World Water Summit 16

Aziz Memon, Trustee 2020-24

Sanitation and Polio Eradication

Aziz Memon is chair of the Kings Group, a conglomerate of five companies that is one of the leading textile and ready-made garment manufacturing and exporting groups in Pakistan. He is also chair of the board of the Karachi Garment City, a project of the government of Pakistan. Memon’s other roles include honorary consul general of the Republic of Suriname in Karachi, president of the English Speaking Union of Pakistan, and president of the United Memon Jamat of Pakistan, a nongovernmental organization dedicated to community development and helping the underprivileged.

Since he joined Rotary in 1995, he has been widely recognized for his leadership in polio eradication. Memon has served as member of the International PolioPlus Committee and chair of the Pakistan PolioPlus Committee. He has worked closely with Rotary’s partners and stakeholders, including UNICEF, WHO and its Expanded Programme on Immunization, government officials, religious scholars, celebrities, business leaders, and Rotarians from around the world. He was one of four polio eradication activists to receive the Louis Pasteur Medal by the Institut Pasteur. His other RI leadership positions have included training leader, committee member, and RI president’s representative. Memon says his favorite Rotary project was working with his club to raise over $285,000 to fund an English-language instruction school for 4,000 children.

Memon has received the Service Above Self Award, the International and Regional Service Awards for a Polio-Free World, and The Rotary Foundation’s Distinguished Service Award and Citation for Meritorious Service. In recognition of his community and humanitarian services in the health sector, the president of Pakistan conferred the Pride of Performance Award on Memon in 2011. He and his wife, Samina, are members of the Arch Klumph Society.

Ann Thomas, Senior WASH Advisor

UNICEF

As an environmental engineer with over two decades of experience in Latin America, Africa, and Asia, Ann focuses on urban sanitation and innovative financing approaches. Ann Thomas, Senior WASH Advisor for UNICEF, will provide her unique perspective on sustainable sanitation at the World Water Summit.

Michael Fernando, General Chair, WWS16

Rotary District 1200 South West England

Michael Fernando was District Governor in D1200 (in South West England) when the war in Ukraine broke out, during 2022. As a Paediatrician (Pediatrician), he helped a club in his District obtain medical supplies to fill a lorry driving to Ukraine, through the International Rotary Fellowship of Healthcare Professionals.

Borys Bodnar from RC Ukraine Unity was helping with logistics for Rotary in Ukraine and asked Michael if knew of anyone who could help Rotary in Ukraine with water. Through the ‘Magic of Rotary’ Michael was able to put Borys in touch with key players in HANWASH (the Rotary project to provide clean water to Haiti), as well as WASH RAG. Through this process, Michael ended up chairing the Ukraine International Rotary Water group, which has worked on water projects in Ukraine, including mobile water filtration units, water filter provision and a multi country Disaster Response Grant to provide a Reverse Osmosis Unit in Mykolaiv. The group includes leaders of the Ukraine District WASH team, Mark Gitelman and Borys Bodnar, as well as Past RI Director Katerina Kotsali-Papadomitriou.

Michael is chair the World Water Summit for WASH RAG. On a different note, Michael has also worked with projects to train trainers in Neonatal Resuscitation (Helping Babies Breathe) in Pakistan and Afghanistan.