Courtesy of Rotary International Winner’s bakery project is supported by the Rotary Club of Madras East, the corporation of Chennai, and the Chennai Culinary Institute. The initiative supports underprivileged youth between the ages of 18-25. The project also provides training for bakers in India, which are very hard to come by. To read more about the Winner’s bakery project and the Rotary Club of Madras East, please visit: Winner’s Bakery

Students in outlying areas of Istanbul, Turkey participate in a mobile classroom activity provided by the Rotary Club of Istanbul. The club regularly brings literacy instruction and computer training to needy communities. FireFly brings creativity workshops and computer labs to 24 children. The program allows children to work together, build positive new skills, and provide access to tutoring in various school subjects.

Courtesy of Rotary International Students attend class at a baking school near the Padre Fransisco Da Motta school in Brazil. The baking school is funded by a Rotary Foundation Matching Grant. The bread will later be taken to a local community.

Photo courtesy of Rotary International A ten-year-old from Eugene, Oregon recently took polio eradication into his own hands by raising $1,640 for Rotary’s US$200 Million Challenge. The Rotary International challenge is an effort to eradicate polio in four countries where the polio-virus is endemic: India, Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan. Ian Schwartz is a fourth grader at St. Paul Parish School. Instead of receiving gifts for his birthday, he asked his friends to donate money for the charity. Ian was inspired to raise money for the charity after he saw an illustrated history of polio in...

Bangladesh women line up for fresh water on this year’s World Water Day (March 20, 2009). AP Photo/Pavel Rahman

Australian Rotarians journey 11,200 miles (18,000 kilometers) around Australia to raise awareness of Rotary, Australian Rotary Health and the need for mental illness research funds.  The seven-month ride is the longest organized bike ride in Australia’s history. The Great Australian Bike Ride is sponsored by Australian Rotary Health, which raises money and provides grants to medical and mental health research projects. Over 100 participants, who will ride one or more of the nine stages of the course, departed from Melbourne on March 21 and will ride counterclockwise, stopping in the capital...

Dolly Parton’s Dollywood Foundation is teaming up with Rotary International to promote early childhood reading.  The Dollywood Foundation’s Imagination Library program provides children with an age-appropriate book every month until the child is five.  Rotary clubs in the United States, Canada, and the U.K. are being encourage to support the program. “I am thrilled about our partnership with Rotary International,” says Parton, who developed a personal love of books growing up in rural Tennessee, where she saw firsthand the toll illiteracy can take on families. “Rotarians love...

Women and children wait outside the unicef supported emergency SAGA feeding center where local Rotary clubs are donating rice coordinated by Laurence Kouassi, a Cote d’Ivoire Rotarian. Credit: © Rotary International

Together with SHARE, Rotarians, and village volunteers work together to build a retaining wall that keep the wells from going dry. so they yeild all year. The Rotary club of Bombay Metro and Rotary Club of Palo Alto, California, USA, used an RI Matching Grant to help facilitate the project. Rotary Images/Alyce Henson

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has awarded a $255 million challenge grant to Rotary International in the global effort to eradicate polio, bringing the total committed by Rotary and the Gates Foundation to $555 million. The donation will go toward the four countries where the polio-virus is endemic: India, Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan. “Rotarians, government leaders, and health professionals have made a phenomenal commitment to get us to a point at which polio afflicts only a small number of the world’s children,” Gates said. “However, complete elimination of the poliovirus...