Opportunity Cambodia: Giving the Gift of Education
actively contribute to the healthy growth of their community and country.What is Rotary International?
Rotary International is the world’s oldest and largest service club organisation. It was founded on 23 February 1905 in Chicago, Illinois, by Paul P. Harris, a young attorney who had grown up in the small towns of rural America and found the anonymity of the modern industrial city at odds with his deeply held belief in the power of human fellowship.
Harris gathered three colleagues — Gustavus Loehr, Silvester Schiele, and Hiram Shorey — to create a new kind of organisation: a club of professionals from diverse fields who would meet regularly, share fellowship, and use their collective talents and resources in service to their community.
They called it the Rotary Club of Chicago, and named it for the early practice of rotating meeting venues among the offices of members.
Rotary Today
The scale of Rotary International in 2026 is significant.
The organisation operates more than 45,000 clubs in over 200 countries and territories, encompassing approximately 1.2 million individual members known as Rotarians. When the broader Rotary family — including Rotaract clubs for young adults and Interact clubs for school-age youth — is included, the total community of active volunteers approaches 1.9 million people.
Rotary is, by membership and geographic reach, the largest service organisation on earth.
Sydney Rotary
Today, the Rotary Club of Sydney is one of the most historic and consequential clubs in the Australasian region. Established on 1 May 1921, making it one of the two oldest Rotary Clubs in 
Australia and among the very earliest in the entire Southern Hemisphere.
The Rotary Club of Sydney is not merely a local community organisation. It is a node in a international network of civic leadership, humanitarian action, and ethical fellowship that spans more than 200 countries and engages 1.2 million individuals.
Throughout the years Sydney Rotary has actively supported Rotary Youth Exchange, Model United Nations Assembly, in 1927 the Club’s advocacy contributed to the formulation of apprenticeship legislation that became a model for other Australian states, programs like Your Country & Your City and, more recently, the Rural Community Support Programme that confirm's our Club’s commitment beyond the metropolitan boundaries of Sydney.
Are you in your 30s or 40s and looking for a chance to make a difference? This is your opportunity to contribute to a cutting-edge project that tackles one of the world’s most pressing challenges. If you have ideas, expertise, or simply a passion for sustainability, we’d love to hear from you.