Dear Rotarians,

New Rotary year begins. One hundred years of Rotary fellowship and service will be completed in Feb 2005. We are the Centennial Rotary Family and of course we are proud of what we have achieved through Rotary service.

We, first enjoy Rotary fellowship and become committed to Rotary ideals. Let us celebrate Rotary by fostering the spirit of caring and concern among our members. Many of Rotary's greatest achievements have been at the grassroots level, where we are engaged in a broad range of projects to promote literacy, alleviate poverty and hunger, mentor young people, and beautify our surroundings.

We have decided that every issue (Metro News) should come
in the beginning of the month so that all the members know what we are going to do during that month.

For many years, Rotarians have been active in efforts to reduce illiteracy, from building schools and paying salaries of teachers to serving as tutors to collecting and distributing books and materials to libraries. Considerable progress has been made in recent decades in reducing illiteracy; yet, close to a billion people lack basic literacy and numeracy skills. Millions more are functionally illiterate, lacking the skills necessary to meet the demands of everyday life.

RI President Glen Estess has also emphasized that he will continue with the on going policy of RI to educate people, and will emphasize this through different "task forces." We, at our club will also take up this challenge and will try to bring more and more illiterate people into the well informed and knowledgeable society. Education is a fundamental human right. Yet, girls and woman still lack the basic education that has the potential to better their lives.

Let us Celebrate Rotary in our club, vocation, community and in our world.

Malik Ashraf Hameed

President