Interview: Dragan Brajer, the Governer of Rotary district

Rotary as a way of life

Rotary consists of more than 30,000 clubs in the whole world and has around 1,200,000 Rotarians. The Club is an integral unity, with its management, goals, missions and projects and one of the biggest is eradication of polio (infantile paralysis). That mission lasts for more than ten years now and we hope that in a year or two this disease will be annulated in the whole world


By SANJA PANJESKOVIĆ
from Belgrade, SERBIA
Translation: SENKA KORAĆ


Dragan Brajer, famous Belgrade lawyer and a prominent Rotarian for 20 years, has organized District Rotary conference in May that has gathered in Belgrade over a hundred of distinguished people from Serbia, Macedonia, Northern Greece, Montenegro and Kosovo. Besides making contacts with leaders from the surrounding countries, the conference was a good place for making plans for further activities of clubs.

After he refounded Serbian Rotary Club after the World War II, chaired the Club and afterwards the Comitee for fighting polio, Dragan Brajer is ending his term as the Governor of Rotary District on July 1st. Nevertheless, he states that serving the community and activities in Rotary don't end with the function, and he continues with spreading the idea of leadership for the good of the community. Rotary is, in his own words, a life journey, because if material is the only wealth a man has when he looks behind himself, he can see that his entire life he has been on the wrong path because only spiritual wealth can bring fullfillment. For Brajer, the greatest spiritual wealth is helping others and setting a good example.

- Rotary consists of more than 30,000 clubs in the whole world and has around 1,200,000 Rotarians. The Club is an integral unity, with its management, goals, missions and projects. Those are social programmes that aim to develop the social environment within the clubs exist. For better connection and functioning, the clubs are organized as districts. There are 560 districts today that count from 50 to 130 clubs. Serbia (53 clubs) is a member of an international district, joined with Northern Greece (41), Macedonia (9), Montenegro (6) and Kosovo (8) - says Dragan Brajer for WAVE magazine and continues:

- Superior to districts is an international organization: Rotary International that incorporates the President and the Board of Directors. Just like the United Nations have the World Bank, that's how we in the Rotary International have the Rotary Foundation for the purpose of gathering means for various projects to help the society. It has very complex programmes such as student exchange and scholarship programmes or the programme for eradication of polio. For such a big and abiding organization to function well, it takes a good structure, especially good administration, that obliges all the clubs to act in a certain manner. That's why numerous seminars and conferences are organized during the year.

What was the occasion for the district conference in Belgrade?

- The District conference is the cenral event in one district. Since this year I preside as the Governor of the District, the conference is held in the Serbian capital. Beside 70 Serbian members, the conference was attended by a great number of Rotarians from Greece, Macedonia, Montenegro and Kosovo. We've summed up results from the previous year, made plans for new activities, heard some inspirational speeches and made desicions on the choice of new leaders of the District. Next year the Rotaract (the Rotary youth club) in the District will be presided by Marko Kalajanović, a member of Belgrade Rotaract club. That carries certain advantages to our Rotaract clubs and it should be considered as a motivation to progress.

Mother club of Rotaract Belgrade is your club - Rotary Belgrade. What is the connection between the Rotary and the Rotaract clubs?

- We have extremely good Rotaract clubs. Rotary is made of leaders in various professions. The Rotaract clubs are organized in a similar way. Their members, however, lack this main attribute since you can't consider young people in the age of 18 to 30 to be the leaders in their professions. This is the reason the Rotaract clubs are not independent and can work only under the patronage of some Rotary Club.

There is a connection between Rotary and Rotaract clubs, but it's not in a form of rigid coordination. That is a good thing because youth clubs should be allowed to develop on their own without supervision. On the other side, those young people at the age of 30 have a chance to have an easy access into a big organization. It's helpful especially when it comes to professions like mine, because it is difficult to be a top lawyer at 30 - it takes a lot more experience.

The idea that Belgrade Rotaract should found Interact Club for young people of age 14 to 18 is extraordinary. It is a true pleasure seeing youth clubs that have a developed sense of awareness to serve the community. Founding of Interact can only be done by Rotaract because the difference between the interests of the youth is not that big.

What is the basic idea of Rotary and what are resemblances to other similar organizations?

- Several hundreds years ago people have made fortresses to protect themselves from the enemies. Then they would make ships to travel across the oceans and meet the world. Modern age carries organizations that, on one side, enable people to protect themselves and help each other, as they did in their fortresses ages ago. On the other side, they provide them with the opportunity to interact with the other world - this time it's with more people and much faster then by a ship. There are many similar state and interstate organizations. However, what is specific for Rotary is that, not only it gathers leaders, but it connects people with similar interests and problems that should be overcomed by a leader, whatever professional field he is in.

The convinience of this organization is the fact that it is both international and supranational. Rotary wasn't organized by any government. Nobody holds the right to this organization and that is why nobody can control it. It controls itself through the idea of leadership and therefore provides amazing possibilities.

