January is Rotary Awareness Month. Awareness is an important part of the Rotary work that can be divided into two parts.

It is imperative that members are well aware of Rotary’s goals – that Rotary is an organization that works for peace and better understanding between people. It is also important to know our annual emphases.

We must also be aware of Rotary’s extensive youth programs. Interact is for young people ages 14-18 and Rotaract is for young adults ages 18-30. We have a very popular youth exchange program for high school students and several programs offering university scholarships. Rotarians can also offer a Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) program and a Group Study Exchange for young people.

In our work, it is important that we all know that there are 1.2 million Rotarians in over 200 countries and geographical areas. We have a head office in Evanston, Ill., USA, and seven other regional offices for Brazil, Europe and Africa, Japan, Korea, South Asia, Southern South America, and the South Pacific and the Philippines – all there to serve Rotarians. Rotary International is led by the 17 members of the Rotary International Board of Directors and chaired by the RI president.

Rotary International’s finances are totally separate from those of The Rotary Foundation (TRF) – through which most of our project money is channelled. The Foundation has its own board of trustees and its own chairman.

The other part of Rotary awareness is the sharing of information outside of our organization. Rotary is a group of leaders with a superb network. It is time for us to let the world know about all the good things that we have accomplished over so many years. Rotarians have the opportunity to – and must – create awareness among the public sector as well as the private sector regarding world problems and how they can be solved through cooperation and continuity. We must help in creating awareness in society of the United Nations’ Millennium Development goals and targets related to education and drinking water and sanitation:

• To ensure that by 2015 children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary education

• To eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005 and at all levels by 2015

• To reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to drinking water by 2015

• To reduce by half the proportion of people without access to adequate sanitation by 2015

Through Service Above Self we can all create awareness both internally and externally, thus showing the world the great leadership of Rotary International.