Alvarez-Tamargo, visited the ten Rotary clubs located in the islands to check their good health and the plans and projects in which they work today. For the rotary delegate in Spain, the important thing about being a Rotarian is that people know that "we are good people" and insisted that "the image we must give is the service of others."
-What is your work and what experience do you have in the organization?
"The governor is the delegate of Rotary International in Spain, the Union nexus of the Organization with the district 2201 Spanish, which includes about 4,000 members of 75 clubs. It is a democratic choice and many things are valued. Undoubtedly the rotary curriculum is fundamental and, in my case, I have been secretary, Masero (Master of Ceremonies and protocol), President of my club, assistant governor of six years in the Madrid area, vice president of the Rotary Foundation, treasurer and I have been Chairman of many committees. I evidently dragged a lot of experience into the Rotary organization as well as the district itself, so that they trusted me. "
-What is the Rotary organization and what work does it do?
"The rotary organization is a promise of values for service to the neediest, as long as there is inequality, Rotary has to exist and has no other goal than to end social inequality. In many respects as an organization, we fight to eradicate diseases, support women, give water to the most disadvantaged, there are many open fronts in which Rotary international fights and their clubs, which are the fingers of rotary. As long as there are countries whose governments do not guarantee coverage to the most disadvantaged, and are so crooked that they are being sent medicines for their high classes, we will exist. We solve hunger, thirst and lack of any need.
-in the closest environment how do they usually act?
"In the first place, clubs must be set up in their environment, because we must help the people who need it in our society. We also gather several clubs to do all kinds of actions. For example, last year we gave potable water to 36,000 people in CAJAMARCA (Peru) or we finished a project in the region of M'hamid, in the southern border of Morocco, in which we have given sewage, water, electricity and a school. We are an organization that must detect the points with needs and try, with our relationships and with our events, to finance the solutions. That is our way of working, because we understand that social inequality is the basis that then originates fires that then end in a war or a social conflict. "
-What events and actions do the clubs and what should their efforts focus on?
"From the district we support the actions of the clubs, because they are the ones who make the projects. In the case of the five clubs in Tenerife are in the final phase of a project of 300,000 euros for something as necessary as the adequacy of an area in a hospital so that the children of oncology have a space of leisure and where they can receive classes. Canarian clubs have a wonderful relationship between them and do not hesitate to join to make projects of a terrible economic relevance that one could not do. They also work in other projects such as support for women, youth treatments, have provided televisions to different residences… Helping women and supporting mothers with abandoned children for us is fundamental, and we work on an interesting project in which we seek to get enough knowledge in a matter and then a funding so that they can put them in Practice. We have active social projects of many types and financed by Rotary Clubs and directed, not to make charity, but to teach them and provide them with tools so they can get out of the situation in which it is. We rely on the proverb that says ' give a fish to a man and give him food for a day, point to fish and feed him all his life '. At Lake Turkana in Kenya, there were 40 women with their children who did not live in dignity. We bought them 20 boats and some retired sailors taught them to fish, and now these women have a way of earning a living, have formed a cooperative and help other women through fishing and the subsequent consumption and sale of what they capture. "
-Rotary is a worldwide recognized organization for its intervention in different disasters how do they act?
"Rotary is an organization with more than one hundred years of existence, with 34,000 clubs virtually all over the world. We are approximately 1.7 million people involved in this movement. We are all interconnected, because when there is an emergency we ask the nearest club what they need. Normally the Spanish when there is an earthquake we send the shelter survival box, a shelter that is dismantled and can live eight people perfectly, with water purification, and all kinds of accessories for survival. Other times they ask us for blood, vaccines, volunteers, at a global level it helps. And we have no politicians among us, if a rotarian goes into politics, he will go to the reserve as a Rotarian, and then return to the rotary activity. As we are formed by professionals and entrepreneurs when there is a catastrophe we act. For example, in the earthquake in Haiti, we built the first surgical hospital on the border with the Dominican Republic, and the only antiseismic, because there are architects and engineers among us. It had all the necessary and a small heliport, because among the rotaris around the world there are surgeons, doctors, nurses, who are willing and can move at any time to make humanitarian aid. They are projects that are then to be continued and kept. "
-One of Rotary International's most recognized programs has been to eradicate polio how's the fight against that disease?
