The Service Above Self Award is a rare honor. Each of the 530-some districts throughout the world have the privilege of submitting a nomination to the Rotary International Board of Directors – yet only a maximum of 150 recipients are chosen each year for the honor.

The purpose of the award is to recognize Rotarians who have demonstrated “exemplary humanitarian service” with an emphasis on personal volunteer efforts and active involvement in helping others.

DG David announced that Bob Jensen of the Mesa West Rotary Club is one of those chosen for this year.  

Bob had a 40-year career as an audiologist, started a number of audiology-related companies over the years and retired about five years ago. In 1992, he was part of a team of medical professionals who travelled to Guaymas, Mexico to assess how they might best help with medical issues in that area.  

When they returned and compared notes, they determined they should focus on issues associated with hearing.  Shortly thereafter, Bob assumed leadership of annual missions to Guaymas to assess patients, treat minor ear disorders, conduct hearing tests, provide amplification with hearing aids and consult with local school personnel on aural rehabilitation in the school system.

      Supporting the Environment Becomes New Area of Focus

Dr Fiona Braka, Immunization Team Lead for WHO Nigeria, speaks about fighting polio outbreaks and toppling gender barriers

Dr Fiona Braka holds one of the highest-stake roles in the African regional polio programme – supporting the Government of Nigeria in their fight to defeat wild poliovirus.

She is the first woman to hold her position in Nigeria, and before that was the first female polio team lead in Ethiopia.

Fighting the last wild virus in Africa

Dr Braka’s work involves leading the country team to strengthen routine immunization and maintain high quality disease surveillance systems in Nigeria. She is also heavily involved in the COVID-19 response, lending expertise established over decades of fighting polio.

In 2016, the detection of wild virus in Nigeria after nearly two years without cases was a devastating setback. “When the outbreak broke out, I was in Uganda on a break with my family. I was having lunch with a friend and my phone was ringing, persistently ringing – a Geneva number. When I picked up the phone it never crossed my mind it would be a wild virus,” Dr Braka remembers.

“A good proportion of Borno state was inaccessible due to armed conflict. Delivering vaccination services and conducting surveillance in that area had not been easy. With interventions going on to address the conflict by the Nigerian Government, some ground was gained, and people trapped for over three years were able to move out of the liberated areas to internally displaced persons camps. With population movement, a wild polio case was detected in an internally displaced child.”