What Is Rotary?
Rotary is an organization of
business and professional leaders united worldwide to 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.
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 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 web
site.