Rotary was founded by Paul Harris in Chicago on February 23, 1905.
Rotary’s early emblem was a simple wagon wheel designed in 1905 by
Montague M Bear, a member of the founding club of Chicago. He designed
the emblem to represent both civilisation and movement. Most of the
early Rotary clubs adopted the wheel in one form or other. This design
is represented in the Rotary membership and the Paul Harris Award
badge. During World War II Rotary played a strong part in international
understanding and planted the seeds of development for the UN. Fifty
delegates served as consultants to the founding of the U.N Rotary is
acknowledged with eradicating Polio worldwide and works closely with the
UN World Health and UNICEF.
Rotary Clubs are non religious, non governmental and open to every race, culture and creed.
Rotary International provides exchange programs and humanitarian grants.
Provides centres for international studies in peace and conflict
resolution, hosted at seven leading International Universities funding
70 world peace scholars. 35,000 students from 110 countries have
studied abroad since 1947 as Rotary Ambassadorial Scholars and explored
their career fields. Youth Exchange has provided secondary school
students with experience of life in another country.
Since 1965, the Group Study Exchange (GSE) program has provided
inspiring vocational, educational, and cultural experiences to more than
32,000 men and women who at the time of the award were not Rotarians.
Rotary has assisted in the clean water projects, disaster relief, health
care and medical supplies, education, job training, poverty relief, as a
part of Rotary’s international charter.