Posted by ELIZABETH EDOZIE on Apr 06, 2019

Rotary International, District 9110 Nigeria, on Friday, April 5, 2019, held "We Care Day Celebration" in memory of departed Rotarians of the district.

Families of the Rotarians of the district, that died this Rotary year 2018-2019 were invited and presented with food items. Clubs and individual Rotarians in the district were also presented with awards of appreciation.

"We Care" Rotary pins designed by members of the District We Care Committee, led by Past President Olubunmi Taiwo were also officially launched by District Governor, Kola Sodipo.

Speaking during the ceremony, DG Sodipo addressed the families of the departed Rotarians present at the ceremony saying, “We appreciate you for carrying on despite the challenges of the loss of loved ones. One thing that is certain is that one day, every one of us will have to go. What we don’t know is how, when and where.

He also thanked the various clubs present saying, “I appreciate you for carrying on the business of Rotary. People always ask that ‘you do various humanitarian projects for people out there, what do you do for yourselves?’ and I keep on saying that God takes care of our own needs too and at the same time when we know that there are needs that cannot easily be handed by individual Rotarians, we rally round because we are our brothers’ keepers.”

“A number of our Rotarians that have gone to the great beyond this year, some of them are aged. We have those that died at a very young age and those that died at a very old age. That shows that only God decides the age that one dies”, he further said

Stating the history of the ‘We Care Day’ in the district, he said, “The idea of the We Care Day which our district has adopted as April 7th of every year, occurred some years back when armed robbers entered the premises where Rotary Club of Iponri was holding its meeting on Adeniran Ogunsanya, it used to be a Chinese Restaurant, and cut off the lives of two of our Rotarians, that was on April 7 of that year.

“After that, the district decided that in memory of those departed Rotarians that died in the cause of Rotary fellowship, that day will always be marked by the district while we also encourage our clubs to do same and that has been on for years but this year, April 7 will be on Sunday so we decided to do it on a weekday so that a good number of people will be here”, the DG explained.