Participants from District 1620, Belgium, visit Rotary Club of Bali Lovina.

The photo to the right shows our visitors with the children from Windows to the World, President Conchita and GSE team.

On February the 11th 2009, Group Study Exchange participants Isabelle van Loon, Tobias de Pessemier, Frederik Claerhout and Matthieu Veys with team leader Bob Rubens, paid a visit to Rotary Club of Bali Lovina’ s club meeting.

The group were on Bali for one month. During this time month they visited numerous Rotary Clubs in Bali and stayed in the homes of Rotary members. They stayed in Lovina for 3 days.

It was a busy but fun filled time for everyone for the duration of their visit in Lovina.

At our regular meeting on the 11th of February the group participants gave us an interesting insight as to what to expect from their trip to Bali and spoke in detail about their homeland, Belgium, which will be hosting a reciprocal one month program for young professionals from our District in early April.

GSE members and Rtn Daniel from Rotary Club of Bali Lovina at the turtle project.	Matthieu listens to Chris Brown from the Turtle project in Permuteran.

There were banner exchanges between President Conchita and team leader Bob Rubens from Rotary Club Gent Noord. One participant, Matthieu, also brought a banner from the Rotary Club that supported him for this program, Rotary Club Kortrijk.

Banner exchange between President Conchita and Mathieu who is a Rotaractor but had brought a banner from the Belgian Club that supported him.	Banner exchange between President Conchita and GSE team leader Bob Rubens from Rotary Club Gent Noord
Visiting Brahma Vihara Arama - Bali’s Buddhist monastery

The visitors and our members had an interesting time together where study, exploring and travelling was combined with pleasant get-togethers over barbecues in the evenings at member's homes, and a memorable last night barbecue party at Spice Beach, Lovina.

Rotary Club of Bali Lovina wishes all GSE participants well in their future endeavors.

The Group Study Exchange (GSE) program is a unique cultural and vocational opportunity for business and professional men and women ages 25-40 who are in the early years of their professional lives. GSE provides travel grants for four to six weeks for teams of non-Rotarian professional men and women to exchange visits between paired Rotary districts in different countries. Each team is led by a Rotarian team leader.

Program Objectives

The program is designed to develop professional and leadership skills to better prepare participants to address the needs of their communities and an increasingly global workplace. It also provides service opportunities to establish humanitarian projects between the hosting and sending countries that address specific needs for health care, education, and other concerns. Team members experience the host country’s institutions and ways of life, observe their own vocations as practiced abroad, develop personal and professional relationships, and exchange ideas.

Group Study Exchanges are part of the Rotary Foundation Program