About “The Darlings”
The Rotary Club of Sydney Darling Harbour aka “The Darlings” is a small, but mighty club. We currently have 26 members and are quite informal compared to some other Rotary clubs. We are a fun, dynamic and inclusive club that does some amazing work in the community at a local, national and international level and are focused on giving a ‘hand up’ rather than a ‘hand out.’
In terms of our demographic, we have quite a range of ages, some ‘less experienced’ young professional members, as well as several ‘more experienced’ Rotarians who have a wealth of knowledge and are really great mentors to those who are new to Rotary.
Being a relatively small club, there are many leadership opportunities as we are a very active club. Some of the projects we have been involved with in the past 12 months include (but are not limited to): Boxing Day lunch for the homeless in Sydney at the The Station; a Sewing School for women in Nepal; scholarships for women at risk; building water wells and toilets in India; tree planting; clothes collection and fundraiser for Dress for Success; four separate BBQ fundraisers; sponsoring young people to attend the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards and much more.
We meet during the evenings, meeting in-person on the second Wednesday of each month, and meeting virtually on the fourth Wednesday of each month, beginning at 6PM and running for roughly an hour. Details for each meeting can be found on our website.
The Darlings celebrated our 20th anniversary, we have raised more than $300,000 for the projects we support since 2007 (unfortunately previous club records have been lost).
What is Rotary?
Rotary is a service organisation that is striving to make the world a better place. Rotary’s motto is “Service Above Self” and it has 1.2 million members, in 33,000 clubs, in over 200 countries worldwide. Rotary was founded in 1905 and works on local, national and international projects.
Rotary has six areas of focus: Peace and conflict prevention/resolution; Disease prevention and treatment; Water and sanitation; Maternal and child health; Basic education and literacy; and Economic and community development. Rotary’s own charity, The Rotary Foundation has spent over 3 billion USD in making the world better since it was founded in 1917, mainly in the six areas of focus.
The Darlings is a part of Rotary District 9675: https://rotarydistrict9675.org/
For further information on Rotary: www.rotary.org/
End Polio
Polio eradication is Rotary’s top philanthropic priority. It was Rotary who initiated the quest for ending polio around the world, we started in 1989 when there were 350,000 people annually contracting polio, and in 2018 there have been only 10 cases so far (as at 8 June 2018).
In 1988, when Rotary began working with its partners in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, there were more than 350,000 polio cases in over 125 countries. Since then, more than 2.5 billion children have been immunized against polio, and the incidence of polio has decreased 99.9 percent.
For further information on End Polio: https://www.endpolio.org/