The world's first service club, Rotary Club of Chicago, Illinois, USA, was formed on 23 February 1905th by Paul P. Harris, a lawyer, seeking to revive the club professionals, friendly spirit that is felt in small towns where he lived as a child. Name Rotary is derived from the old practice to place the meetings rotate between the offices of members.
Rotary's popularity spread throughout the United States over the next decade - clubs were chartered from San Francisco to New York. By 1921, Rotary clubs were formed in six kontinienata, and the organization got its name Rotary International a year later. As Rotary grew, its mission expanded beyond serving the professional and social interests of club members. Rotarians began to pool their resources and potential to help communities in need of help. Organization's commitment to this ideal is best expressed in its principal motto: Service above self (Service Above Self). Rotary also later adopted a code of ethics, called the test of four questions, which will later be translated into hundreds of languages. During the war svetskg II, Rotarians have been even more dedicated to promoting international understanding. Rotary Conference held in London 1942nd has sown the seeds for the development agencies of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and numerous Rotarians have served as advisors to the United Nations.
Fund grants, initiated by Rotarians 1917th to do good for the world, has become a non-profit organization known as the Rotary Foundation 1928th year. After the death of Paul Harris in 1947, flooding donations Rotarians in his honor, a total of $ 2 million, launched the Foundation's first program - graduate fellowships, now known as the Ambassadorial Scholarships. Today, contributions from the Rotary Foundation, which reaches over 80 million dollars a year, financed a wide range of humanitarian grants and educational programs that enable Rotarians to bring hope and promote international understanding throughout the world. 1985th years, Rotary has taken a historical obligation to vaccinate all the world's children against polio. In partnership with NGOs and governments of the PolioPlus program, Rotary is the largest private sector worldwide campaign of extermination of polio. Rotarians have collected hundreds of thousands of PolioPlus volunteers and vaccinated more than one billion children worldwide. By 2005, when the deadline extinction of polio, Rotary has donated for the purpose of half a billion dollars.
The dawn of the 21st century, Rotary meets the changing needs of society, expanding its efforts to address critical issues such as environmental degradation, illiteracy, world hunger, and protecting children. For the first time, the organization receives women in its membership 1989th years, and today there are in its membership numbers more than 90 000th After the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union, Rotary clubs were formed or re-run throughout Central and Eastern Europe. Today, 1.2 million Rotarians belong to one of about 30 000 clubs in more than 160 countries worldwide
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