President's Message
Dear Fellow Rotarians and Friends,
It is almost the end of January and this month went very fast for me. January is Rotary Awareness Month and it’s a time to think and continue sharing Rotary with our families, colleagues, friends, neighbors even strangers around us.
Here are some interesting facts about Rotary
It is almost the end of January and this month went very fast for me. January is Rotary Awareness Month and it’s a time to think and continue sharing Rotary with our families, colleagues, friends, neighbors even strangers around us.
Here are some interesting facts about Rotary
- There are more than 1.2 Million Rotarians all over the world in more than 34,282 Rotary Clubs in more than 200 countries in all geographic areas.
- The Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholarships is the world's largest, privately funded scholarship program.
- Providing vitamin A supplements during polio National Immunization Days has averted an estimated 1.5 million childhood deaths since 1998 – testimony to the "plus" in PolioPlus.
- The first project of the first Rotary club of Chicago was installation of public toilets in the city.
- The first Rotaract Club was formed in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA.
- The first women joined Rotary in 1987. By 2010, the number of women in Rotary International was approaching 200,000.
- Since 1978 under the Health, Hunger and Humanity (3-H) Program, 340 projects in 78 countries have been funded from Rotary International totaling $ 87 million.
- As of January 2012, India was declared polio free for the first time in history, leaving just Pakistan, Nigeria and Afghanistan with endemic polio. As of June 2011, Rotary has committed more than US$850 million to global polio eradication. Rotary has received $355 million in challenge grants from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Rotary committed to raising $200 million by June 30, 2012 and met that goal by January 2012. This represented another $555 million toward polio eradication.
When we see the Rotary International wheel, we think of
- Service Above Self
- The 4-Way Test
- Ending polio worldwide
- Committed to fostering peace and building international friendships
- Nonpolitical; nonsectarian; effective at doing good works.
I frequently get the question "What is Rotary, anyway? I seize the opportunity to give the "elevator speech" (the one you give when you have 15 seconds on an elevator). I’m telling the story about a place in India, where one of our Rotarian donated funds to purchase sewing machines to young girls so that they can learn sewing and become financially independent; or about the children from the dumps in Nicaragua, receiving scholarships from many Rotary clubs so that they can continue their education or the help that our fellow Rotarians provide to elderly or sick people and their families in the communities.
.jpg)