved in that.

To assist you in promoting the event, we’ve created a template that your club can use to create your own marketing materials:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ux7cepjt3id5iwx/THE_DUKE_Poster.pptx?dl=0

It’s a PowerPoint file—simply insert your club name and event details and: ·save it as a PDF and arrange for your local printer to produce posters and handouts; ·save it as a graphics file and post it to your social media, website, newsletter, etc.

It would be great if you could arrange showings of THE DUKE in your community.  Let’s make this year’s Polio Movie Event a blockbuster—and End Polio Now!

Kind regards                                ROB BYRNE   Rotary Liaison Officer