I don't like the comparison to Freemasonry because they don't have that much in common with Rotary. Still, there are certain similarities: they too were led by the good intent to form those masonic lodges. However, those lodges haven't succeded to unite themselves: there are acknowledged and unadmitted ones, different rituals, no central coordination. Besides that, they are ladened with secrecy. Lately they are giving up on it, but it's still there. It is an archaic organization, unlike Rotary that is very modern because it doesn't have restrictions like that. It was founded 105 years ago on very modern bases. Every third year is a so-called Legislative year which allows us to change constitutional papers. For instance, in the mid 80s women were allowed to become Rotary members. That was a natural change.

The basis of Rotary is serving the community. What does it mean?

- The basic idea was initiated in the beginning of the industrial revolution, 1904/05 in Chicago. Paul Harris, the founder of Rotary, has then come to an idea to form a club with a group of same-minded people. The club would gather leaders of different professions that would consider important society issues in their meetings: a sick child lacking means to have a surgery, waste disposal, building children care centres, book publishing, theatre play promotions - in other words, anything that is of importance for the community. Then a banker would approve a loan, a lawyer would set up a contract, somebody else would help in some other way and they would, by using their leadership skills and knowledge, overcome the problem more successfuly than any other individual. And that is the basic idea of Rotary until this day. This year we have a literacy programme that was defined by Rotary International.

Besides that, 36,000 children under the age of five dies every day because of the lack of food and water. Rotary, of course, doesn't have the mission to feed all the hungry and cure all the sick, but it can help some of them and set an example giving hope in that way. As long as people see good examples they will have hope, and as long as there is hope there is life.

Can you mention some of the more significant Rotary projects? Did Serbian Rotary contribute to some global project?

- Although we all like to hear about big projects, I find it is better to have a large number of smaller ones, because they can produce bigger effects with less resources. Still, one of the biggest projects Rotary International and Rotary Foundation had since their founding was the fight against polio (infantile paralysis). That action lasts for over ten years now and today endemic areas have been significantly narrowed down. Thanks to the donations made by Bill Gates, the governments of Great Britain and Germany as well as our effort to raise additional $200 million we hope that in a year or two polio will be eradicated in the whole world. Rotary conducts this programme in cooperation with the World Health Organization, UNICEF and the governments of the countries where the vaccination is carried out. The contribution of Rotary is not only in the big donations it's giving for the vaccination, but also in social mobilization, because Rotary is welcomed in every country.

Serbian Rotary has given a great contribution to this project by organizing the vaccination process in Kosovo in 1996/97. We were supported by the Rotary International. As the President of the Comitee for fighting polio in our region, I encountered a very bad situation in children health care in Kosovo. Thanks to the intervention of Rotary, the project was supported and nobody cared whether the help was coming from Belgrade or Priština. In the end, all the children were vaccinated.

How did rotarian develop in Serbia?

- The idea to reestablish Rotary in Serbia came from my office. I was, thanks to circumstances, first Rotarian in Serbia after World War II. Rotarians were extremely significant people, such as mathematician Mika Alas, Serbian Prince Pavle, Nobel awarded writer Ivo Andrić. It's interesting that Rotary wasn't banned in that period, but there was a law that obliged all social organizations to file an application for registration. At that time nobody had the courage to do that because there was a liberation war raging in Serbia and, at the same time, an on-going socialist revolution. It is familiar that autocratic regimes don't like Rotary. Hitler didn't like it either. Autocrats saw Rotary clubs as a threat because of a well organized network and their aim to act in the community.

The idea for refounding Rotary was presented in the end of 1989 when I initiated it with couple of my clients. We had an extremely demanding project in front of us. However, we've succeded in it. I was the President of Initiative board for refounding Rotary Club Belgrade. We were acknowledged by Rotary International in 1992/1993 and I was declared the first president of the first refounded Rotary Club in Serbia.

Is rotarian a way of life for you, since it has been in your life for full two decades?

- Rotary has very enrichened me as a person. I could hardly imagine my life without Rotary. For me particulary important is that international dimension and the possibility to act through one organization where I don't necessarily need to sign joining sheet for a political party, where I don't have to make promisses, where I don't have to pay for something. In other words, I don't lose my personality. I can fully carry it out in the way I want it to be. That has also created a world full of friends. Of course, it is very convinient being a Governor and presiding significant number of clubs throughout one whole year.

But it's not just an honour, it is also a big responsibility and work that can be exhausting. First of all, meetings have to be regularly attended and a membership fee has to be paid. Besides that, this year I have as a Governor crossed at least 40,000 kilometers while I was visiting clubs. I start early in the morning and come back aroung 9-10 pm. There are no weekends off. I am fortunate that I have a good marriage and a wife who supports me. I carried my love for Rotary on to her, so she has founded the Innerville in Belgrade, organization whose goal is to gather women with rotarian ideas. We have a golden child who is still in pre-school, so I could often take him with me on my travels. I also have a good and cooperative team in my office. I was in good health during the previous period, so all that added up together has helped me in carrying out my governor duties successfuly.

It all requires a lot of effort that is neither paid for or brings any other direct benefit. But, on the other hand, I have made many friendships, had a chance to help others, had the opportunity to present myself in the most positive manner, and that is something of the greatest value.



(Published: 12.06.2010.)