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About
Rotary International
Overview
of Rotary International
Rotary
is an international humanitarian service organization.
The men and women of Rotary are business and professional
leaders who volunteer their time and resources to help
others in their local communities and throughout the world.
Founded
in 1905, Rotary is the world's first service
organization. Today, Rotary has a global network of 1,221,920 members in more than
32,403 clubs in 168
countries. Rotary clubs are nonsectarian,
nongovernmental and open to every race, culture, and
creed. Club membership represents a cross section of
local business & professional leaders.
Rotary
members meet weekly to plan service activities. Each
club is autonomous and determines its own service projects
based on local needs and the interests and abilities of
members.
Rotary clubs
carry out a variety of service projects that address
critical issues including but not limited to poverty,
hunger, disease, illiteracy, substance abuse, and
pollution.
An Organization Evolving & Improving the Modern World
As it
approached the dawn of the 21st century, Rotary worked to
meet the changing needs of society, expanding its service
effort to address such pressing issues as environmental
degradation, illiteracy, world hunger, and children at risk.
The
organization admitted women for the first time in 1989 and
claims more than 90,000 women in its ranks today. Following
the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the
Soviet Union, Rotary clubs were formed or re-established
throughout Central and Eastern Europe.
Today, 1.2
million Rotarians belong to some 30,000 Rotary clubs in more
than 160 countries.
For more
information on Rotary click the hyperlink
button below:
Rotary
Foundation
An
endowment fund, set up by Rotarians in 1917 "for doing good in the
world," became a not-for-profit corporation known as The
Rotary Foundation in 1928.
Upon
the death of Paul Harris, the founder of Rotary International, in 1947 an
outpouring of donations to the Rotary Foundation was made in his honor. The two
million US dollars given that year (a staggering sum
at the time), launched the Foundation's first program - graduate fellowships,
now called Ambassadorial
Scholarships.
Today,
contributions to The Rotary Foundation total more than US$80
million annually and support a wide range of humanitarian
grants and educational
programs that enable Rotarians to bring hope and promote international
understanding throughout the world.
The
War on Polio -
(PolioPlus Program of the Rotary Foundation)
In
1985, Rotary launched the PolioPlus
program to protect children worldwide from the cruel and fatal consequences of
polio. In 1988, encouraged by the results of Rotary's effort, the World Health Assembly challenged the world to eradicate
polio.
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Since that time,
Rotary's efforts and those of partner agencies,
including the World Health Organization, the United Nations Children's Fund, the
United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and governments around
the world, have achieved a 99 percent reduction in the number of polio cases
worldwide.
Rotary is the largest private-sector contributor to the global polio
eradication campaign.
Rotarians have mobilized hundreds of thousands of
PolioPlus volunteers and have immunized more than one billion children
worldwide. |
Polio
causes death or paralysis in children, who are usually
infected before the age of 5. If they live, their
leg bones and muscles fail to develop, or wither away to
grotesquely shaped and useless limbs. Victims in
poor countries where polio is still active often become
beggars.
In
the above picture a boy watches the merriment of girls
at the Amar Jyoti Rehabilitation and Research Centre in
New Delhi. The centre provides services for 540 disabled
children. |
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It only takes two drops in the mouth
with a harmless vaccine to prevent polio. This
child in Africa is getting a free dose because of
Rotary's work. |
Rotarians stand at the brink of a great victory and look forward to
celebrating the global eradication of polio in 2010, the organization's
centennial year. At that time Rotary
members will have raised or contributed over half a billion dollars to the
cause.
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The
chart below demonstrates how effective our campaign has been....
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The Rotary Club of Jenkintown has been dedicated to
"Service Above Self"
since 1924