Disease prevention is important. The probability of dying is twice as high for children under age five as for children and youths ages five to 24, which is why Rotary and its partners have been delivering vaccines globally for 40 years, seeking to ensure that all children grow up safe from preventable diseases. Help us fight disease. During December, Rotary’s Disease Prevention and Treatment Month, you can take action to fight disease in your community:
- Support health education programs that explain how diseases spread and how to reduce the risk of transmission.
- Partner with medical institutions or ministries of health to immunize people against infectious diseases.
- Support training and continuing education for health workers through scholarships or stipends or simply by recognizing existing training efforts.
- Improve and expand access to affordable health care in underserved areas.
Find ideas for projects on Rotary Showcase. This platform can also help you find project partners. Watch the video above to see how Rotary is helping children grow up protected against preventable diseases.
Get help from Rotary Action Groups
Rotary Action Groups help clubs develop sustainable, effective service projects that strengthen communities. These groups can advise your club on planning and implementing projects and help you find partners, funding, and resources. Learn more about the Rotary Action Groups that focus on disease prevention and treatment, and contact them for assistance with your new or ongoing projects.
- Addiction Prevention advises clubs and districts about how to tackle substance abuse and addiction in a long-term, structural way.
- Alzheimer's/Dementia supports Rotary members who have family with Alzheimer’s or other types of dementia and assists with projects centered on dementia.
- Blindness Prevention promotes eye health and better vision worldwide.
- Blood Donation supports blood drives and community blood centers.
- Diabetes works toward awareness, prevention, treatment, and management of that disease.
- Family Health and AIDS Prevention works across Africa and South Asia to provide quality health resources to people in need.
- Health Education and Wellness promotes wellness through healthy lifestyle choices and disease prevention.
- Hearing helps clubs and districts with projects to help people with hearing loss.
- Hepatitis Eradication helps clubs and districts with hepatitis testing campaigns.
- Malaria works to end that disease by lowering transmission rates and scaling up treatment.
- Mental Health Initiatives offers practical toolkits that any club can use as part of a project or advocacy campaign.
- Multiple Sclerosis promotes awareness of MS and encourages clubs to work with MS societies on projects related to the disease.
Use your professional expertise for service
January is Vocational Service Month. This is an opportunity to think about how your club and district do vocational service. In bringing together people from diverse professions and backgrounds, Rotary recognizes the importance of all occupations and skills. In Rotary, your professional life and vocational service can work together. Members have a responsibility to represent their occupations within their club and to exemplify the ideals of Rotary in their workplace. Read the Vocational Service in Action handbook to learn more and to discover ways to share your knowledge through Rotary, advance ethical standards in your workplace, and help others develop professionally.
How ending polio helps fight malaria
The legacy of our work to eradicate polio won’t be just the elimination of the disease. Our legacy will also be how the tools we created and the lessons we learned are used to save lives from other preventable diseases. In Zambia, the tools and lessons from the work to end polio are already being used in the fight against malaria. Learn more.