"It's our most recognized corporate program. Worldwide, since the Polio-Plus program began in 1985 Rotary International, through our events (dinners, lunches, golf championships, concerts) and all the actions that suppose raise money we have contributed about 1.4 billion dollars. On a voluntary basis, thousands of Rotarians in history have come to vaccinate, and many, some killed, have died because of the complexity of the countries in which we are going to help, which do not allow their population to be vaccinated. "
-they are also cooperating with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for eradication
"The Gates Foundation decided to fight polio and opened an offer to bid the NGOs they wanted, we did not introduce ourselves. However, Will Gates ' father mediated to speak to our President, Carlos Canseco. "You want to give 200 million to fight polio, we will provide another 200, if not, we do not accept them," he said. In this way, mentored with the World Health Organization (WHO), we collaborate and work on evolving the vaccine that ends with the most resistant strain of Polio-Plus, which every two years mutates. We will not lower our guard until we eradicate it.
-they have several sambenitos that cross them from elitist, ultracatholic… are they?
"We are elitist because we do not want in our clubs any weirdo, or people who come to do business. If they do not have the sensitivity to recognize the problems, and the heart to devote their free time to help others and that, unfortunately, has made us an elite. We understand that not everyone is willing to admit those values. We are labeled elitist, Ultracatholic, Freemasons.., but within a club there is no talk about politics, religion, or football, if that generates an argument. There is no person here who has a reprehensible ethical and social behavior and, if we discover it, is shown the way out. No one has a salary, not even me as governor I have more importance than the last partner. We meet in our free time and we exist for those projects of social services that we do. We are people who have placed ourselves in life, some better, others worse, some by the way of intellectuality and study, others by the way of work. In a Rotary club there are people of all kinds, businessmen with medium or small businesses, officials, employees, freelancers, but they all come to serve the neediest and we contribute our time and desire to work. We are like a puzzle where each partner has an important part and can contribute their knowledge. Our doctors, nurses, health workers, travel to Africa, South America or Asia in their free time and on their holidays. We do not ask the current account to anyone, here we ask the heart, the important thing is the respect and prestige of the society in which you live, to recognize you with an ethical level and a good person in your profession and your family. A good person finds with his spare time, his knowledge and the chain of contacts helps, Rotary we are not specialists in asking for money, we generate it with our events, so it is important the social relevance of the individual in his environment. A Rotarian has a hard time associating, because we go to the events to help each other and there is some reciprocity between the clubs. The important thing about being a Rotarian is to bring the badge and let people know that we are good people, and that's the fundamental thing, and the image we should give to the service of others. "
-What is the implementation of Rotary clubs in Spain?
"The Forty years of prohibition during the Francoist dictatorship has marked US tremendously. We came from a tradition, because the first Rotary Club in continental Europe was Madrid and then Vigo. In Germany there are about 80,000, in France 60,000, in Italy 65,000, while in Spain, we are about 8,000, 4,000 in our district. The Canary Islands has more than 300 associates among the five clubs in Tenerife, the three from Gran Canaria and the two from Lanzarote. In our system a club of 200 people is not suitable, because it is difficult to direct and that can produce positive actions. It is preferable clubs of 40 or 50 people because there is a more efficient work, we implanted more in the society and the problems that exist in their environment are better detected.
-What lines of work do you propose during your tenure?
"We will seek greater involvement of women and greater implantation of young people, as long as the necessary values are recognised in them. We should not be conforming to what has been done and we must continue to improve and have the peace of mind that Rotary society will be needed as there are needs in the world. I also check that clubs are active and responsive to the plans and projects they have for this year and the future. "
