The Rotary Club with its present name “Rotary International” is an international service organization. It was first advocated and founded by the American lawyer Paul Harris (1868-1947) in Chicago, Feb. 1905. Initially, “One member from one walk of life” was the principle of the enrollment. As time goes by more and more people were drawn in. The name came from the fact that the members took turns to hold the assembly at their work place. In 1910, the International Rotary Association was founded, then The International Rotary United in 1912, its name changed into The Rotary International in 1922. The organization proclaims its tenant to be:
Promote the international understanding, kindness and peace with the strong will of service.
In August 1979, there were more than 170,000 Rotary divisions in 152 countries and regions with the total members of 810,000. It is an organization of education, science, culture. It is also the social and economic member of the United Nations. The Rotary tenet aims at encouraging and developing the service spirit which is fundamental in every career, therefore it puts strong emphasis on encouragement and nurturing. Its goal is contributing to the society more by enlarging the scope of communication. High standards of morality is advocated in every field. Every member of the organization should improve his working dignity and learn all the socially beneficial values so as to serve the society better. Every member should be able to apply the “Serving Spirit” in personal life as well as in other social activities. The club also aims at developing friendships among those who share the same serving spirit to enhance the international understanding, kindness and peace.
The concept of the Rotary Club was brought in Hong Kong in the 1990’s. Many divisions were then set up. Over the decades, in additions to taking part in the local activities, the Rotary club of Kowloon North and the Macao Rotary have been active in international aid and helping the poor regions in Chinese mainland, especially the education courses in undeveloped minority regions of the mainland.
Since 1999, the two clubs have made efforts to raise the fund for 8 schools in Du’An county which include Du’An ethnic experimental middle school, Nongyan primary school, Yongyan, Banlie, Yanma, Jianqiao, Longzhong, Hualai primary schools. Rotary Club with its kindness has turned a new leaf of the basic education of Du’An. Meanwhile, it has also brought the good chance of development for Du’An Ethnic Experimental Middle School.
The Rotary club of Kowloon North and the Macao Rotary international began their good deeds in 1999. In October, 1999, Choi Sai-Hong, the president of the club in Macao presented the project completion ceremony of Xing Li primary school in Sannong, the school was supported by the Songshan Rotary Club in Macao. After that, he visited other schools to get a general idea of the county’s education. He revisited Du’An shortly after his return to Macao together with the Rotary club of Kowloon North. They went from village to village non-stop to investigate. Knowing that many schools were still having their lessons in dilapidated buildings, they felt great pity. The presidents of the two clubs donated 1,450,356 RMB for rebuilding the 7 schools in Du’An. They are Nongyan, Yongping, Longzhong, Banlle, Yanma, Jianqiao, Hualai primary schools, among which 5 of the schools lie in the mountainous areas. The 7 rebuilt schools, in addition to the concrete teaching building for 6 classes, are equipped with teacher’s dormitory, student’s dining hall, playground, fence, reservoirs, school gates, toilets, study desks, double-deck beds as well as mosquito nets, making them the best primary schools in the county. The construction work meets the requirements of the nation.
Du’An Ethnic Experimental Middle School was set up in 1990 and afterwards developed into the key middle school of the county. Due to the financial shortage of the county, the study conditions of the school was rather poor. Having seen the difficulty of the school, the Rotary club of Kowloon North and the Rotary Club of Macau went to Du’An three times to investigate and decided to donate money for building some hardware projects, which were carried out over 2 periods.
In the first period capital was 1.5 million RMB. The construction projects include the 2350-square metre students dormitory, the rebuilding and decoration of the synthetical teaching building (more than 3900 squares), a playground.
The second period would spend 2.94 million RMB to make sure that the school would be able to build up a 3936 square meter lab building. Meanwhile, more decoration was done to the south teaching building. More than 680 square meters were added to the former teaching buildings.
Thus the whole school took on a new look.
The 2 clubs not only help to build the hardware for the Du’An Ethnic Experimental Middle School and the other 7 primary schools, they also equipped the classrooms with multi-media. Sanlian and Fumin primary schools received plenty sets of the student’s desks and chairs. The students in the county received the regular body health check because of their help. The clubs built a clinic for the county kindergarten, set up the scholarship for all students and organized the exchange between the student in Du’An and in Hong Kong and Macao. With the improvement of the study conditions, the teaching is more efficient and effective, the students receive higher quality education. Every year the students graduate with high scores.
