Preparations are underway here in Port Elizabeth for the annual Rotary DG dinner. With its motto ‘Service Above Self’, Rotary is an international non-profit organization for top professionals everywhere. I got the following explanations from Wikipedia and the Rotary International website, which explain everything beautifully.
“Rotary International is an organization of service clubs known as Rotary Clubs located all over the world. The stated purpose of the organization is to bring together business and professional leaders to provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and help build goodwill and peace in the world. It is a secular organization open to all persons regardless of race, color, creed, gender, or political preference. There are 33,976 clubs and over 1.22 million members worldwide. The members of Rotary Clubs are known as Rotarians. Members usually meet weekly for breakfast, lunch or dinner, which is a social event as well as an opportunity to organize work on their service goals.”
The mission of The Rotary Foundation is to enable Rotarians to advance world understanding, goodwill and peace through the improvement of health, the support of education and the alleviation of poverty. The Foundation is a not-for-profit corporation supported solely by voluntary contributions from Rotarians and friends of the Foundation who share its vision of a better world.
There are different districts all over the world, and different clubs in each district. Here in the central area of South Africa and Lesotho (district 9320), the Algoa Bay Rotary club is the largest. My mother is its President this year. She oversees all the meetings and projects of a club of 71 members.Tonight the District Governor this year, Kevin Dersley, is visiting our club and we’re hosting a glorious dinner event held in his honour. Another exciting event Rotarians all over South Africa are looking forward to is the 2011 ‘Discon’ event… from the 29th of September to the 1st of October, held in my hometown of Port Elizabeth…
