What is Rotary?

Rotary is an organization of business and professional leaders united worldwide who provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and help build goodwill and peace in the world. In more than 160 countries worldwide, approximately 1.2 million Rotarians belong to more than 30,000 Rotary clubs.

Rotary club membership represents a cross-section of the community’s business and professional men and women. The world’s Rotary clubs meet weekly and are nonpolitical, nonreligious, and open to all cultures, races, and creeds.

The main objective of Rotary is service — in the community, in the workplace, and throughout the world. Rotarians develop community service projects that address many of today’s most critical issues, such as children at risk, poverty and hunger, the environment, illiteracy, and violence. They also support programs for youth, educational opportunities and international exchanges for students, teachers, and other professionals, and vocational and career development. The Rotary motto is Service Above Self.

It has been the way of Rotary to focus thought upon matters in which members are in agreement, rather than upon matters in which they are in disagreement.

Paul Harris • Rotary Founder

OUR CAUSES

Rotary is dedicated to six areas of focus to build international relationships, improve lives, and create a better world to support our peace efforts.

  • Promoting Peace – Rotary encourages conversations to foster understanding within and across cultures.
  • Fighting Disease – We educate and equip communities to stop the spread of life-threatening diseases like polio, HIV/AIDS, and malaria.

  • Providing Clean Water – We support local solutions to bring clean water, sanitation, and hygiene to more people every day.

  • Saving Families – Nearly 6 million children under the age of five die each year because of malnutrition, poor health care, and inadequate sanitation.

  • Supporting Education – Our goal is to strengthen the capacity of communities to support basic education and literacy, reduce gender disparity in education, and increase adult literacy.

  • Growing Local Economies -We carry out service projects that enhance economic and community development and create opportunities for decent and productive work for young and old.

The Four-Way Test

The Four-Way Test is a test used by Rotarians world-wide as a moral code for personal and business relationships. The test can be applied to almost any aspect of life. The test was scripted by Herbert J. Taylor an American from Chicago as he set out to save a distribution company from bankruptcy. It was later adopted by Rotary International.

Is it the TRUTH?

There is a timelessness in truth that is unchangeable. Truth cannot exist without justice.

Is it FAIR to all concerned?

The substitution of fairness for the harsh principles of doing business at arm’s length has improved rather than hurt business relationships.

Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?

Man is by nature a cooperative creature and it is his natural instinct to express love.

Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?

This question eliminates the dog-eat-dog mentality and substitutes the idea of constructive and creative competition.

The Rotary Foundation

The Rotary Foundation of Rotary International is a not-for-profit corporation that promotes world understanding through international humanitarian service programs and educational and cultural exchanges. It is supported solely by voluntary contributions from Rotarians and others who share its vision of a better world. Since 1947, the Foundation has awarded more than $1.1 billion in humanitarian and educational grants, which are initiated and administered by local Rotary clubs and districts.

The Foundation was created in 1917 by Rotary International’s sixth president, Arch C. Klumph, as an endowment fund for Rotary “to do good in the world.” It has grown from an initial contribution of US$26.50 to more than US$73 million contributed in 2000-01. Its event-filled history is a story of Rotarians learning the value of service to humanity.

The Foundation’s Humanitarian Programs fund international Rotary club and district projects to improve the quality of life, providing health care, clean water, food, education, and other essential needs primarily in the developing world. One of the major Humanitarian Programs is PolioPlus, which seeks to eradicate the polio virus worldwide. Through its Educational Programs, the Foundation provides funding for some 1,200 students to study abroad each year. Grants are also awarded to university teachers to teach in developing countries and for exchanges of business and professional people. Former participants in the Foundation’s programs have the opportunity to continue their affiliation with Rotary as Foundation Alumni.

Find out more about Rotary by visiting the Rotary International Website.

Eradicating Polio

Although Rotary clubs develop autonomous service programs, all Rotarians worldwide are united in a campaign for the global eradication of polio. In the 1980s, Rotarians raised US$240 million to immunize the children of the world; by 2005, Rotary’s centenary year and the target date for the certification of a polio-free world, the PolioPlus program will have contributed US$500 million to this cause. In addition, Rotary has provided an army of volunteers to promote and assist at national immunization days in polio-endemic countries around the world.

Find out more about Rotary by visiting the Rotary International Website.

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