Stories

Ed Futa, past General Secretary and Chief Operating Officer of Rotary International and The Rotary Foundation, managed operations for one of the world’s largest global humanitarian service organization with 40,000 clubs in 200 countries and geographic regions. With annual revenues of US$ 240 million and expenses of US$210 million, Rotary and its Foundation support 1.2 volunteers in their efforts to serve their local and global communities.

Rotary members are professional and community leaders who provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards, and help build goodwill and peace in the world.  Rotary clubs initiate service projects to address today’s challenges, including illiteracy, disease, hunger, poverty, lack of clean water, and environmental concerns. Rotary’s top priority is the global eradication of polio - a crippling and potentially fatal disease that still threatens children in parts of Africa and Asia. Since 1988, when Rotary and its partners at the World Health Organization, UNICEF, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention launched the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, the incidence of paralytic polio infection has plunged worldwide from 350,000 cases to fewer than 2,000 in 2008.  Rotary club members worldwide have contributed more than $800 million and countless volunteer hours to the effort, and Rotary is now working to

Julio Grazioso has been a Rotarian of the Rotary Club of Guatemala Vista Hermosa since 2006, where he has served in various positions. District Governor of RI District 4250 in 2017-18.

Julio has participated in the committees Ripple Effect, Bridges to Prosperity, and coordinated Shelter Box in Guatemala. He’s also advisor of the Literacy Program for Guatemala (GLP). Has participated in more than 40 Global Grants. Member of the Wash in Schools committee of the Rotary Foundation from 2016 to 2020. Appointed ambassador of peace by the government of Guatemala, and Civil Engineer and co-founder of Engineers Without Borders in Guatemala.

Julio worked for the catering family business for 37 years and is retired now. 

He defines himself as a Rotarian, pilgrim, and mountaineer.

In early 1919, Rotarian Roger Pinneo of Seattle, Washington, USA, traveled to the Philippines to try to organize a Rotary club in Manila. Leon J. Lambert, a Manila business leader helped Pinneo establish the club. Several months later, on 1 June 1919, the Rotary Club of Manila was chartered and became the first Rotary club in Asia.

The club would be the only one in the country for more than 12 years. Eventually, Manila club members organized Rotary clubs in the Philippine cities of Cebu (1932) and Iloilo (1933). Iloilo club members then started a club in Bacolod (1937), and Rotary continued to expand across the country.

Every hero has an origin story. “I was 10 years old when the entire journey started,” explains Binish Desai. It began with a cartoon called Captain Planet, an animated TV series from the 1990s about an environmentalist with superpowers. Desai can still recite the show’s refrain: Captain Planet, he’s our hero / Gonna take pollution down to zero! “That tagline stuck in my mind,” he says. “I wanted to do something to help Captain Planet.”

Rotary and the United Nations have a shared history of working toward peace and addressing humanitarian issues around the world.

During World War II, Rotary informed and educated members about the formation of the United Nations and the importance of planning for peace. Materials such as the booklet “From Here On!” and articles in The Rotarian helped members understand the UN before it was formally established and follow its work after its charter. 

Many countries were fighting the war when the term “United Nations” was first used officially in the 1942 “Declaration by United Nations.” The 26 nations that signed it pledged to uphold the ideals expressed by the United States and the United Kingdom the previous year of the common principles “on which they based their hopes for a better future for the world.” 

An estimated 500 million people worldwide became infected. Many cities closed theaters and cinemas, and placed restrictions on public gatherings. Rotary clubs adjusted their activities while also helping the sick.

This is how Rotary responded to the influenza pandemic that began in 1918 and came in three waves, lasting more than a year.

The Rotary Club of Berkeley, California, USA, meets in John Hinkel Park during the 1918 flu pandemic.

Photo by Edwin J. McCullagh, 1931-32 club president. Courtesy of the Rotary Club of Berkeley.