Rotary International

Rotary International is an international organization and service club whose purpose is to bring together business leaders and university and non-university professionals to provide humanitarian services in their communities, promote high standards of ethics in all occupations and contribute to goodwill and peace in the world. Rotary is made up of Rotary clubs, organized in more than 200 countries and geographic regions, that carry out projects to address the problems of today's world, such as for example: illiteracy, disease, poverty and hunger, lack of drinking water and environmental deterioration, while promoting the application of high standards of ethics in their respective fields.

The Rotary Foundation is the private entity in the world that grants the largest number of international educational scholarships,^{[citation required]} annually covering the exchange of more than 1,000 scholarships that They study abroad and play the role of cultural ambassadors. Rotary also collaborates with seven prestigious universities around the world to provide the opportunity to earn a master's degree in peace and conflict resolution studies.

Founded in Chicago in 1905 as the first global club organization dedicated to voluntary service, Rotary quickly spread around the world. Today, clubs meet weekly to plan service projects, discuss local and global issues, and enjoy fellowship. The clubs are non-denominational and apolitical entities, open to all races, customs, cultures and creeds.

Characteristics of the organization

Rotary International brings together leaders to exchange ideas and take action to improve communities around the world. Every year (June 30 and July 1) the authorities (president, secretary, treasurer and macero) are renewed by election of the members, which means that the responsibilities are acquired on a rotating basis for a limited period, in order to avoid any type of discretionary management.

The clubs are grouped into districts organized on the basis of the number of clubs and the number of members, which means that their geographical extension is highly variable.

Each district has a governor who is renewed annually and is elected by representatives of the clubs that comprise it. To occupy the governorship it is necessary to have been president of a club, with active participation in service projects and demonstrate knowledge of the organization's functioning.

Rotary International is led by a president who, like the entire board, is renewed annually. Each new president launches a motto that sets the direction for each Rotary year.

Until 1989, Rotary clubs were made up exclusively of men, but after lawsuits by the US Supreme Court, the Council on Legislation approves the elimination of the requirement in the RI Constitution to limit club membership to men only.. From that moment on, women have the possibility of joining Rotary clubs around the world and by 2016 the number of women has exceeded 250,000 members. Previously women could only join the organization through their husbands or their fathers and formed what was known as the Inner Wheel (ladies' committee). Many women's committees still exist, as do exclusively male clubs where women's membership is tacitly denied, as well as others made up exclusively of women.

Other Rotary clubs sponsor organizations such as Rotaract, a service club for youth, men and women ages 18 to 30, with a current membership of 175,000 worldwide in 7,500 clubs in 155 countries; Interact, service clubs that bring together more than 220,000 young people between 12 and 18 years old; the new group called Kinderact Club, from 4 to 11 years old, spread among 9,600 clubs in 117 countries; and finally, the Rotary Community Building Groups (RCC), a volunteer organization that, with an estimated number of 103,000 non-Rotarian men and women, is distributed in 4,400 communities in 68 countries.^{[ citation required]}

Membership in Rotary is obtained through the invitation of a member and is extended to professional and business leaders in different areas of human endeavor, although, as it is not desired to establish an elitist organization, all occupations are considered Legal practices are acceptable, and all of them are admitted as long as they are performed honestly and ethically. Each club may have up to 10% members representing each line of trade or profession in the geographic area they serve. Membership is open to all entrepreneurs (businessmen and women) and professionals who have some leadership in their respective communities, although wealth or success is naturally not a criterion for membership.

Objective

The objective of this organization is to stimulate and promote the ideal of service as the basis of every worthy company and, in particular, to stimulate and encourage:

First. The development of mutual knowledge as an opportunity to serve. Second. The observance of high ethical standards in professional and business activities; the recognition of the value of every useful occupation and the dignity of one's own for the benefit of society. Third. The implementation of the ideal of service by all Rotarians in their private, professional, and public lives. Room. Understanding, goodwill and peace between nations, through the camaraderie of people who carry out professional and business activities there, united around the ideal of service.

The goal of the clubs is to promote service to the community in which they work, as well as collaborate for the general well-being of everyone. Many projects have been organized for a local community by a single club, but there are also many clubs that have organized them globally among several.

