Helping poor children in Mexico
Offering international volunteer opportunities
Fostering fellowship among Rotarians
World Community Service Projects
What is World Community Service? | Donations-in-kind | Rotary International Volunteers | Rotary International Matching Grants | Links to Other Web Pages of Interest
What is World Community Service?
World Community Service (WCS) is the title Rotary International gives to projects in which Rotarians or Rotary Clubs in one country undertake a project in cooperation with a Rotary Club or Rotary District in another country. The program links Rotary Clubs needing extra help with Clubs willing to provide funds, materials, and technical and professional assistance.
WCS Projects can include donations-in-kind, matching grants, volunteers or all three. They can be formal, Club-to-Club projects involving Rotary International, or informal efforts between Rotarians in different countries who are also friends. Rotaract Clubs and Interact Clubs can also carry out WCS Projects. For more information, see the links to the Rotary International website below.
Donations-in-kind
If you or your Rotary Club would like to make a donation-in-kind to PRA, please see our Wish List, look in Rotary's Donations-in-kind Bulletin which is distributed quarterly to all district WCS chairs and district governors, or consult the Rotary International Project Exchange Listing.
Rotary International Matching Grants
Matching Grants assist Rotary clubs and districts to carry out WCS Projects in cooperation with Rotarians in another country. The Rotary Foundation provides matching funds to clubs and/or districts for relatively small, one-time-only humanitarian service projects. The project must involve active, personal Rotarian participation. The Foundation provides up to a one-to-one match of club and district funds with a maximum grant of $50,000 US.
Rotary International Volunteers
The Rotary Volunteer program links projects needing volunteer assistance, such as Project Amigo, with Rotarians who wish to volunteer. If you or a team from your Club would like to volunteer with Project Amigo, please see our Volunteer Opportunities page or consult Rotary Volunteers International Site List (280-EN) which can be ordered from Rotary International or accessed on-line. Project Amigo is a registered Rotary Volunteer Site.
Donation-in-kind. The AmigoBus was donated by the Rotary Club of Painesville, Ohio, he School District of Mentor, Ohio, and the Brown-Rubin Family. It was driven to Mexico by Tom Brown and Francy Rubin.
Matching Grant. Project Amigo Founder and Executive Director, Ted Rose, manages the Rotary International matching grant program, which provided these computers for a school for handicapped children. The money for the project was donated by the Sunrise Rotary Club of Arcata, California.
Volunteers. Optometrist Kurt Wilkening trained and led a team of Bear Creek Valley, Oregon, Rotarians who ran a vision clinic which dispensed over 900 pairs of eye glasses to poor people.
Interact clubs. A group of Rotaract and Interact youth from Eugene, Oregon, taught toothbrushing and dental hygiene to children in rural schools.
Non Matching Grant Projects.The Community Center at Colonia Rotaria was paid for with funds raised by Pete and Ginny Hughes of the Rotary Club of Redwood City, California. Such new construction is not eligible for Rotary International matching grants.
Donate to a Project Amigo World Community Service Project by using your credit card on-line:
A World community Service project is born when a Rotary Club in one country reaches out to a Rotary Club in another country and they undertake an activity to help those in need. Each project assists one community, but the benefits of WCS touch everyone, recipient as well as benefactor.
WCS Projects meet these criteria:
1. the project is humanitarian in nature;
2. Rotarians in two or more countries are involved;
3. One of the countries contains the site of the project.
Rotary International
The most important point to remember about Matching Grants is that they are a tool for Rotarians to use to complete humanitariam service projects. Each project represents a partnership between Rotarians in different countries -- a partnership with the ideal of service as the goal.
Rotary International