Rotary International is the world’s oldest service organisation. Its motto is ‘service above self’ – members seek to serve others and enjoy so doing. Rotary’s members are made up of professional and business men and women. There are some 31,000 clubs in more than 166 countries with around 1.2 million members, who come from many religions and from none. Amongst Rotary’s achievements is the important role it played in the formation of UNESCO and some 50 Rotarians served as delegates and consultants at the creation of the UNITED NATIONS. Rotary was founded by Paul Harris a Chicago lawyer on the 23rd February 1905. He formed the first club – the Rotary Club of Chicago - with five other friends. They decided to hold meetings in each others’ houses on a rota system – hence the name ‘Rotary’. Clubs worldwide annually undertake many acts of service in their local communities which we regard as of the utmost importance and £9000 was given by Worthing Rotary Club to domestic good causes in a recent Rotary year (which runs from 1st July to 30th June. In this difficult financial period we find that we have increased demand for help from disadvantaged people in our local community and we consider each request for financial assistance very carefully and where we are satisfied that the need is genuine we will respond with money. One of the things that we have done for some years is to give £2500 to the Salvation Army in Worthing to enable that organization, with which we work closely, to enable it to distribute Christmas parcels to local needy families and individuals. We do much else besides: in the field of education and welfare for instance. However this article concentrates on our work overseas.
‘ Rotary Foundation’, formed in 1917, finances the largest private charitable humanitarian programme in the world and each year more than 1,200 international projects are helped. Individual clubs worldwide support it. Projects such as provision of water wells, medical care and literacy classes are provided for poor communities abroad. Rotary also provides disaster aid. Worthing Rotary Club pays for the education of several children in third world countries, is active in its support of ‘Foundation’ (£2021 being given to the Polio Plus campaign and a further £9000 donated to humanitarian projects and to Foundation’s other work in a recent year. The Polio Plus (Polio Immunisation) campaign is the largest service project undertaken by Rotary and its greatest achievement. Polio created misery for hundreds of thousands causing permanent crippling or paralysis in many cases and also death. Those of an older generation will remember young people in this country being imprisioned in an iron lung to enable them to breath. In 1985, concerned that each year 350,000 people caught the disease, Rotary resolved to eradicate polio from the world, in collaboration mainly with the Red Cross, the W.H.O. Centres for Disease Control. Rotary has spent over US$ 830 million to date on the campaign and over 2 billion children have been protected, with very many Rotarians taking part in mass immunisations and as many as 200 million children being treated in a week! In the last few years Bill Gates has joined the Rotary Polio campaign and made donations to hasten the elimination of this disease
Rotary has probably donated more money than any country in the world except for the U.S.A.! Today there are around a thousand cases in only three countries and we expect to clear the world of this scourge in the next few years. Our task is 99.9% completed but Rotary still presses on and still requires public support to reach its goal of final eradication. Once this goal is achieved Rotary will no doubt enter into a fresh challenge to change the lives of humanity for the better. Rotarian John Brenton
