More than 23,000 viewers in 24 countries tuned in to Rotary's World Polio Day event, streamed live on 24 October. Health officials including James Alexander, senior medical epidemiologist for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, gave an update on the polio eradication campaign and praised Rotary's achievements to date. Rotary has contributed more than $1.2 billion to polio eradication since 1979. For World Polio Day, Rotary released $44.7 million in grants to fight the disease in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. In addition to the update, the event included entertainment by...

Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teenager shot in the head for speaking out against the Taliban in support of girls' education, has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2014. Yousafzai, whose father is a Rotarian, shares the prize with Kailash Satyarthi, a native of India who has worked to combat the exploitation of children for financial gain, according to an announcement in October from the Norwegian Nobel Committee. In announcing the award, the committee praised Yousafzai for demonstrating that "children and young people, too, can contribute to improving their own situations." It noted...

Business owners and community leaders in Evanston, Illinois, USA, joined Rotary staff and family members in a celebration of the organization's cultural diversity at an open-house Rotary Day event at Rotary's world headquarters on 25 October. Rotary President Gary C.K. Huang is urging clubs and districts to hold these informal events to showcase Rotary's good work. The open house was held immediately after Evanston's Day of Caring, during which volunteers planted trees, fixed up buildings, performed yard work, painted, and participated in other community projects throughout the city. Visit...

Seeing an elderly Tibetan woman weep with joy when cataract surgery restored her vision after 10 years is the kind of moment Dave Razo will never tire of. For several summers Razo, a member of the Rotary Club of Warner Robins, Georgia, USA, traveled to rural northwest China with a team from Georgia-based nonprofit Gansu Inc., to provide free sight-restoring cataract surgery to some of the country's poorest residents. In 2012, after 22 years and 6,000 successful procedures, Gansu's founder, ophthalmologist William Conrad, retired and discontinued the organization's operations. But Razo didn't...

Rotary continues to closely monitor the latest developments surrounding the Ebola outbreak, and work with the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and other partners to respond to both polio and Ebola. Fighting disease is a priority of our members, who have organized countless projects around the world aimed at educating and mobilizing communities to prevent the spread of major diseases such as polio, HIV/AIDS, and malaria. While our response to Ebola continues to evolve, much has already been accomplished: • Through our investments in the...