Rotary Club of Windsor (1918)
International Service Activities Page

Our Club is Located in Windsor Ontario Canada

Welcome to the International Service Activities Page. Listed below are some of the activities carried out by Rotary International through funds collected from Rotarian donations to the Rotary International Foundation Fund. Our Windsor Club also has specific projects which are listed in the Club Projects page.

A sample program is the current Polio Plus Program:

(Singapore, 13 June 1999) -- In its 20-year effort to help world health organizations rid the world of polio by the end of the year 2000, and certify it polio-free by 2005, Rotary International today announced that it will accelerate the organization's financial and volunteer efforts in targeted countries during the final assault on the crippling disease. The Rotary Foundation's incoming Chairman Bill Huntley and the World Health Organization's Director General Gro Harlem Brundtland met with health ministers from Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Egypt, Turkey and Russia last month to discuss activities and support necessary to accelerate eradication efforts in targeted polio-endemic countries. Rotary's committed membership will be a crucial component in reaching the last pockets of the poliovirus, said Rotary leader Bill Huntley. In areas where there is civil unrest and war, health officials call on Rotary, a private, non-governmental organization, to encourage parents to bring their children to immunization posts during the national immunization days. Rotary's greatest contribution to this historic health initiative is its devoted volunteer network. Although the number of reported polio cases has dropped more than 85 percent since 1985, recent outbreaks of the disease in Angola, coupled with high case reporting in India, have moved health officials and volunteer networks to conduct massive house-to-house campaigns this summer and fall in targeted areas to reach the 2000 target date. This spring, Rotary committed an additional US $500,000 to Angola to assist with emergency immunization efforts following the recent polio outbreak. Teams of health and scientific professionals from Brazil also traveled to Angola recently as part of Rotary's Group Study Exchange program to offer assistance to the country's emerging government. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rotary members raised an additional US $250,000 through Rotary's alternate funding program PolioPlus Partners to assist with this summer and fall's immunization activities. Also in India, Rotary members utilized the Partners program to raise over US $600,000, double of what has been collected in previous years, to assist the Indian Government in the accelerated immunization activities scheduled for the fall and winter. Formed in 1985, Rotary's PolioPlus program is one of the most ambitious humanitarian undertakings made by a private entity ever. It will serve as a paradigm for private/public collaborations in the fight against disease well into the next century. Rotary's financial commitment to global polio eradication will reach US $500,000 by the year 2005. Rotary is joined in the battle to eradicate polio by the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and national donor agencies and governments around the world. To find out more about PolioPlus, visit Rotary's website at www.rotary.org. Or contact the Department of Public Information for Rotary International at pid@riorc.mhs.compuserve.com.

Rotary International Programs Index

What Rotary Does by Category

Preserve Planet Earth

This three year pilot program focuses Rotary's attention on critical ecological issues. Clubs will increase the number of environmental projects in their communities, regions and countries. (see Environment Committee)

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World Community Service

World Community Service links Rotary Clubs needing help to complete a community service project with clubs in other countries willing to provide materials and technical and professional support. (see the World Community Service Committee)

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Interact and Rotaract Clubs

Interact, for secondary school students, Rotaract for young adults 18 to 29, are Rotary Club sponsored service clubs. In addition to social activities, Interact and Rotaract clubs carry out at least one local and one international service project each year.

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Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA)

RYLA is a program of seminars, conferences and camps to develop and recognize good citizenship and leadership qualities in young people. Selected young people meet with Rotarians and others to discuss topics that are important to them.

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Youth Exchange

Rotary Clubs and Districts sponsor more than 7000 students of secondary school age annually for travel abroad and home stay with a Rotarian host family for an academic year, during which the student lives with several host families. (see International Youth Projects Committee)

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Rotary Volunteers

This program matches individual Rotarian volunteers, Foundation program alumni and Rotaractors with projects in which their specific skills can be put to use. Centred primarily in the community at the club level, the program also identifies volunteer opportunities within the Club's district and elsewhere in the world.

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Rotary Village Corps

An innovative program in which Rotary Clubs sponsor organizations of service-minded men and women who work to improve their community's quality of life in both urban and rural areas.

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Group Study Exchange

This educational activity promotes international understanding through an exchange between paired districts in different countries - of study teams composed of five young business and professional men and four young business and professional women. Each team is accompanied by a representative of the district governor and is hosted for a four to six week period by the Rotary clubs of the receiving district.
GSE Info
GSE Program

Ambassadorial Scholarships

The Foundation launched its first program -- Ambassadorial Scholarships -- in 1947 when 18 "Rotary Fellows," as they were known then, received awards to study abroad and serve as ambassadors of goodwill, promoting peace and understanding among nations. The Group Study Exchange program began in 1965, and Grants for University Teachers to Serve in Developing Countries followed in 1985. Since the programs began, more than 29,000 Ambassadorial Scholars, 6,000 GSE teams, and 150 university teachers have participated.

(see International Youth Projects Committee)

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