A woman with a WaterSafe backpack carries water back to her home alongside a donkey outfitted with additional containers. By Connie Cheren, Rotary Club of Charlotte International, North Carolina, USA, and founder of Partners for Care When I first traveled to Kenya in 2007, I thought it would be a short trip, an opportunity to…
Safia Elaadmi, right, takes a selfie with a fellow member of Rotaract in Morocco. By Safia Elaadmi, Rotary Club of Agadir, Morocco My transition from Rotaract to Rotary was never really a transition. It was a continuation. Service for me didn’t start with a title. It started much earlier. When I was younger, I sometimes…
Haresh Ramchandani and his wife, Vandana. By Haresh L. Ramchandani, past district governor and member of the Rotary Club of L.I.F.E, Jamaica Prominently displayed on my office door is a small sign featuring The Four-Way Test. It recently caught the eye of a customer, sparking a 15-minute deep dive into morals and ethics. That conversation…
Rotary members in Japan tidy up a section of Lake Sanuma’s lakeshore, part of a multi-district project to clean beaches, rivers, and lakes. Inoue By Makoto Inoue, Rotary Club of Shimotsuma, Ibaraki, Japan I run a small bakery in Shimotsuma City, a rural town in Ibaraki Prefecture with a population of 40,000. I joined my…
Dody Priambodo, second from left, exploring the Whitsunday region of Queensland with other exchange students during his Rotary Youth Exchange to Australia in 1998. By Dody Priambodo, former Rotary Youth Exchange student and member of the Rotary E-Club of Jakarta Gunawarman Dody Priambodo In 1997, I arrived in Australia as a Rotary Youth Exchange student.…
Families in Arlington, Texas, USA, pack non-perishable meals for those facing hunger. By Derrick Kinney, Rotary Club of Arlington, Texas, USA I got a call in November that immediately got my attention. It was from our district community service chair, Victoria Farrar-Myers. She shared an idea, “What if our Rotary club partnered with a fifth-grader…
Leonardo Mangoldt, left, with a beneficiary of a club project to deliver wheelchairs to children. By Leonardo Gonzalo Mangoldt, 2025-26 governor of District 4851 (Argentina) At the beginning of my term as governor, I realized that the main challenge in my district was not simply increasing membership. The real challenge was restoring Rotary’s relevance in…
By Pablo Puga, Rotary Club of Tokyo Hiroo, Japan Pablo Puga I was born and raised in Mexico. Since childhood, I have admired Japan and dreamed of one day going there to study and work. I envisioned serving as a bridge between Japanese and Latin American cultures. After graduating from university, my desire to deepen…
Nandita Sisodia reached out to the Rotary Club of Chadigarh Midtown, India, to secure a hearing aid for a domestic worker with hearing loss. By Nandita Sisodia Recently, I met Parwati, a domestic worker in her 40s. People around her often thought she wasn’t paying attention or didn’t understand instructions. When I spoke to her,…
Club members lead a reading program for young children. By Priya Ahluwalia, Rotary Club of Southwest Florida, USA When I first joined Rotary, I kept pondering a simple question: How does Rotary fit into real life today? Not in theory — but in the lives of actual working parents, young professionals, entrepreneurs, creatives, and people…