About Rotary

* Rotary is an organisation of business and professional men and women united worldwide to provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and help build goodwill and peace in the world.

* In more than 160 countries, approximately 1.2 million Rotarians belong to more than 30,000 Rotary clubs.

* All Rotary clubs meet weekly and are non-political, non-religious, and open to all cultures, races, and creeds.

* The main objective of Rotary is service - in the community, in the workplace, and throughout the world.

* The Rotary motto is Service Above Self.

* Rotarians try to apply the Four Way Test in everything they do.

* Rotarians develop community service projects that address many of today's most critical issues, such as children at risk, poverty and hunger, the environment, illiteracy, and violence.

* Rotarians also support programs for youth, educational opportunities and international exchanges for students, teachers, and other professionals, and vocational and career development.

* Although Rotary clubs develop autonomous service programs, all Rotarians worldwide are united in a campaign for the global eradication of polio. In the 1980s, Rotarians raised US$240 million to immunize the children of the world; by 2005, Rotary's centenary year and the target date to achieve a polio-free world, the PolioPlus program had contributed US$500 million to this cause.

* Rotary has also provided an army of volunteers to promote and assist at national immunization days in polio-endemic countries around the world.

* The Rotary Foundation is a not-for-profit corporation of Rotary International that promotes world peace and understanding through international humanitarian service programs and educational and cultural exchanges. It is supported solely by voluntary contributions from Rotarians and others who share its vision of a better world.

* Since 1947, the Foundation has made available more than US$1.1 billion in humanitarian and educational grants, which are initiated and administered by local Rotary clubs and districts.