RCM Zoom Meeting - John Soe - Living Positively, One Step at a Time (1)

Living Positively, One Step at a Time

John Soe Living Positively, One Step at a Time Some blame their parents for their misfortunes, others blame God. But John Soe has never blamed anyone for mistreating him, or for the polio that shaped his life. It was because of this polio that his parents abandoned him at a hospital in Medan – North Sumatra, Indonesia when he was four months old. Although a childhood disease left him unable to walk for years, he has never felt embarrassed, bitter, or resentful. He overcame hardships that might have broken someone else’s spirit. He owes everything to the kindness of the nuns in the orphanage, PP Ted de Ponti from RC – Singapore West and the Rotary Clubs in the Netherland. He joined the Rotary Club in Jakarta in April 2004, he has held several important positions, including club secretary, club president, assistant governor, deputy district governor and district administration director for RI D3410. Since then, he has been fighting relentlessly for the causes of the Rotary Club, first and foremost to raise awareness of polio, especially during the joint Rotary – Health Ministry campaign for the national immunization program in 2005 and 2006 in Indonesia — the sickness that so deeply influenced his own life and can’t be cured, only prevented. John lives in Jakarta and is the father of two children — a 30-yearold son, and a 22-year-old daughter, also a grandfather to a 3- year-old granddaughter. Everything happens for a reason, and it all comes from within you. If you stay positive, you move forward. And that is what he has been trying to do his whole life.