Greetings from Holland

Claire is a Global Grant Scholar currently in Holland.  This report is further evidence of the value of The Rotary Foundation in our world and well worth a read.

Warm greetings to District 9440  from beautiful Holland. Spring has well and truly arrived here and brought with it a sense of rejuvenation - things seem much more lively and the people seem happier to have made it through and out the other side of winter - me included, as I head into the final few months of my study - how time flies!

On 16 April I attended District 1600's District Conference which was held at the TU University in the Architecture School, located in the wonderful city of Delft, 25 minutes from where I am in Leiden. The District Conference was very well attended with about 400 in attendance. At the conference I met a number of interesting and welcoming Rotarians and it was also another chance to meet with some of the Ambassadorial and Global Grant Scholars. The District Conference programme was very interesting, the central feature being a debate on the theme of Creating History, between Ronald Plasterk (a former government minister in the Dutch government) and Martijn Janmaart, CEO of Exact Software, one of the Netherlands most international successfully software companies. The debate centred on the role of new technologies, for example the i-phone, and how they are changing modern day business, communication, and social innovation. The theme of the debate was apt for the location of Delft, as it prides itself of four key things - in Dutch they are: Historie, Technologie, Creativiteit and Innovatie. A visit to Delft if you are ever in this part of the world is well worth it. 

At the conference I learnt about one of the biggest successes driven by District 1600 and in fact the brainchild of District Governor Ton van Vliet, being the End Polio Now stamps. DG Ton created the stamps, and 380,000 stamps have now been sold in the Netherlands raising 85,000 Euros for End Polio Now - such a great achievement and something to be really proud of. 

Nico de Boer, District 1600's representative of the World President of RI, gave an interesting address around the theme of Building Communities, Bridging Continents and he spoke a lot about the Future Vision Plan and changes under it. A lot of emphasis was put on the World President's rule of "Bigger, Better, Bolder!". He emphasised the ongoing importance of the commitment to  the Shelter Box Inititative and End Polio Now. 

Of course, all of the proceedings were in Dutch, I was pretty proud of my ability to follow at least the general jist of what was going on - a good sign that my Dutch is slowly but steadily improving! 

Claire with Sayaka - another Ambassadorial Scholar
from Japan

I now have just a few more months of study to complete, and along with my extracurricular work at Unicef and assisting with a Juvenile Justice Course at the university, I am left without many spare moments but this is making for a very rich and fulfilling year and one in which I feel I am not only learning a lot and reaping a lot of knowledge through my study, but I am giving back through my other commitments in the community. I continue to feel a sense of deep gratitude towards Rotary and the support of District 9440 and Harbour City Rotary Club and feel very grateful for the chance to undertake this study and have this overseas experience. I have been very fortunate to return from the UNESCO Chair European Regional Forum 2011, the theme of which is Empowering Young Leaders to be Agents of Positive Change . The programme was excellent and a chance to be inspired by experienced human rights leaders and emerging leaders too. I also had a chance to present a session at the Forum on my thesis topic which was a great experience.  

That's all for now - I send you all my warmest wishes from the land of the tulip! 

Claire

Rotary Global Grant Scholar

Candidate, Advanced LLM Public International Law

2010-2011, Leiden University, The Netherlands