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UN secretary-general meets with Rotary leaders - 17/02/2008

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon met with Rotary leaders and praised Rotarians for their commitment to polio eradication in a recent visit to Chicago.

“Rotary International has led a worldwide campaign to wipe out polio. Sometime soon, their work will be done. Polio will be history, like smallpox,” Ban said in an address to the Economic Club of Chicago on 7 February.

At a private ceremony in downtown Chicago earlier in the day, Rotary International President Wilfrid J. Wilkinson presented Ban with the Rotary International Award of Honor in recognition of his support for polio eradication and his dedication to furthering peace and cross-cultural understanding. Past recipients of this high Rotary honor include Kofi Annan, Bill Clinton, Mikhail Gorbachev, and Nelson Mandela.

The secretary-general also met with Foundation Trustee Chair Robert S. Scott, RI General Secretary Edwin H. Futa, and RI President-elect Dong Kurn Lee. Ban and Lee, both South Koreans, are friends.

Rotary's close ties with the UN date back to 1945 when 49 Rotarians helped draft the UN charter. Rotary continues to collaborate with the UN through the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, a partnership with the United Nation's Children’s Fund, the World Health Organization, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.