R
O T A R Y
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 31,000 Rotary clubs located in 166 countries.
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.
