Rotary in Tenerife

Rotary is an organisation of business and professional people, leaders in their respective communities, who form a global alliance to provide humanitarian service, promote high ethical standards in the workplace and help build goodwill and peace in the world. Rotary's official motto worldwide is "Service Above Self" and its emblem is a gear wheel with 6 spokes and 24 cogs.

Rotary is an association of service clubs, non-denominational and non-political, founded in 1905 in Chicago, the oldest of its kind in the world. It was the idea of its founder Paul Harris, who proposed to other businessmen that they meet for meals to use their time organising for the benefit of their community. Meetings began to be held on a rotating basis in each member's office, hence its name.

Rotarians meet regularly at their club to enjoy fellowship and to plan humanitarian, educational and cultural exchange programmes. Rotarians must apply the so-called Four-Way Test in all their actions: Is it the truth? Is it fair to all concerned? Will it build goodwill and better friendships? Will it be beneficial to all concerned?

Rotary promotes the international exchange of more than 30,000 high school students annually (Spanish exchange students typically go to the USA and Canada).

Rotary International's flagship is the PolioPlus Project, which aims to rid the world of polio. More than two and a half billion children in developing countries have been vaccinated since 1988 thanks to its grants and the voluntary work of thousands of Rotarians. In recent years, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has also collaborated to eliminate this scourge; only two Asian countries remain polio-endemic: Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Read more at: Polio eradication (Wikipedia)

Today, internationally, in addition to the major effort to eradicate polio, Rotary Foundation support focuses on peace and conflict resolution - with the Rotary Peace Centres programme established in 2002 - education, disease prevention in needy communities and the fight against hunger.

Rotary has a world President who changes every year - as does its Board - is established worldwide and is structured in over 500 Districts across more than 200 countries and regions (Spain has three), and these in turn in clubs. Worldwide there are over 1.2 million Rotarians in some 35,000 clubs. The head of a district is its Governor, elected each year, as are the presidents of every Rotary Club worldwide. The Rotary year runs from 1 July to 30 June. The current Governor of Rotary District 2201 - covering the Canary Islands, Madrid, Extremadura, the two Castiles, Galicia and Asturias - is Manuel Florián de Tomás Martí from Tenerife, a member of the R.C. Puerto de la Cruz.

Rotary International came to Spain in 1920; the Rotary Club of Madrid was the first Rotary club on continental Europe. It had to disband in 1936 with the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, when it had 131 members. In 1978, after the restoration of democracy, Rotary International returned to Spain.

The first Rotary club in Tenerife was the R.C. Santa Cruz de Tenerife, formed in 1934. It was forced to disband in 1936 and reappeared in 1978 like other clubs in Spain. There are now 5 Rotary clubs on the Island: R.C. Santa Cruz de Tenerife, R.C. Puerto de la Cruz (founded 1979), R.C. Tenerife Sur-Playa Las Américas (1983), R.C. La Laguna (1992) and R.C. Tenerife-Ramblas (2009), the youngest on the Island, also based in Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

Throughout their history, the Rotary clubs of Tenerife have collaborated - both financially and with other services - with many entities on the Island working in multiple areas: helping the neediest; supporting people with disabilities (young and adult); preventing and fighting various diseases (especially cancer); fighting drug addiction; supporting education with university scholarships and providing books and school materials, as well as funding school meals when grants are delayed; caring for children from vulnerable families; etc. They also respond to individual requests for help from individuals and organisations with an agility that public administrations cannot match.

Many young people from Tenerife (aged 15 and a half to 18) have been able to study in the USA and Canada for a full school year thanks to the efforts of Tenerife Rotarians in the youth exchange programme, while the Island has also welcomed students from around the world (mainly the USA and Canada) each year.

The Rotary clubs of Tenerife have also shown international solidarity on many occasions, participating in international aid channelled through the Rotary Foundation to fund projects in countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Honduras, Peru, Mexico, Chile, India, Mauritania and Venezuela, as well as areas affected by natural disasters.

Among this international aid, the Rotary project of the Tenerife clubs to provide medical help to Sahrawi children in the refugee camps south of Tindouf is particularly noteworthy.

In February 1997 a group led by three Rotarian doctors began visiting the Sahrawi refugee camps in Tindouf. The aim was to carry out medical check-ups in schools to select patients for treatment on site and to bring others to Tenerife for surgery. On each trip they took as much medicine as they could carry.

In March 1997 a vehicle was donated to the Sahrawi representatives in Tenerife for use on the island to transport children coming for medical care.

In October 1998 a powdered milk collection campaign was held; 10 tonnes were collected and sent in a container to the refugees in Tindouf.

Also in 1998, the R.C. Tenerife Sur applied for a grant from the President of Rotary International to purchase a long-wheelbase Toyota Land Cruiser. The R.C. Tenerife Sur then bought a second-hand ambulance, removed its medical equipment and fitted it into the new vehicle. The medicalised vehicle reached the Sahrawi people full of medicine and spare parts on 12 January 2001, delivered by a Red Moon expedition.

The medical aid project was suspended in 2005 when the safety of the volunteers was at risk due to the need to stay in Algiers during the journey. By then over 13,000 Sahrawi children had been medically examined and over 100 had been brought to Tenerife for various surgeries.

Between one and three visits were usually made to the refugee camps each year, with 15 to 18 medical professionals volunteering their time for the Sahrawi children. In 2004, in addition to caring for the children, women were also seen.

Initially three Rotary clubs collaborated in this Sahara aid project; from 2004 all the Island's clubs took part. In 2004 a container was also sent with special beds for hospitals, computers and other essential items for the Sahrawi population.

To fund their projects, the Rotary clubs on the Island organise all kinds of fundraising events: golf tournaments, charity dinners or balls, beer or carnival parties, musical galas (two at the Tenerife Auditorium with Los Sabandeños, the last in 2010 after the Haiti earthquake), raffles, lotteries, stalls, etc.