History of
Rotary
Rotary was founded in 1905 at Chicago, U.S.A. by lawyer Paul
Harris and three of his friends and today it is expanded in
165 countries counting more than 1.200.000 members, who belong
to 32.000 Rotary Clubs. Rotary was founded in Greece in 1928
and till today, the Greek District has more than 3.000 members.
Name - Emblem
The name Rotary was derived due to this event : The first meetings
of Rotarians have taken place in the working place of each member
in rotation. This function in english is described by the word
"Rotation" and thus, the name of the foundation "Rotary"
was invented. The emblem of Rotary is a cog wheel.
What is Rotary?
Rotary is a universal humanistic association of offering services.
Its members are professionals and businessmen who offer voluntarily
their time and services to help other fellow men in their communities
and all over the world. The biggest program of global scope
of Rotary is the program for elimination of polyomyelitis. It
initially started in 1979 at Philippines and today it has achieved
the elimination of the disease, in a percentage almost 99% according
to the statistics of the Universal Health Association. The contribution
of Rotary in the struggle for polyomyelitis elimination is to
the design of the program, to the volunteering help of almost
50.000 Rotarians and to its funding with almost half a billion
dollars.
The aim of Rotary
Rotary plans and materialises programs of offering services
in point of solution of youth's problems, fighting illiteracy,
professional orientation, famine relief, improvement of life
conditions, elimination of diseases, restitution from disasters,
protection of natural environment, nursing of suffering fellow
citizens, help for people with special needs, and many more.
At the same time Rotary is official advisor of U.N. in terms
of humanistic and educational issues. It collaborates with granted
international associations, as : UNICEF, UNESCO, Universal Organization
of Health, many Foundations and media.
Some words concerning Rotary Club of Iraklio
Rotary Club of Iraklio was founded in 1963 by selected members
of the business and scientific society of Iraklio. Today it
is consisted of 64 members and continues to develop humanistic
action according to the aims of Rotary International.
Weekly meetings of the Club are being help at Atlantis Hotel,
each Thursday in 21:30 am and are open to whoever is interested.
The programmatic statements, namely the programs
that are our aims during this rotarian year 2004 - 2005 are
:
- Purchase of a car for the municipality of Iraklio for the
program "Help at Home", after its approval by the
municipal council.
- Purchase of books for the creation of a lending library
to a remote elementary school of our prefecture.
- Purchase of two high-end PCs and proper medication for the
Medecins Sans Frontieres.
- Purchase of all needed material for the proper equipment
of a new peripheral infirmary to remote Arvi, the building
of which is almost completed.
- Tele-Marathon performance in collaboration with the Association
of Parents of 3rd Special School, as well as with the Centre
for Special Children "Zoodohos Pigi", targetting
to the staffing of Physical Therapy, Logotherapy and Ergotherapy
Laboratory and to the complete coverage of teaching halls.
- Construction of a playground in Nikos Kazantzakis Municipality
at Kounavoi in a building site that has been granted to us
by the municipality.
- Ceremony performance targetting to gathering of money for
the centre of rehabilitation of People with Special Needs,
that is completely constructed by the Rotary District of Athens.
(a grand and very expensive project).
- Afforestation at the Halepa Monastery in Rethymno together
with the respective association of Iraklio.
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