Commitment to the sustainability of service clubs

SUSTAINABILITY SERVICE CLUB - Hamid-Reza Khoyi member of a club, with a role both at the local level and within the national organization explains what are the initiatives that these realities are carrying out for our planet. In fact, service clubs have many possibilities both to implement activities related to sustainability and to raise awareness on the subject.

What service clubs are and how they differ

Service clubs are associations made up of people who have friendly relationships and who share basic values. In addition to this, they try to do good to others. In fact, they propose and take part in activities for humanitarian, social and educational purposes, for example. Generally everyone can join a service club but there are rules of admission. For example, a new member must be proposed by another already active member and of course must share the values on which the club is based.

There are many existing realities, including Optimist International, Lions Clubs International, Rotary International, Kiwanis and Round Table International. They are all realities that are part of a common organization at an international level, which then branches off at a national, regional and local level. In fact, many cities have their own.

The importance of service clubs in raising awareness of sustainability

As we said, the themes and activities that service clubs carry on are many, but practically all focused on doing something useful for others and for society. That’s why service clubs are also committed to talking and acting in terms of sustainability. Until recently, those who dealt with green issues and tried to raise awareness on the subject were considered idealists or even extremists. Today, however, we are beginning to be more aware of the importance of this issue and we understand that it takes little to really achieve much. That’s why the outreach work done by service clubs is so important. In addition, they turn more to an audience of the average age of 50/60 years that are those who now have the real power to be able to implement these messages in everyday life and in the various working realities.

The more clubs are good at getting the message across, the more results we can achieve. Achieving these goals is especially important for young people, to whom this planet inherits. They are helping us to join the service clubs to bring their very good ideas, we adults should listen to them, share them and implement them with our baggage of experience.

The goals that service clubs are committed to achieve

Already in the past, many presidents had put in place some activities related to sustainability, especially with regard to climate change. Today these issues are increasingly important and initiatives involve virtually all clubs.

Of course, to begin with, the inspiration was taken from the 2030 Agenda and the 17 UN goals. Among these those that the service clubs are committed to achieving are:

• Number 13 to fight climate change;.on 4, quality education;
• life on earth, number 15;
• 6, clean water and sanitation;
• Number 14, underwater life.

These are the main ones, then each club also pursues others, according to their own characteristics. Obviously we are talking about 2030, but these are goals that go much further over the years, because they cover principles that will be valid even after. They are so important that they must be maintained and shared.

To try to achieve these goals, clubs first try to raise awareness among their members, so that they can bring these values back into their lives with concrete and appropriate actions. In addition, their commitment to focus on the choice of associations and projects that have a positive impact. It is very important to organize promotion activities at local level or in union with other service clubs. All this, however, is also reflected in the choices within the club that tend to implement their own ecological footprint.

It's up to all of us

The commitment to safeguarding sustainability must therefore be ahead of us in order to succeed. And service clubs understood this very well. Outside of any activity or project, their most important task is to raise awareness and make known to as many people as possible the problems and possible solutions.