By Rotary International

Rotaractor Fernanda Luz Moraes entertains a child during a club outing. Happiness, she says, is an essential part of Rotaract.

By Fernanda Luz Moraes, president of the Rotaract Club of Cachoeirinha, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

When I began participating in Rotaract in 2012, I viewed it as a way to spend my weekends doing something good in my community. But then I realized it is so much more than that.

I have met many other members of Rotaract who have a hard time explaining the passion that comes over them for doing volunteer work. The best way I can put it is this: We think globally, then act locally.

I want to change the world, and in order to make it happen, I know I need to develop my leadership skills and abilities. I need to connect to people from all over, from every culture and many different occupations, to gain new ideas and fresh perspectives. I also need to act in a way that inspires leadership in others. We take action and encourage other people to act to make things happen.

I have been cultivating love, enthusiasm, and happiness most of my life. Why shouldn’t I make these things part of my Rotaract …read more

Source:: Rotary International Blog

By Rotary International

Rotary members in Tamil Nadu, India, hand out supplies to people affected by flooding. Read more below.

New Zealand Rotary members are putting food on the tables of low-income families this holiday season by teaming up with the Salvation Army to collect and distribute fresh produce from local growers.

Starting several years ago, the Rotary Club of Drury, Auckland, New Zealand, annually contacts growers to set up a time in mid-December to collect produce for distribution, and then coordinates with the Salvation Army. The club lines up three large trucks, each with a crew of three Rotary members, to drive to different regions to collect the produce, which the Salvation Army then distributes to families during the holidays.

This project is just one of many that Rotary members have shared on Rotary Showcase. Four others of note:

Rotary members in Amman, Jordan, hold an annual Dinner in the Dark, at which guests experience what it’s like to eat in complete darkness. Blind and visually-impaired volunteers guide the guests, serve the meals, and dine with them to discuss the challenges they face. All proceeds go to the club’s community projects and raise awareness of issues facing the visually impaired.
The Rotary Club …read more

Source:: Rotary International Blog

By Rotary International

Students sit at new desks that were provided through a grant organized by the Rotary Clubs of Bikaner, Rajasthan, India, and Kennebunk Portside, Maine, USA

By Rotary Voices staff

There’s still time to make your year-end gift to The Rotary Foundation. Here are a few ways that your support is helping to change lives all over the world:

Educating children: Rotary members in Maine, USA, and Rajasthan, India, are using a global grant to educate hundreds of children in the city of Bikaner who previously were not attending school, and to provide professional development for their teachers. Learn more about the project, which also provided desks for the students through an earlier grant.

Fighting disease: Rotary members in California, USA, and Sinkor, Monrovia, Liberia, are using Foundation grant money to train health care workers in techniques to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV and to improve their ability to diagnose and treat infected women. The success of the project is measured in lives saved. Read more about the vocational training team’s efforts.

Growing local economies: In the Esmeraldas Province of Ecuador, Rotary members have teamed up with a microfinance organization to provide small loans to poor women, teaching them to sew and …read more

Source:: Rotary International Blog

By Rotary International

Jose with his high school diploma.

By Martha Peak Helman

Rotary members often say that the work we do will change the lives of people we will never have the chance to meet. But nothing could be further from the truth in Jose’s case.

My Rotarian husband and I first met Jose when he was a gawky teen enrolled at Safe Passage, a program that makes it possible for children who live on the Guatemala City garbage dump to go to school and improve their lives. Through Rotary Foundation grants and Rotary involvement, Safe Passage has grown in the past decade into an organization that supports more than 500 children each year, in preschool through high school and beyond.

Even before Safe Passage offered him a way forward, Jose had had several years of schooling. But his education was sporadic. His family could only afford one school uniform and one set of school fees, so Jose and his three brothers had to take turns. As a result, when we met him, Jose was 19 and in the equivalent of sixth grade. We were already sponsoring Jose’s younger brother, Juan Carlos, who had skipped ahead to seventh grade. But when we met Jose and …read more

Source:: Rotary International Blog

By Rotary International

2014-15 Rotary Youth Exchange students.

By Gabriela Vessani

I spent a year in Canada as a Rotary Youth Exchange student, and I can’t believe how fast the year went by. On my flight back to Brazil a few months ago, I reflected on the experience, and had so many thoughts.

I remembered arriving with anxiety, and yes, even a little fear. The experience is never entirely what you expect and you can never totally prepare for it. I think that few students go in with a full understanding of how intense and deep the experience will be, and how hard it can be to do something different from what you have been used to doing every day of your life.

But then there is the freedom. Being an exchange student gives you a chance to create a new life and become whatever you want to be. You learn to value what you have and take care of yourself on your own. Without the sheltering arms of your birth family around you, you have the freedom to spread your wings and grow a bit on your own, with the help of your host families.

It is not just a difference between cultures or countries, but it’s …read more

Source:: Rotary International Blog