About Rotary International
Rotary is a worldwide organization of
business and professional leaders that provides
humanitarian service, encourages high ethical
standards in all vocations, and helps build
goodwill and peace in the world. Approximately
1.2 million Rotarians belong to more than 32,000
clubs in more than 200 countries and
geographical areas.
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.
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.
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 US$1.1 billion in humanitarian
and educational grants, which are initiated and
administered by local Rotary clubs and
districts. |