At a ceremony held at the Palace of the Grand Dukes in Vilnius, Evaldas Vaineikis from the Rotary Club of Šiauliai handed over the regalia of the Rotary District of Lithuania to the new governor Jurgita Turulienė
New direction – more opportunities for women and youth leadership
Rotary International, an international organisation with 46,000 clubs in more than 220 countries and more than 1.4 million people from all walks of life, will in its new year aim to further strengthen the leadership of women and young people and to give them more responsibilities and opportunities for action. The new Rotary year begins with a new theme and message announced by the international president – „Imagine Rotary“.
„This is an invitation to dream boldly, to imagine and create a better world, a world free of polio and other diseases, a world where clean water is available for all, a world where kindness, hope, and peace flourish,“ says Jurgita Turulienė, the new district governor of Rotary Lithuania.
This year is also a historic year for Rotary in Lithuania, as 11 Rotaract Clubs in the country, uniting more than 200 young, enterprising people aged 18 and over, become part of Rotary.
„Rotaract will not only add more members to the Rotary District of Lithuania, but more importantly, we will have more opportunities for joint local and international projects. We help young leaders to grow, so to empower them to be responsible, we need to trust them and give them responsibilities. I believe that we will be able to grow an organisation that will be known for its meaningful work in the community and in the world and for its leadership development programmes,“ says Ms Turulienė.
Focus on support for Ukraine
Currently, according to J. Turulienė, the most important priority of the Lithuanian Rotary community is assistance to Ukraine. In the last 4 months, the organisation’s efforts have raised more than 1 million euro for the war-torn country.
„Since the first days of the war in Ukraine, we have opened a special Ukraine relief account, which has received donations not only from Rotarians from Lithuania but also from Germany, Norway, Italy, the USA, as well as from more than 600 private individuals. We have never been so united – all Lithuanian clubs, without exception, have donated to Ukraine and continue to organise relief trucks and SUVs, host war refugees in their homes, and the humanitarian support of the Rotary District to hospitals and Rotary clubs in Ukraine alone amounts to EUR 300,000. Our initiatives have proved that we are people of action. Helping Ukraine will remain one of Rotary’s top priorities in this year of our activities,“ says J. Turulienė.
The initiative Lithuanian Rotary is organising rehabilitation of Ukrainian soldiers in Lithuania. Funds for this project were raised during a charity concert „Vienybės jėga“ organised with Lions in April. A project on psychological support for refugee families was approved and launched, and cooperation with the Blue Yellow organisation continued, with a donation of EUR 10,000 from Rotary. At the inauguration event of the Rotary governor, almost EUR 2,000 was raised to support talented Ukrainian children studying at the M. K. Čiurlionio Art Gymnasium.
According to Ms Turulienė, as every year, the Rotary community will continue to carry out support projects and will strive to make a positive difference in its core areas of activity: peace, environment, education, health, women and children, promotion of the local economy, and the provision of drinking water and hygiene products to countries in need.
„We will support and help talented children and young people pursue their education, contribute to the triumphs of Paralympians, and nurture and protect the environment by planting trees. We will reduce the use of plastic by installing water stations on the running track in Palanga, and we will continue to fight and stop the spread of polio worldwide. Rotary has already contributed more than EUR 2 billion over 35 years to the latter programme. It has helped reduce the number of cases of the disease to only 8 worldwide this year. The past year has been one of the most challenging in the history of humanity, but we start the new Rotary year with great enthusiasm, striving every day to do good deeds and make a positive difference,“ says J. Turulienė.
Jurgita Turulienė has been working in the pharmaceutical field for more than 20 years and has a degree in medicine, as well as in business management and administration from Kaunas University of Technology. Currently, she is the head of Immunology business unit in the Baltic States at AbbVie, an international biopharmaceutical company. Together with her husband Marius, they have 3 children. In her spare time, she enjoys running – after completing a 50 km run in Vilnius and 10 marathons in Vilnius, Kaunas, New York, and Berlin, last year she ran 2 marathons in 2 days – Chicago and Boston.
About Rotary District of Lithuania
The independent Rotary Lithuania D1462 in Lithuania has been operating since 2014. Currently, the charitable organisation has more than 1700 members and 59 Rotary Clubs in 35 cities across the country. The Rotary community also includes 11 Rotaract (for young people aged 18 and over) and 19 Interact (for young people under 18) clubs.
The first Rotary Club in Lithuania was founded in Kaunas in 1934 on the initiative of Karolis Žalkauskas, the chairman of Kaunas District Court. The Rotary Club of Kaunas has been attended by such distinguished public figures as Antanas Smetona, Kazys Grinius, Vytautas Landsbergis-Žemkalnis, Kipras Petrauskas, Mykolas Romeris, Vincas Mykolaitis-Putinas, Antanas Merkys, and many others. After the restoration of independence, Rotary clubs resumed their activities in Lithuania. The first Rotary Club to be re-established and registered with the International Rotary Organisation in 1992 was the Rotary Club of Vilnius.