By Rotary Voices staff

There’s still time to make your year-end gift to The Rotary Foundation. Here are a few ways that your support is helping to change lives all over the world:

Growing local economies: In the Esmeraldas Province of Ecuador, Rotary members have teamed up with a microfinance organization to provide small loans to poor women, teaching them to sew and bake so they can start or expand businesses. Global grant funds provide seed money for microloans and buy sewing and baking equipment for a training center where the women learn vocational skills and basic business management. Learn more about the project.

Educating children: In partnership with Head Start in Puerto Rico, a Rotary sponsored project is stimulating young children’s minds by using a tactile method for learning the sounds of letters. Using play, the Souns program motivates young children to become early readers and writers. Designed specifically for children from birth to five years — the time when research tells us that learning language and literacy skills is most effective — the project has reached 50,000 children. Grants from The Rotary Foundation purchase materials, and Rotary volunteers train local residents, who then train the teachers at the project sites. Help fund Rotary’s education efforts.

Fighting disease: Rotary members in California, USA, and Sinkor, Monrovia, Liberia, are using Foundation grant money to train health care workers in techniques to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV and to improve their ability to diagnose and treat infected women. The success of the project is measured in lives saved. Read more about the vocational training team’s efforts.

Promoting peace: Rotary’s most significant effort to promote peace is the Rotary Peace Centers program, established in 2002. Each year, the program trains some of the world’s most dedicated and brightest professionals, preparing them to promote national and international cooperation and to resolve conflict. They include graduates of a two-year master’s degree program and a three-month professional certificate program at Rotary’s partner universities. Watch a video highlighting Rotary Peace Fellows at work.

Ending polio: Thanks to you, we are closer than ever to ending polio. We have reduced cases by 99.9 percent since 1988, and with our partners, have immunized more than 2.5 billion children worldwide. To end polio for good, we need to reach every last child in Afghanistan and Pakistan, stop the newly detected outbreak in Nigeria, and protect the progress made in polio-free parts of the world. Eradicating polio is an achievable goal that will be known as one of the greatest achievements in history. And thanks to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which is matching every dollar two to one, your donation works even harder. Learn more about our work to end polio.

See how we are impacting lives around the world in this short video. Give to the Foundation