{"id":34842,"date":"2026-05-19T11:35:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T09:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=34842"},"modified":"2026-05-19T11:35:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T09:35:07","slug":"rotary-international-president-elect-pushes-for-growth-in-africa","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/rotary-international-president-elect-pushes-for-growth-in-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Rotary International President-elect pushes for growth in Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The leadership of Rotary International, led by President-elect Olayinka Hakeem Babalola, has concluded a six-day visit to Southern Africa aimed at strengthening the organisation\u2019s presence and membership growth across the region.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Babalola, whose term officially begins on July 1, says Africa will play a key role in Rotary International\u2019s future expansion plans.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Founded in 1905, Rotary International focuses on community service, humanitarian work and promoting peace and global understanding.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne of my visions is that by the time I am done, Rotary is thriving everywhere. As an African, I am particularly interested in making sure that Africa thrives and becomes a significant part of that growth,\u201d Babalola said.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;ChannelAfrica&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":29102,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-34842","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Leadership of Rotary International, led by President-elect Olayinka Hakeem Babalola, has concluded a six-day visit to Southern Africa","published_date":"2026-05-19 11:19:43","news_description":"Leadership of Rotary International, led by President-elect Olayinka Hakeem Babalola, has concluded a six-day visit to Southern Africa","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34842\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34843,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34842\/revisions\/34843"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=34842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}