Attendance

Calendar

Club Directory

District Officers

Governor's Newsletter

Meetings

Rotary Foundation

Youth Exchange

Home

College
 Scholarships

Club
Presidents

Club 
Secretaries

District
Directory

Download
Center

Rotary
Foundation

Group
Study
Exchange

Guest
Book

Interact

Inter
City

Links

Membership
Development

Paul Harris

Presidential Citation

Speakers
Bureau

Rotary
Volunteers
 

Water

Consider this terrible fact: Today — or on any given day — half of the people in developing countries are sick because they drank contaminated water. Eighty percent of all of the diseases in the developing world are caused by contaminated water. And as it is with most diseases, children are the most vulnerable. Every eight seconds a child somewhere in our world dies from a water-related disease. 

Every human being needs safe, clean water to drink in order to survive. But water is also needed for so much more: maintaining hygienic conditions, irrigating crops, keeping livestock. Water is essential to life — which leads to yet another reason for Rotarians to concentrate on improving and managing water resources. According to Elizabeth Dowdeswell, the United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director at UNEP, disputes over water will very likely be the cause of future armed conflicts between nations.

Literacy and Education

A billion of the world’s people, 26% of its adults, cannot read, write, or do simple mathematics.  They enter the 21^st century without even the basic ability to sign their names.  One in four adults in the United States have not completed a high school education.  Regardless of the community there are many opportunities to support literacy projects.  Providing girls and women with literacy skills can have far reaching positive effects.  A mother who can read will teach her children to read, helping to break the cycle of illiteracy.  In all communities, regardless of overall literacy rates, schools and children need support.  We can nurture literacy by tutoring children, providing books to those who have none, assisting teachers, or supporting mobile libraries into needy area’s

Health Concerns

One billion people have no access to heath care.  The World Health Organization estimates that two thirds of the children who die each year in developing countries could be saved through simple and inexpensive technologies.  Some 600,000 women die each year from courses related to pregnancy.  Infant mortality in some countries exceeds 10 percent.  The need for access to family planning and prenatal and postnatal care is not limited to developing countries.  There are many ways Rotary Clubs can help: by supplying hospitals with life saving equipment, by assisting those in remote areas with transportation to hospitals, or by sending doctors and dentist into remote areas.