What is Rotary? | |
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.
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Last Modified: 20040519.12:02 EDT
Copyright © 2004 Rotary Club of Pearl Harbor all rights reserved