Health workers in yellow “End Polio Now” vests give oral polio drops to a child during a door-to-door campaign.

Fighting Disease

We believe good health care is everyone’s right. Yet 4.6 billion people lack access to essential health services.

Building on our successful fight to eliminate polio, we bring together global experts and leaders to improve and expand access to health care and prevent the spread of diseases so that everyone can lead healthy lives.

Rotary collaborates with local, regional, and international health providers to address preventable and treatable causes of illness and death while promoting equitable health for all.

How Rotary makes help happen

Two healthcare workers prepare a syringe to vaccinate a child inside a community health clinic.

Fighting Cervical Cancer

Building on our work with polio, Rotary members are working on projects across the globe to increase vaccines, screening and treatment of cervical cancer.

A community health worker demonstrates how to use a rapid diagnostic test for malaria in Central Province, Zambia, during a community health program on August 26, 2022.

Build Capacity of Community Health Workers

Malaria, pneumonia, and diarrheal diseases remain among the leading causes of illness and death for children under five in sub-Saharan Africa. Rotary members work with partner organizations to strengthen community health systems and increase the capacity of community health workers through the Rotary Healthy Communities Challenge.

An adult and a child stand together outdoors in Vereeniging, South Africa, during a Rotary Family Health Days campaign that provides free health services and promotes disease prevention on November 11, 2013.

Access to Prevention, Treatment, and Care for HIV

Members of Rotary Family Health and AIDS Awareness host Rotary Family Health Days in India and across Africa to provide free quality health resources to people who would not have access.

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Our impact on disease


The Rotary Foundation is changing the world by providing grants for projects and activities around the globe and in your own backyard.

Rotary works with communities to make amazing things happen, like:

Reducing HIV infection: In Liberia, Rotary members are helping women get tested for HIV early in their pregnancies. They used prenatal care to reduce new HIV infections in children by 95 percent over two years.

Ending polio: Rotary members have played a key role in bringing the world to the brink of polio eradication. Their efforts have not only ended polio in 122 countries but also created a system for tackling myriad other health priorities, such as Ebola.

$454 mil

in grants has been awarded by Rotary to fight disease since 2014

99.9%

reduction in polio cases since our program started in 1985

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