Each year District 9320 has, in the past, sent out and received two GSE teams. Each district in the world is allocated one team per year from the World Fund which costs the district nothing. The district has usually “purchased” a second GSE team from its designated funds.
As funds in The Rotary Foundation have been affected by the slowdown in the world economy, it has been decided that the GSE exchanges paid for from the world fund would take place over two years. This means we shall send out a team in one Rotary year and shall receive a team from the district to which we sent a team the following year or vice versa.
As the cost of sending a GSE team increases regularly and as we could put the funds to use for urgent humanitarian needs, the District Foundation Committee and the Governor’s Advisory Council decided at their meetings in November 2009 that we would only send out a team from District Designated Funds every second year.
From now on, in accordance with Rotary policy, teams will unlikely be general vocational teams as in the past. In order to better meet the needs of people around the world, the Rotary Foundation is looking to focus future Group Study Exchange teams in these potential areas of focus:
- Peace and conflict prevention/resolution
- Disease prevention and treatment
- Water and sanitation
- Maternal and child health
- Basic education and literacy
- Economic and community development
|
