The recent Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the worst ever, has claimed several thousand lives and generated worldwide concern. But its impact pales in comparison to that of AIDS, which, despite advances in treatment, still kills more than a million people a year, the majority of them in Africa. "Even with the Ebola outbreak at its worst expected levels, it's never going to reach what we've seen with the HIV/AIDS epidemic," said Dr. Timothy B. Erickson, director of the Center for Global Health at the University of Illinois at Chicago, speaking at Rotary's World AIDS Day event in Evanston on 1...

After decades dreaming about the Himalayas, Rotary member George Basch went on his first trek through the mountains in 2001, when he was 64. A member of the Rotary Club of Taos-Melagro in New Mexico, USA, Basch found that the experience was even more than he had hoped. "My expectations were high, and dramatically exceeded," he remembers. But a less-than-pleasant aspect of the experience was the indoor smoke pollution he encountered in the guest houses and private homes he visited. Many families in the Himalayas use rudimentary cookstoves or, in some cases, an open fire pit inside the home to...

For six staff members from Rotary headquarters in Evanston, the fight to eradicate polio has become personal. Together, they biked the physically grueling 104-mile (167-kilometer) Tour de Tucson in Arizona, USA, collectively raising more than $20,000 for polio eradication while putting their bodies and minds through a feat of endurance. For the tightknit group, the experience was about more than just raising money and crossing the finish line. It was about learning about each other and what Rotary members are doing to rid the world of this crippling disease. They advocated together, trained...

Two years ago, U.S. Rotary members in Maine set out to improve the education system in Bikaner, Rajasthan, an Indian city near the border of Pakistan. The Rotary Club of Kennebunk Portside chose Bikaner because club member Rohit Mehta was originally from the area and had connections there. Mehta put the club in contact with Rotarians in India to provide desks for four government-run schools. But when community leaders returned with a request for more desks, the Maine Rotarians decided they had to think bigger. The Rotary Foundation had rolled out its new grant model, which required that the...

Before college, business school, or their first jobs, more than 2,000 U.S. high school students are learning what it takes to become tomorrow's brightest business leaders. Each year, nearly 25 Rotary clubs and districts conduct three-day educational retreats in a program known as Camp Enterprise. At each retreat, seasoned business professionals and entrepreneurs teach 100 or so area high school juniors how to develop, launch, and operate a successful business in a free enterprise economic system. The intensive weekend camps, funded entirely by the clubs and offered at no cost to participants...