History

The first service club in the world, a Rotary club, was founded on February 23, 1905 in the city of Chicago by lawyer Paul Harris and three friends of his: Silvester Schiele, coal merchant; Gustavus H. Loehr, mining engineer, and Hiram E. Shorey, tailor. They decided that only those who were invited by a member and had a different profession from those of the previous members could enter the Club. Soon they realized the potential they had and set out to help their community. Five "service avenues" in the organization chart:

1. Club service.
2. Service through occupation.
3. Community service.
4. International service.
5. Service to new generations.

In this way the objective of Rotary was fulfilled.

The objective of Rotary is to stimulate and foster the ideal of service as the basis of all worthy enterprise, and in particular, to stimulate and encourage:

1. Mutual knowledge and friendship as an occasion to serve.
2. The observance of high standards of ethics in professional and business activities; the recognition of the value of any useful occupation and the dignification of one's own for the benefit of society.
3. The implementation of the ideal of service by all the newspapers to their private, professional and public life.
4. Understanding, goodwill and peace among nations, through the fellowship of the people who engage in professional and business activities, united around the ideal of service.

The National Association of Rotary Clubs was formed in 1910; The name Rotary was chosen because the original meetings took place in different locations of the organization's members, which rotated and exchanged over time. This name was changed to Rotary International in 1922, because by that time many branches had already been created in other countries. The Rotary Club of Madrid, Spain, was the first in continental Europe.

The Avenues of Rotary were no longer part of the Rotary club board organization chart and changed to five committees: Administration, Membership, PR, Rotary Foundation and Projects.

Service projects

The most important globally known project is Polio-Plus, proposed by Carlos Canseco, a Mexican who presided over Rotary International (1984-1985). It was inspired by the Royal Philanthropic Vaccine Expedition of Francisco Javier Balmis, one of the great milestones in the history of medicine (1803-1806). He proposed to a group of doctors that if the polio disease was transmitted by word of mouth, by vaccinating as many children as possible on the same day, the vaccine would also be transmitted by word of mouth to those who failed to vaccinate. The doctors told him that this was not the case but they could not prove otherwise, so he began mass vaccinations with the Polio Plus project, which is helping to eradicate polio. Since its inception in 1985, Rotarians have helped this project mobilize more than $3.85 billion and tens of thousands of man-hours in the work they have done voluntarily to inoculate more than one billion vaccines for children in the world. world.^{[citation needed]} The objective is to protect more than 2 billion children in 122 countries from evil.

End Polio Now Project

Rotary International began a project in 1979 that aimed to acquire and supply polio vaccines to more than 6 million Filipinos. In 1985, the Polio Plus project was launched by the Rotary Foundation. The Polio Plus program is considered the largest international initiative in the field of public health. Initially, the objective of raising 120 million USD is set.

In 1988, the World Health Organization (WHO) passed a resolution to eradicate polio by the year 2000. Now, in collaboration with UNICEF, the World Health Organization and the Center for Disease Control Diseases and Prevention in the United States, Rotary is recognized by the United Nations as an important partner in this eradication effort.

In 2012 there were fewer than 300 cases of polio in the world compared to 385,000 cases in 1988. In 2009, Rotary International had allocated nearly US$800 million to eradicate polio. Then, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation launched a challenge to make a donation of 355 million to which Rotary responded with a fundraising campaign of more than 200 million through Rotary clubs.

In 2011, the social awareness campaign 'just this' was launched, joined by a multitude of personalities, from Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Prize winner to athletes like Pau Gasol. In 2011, Rotary's contribution to the fight against polio had surpassed $1 billion.

In 2014, three years have passed without India registering any cases of poliovirus infection and the Southeast Asia region is declared polio-free, with cases remaining only in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria. It is expected that by 2020 polio will be completely eradicated from the face of the earth.

Youth exchange program

Other notable Rotary programs include the Youth Exchange Program, a high school student exchange program, and Rotary's oldest program, the ambassador scholarships. More than 30,000 students from 100 nations have studied abroad under the auspices of the ambassador scholarships, today one of the private international scholarship programs that has the greatest contribution and prestige in the world. In 2002 and 2003, grants totaled approximately $26 million, exclusively used to award 1,200 scholarships to recipients from 69 countries, who studied in 64 nations.

Started in 2002, the Rotary Foundation partnered with eight universities around the world to create Rotary Centers for International Studies for peace and conflict resolution. These universities are: International Christian University of Japan, University of Queensland in Australia, University of Political Sciences (France), University of Bradford in England, University of Salvador in Argentina, University of North Carolina (United States), Duke University (United States), and the University of California, Berkeley (United States). Graduates of Rotary's Rotary Peace Centers complete two years of master's-level programs in conflict resolution, peace studies, and international relations. The first class graduated in 2004. In that year, graduates established the “Rotary Alumni Association for World Peace Studies,” with the goal of promoting interaction between associates, Rotarians, and the general public in topics related to peace studies.

