Historic Moments: PolioPlus turns 30

This year marks 30 years since Rotary launched PolioPlus, its campaign to rid the world of polio. Beginning on Rotary's anniversary, 23 February, Rotary members worldwide will be holding events to celebrate three decades of polio eradication progress. Since 1985 Rotary and its partners have helped reduce the number of cases from 350,000 annually to fewer than 400 in 2014, and they remain committed until the disease is eradicated. Rotary has contributed more than $1.3 billion and countless volunteer hours to protect more than 2 billion children worldwide. In addition, Rotary's advocacy efforts...

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San Francisco club reveals formula for growth and retention of members

Members of the Rotary Club of San Francisco Evening meet three times a month at a wine bar after work, share a social outing once a month, and promote all their activities on social media like Meetup and Facebook. As the first evening club in the city, it has attracted many young professionals from Silicon Valley tech firms whose work schedules keep them from joining a more traditional club that meets for breakfast or lunch. But more than the evening format has helped the club grow by 30 percent since it received its charter in mid-2013. Danielle Lallement, who was its charter president, says...

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Kids in Kenya are ending violent mistrust between tribes

For decades, the small, pastoral communities in northern Kenya have been caught in a cycle of violence. Tribes have shed blood over distrust, scarce resources, and the theft of livestock. Rotary Scholar Monica Kinyua founded the Children Peace Initiative (CPI) Kenya with her twin sister, Jane Wanjiru, to end the fighting by building friendships between children from different tribes. Earlier this year, the sisters used a global grant sponsored by Rotary members in San Diego, California, and the Rotary Club of Nairobi to conduct a peace camp for children in Baragoi, Samburu County, one of the...

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Statement by Rotary International on the deadly school attack in Pakistan

Rotary International condemns the horrific attack that killed more than 130 schoolchildren and wounded over 100 of their classmates in Peshawar, Pakistan. We believe that children everywhere have the basic right to receive an education in an environment unthreatened by violence or fear. Rotary extends our heartfelt sympathy to all of the families in Pakistan, including those of seven Rotary members, who have lost children as a result of this unfathomable tragedy. We stand with them in mourning their loss. Gary C.K. Huang, President Rotary International

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How a simple school project in India became a global grant

Two years ago, U.S. Rotary members in Maine set out to improve the education system in Bikaner, Rajasthan, an Indian city near the border of Pakistan. The Rotary Club of Kennebunk Portside chose Bikaner because club member Rohit Mehta was originally from the area and had connections there. Mehta put the club in contact with Rotarians in India to provide desks for four government-run schools. But when community leaders returned with a request for more desks, the Maine Rotarians decided they had to think bigger. The Rotary Foundation had rolled out its new grant model, which required that the...

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Rotary Day at the United Nations highlights the strength of partnerships

To strengthen their 69-year-old partnership, leaders from Rotary and the United Nations met this month in New York City for Rotary Day at the United Nations. The two organizations began working together with the aim of maintaining peace after World War II. Today, the relationship has evolved to include humanitarian work in areas like gender equality, child and maternal health, and disease treatment and prevention. While the UN's Millennium Development Goals are set to expire in 2015, its leaders are preparing for an even more ambitious humanitarian agenda of eradicating extreme poverty by...

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Winners of the Rotarian Magazine 2014 Photo Contest

 FIRST PLACE

Photographer:

Christopher John V. Imperial

Rotary Club of Diliman North, Philippines

Photo location: 

Tarlac City, Philippines

The faces of these people reaching out for help are compelling. This image tells a story, but still makes you want to know more about the circumstances behind it. This easily could have run in Time magazine.

 SECOND PLACE

Photographer:

Nand Fiems

Rotary Club of Gistel, Belgium

Photo location: 

Lobesa Valley, Bhutan

This girl shows us that they now have a new source of life.” This photo sums that up, and that is why I chose it. Water is essential, and much of the world struggles to find it. This little girl drinking from the spigot is a captivating image about survival’s bottom line.

THIRD PLACE

Photographer:

Lola Reid Allin

Rotary Club of Belleville, Ont., Canada

Photo location: 

Mwiko School, near the Virunga Massif, north-western Rwanda

Kids in school and appearing to enjoy it. This is an area that has seen much turmoil, but the photo represents a return to normalcy.

Polio's Retreat

As photojournalist Allison Kwesell walks through the narrow streets of an Indian village, familiarity sets in. She visited here four years ago, when she first met Samir and his family. He was two years old then and had recently contracted polio. Kwesell approaches the front porch of a home when she hears an older woman yelling "Samir! Samir!" She runs toward the voice, wondering if she'll recognize the boy. She sees six children playing chase on the dry earth, the dirt forming clouds around their feet. From afar she notices a young boy, not unlike the other barefoot children in the backyard...

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Contribution that Rotary worldwide has made in the effort to eradicate polio.

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Celebrate Membership Month

August is Membership Month, which means it's time to celebrate your Rotary club, your members, and the good you do in your community and around the world. There are many ways to join in the celebration, but here are a few activities to get you started: Say it loud, say it proud! Let everyone in your social network know that you are a proud member by changing your Twitter and Facebook profile to the I'm a Proud Member, I'm a Proud Rotaractor, or I'm a Proud Interactor graphic. Copy and save the graphic as your profile picture for August. Watch and share. Download RI President Gary C.K. Huang's...

