Toronto, the Capital of Nice, opened its arms this week to welcome 25,652 Rotarians from around the world, who came to Rotary’s annual convention looking for inspiration — and finding it.

Whether it was by seeing old friends in the hallways, making new connections in the House of Friendship, or listening to eloquent speakers at general sessions, attendees found plenty at the 109th Rotary International Convention to remind them of the fellowship that binds them and the diversity that Rotary embodies.

“Now, we are sisters forever,” said Rhonda Panczyk, of the Rotary Club of Rochester, Michigan, USA, after spotting and embracing Ijeoma Pearl Okoro, past governor of District 9141 (Nigeria). The two women had met at the West African Project Fair last year, partnered on an immunization drive, and kept in touch on Facebook.

First-time convention goer Serge Sourou OGA from Ghana said that meeting people from all over the world was definitely the highlight of the convention for him.

During the four-day event in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, speakers praised, prodded, and partnered with Rotary. Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal, Princess Anne, expressed thanks to Rotary for taking a central role in working to eradicate polio. Former first lady of the United States Laura Bush challenged Rotarians to keep early childhood education a priority.

Helen Clark, former prime minister of New Zealand and one of the architects of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, joined RI President Ian H.S. Riseley for a discussion about gender equality and the crucial link between the environment, poverty, hunger, and peace. 

In a video message, Haitian Prime Minister Jack Guy Lafontant addressed the convention before the announcement of the creation of HANWASH, a collaboration between Rotary and the Haitian government’s water agency that will tackle that nation’s water and sanitation challenges. 

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, accepting Rotary’s Polio Eradication Champion Award, thanked Rotary for working with governments worldwide to eradicate polio. Rotarians play a critical role in the fight to end polio, Trudeau said. “Together we will make that happen.”

The convention got its unofficial start Friday, 22 June, with a two-day Rotary Peacebuilding Summit that featured a speech from Dr. Tererai Trent and insights into Rotary’s partnership with the Institute for Economics and Peace.

Monday’s general session included powerful personal stories from John Hewko, Rotary’s general secretary, and Caryl M. Stern, president and CEO of UNICEF USA. Both had parents who had fled Europe as refugees during wartime. In the sessions that followed, other speakers discussed various aspects of Rotary’s six areas of focus.

The statistics are staggering. More than 28,000 people are uprooted from their homes each day as a result of war, oppression, and poverty. That’s nearly 20 people per minute. 

By the end of 2016, an unprecedented 68.5 million people, from West Africa to South Asia, have been forcibly displaced, making it the world’s worst migrant crisis in history. 

The wave of migrants and refugees has overwhelmed the international community, putting a particular strain on neighboring countries and Europe. Turkey hosts the largest number of refugees with nearly 3 million. Pakistan is second. Germany is the only high-income country in the top ten host nations, with about 700,000 refugees and asylum-seekers. 

The seven-year war in Syria has been the been the biggest driver of the refugee crisis, with millions fleeing the country since the conflict began in 2011.

A shockingly high percent of the world’s displaced are children. More than half the refugees are under age 18. 

Rotary clubs are doing their part to help alleviate the global refugee crisis with projects that help bring water and health care to refugee camps, funds for families to move to safer countries, and more. Over the last several years, clubs and districts have used roughly $3 million of global grant funds toward refugee-related projects and scholarships. 

On World Refugee Day, held every year on 20 June, people worldwide salute the strength, courage, and contributions of refugees who abandon their homes in a desperate search for safety. 

Here’s a sample of how Rotary members have changed the lives of thousands of refugees: 

• In Nova Scotia, Canada, the Rotary Club of Amherst brought two families from war-torn Syria to their country, where the refugees are starting a new life. The club galvanized other community groups to help the families assimilate with the town and culture. The Rotary Club of Merritt, British Columbia, also pooled resources to bring a family from Syria to Canada. 

• The Rotaract Club of Nakivale, Uganda, is raising funds to help residents of a huge refugee settlement start their own businesses. The club, based inside the settlement, also provided refugees with sugar, soap, and clothes. 

• Rotary member Pia Skarabis-Querfeld, a physician in Germany, built a network of volunteer doctors to help thousands of refugees that have streamed into Berlin, Germany. In 2015, during the peak of the refugee influx into Germany, her nonprofit, Medizin Hilft, had more than 100 volunteers at its clinic. Her club, the Rotary Club of Berlin-Teirgarten, sponsored a Rotary global grant of $160,000 to fund the project through March 2018. Also in Germany, the Rotary Club of Lemgo-Sternberg, provided resources to train 60 volunteers to teach German to about 600 refugees.