What is Rotary
Rotary is an international humanitarian service organization. The men and women of Rotary are business and professional leaders who volunteer their time and resources to help others in their local communities and throughout the world.
    Rotary clubs carry out a variety of service projects that address critical issues including poverty, hunger, illiteracy, substance abuse, and pollution.

    Service to youth, especially children at risk, is a major emphasis. Working with and for tomorrow's leaders, Rotary sponsors service clubs for youth and young adults and offers career development and mentoring programs.
 
Where need exists, Rotary works to find solutions. Non-political and non-governmental, Rotary clubs are autonomous and create innovative solutions to meet community needs.

Rotary members improve the quality of life through routine child immunization projects, medical and dental clinics, and the construction of safe water and sanitation systems. Clubs also work for peaceful communities by organising violence-prevention projects.

Rotarians attack the problem of illiteracy through programs that strengthen primary, vocational and adult education, and teacher training.

Whether standing at the forefront of an international health campaign or mounting a massive literacy initiative, Rotary rallies the tools and know-how to successfully lead the way to change.

 
Rotary members dedicate their time, skills, expertise, and myriad other resources toward improving the human condition.
Club members support international projects through the programmes of The Rotary Foundation. The Rotary Foundation was created in 1917 for the purpose of doing good in the world, and is supported almost entirely by members contributions

Organized by Rotary clubs in at least two countries, Rotary Foundation humanitarian grants support projects that provide health care and supplies, clean water, food, job training, and education - particularly in the developing world.

Large-scale Health, Hunger and Humanity (3-H) Grants support sustainable projects that help others help themselves. Rotary members also contribute their technical expertise and compassion. Each year more than 200 grants fund Rotary volunteers in 50 countries.
 
Rotary promotes cultural understanding and brings people together, even when they live worlds apart. Rotary's exchange programmes foster the free flow of ideas and opportunities across national boarders.

Through Rotary, youth, scholars, and professionals experience the culture and people of another land - and return home to share their new understanding with others.

Some 7,000 secondary-school students participate annually in short - or long term Rotary Youth Exchanges.

The Rotary Foundation's Ambassadorial Scholarships programme is the world's largest privately funded international scholarships programme. More than 30,000 students from 100 countries have studied abroad as Rotary scholars. The Group Study Exchange programme pairs Rotary districts in different countries to send and receive non-Rotary study groups comprised of young professionals. 
 
Eradicating polio is a top Rotary priority which requires the immunization of every child under 5 in the world.

As a result of the efforts of Rotary and its global partners, more than one billion children have been immunized against polio since 1985. Rotary members will have given approximately US$500 million to the campaign by the year 2005, the target date for certification of a polio-free world.

Through The Rotary Foundation's PolioPlus program, more than one million Rotary volunteers from around the globe have contributed to the success of polio eradication efforts.

Rotary is the key private-sector partner in this international health effort. Public-sector partners include the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
 

Definition of Rotary

Rotary is an organization of business and professional leaders united worldwide, who provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and help build goodwill and peace in the world.

There are approximately 1.2 million Rotarians, members of more than 29,000 Rotary clubs in 161 countries.

A brief history
Rotary's first day and the years that followed...

February 23, 1905. The airplane had yet to stay aloft more than a few minutes. The first motion picture theatre had not yet opened. Norway and Sweden were peacefully terminating their union. On this particular day, a Chicago lawyer, Paul P. Harris, called three friends to a meeting. What he had in mind was a club that would kindle fellowship among members of the business community. It was an idea that grew from his desire to find within the large city the kind of friendly spirit that he knew in the villages where he had grown up.

The four businessmen didn't decide then and there to call themselves a Rotary club, but their get-together was, in fact, the first meeting of the world's first Rotary club. As they continued to meet, adding others to the group, they rotated their meetings among the members' places of business, hence the name. Soon after the club name was agreed upon, one of the new members suggested a wagon wheel design as the club emblem. It was the precursor of the familiar cogwheel emblem now worn by Rotarians around the world. By the end of 1905, the club had 30 members.

The second Rotary club was formed in 1908 half a continent away from Chicago in San Francisco, California. It was a much shorter leap across San Francisco Bay to Oakland, California, where the third club was formed. Others followed in Seattle, Washington, Los Angeles, California, and New York City, New York. Rotary became international in 1910 when a club was formed in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. By 1921 the organization was represented on every continent, and the name Rotary International was adopted in 1922.