Academy

Within the ebb and flow of human needs, Rotary vigorously continues to walk the Four Avenues of Service. Rather than drop anchor and declare, “We can stop here, we’ve done our part,” the organization has pressed ahead to serve others on a wide front.

This flexibility is a recurring feature in the contour of Rotary service. Indeed, Founder Paul Harris never envisioned Rotary as a static organization. “This is a changing world; we must be prepared to change with it,” he once observed. “The story of Rotary will have to be written again and again.”

Some of the most compelling chapters in this story tell of Rotary’s role in the quest for peace. They are a living expression of the fourth aspect of the Object of Rotary, which is “to encourage and foster the advancement of international understanding, goodwill, and peace.

During the Chaco War of 1932-35 between Bolivia and Paraguay, for example, Rotarians in Chile worked with those in the two rival countries to help secure an end to the hostilities.

In reality, Rotary is active in the cause for peace every day of the year. In 1986, The Rotary foundation sponsored three of the first people-to-people exchanges between Argentina and Great Britain in the aftermath of the South Atlantic Conflict.

When Rotarian-led volunteers in Togo, supported by Rotarians by Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany, built Wells in 1992 to provide clean drinking water, Rotary acted in the name of peace. When the first Group Study exchange change team from China visited the USA that same year and the two countries exchanged teams in 1993, Rotary acted again for peace.

“If I could place a Rotary club in every town in the world, I could underwrite the peace of the world.”
The words of Paul Harris? Or RI’s first General Secretary, Chesley Perry? No, they were spoken by Calvin Coolidge, president of the US during the 1920s.

Rotary service projects have borne out that hope of peace time and again.

“I believe in practical results,” said Venezuelan Rotarian Fouad Souki of Rotary’s efforts to help achieve peace. Speaking of his many positive experiences in Rotary service projects, he continued, “The most meaningful to me was the construction of a pediatric center, completed by my Rotary club. When I think of the stark contrast between the recent past — with its lack of resources for local children — and the excellent attention now being offered by a competent team of doctors there, I think of the hundreds of children who will avoid a disease and live a complete life thanks to this center. I cannot help but think that the basis of peace is in projects like this, sponsored and developed at the grassroots level by the Rotary clubs of the world.”

Such projects are achieved through a “can do” commitment to service. “Here is a shovel, there is the ground, I’ll go dig,” expresses not only the matter-of-fact commitment of the Rotarian about to plant a tree to improve the environment. It also reflects the mindset of all Rotarians who, when presented with a well-defined task — for their club, their community, or the people of another land step forward to serve.

Whether the effort is grassroots or global, Rotarians excel at bettering the lives of those around them. Peace, pax, paz, shalom, mir, frieden — by whatever word it is known, in any language — is the greatest benefit of all.

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