Humanitarian organization helps forge bond with local community

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN

01.28.2012

Story by Staff Sgt. Terri Barriere 

NATO Training Mission Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan — Many Rotarians believe enough people with a commitment to service before self can unite together to change the world.

With this thought in mind, a group of Rotarians from the U.S. and Canadian coalition forces recently met with the president of the Kabul Rotary Club to share a meal, discuss plans for future international engagements and help foster good relations with their local Afghan brethren.

Canadian Lt. Col. Richard Bialachowski, a Rotarian assigned to the Assistant Commanding General-Police Training Group, said that all Rotarians are encouraged to visit with other clubs when traveling, and once he found out Kabul had a club he thought it would be a good idea to arrange a meet and greet with the president and make friendly connections with the local club.

“The deployed environment makes it tough to get together on a more frequent basis, but it’s nice to meet other Rotarians and sit and talk with them about their clubs and get to know them better,” he said. “I’m calling this the first meeting of the Unchartered Rotary Club of Camp Eggers.”

Rotary clubs exist in more than 200 countries and geographic areas and serves as a means for business and professional leaders to gather together to serve the community in which the club is located, which is why Edgar Rabaon, a Rotarian assigned to Deputy Commander-Support Operations, views it as one of the best vehicles to establish relationships in a foreign country.

“The thing with Rotary is, you immediately feel very close to other Rotarians because of the shared cause,” he said.

“Rotary is a humanitarian assistance organization with no boundaries,” Rotary Club of Kabul President Dost Mohammad said. “It is a pleasure always when you meet another Rotarian, it’s like meeting family. This meeting and exchanging of the banners today reflects that all Rotarians are members of the same family.”

Though during the meeting, talks of creating a chartered coalition chapter did arise, for now the group is content to continuing meeting when time permits and have pledged to begin working on international

• Date Taken: 01.28.2012
• Date Posted: 02.14.2012 05:43
• Story ID: 83817
• Location: KABUL, AF