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Political strife, protecting U.S. diplomats are part of the job for former Rotary Peace Fellow

As an agent for the U.S. Diplomatic Security Service, Justin Peele applies the education he received in conflict resolution as a Rotary Peace Fellow to a job that puts him in some dicey situations – including one in 2013 in which his actions won him State Department recognition for his courage and decisiveness. Peele is one of 2,000 DS agents who protect U.S. diplomats and embassies around the world. The Diplomatic Security Service, the law enforcement and security arm of the U.S. State Department, is the most extensive global security agency in the government, operating in more than 160...

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Rotary Scholar’s unique ability in bringing clubs together

In a municipal hospital in Cubatão, Brazil, a new mammography machine funded by a Rotary global grant provides breast cancer screening to women who previously had to wait for weeks before they could get in for a checkup with a doctor. A Rotary global grant also funded training for medical staff and cancer awareness education for people in the community. Isis Mejias Carpio of Houston, studying at the University of São Paulo on a Rotary scholarship, played an instrumental role in bringing together Rotary clubs in two countries to make the grant possible. Members of the Rotary Club of Cubatão,...

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2015 São Paulo convention dates changed

Rotary International President Gary Huang and the RI Board have changed the dates for the 2015 Rotary Convention in São Paulo, Brazil, to Saturday, 6 June, through Tuesday, 9 June – starting and ending one day earlier than previously scheduled. The dates were changed because the original opening day (Sunday, 7 June) coincided with one of the city's most popular parades. The new start date will dramatically reduce traffic congestion and make it easier for Rotary members to attend the opening plenary sessions. It will also make it convenient to attend our very own Rotary Carnival, a Host...

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Drug wars, financial setbacks no match for Mexico clinic

About 300 miles south of Ciudad Juarez is one of Mexico's most dangerous cities, the small town of Guerrero in central Chihuahua. The community is home to the Guerrero Clinic, which has weathered neighboring drug wars and financial setbacks to treat the poor since 1980. Walter Branson, a member of the Rotary Club of Brazosport, Texas, in the United States, has been involved with the clinic since 1983. Branson says the governor of Chihuahua credits the clinic with providing 60 percent of indigent care in the state. The drug wars in Mexico, which began in 2006, initially scared away U.S....

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President Burton reflects on his call to ‘Engage Rotary, Change Lives’

Ron Burton has made the world his office. Over the past year, the Rotary International president has traveled more than half-a-million miles across 50 countries, to inspire and motivate Rotary's 1.2 million members. Although many encouraged him to use cheaper, virtual alternatives, he believes it takes face-to-face engagement. "I was the first president to have a Google Hangout and have done Facebook chats," Burton says, reflecting on his term, which ends at midnight 30 June. "But I asked Rotarians this year to Engage Rotary, Change Lives, so I needed to live that as well, by sitting at...

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Why the Rotary year begins 1 July

Ever wonder why the Rotary year begins 1 July? The international convention initially played a key role in determining the start date of our fiscal and administrative year. Rotary's first fiscal year began the day after the first convention ended, on 18 August 1910. The 1911-12 fiscal year also related to the convention, beginning with the first day of the 1911 convention on 21 August. At its August 1912 meeting, the Board of Directors ordered an audit of the International Association of Rotary Clubs' finances. The auditors recommended that the organization end its fiscal year on 30 June to...

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Polio detected in sewage sample near São Paulo

This week, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) was detected in a sewage sample collected in March 2014 near São Paulo, home of this year's World Cup. Brazilian authorities are conducting further investigations to rule out any local spread, but at this time no cases of polio have been reported in Brazil, which has been polio-free since 1989. Genetic sequencing found the positive sample to be most closely related to a virus found in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, in March. The risk of further exportation of polio from Equatorial Guinea remains high as...

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2014 Rotary Convention ends with the passing of the torch

RI President Ron Burton put the final touches on the 2014 Rotary Convention in Sydney by reminding a packed Allphones Arena why they joined Rotary. "Being a Rotarian isn't about our own achievements, it isn't about our own careers, it really isn't about us at all. It's about the people we help," said Burton. "At the end of the day, the only thing that matters in Rotary is how much better the world becomes because Rotary is in it." The four-day event, which drew to a close on 4 June, attracted more than 18,000 attendees from 153 countries. Burton encouraged convention goers to return to their...

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Rotary's work commemorated in stamps

For more than 80 years, countries around the world have honoured the work of Rotary with commemorative stamps. The first appeared in 1931, when Austria created an overprint -- a later printing over an officially issued stamp -- in honor of the RI Convention in Vienna. Other RI conventions have been commemorated with stamps, including those held in 1940, in Havana, Cuba; 1961 and 1978, in Tokyo; 1981, in São Paulo, Brazil; and 1987, in Munich, Germany. For Rotary's 50th anniversary in 1955, 27 nations issued commemorative stamps. Many featured familiar Rotary imagery such as the gearwheel,...

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Beware of new email scam claiming to be from RI President Burton

A new email falsely claiming to be from RI President Ron Burton is targeting Rotary members.  A letter attached to the email asks the recipient to send $ 1,500 to rescue missing children in China and claims that the sender will be rewarded with $ 3,000. The fraudulent email has the subject line "RI President Ron Burton" and is sent from a fake email address. The letter attached to the email includes the Rotary logo, Rotary digital letterhead, and Burton's electronic signature. The email is a scam. Rotary staff is working to resolve the issue. Avoid being the victim of scams by deleting any...

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