WESTERN BUREAU – The 30th annual conference of Rotary District 7020 is scheduled for May 4 and 8 in Montego Bay and will feature discussions on Polio Eradication and HIV/AIDS.

The needs of the elderly and of persons with disabilities are also expected to be addressed. Specifically, District Governor Keith Daley said that the conference would evaluate the work that Rotary International had done in the particular areas over the last year, and would award deserving clubs for their contribution.

Meanwhile, he said that the organisation’s 1985 programme to eradicate Poliomyelitis by 2005 had reaped tremendous success over the years.

“We are happy to say that after putting in some US$800 million in the programme, and sending out thousands of Rotarians across the globe to vaccinate millions of children against polio, only four countries are left to be polio-free,” said Daley who was speaking at a press conference last Saturday.

As soon as polio is eradicated, HIV/AIDS could become the priority of the 99 year-old Rotary International. At the same time, he said that a great deal of focus would be centred on persons with disabilities who constitute some 10 per cent of the world’s population, and on senior citizens.

He said that in the interim the conference, which is also geared at training incoming officers and Rotarians on the whole, was expected to attract between 900 and 1,000 delegates. For his part, district chairman, Lee Bailey, said they planned to make this conference one of the best ever, adding that the Rotary clubs in Montego Bay were grateful that Daley had seen it fit to stage the conference in the western resort city.

“Most of the Clubs in Montego Bay have promised me that they are going to do an excellent job in order to make this governor most proud of this conference,” said Bailey.

Rotary International was established in Chicago Illinois in 1905. District 7020 is one of 529 districts that form a part of that larger organisation. The district is comprised of 62 clubs that are spread across Anguilla, the Bahamas, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, the French West Indies, Turks and Caicos, the US Virgin Islands, Jamaica and the Netherland Antilles.