The OBJECTIVE OF ROTARY is to encourage and foster the ideal of service as a basis of worthy enterprise and, in particular, to encourage and foster:
First
The development of acquaintance as an opportunity for service;
Second
High ethical standards in business and professions; the recognition of the worthiness of all useful occupations; and the dignifying by each Rotarian of his occupation as an opportunity to serve society;
Third
The application of the ideal of service by every Rotarian to his personal, business and community life;
Fourth
The advancement of international understanding, goodwill, and peace through a world fellowship of business and professional persons united in the ideal of service.
Rotary objectives are accomplished through programs involving community service, youth exchanges, environmental projects, youth leadership conferences, recreational and vocational fellowships and many others.
One of the most important organizations of Rotary International is the ROTARY FOUNDATION, an endowment fund established for the purpose of doing good in the world through charitable, educational and other avenues of community progress.
Over 760 million dollars has been contributed to the Foundation, including approximately 241 million dollars for the Polio Plus program, used to purchase polio vaccine and mobilize volunteers worldwide to perform immunization campaigns. The objectives is to eradicate polio worldwide by the year 2000. In 1993, 141 countries reported no new cases of polio.
Other Foundation programs include the Ambassadorial Scholarship Program (the world’s largest and most international privately-sponsored program), Health, Hunger and Humanity Program, Rotary Peace Programs, and many others.