What do you know about Rotary International?

Question

There are many people talking about Rotary International and its history, but do you know what Rotarians do these days? What are the major projects that Rotary International supports these days? Do they provide scholarships? And the top Question.. Do you know what was the first name for the Rotary Club?

http://www.rotarypr.org

Answer 1

Probably the major project that Rotary is undertaking these days is the eradication of Polio. The Project dates from the mid eighties when the Malabat Club in the Philippines was the first club to call for vaccination of all youth in it's communities. Over the years Rotary International through it's charitable foundation has raised over $800 million for this prupose. The money funded the world wide campaign of the WHO. Today Polio exists in only four countries iin the world.

Last year the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation pledged $100 millionUS in funds as a matching grant to the Rotary Foundation to finish the job. Rotarians all over the world are now active in raising the funds needed to meet the match.

Rotary is very active in providing scholarships for education. The Rotary Scholarship program is the largest such program in the world eclipsing such programs as the Rhodes and Fulbright Scholarships. Scholars can receive full scholarships to study in another country for a year. These scholarships are available for post graduate study.

The newest program is the Rotary Peace scholarships. Students can study at eight centers throughout the world to learn and prepare for careers in non governmental organizations such as mediation and other endeavors which are designed to bring peace to the world.

The first Rotary club was started in 1904 by Paul Harris a lawyer in Chicago Illinois, USA. The name comes from the fact that members used to meet in each others homes each week, thus they rotated meeting places.

Rotary was a community services organization form the start. The first project was to buy a horse for a physician in the community whose horse had died. This enabled him to go and visit patients at their homes. Shortly thereafter, the first club raised funds and installed the first public toilets in Chicago.

From such a humble beginning a great international organization was started, which today boasts over 1.2 million members with  over 32,000  clubs in 120 countries.