We welcome Hong Kong’s Rotary WanChai as our newest RAGFP Peacebuilder Club. This club is on the leading edge of environmental sustainabiltiy and peacebuilding in one of Asia’s most famous and historic cities. They are a Green Rotary Club Award winner for their many projects designed to protect the environment in Asia.

The Rotary Club of Hong Kong is the pioneer club of District 3450 established in 1931. They are also a Green Rotary Club Award Winner for their outstanding environmental projects. Rotary Hong Kong is excited about RI President Malony’s vision to create innovative Rotary membership models that provide a greater inclusion of family, as a means of strenghtening Rotarian connections in every home.

These Peacebuilder Clubs work together in District 3450 to make connections with Hong Kong’s youth, as more young people become involved in ongoing regional protests. These Rotarian peacebuilders believe the disenfranchisement of youth, who feel powerless to control their own destinies while facing enormous cultural pressures to succeed, is at the heart of many potential conflicts in Asia.

According to PPG Eugene Fong, their peace initiatives focus upon working with “youth-centric” organizations, through multilayered community outreach that includes mental health education for young people in a region were youth depression rates have risen as high as 68%. These clubs work with District 3450 to “offer a variety of supportive education and activities that promote their physical, mental, and spiritual growth. Focusing on topics of literacy, at-risk youth, and vocational services.”

Rotarian Fong says the goal is to involve Hong Kong’s young people in Rotarian connections through “interconnecting youth with Rotarians and the youth among themselves. We help Interacts work with Rotaract, university-based Rotaract with community-based Rotaract, and all Rotaracts with Rotary. All of our youth training programs are focused on the word ‘inter’ because we are all interconnected in some way.”

These Peacebuilder Clubs will help host Interota 2020 as a way to strengthen Rotarian connections among young people in Asia. “Interota is a triennial worldwide Rotaract convention organized by Rotaractors and hosted on a rotating basis in different cities. The convention offers workshops, discussions, and interesting speakers as well as cultural activities,” according to organizers. Wong says Interota 2020 will help raise awareness of Rotaract and strengthen connections between Rotary and young people within the entire Asian region of District 3450.

Interota 2020 Hong Kong will be a gathering place for more than 8,600 Rotaracts in 75 university and community-based Rotaract clubs in Hong Kong, Mongolia, And China’s Guangdong Provice, as well as other Rotaractors worldwide. Cultural Night at the Interota gathering will feature a cultural night that will serve to strengthen the connections between the different cultures in the region. This exciting event is just one example of our new Peacebuilder Clubs in Hong Kong make connections for peace throughout their entire region.