While most people have heard of Rotary, not so many have an understanding of what this international organisation does and how it contributes very significantly to local communities even as it celebrates its 110th anniversary today.
Rotary is a service club with 1.2 million members worldwide organised into over 33,000 clubs. Rotary clubs and Rotarians use their personal skills and areas of expertise to undertake projects both within their local community and beyond. While individual clubs have autonomy on the development of projects, the Rotary Foundation focuses on six specific areas, namely health and sanitation, disease prevention and treatment, water and sanitation, maternal and child health, basic education and literacy and economic and community development.
Rotary has been present in Malta since 1967 and currently boasts two clubs in Malta and one in Gozo with a combined total of 175 members as well as a Rotaract Club and an Interact Club for the younger generations. Over the last 10 years, these three clubs have raised nearly €2 million through events, grants and donations, which have been spent on a variety of projects both here and overseas.
Dar il-Kaptan, the respite home for people with disabilities in Mtarfa, was founded in 1992 through the initiative of Rotary Club Malta, which funded the purchase of the premises, helped equipping it, expanding it with an extension in 2005, provided air conditioning, solar heating, two vans to transport clients, implemented fire protection facilities, rebuilt the kitchen and, last November, started yet another extension costing €100,000.
Rotary Club La Valette has been a significant driver of Għabex, a home for victims of domestic violence, as well as undertaking impressive school-building projects in India, funding the education of children in India and supporting the Happy Moments project in Kenya.
Vittoriosa has benefitted from signage of its historic buildings thanks to Rotary Club Malta, which also funded the cost to cover two machines to aid New Leaf in preserving and digitising the treasures there.
Rotary La Valette undertook to refit the electrical system at the Notarial Archives and built a pool at the Angela House orphanage.
Rotary Club Gozo, the smallest of the three local clubs, has supported the Friends of the Sick and Elderly in Gozo in providing much-needed equipment and a distribution centre. It is involved in a project to support career and educational development in Gozo. Caritas, the Nigret Orphanage, Dar Merħba Bik and Dar Jeanne Antide also received Rotary assistance.
Rotary clubs can be trusted that the money they raise will be put to good use and frugally
The local clubs run an annual Hands-On Day where volunteers, including non-Rotarians, meet to carry out a makeover of an institute with painting and maintenance work undertaken by the group.
Rotary Club Malta has also run projects overseas in Uganda at the Kids of Africa Orphanage, equipping it with solar-generated electricity and a battery system that powers the whole village. It is building a new school there with the assistance of the Malta government’s Overseas Development Aid as well as a five-year project that funds the education of 100 children in Pakistan.
Nearly 20 local students have had their international post-graduate education funded by the Rotary clubs in Malta.
The fact that Rotary is a service club means that Rotarians dedicate their time and professional talents to undertake projects with funds that they raise. This is somewhat different to a charity which mainly distributes money. Rotary is much more hands-on.
The global credibility of Rotary as an organisation, with members such as the present Pope, former US president John F. Kennedy, Bill Gates and world leaders, enables clubs to be trusted that the money they raise will be put to good use and frugally. All money from fund raising is used for projects and causes and not for running the clubs.
Rotary’s scale and reach in every country of the world allows the organisation to tackle problems on a global scale with massively-ambitious targets. There can be no better example than Rotary’s End Polio Now campaign, which aims for the global eradication of polio.
When the campaign started in 1985, over 350,000 people contracted this crippling disease annually. Fewer than 100 people got polio last year and India was certified polio free. Rotary aims for the complete eradication of the disease by 2018. This will only be the second time ever that a disease has been eradicated globally.
Rotary International has been a key player in India’s elimination of polio, contributing about 300,000 volunteers over the past three years to deliver vaccines, monitor areas of outbreaks and publicise countrywide immunisation dates.
In the last decade, the clubs in Malta have raised close to €2 million, a staggering amount. However, when you take into consideration the input of members, the value to society is even greater.
As Rotary celebrates the 110th anniversary of its foundation, we can look forward with optimism that its members will continue their massive contribution to communities locally and internationally.
For more information about Rotary in the Maltese islands one can visit www.rotary.org.mt.
John de Giorgio is a member of Rotary Club Malta.