Come as a guest
The short answer
Rotary's seven areas of focus are the causes The Rotary Foundation funds through its global grants: promoting peace, fighting disease, providing clean water and sanitation, saving mothers and children, supporting education, growing local economies and protecting the environment. The environment was added in 2020 and is the newest. Clubs pick projects inside these lanes so that 46,000 clubs push in the same directions.
Key takeaways
- Seven causes, set by The Rotary Foundation, used to decide which global grants get funded.
- The environment became the seventh area in 2020.
- Local clubs are free to serve any need; the areas shape the big international grants.
- Rotary Club of Broward's first-year work sits mostly in disease prevention, local economies and the environment.
- Polio eradication is Rotary's single largest effort and sits under fighting disease.
The seven, in plain terms
Each area has a formal name. Here is what they mean on the ground.
- Peace: training peacebuilders and funding conflict prevention, including the Rotary Peace Centers at universities.
- Disease: polio first, plus clinics, screenings, HIV and malaria programs.
- Water: wells, filtration, latrines and hygiene education where the taps do not work.
- Mothers and children: prenatal care, birth attendants, vaccines, nutrition.
- Education: literacy, teacher training and schools, with an emphasis on girls.
- Local economies: microloans, job training and cooperatives.
- Environment: cleanups, conservation and climate resilience, added in 2020.
How a club chooses
A club does not have to do all seven. Rotary Club of Broward chose its first-year lanes by looking at Broward County: a homelessness crisis, a coastline that fills with debris and families that depend on school food drives. Care kits for Broward Partnership and the Harvest Drive work fall under local economies and health. The beach cleanups are environment. World Polio Day is disease.
As the club grows, global grants become possible: the Foundation matches district money for projects abroad, which is how a Fort Lauderdale club ends up funding a water system in Haiti or a clinic in Guatemala.
Easier than reading about it: come to a meeting. Come as a guest
Come as a guestSources
- Rotary International: Our causes www.rotary.org/en/our-causes
- End Polio Now www.endpolio.org
- Broward Partnership www.bphi.org
- Harvest Drive harvestdrive.org