Interact Program

Main article: Interact

Interact is a Rotary International program for youth ages 12 to 18. Interact clubs are sponsored by local Rotary clubs, which provide support and guidance, but are autonomous and self-sufficient. Club membership varies greatly because clubs can be of different size and gender. Rotarians recruit their members from students at schools and colleges in their community. Each year Interact clubs complete at least two community service projects, one of which fosters international understanding and goodwill. Through these efforts, Interact members develop a network of friendships with local and foreign clubs, and learn the importance of developing leadership skills and personal integrity. They show help and respect for others, and understand the value of individual responsibility and hard work. They also learn to promote international understanding and goodwill.

Reviews

Based on a Rotary slogan, which insisted on not boasting about the aid work carried out in the various communities in poverty, Rotary action was the subject of criticism due to some aspects of its structure and social work.

According to these criticisms, it is an "elitist organization". In theory, it allowed businessmen, industrialists and large capitals to interact and create contacts. It is openly admitted that it seeks to have as members representatives of all economic aspects of the area in which it is implemented.

Rotary and Freemasonry

Rotary International was accused in the first half of the 20th century of having consanguinity with Freemasonry, a link always denied by its leaders, without this having been an obstacle for some of its members to also be members of a Masonic lodge, or Catholics or any other religion. Paul Harris himself expressly stated in 1937, in a letter addressed to the then governor of the 84th district of R.I. from Romania, he has not been part of any Masonic workshop.

The purpose of both are quite different since Rotarians are dedicated to providing humanitarian services in their communities and Freemasonry is dedicated to promoting brotherhood among its members, the exchange of ideas and knowledge for the intellectual and spiritual enrichment of each individual and society as a whole.

Gustavus H. Loehr, one of the four founders of the Rotary Club in Chicago in 1905, was a Freemason.

Rotary and the Catholic Church

On December 20, 1950, the Holy Office issued a decree approved by Pope Pius XII, published by the newspaper L'Osservatore Romano in January 1951, which prohibited the membership of the clergy Catholic to the Rotary Club because it was considered to be in breach of canon 684 of the Code of Canon Law of 1917.

Freemasonry and Rotary do not discriminate against the participation of people based on their way of being or thinking, so it is possible that there are people of all types. Pope Francis was a member of the Rotary Club of Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1999, as are many active Catholics in different parts of the world, since the Rotary purpose of serving is in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity of the Social Doctrine of the Catholic Church.

Famous Rotarians

Some famous Rotarians are:

• Albert Schweitzer, doctor, philosopher, theologian and musician; Germany / France
• Bernardo de Lippe-Biesterfeld, prince consort, Netherlands
• Beyoncé Knowles, singer, United States
• Carlos Canseco, doctor and president of Rotary International, Mexico
• Carlos Melconian, economist and politician, Argentina
• Douglas MacArthur, militar, Estados Unidos
• Francis, Catholic Pope
• Hassan II of Morocco, monarch, Morocco
• Julio César Galindo Pérez, businessman and president of coparmex, Mexico
• John F. Kennedy, politician, United States
• Konosuke Matsushita, industrial, Japan
• Luciano Pavarotti, opera singer, Italy
• Louis Michel, European Commissioner, Belgium
• Luis Calvo Mackenna, doctor, Minister of Health, Chile
• Margaret Thatcher, politics, United Kingdom
• María Eugenia Vidal, politics, Argentina
• Mario Moreno "Cantinflas", cineasta, Mexico
• Neville Chamberlain, politician, United Kingdom
• Nicolas Sarkozy, politician, France
• Patricio Aylwin, president, Chile
• Rainier III of Monaco, monarch, Monaco
• Rodolfo Barili, journalist, Argentina
• Soleiman Franjieh, politician, Lebanon
• Stephen Hawking, astrophysical, United Kingdom
• Thomas Alva Edison, entrepreneur and inventor, United States
• Thomas Mann, writer, Germany
• José Antonio Velázquez Turrubiartes, public accountant and professor, Mexico
• Vicente Bianchi, musician, Chile
• Walt Disney, filmmaker and businessman, United States
• José Luis García Palacios, President of the Caja Rural, Spain
• Guillermo Gonzáles Zúñiga, Contador Público y Empresario, México