• is a service organisation of more than 1.2 million business and professional men and women belonging to 29,000 Rotary Clubs in 159 countries and 35 geographical regions, united worldwide who help those in need, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and work towards world understanding and peace.

• is compassion for the underprivileged, the ill and the disabled, who benefit from over 50,000 Rotary club service projects in the world each year, the largest and best known of which is probably Polio Plus, a campaign to rid the world of Polio.

• runs the biggest non-government scholarship scheme in the world.

• began in 1905 in Chicago.　　The world headquarters are in Evanston, Illinois, USA, and the Secretariat of Rotary in Great Britain and Ireland is at Kinwarton Road, Alcester, Warwickshire, B49 6BP.

THE ROTARY FOUNDATION gives more than £50 million each year to educational and humanitarian programmes which promote international understanding.