Rotary International

We are Rotary International, a global network of neighbors, friends, and leaders. Our story began with a simple idea more than a century ago. On February 23rd, 1905, a lawyer in Chicago, Illinois, named Paul Harris decided to start a new kind of club. He wanted to bring together professionals from many different backgrounds—people with different jobs, skills, and experiences. His goal was for them to meet regularly, share ideas, and build strong, meaningful friendships. This first meeting planted the seed for an organization that would grow far beyond what anyone could have imagined, becoming a force for good around the world.

It didn't take long for the purpose of our club to grow. While friendship remained at our core, our members realized they could do more for others. They saw problems in their communities and understood that by working together, they could help solve them. This led us to adopt a new guiding principle, a motto that we still follow today: 'Service Above Self.' This simple phrase means that we believe in using our time and talents to help others. Our members began to look for ways to put their professional skills to good use, not just for their own benefit, but for the benefit of everyone. This powerful idea of service spread quickly, inspiring people to join us.

Soon, new clubs began forming in other cities, and then in other countries. We grew from a single club in Chicago into an international organization with thousands of clubs all over the world. Each club is made up of local members who understand the needs of their own communities. They might work on a project to build a new playground, provide books to a school, or clean up a local park. At the same time, all of these clubs are connected, allowing us to work together on huge, global projects that can help people everywhere. One of our biggest shared goals became fighting diseases that affect people around the globe, which led us to our most ambitious project ever.

In 1985, we launched a program called PolioPlus. At the time, polio was a serious disease that could cause great harm to children. We decided to take on the incredible challenge of getting rid of it everywhere in the world. We knew we could not do this alone. A project this big required teamwork on a global scale. To make our goal a reality, we partnered with major health organizations, including the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF. Together, we created a plan to help give polio vaccines to children in every corner of the world. A vaccine helps a person's body learn how to fight off a disease before they get sick. Our members around the globe helped raise money, organize events, and travel to communities to make sure children received this protection.

The hard work of many people paid off in a truly amazing way. The PolioPlus program has been a great success. Since we started this effort, the number of polio cases has been reduced by over 99.9 percent worldwide. This means that millions of children have been protected from this disease and have been able to grow up healthy and strong. This achievement shows what is possible when people from all over the world unite for a common goal. Our work to end polio completely continues to this day, as we get closer to making it the second human disease ever to be eliminated from the planet.

Today, we continue to work on other important issues that affect people both locally and globally. Our main areas of focus include promoting peace by helping people understand each other, providing clean water so communities can be healthy, supporting education for children and adults, and helping local economies grow. We are made up of many individual Rotary Clubs in thousands of communities. In these clubs, our members continue to live by our motto of 'Service Above Self.' They identify local and global problems and use their skills to work on projects that make a positive and lasting difference for people at home and around the world.