Rotary Club "Moscow" - Russia
Our Club, as any Rotary Club in the World, is an organization of professional persons feeling to be a part of the local community as well as of the worldwide community: we encourage high ethical standards in all vocations and try our best to help building goodwill and peace in our community and in the world, composed of persons accepting the Ideal of Community Service as a basis for attaining fulfillment of personal and professional lives.
Rotary entered the former U.S.S.R. for the first time with the Charter of the Rotary Club "Moscow", on June 5, 1990, ten years ago. Among 25 charter members of the Rotary Club of Moscow there were a writers, a film producer, a statesman, a lawyer, two physicians, an architect, State Officials, businessmen and politicians. A very significant part in the Club formation belongs to the Mayor of Moscow, now a Club Honorary member, Yuri Luzhkov.
Our Club since the very beginning of its activity has received very important support from an American Club belonging to this District, i.e. Summit Rotary of Greensboro, North Carolina.
These Summit friends have been very close to us; they have supported our charity activity and visited us, even during a period of Marshall law in 1993. We take his occasion in order to thank them for a warm and friendly attitude towards us and our Club.
In order to give members a broader appreciation of current events, important developments in social, economic, political, and scientific fields, and also to make our meetings more and more interesting, thus allowing a larger amount of people to know more about Rotary, we use to invite as guest-speakers outstanding personalities in various fields, featuring interesting talks on a wide range of issues compatible with Rotary objects.
During the last three years we had the honor to host at our meetings many outstanding personalities; some ones among those of the last three years are enlisted in enclosure. Representatives of different international companies and organizations, politicians and diplomats, scientists and clergy have been frequent guests of our Club
We try our best to draw numerous other Clubs to fulfillment of humanitarian and charity programs in our city and all over Russia.
For years the club has been supporting the old peoples home of veterans of stage named after Yablochkova and several orphanages and schools. The Club patronized the Loktev`s Children Choir and Dancing ensemble. Within the Polio Plus program the Moscow Club helped the main Laboratory of Moscow University to update equipment for monitoring cases of wild polio virus. For three years we have been supporting a family of 12 children in Mitino, in the western suburbs of Moscow.
During the 1999- 2000 period the "Moscow" Rotary Club is taking part to important Matching Projects, in strict cooperation with other Russian Clubs and with a great support from American, French, Italian and Swedish Rotarians. Projects are aimed at providing support
� to a Medical Center in Moscow (together with Swedish Rotarians)
� to a Social Center for struggle against drugs among youngsters in Moscow (together with RC "Capital" and with the support of Italian Rotarians from near Milan
� to children of the Southern Moscow district: last fall we installed two sets of playground equipment in a Park
� to a children�s house in Nevel, together with Dutch Rotarians
� to development of agricultural entrepreneurship in the Dmitrov area, in connection with the newly born Rotary Club of Dmitrov and some Clubs from the USA
� to a large number of Russian children needing to be operated on jowl and facial defects: an international team of voluntary dental and plastic surgeons provided operation, in the frameworks of the "Operation Smile"
� to a Moscow Center for retarded children, "Krug" Center, where young visitors learn through creative activities, such as painting, acting and crafts. Our Club is providing Center with equipment and materials, and also paying a part of the staff salaries; but we also organize for them from time to time additional "social" activities, such as banquets with the entertainment of specially skilled artists: these events are organized in restaurants of good level, where these retarded children usually are not even allowed to enter together with their parents, to avoid disturbing common clients; we rent the restaurant for a Saturday or Sunday lunch, and so these children enjoy their meal and "variety" entertainment together with their relatives and with the Center volunteers.
