Our projects
Here you will find a small excerpt of social projects
GERMANY-WIDE and international PROJECTS
Each Rotaract club decides independently about its club program and social projects. There is never a lack of ideas and cool activities. Nevertheless, there are some projects that are supported by all clubs throughout Germany, often in cooperation with other organizations:
KidsCamp
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The KidsCamp offers children the opportunity to experience a varied and free short holiday in a tent camp away from everyday life. Urlaubskinder eV organizes a total of 16 KidsCamps together with Rotaract and Rotary Clubs in Germany and Austria.
You can find out more about this project here: Urlaubskinder eV
Youthcamp
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We would like to support young people in developing their personalities and show them different ways to plan their careers for the future.
The young people learn to write applications, look for jobs and discover new skills. A key element of YouthCamps is cooperation with employers. They present areas of work and, in individual cases, can also arrange or provide direct jobs or training positions. The YouthCamp enables young people to be shown a different perspective. Our YouthCampers often grow up in structures that make it difficult to take new paths – we would like to support this.
In concrete terms, this means: We help young people to recognize their own strengths and support them in choosing the right training place. A sustainable design of the project is important to us in order to offer the young people significant added value. The target group is young people in the 8th and 9th grades of the secondary school and the 9th and 10th grades of the secondary school. Similar to KidsCamp, Urlaubskinder eV organizes participant sponsorships from donors. The aim is to attract young people from as different backgrounds as possible to the project.
You can find out more about this project here: Urlaubskinder eV
Photo: © Urlaubskinder eV
Deckel gegen Polio
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Rotaractors around the world have been committed to the fight against polio for over 30 years. Many German clubs diligently collect plastic lids all year round so that vaccinations against polio can continue to be financed. More about it: Lid on it eV
Shelterbox
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ShelterBox is an international disaster relief organization with a German representation in Berlin. In disaster relief, ShelterBox focuses particularly on the area of “protection and shelter”.
You can find out more about this project here: ShelterBox
PAul für Tansania
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The Paul for Tanzania project improves access to clean water in Tanzania through the construction and renovation of wells, the installation of rainwater collection systems, the provision of water filters and the implementation of educational campaigns on hygiene and sanitation practices.
These efforts have contributed to the overall health and well-being of people in the project areas, reduced the incidence of waterborne diseases, and improved school attendance and academic performance.
Zukunftsmusik
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Together with the Zukunftsmusik eV association , we collect deposits on a voluntary basis at the campsites of Germany’s festivals. Social projects in Germany are supported under the motto “Your pledge for a good cause”.
Photo: Christoph Soeldner
Germany-wide social actions and history
Every club year there is a federal social campaign in which Rotaract Germany pursues a common goal. Here is an overview of the past years.
2023/24 –
The Backpack Project
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For the chance of a better life, education is needed!
The Backpack Project collects school backpacks filled with essential school supplies such as pens, notebooks to support needy children worldwide. These supplies help children receive education, which is essential for a better life. The collected backpacks are transported to Malawi by Mary’s Meals and distributed there. The goal is to collect 6,000 backpacks to help children in South East Africa break the cycle of poverty.
2023/24 –
Lust auf Lesen
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“Lust auf Lesen” is committed to promoting reading skills, reading frequency and the joy of reading among children and young people. The project relies on practical measures, supported by action guidelines, to help Rotaract clubs implement them. These activities include reading circles, reading sponsorships, book donations, story workshops, bookcases and the 4L initiative. The guidelines and more information can be found at lustauflesen.rotaract.de .
There is also the donation goal “Learning to read – learning to live”, which provides schools with literature for lessons in order to sustainably strengthen reading skills in children in grades 1-7. The BuSo aims to provide 100 classes with books. If you have any questions, the BuSo team is available at soziales@rotaract.de .
We are looking forward to a year full of reading and lots of “lust for reading”!
2022/23 –
Menstruaction
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With the federal social campaign, we would like to raise awareness of the issue of period poverty and also contribute to removing the taboo surrounding menstruation.
The term “period poverty” describes something unfair. It means that some people do not have enough money to buy menstrual products. Menstrual products include sanitary pads, tampons or menstrual cups.
The clubs have the opportunity to hold lectures in the club, to participate in our postcard campaign (more information at MenstruAction.rotaract.de ), as well as to deal with the topic independently through their own actions.
2021/22 –
Zero Waste
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In Germany alone, around 78 kilograms of plastic waste are produced per capita every year. Today, that amounts to a total of 6.3 billion tons. Over 90 percent of this is generated by private or commercial end users. Only nine percent of all plastic waste on earth is recycled. This creates huge plastic islands in the oceans and it returns to the living areas of humans and animals in the form of microplastics.
We want to work with you to make the world more plastic-free, strengthen the cooperation between Rotaract and Rotary through economies of scale, provide educational work and show you how easy it is to sustainably integrate the topic of “living plastic-free” into your everyday life!
2020/21 –
1MillionTrees
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Global reforestation would be possible on an area of 0.9 billion hectares and could thus absorb two thirds of man-made CO₂ emissions. This would be an effective means of reducing carbon in the atmosphere and thereby stopping climate change. This is the conclusion of a study by ETH Zurich recently published in Science.
We want to plant 1 million trees with you, strengthen the cooperation between Rotaract and Rotary through economies of scale, provide educational work and show you how easy it is to sustainably integrate the topic of “planting trees” into your everyday life!
Together with you, we would like to develop best practice ideas and implementation instructions throughout the year and collect them here. At the same time, we would like to invite you and your clubs to take part in our outside-the-box social campaigns, such as the online pub quiz “Who wants to be a Treellionaire” or our “Sustainival”, the festival for a good cause.
At 1MillionTrees, there are no limits to your creativity: whether you plant trees yourself with a spade, or hold your own “HollyWOOD” cinema event with the film “The Secret Life of Trees” or turn your next university event into a “Tree Party” where every cocktail plants up to 30 trees.
2018/19 –
Beealive
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Climate change, monotonous agricultural landscapes and pesticides are just a few of the many reasons why our little yellow friends are dying in ever larger numbers. The fact is: most of the dangers to bees are man-made. It is also now known that we humans could not survive without bees, after all, our little friends pollinate more than 80% of our crops and wild plants. With the Beealive project, we have therefore committed ourselves to supporting nature’s superheroes.
We built bee hotels with you, did educational work and sowed wildflower meadows!
Photo: (c) Rotary International
Club projects
Here you can find some projects that the clubs themselves organize locally. There are many classics, but also a lot of variation.
Kauf-eins-mehr-Aktion
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At a KEMA, customers of a supermarket, for example, are approached in a friendly and unobtrusive manner as they enter the store and asked whether they could buy “one more item” for the benefit of the food bank or a similar organization than is actually on their shopping list.
Of course, you are welcome to donate more than just a portion of food, hygiene products, etc. Occasionally, customers also donate money instead of products, with the request that the money be used to buy suitable products for the food bank (have a donation box ready).
Instead of collecting food, school supplies or similar items can also be collected before the start of the school year.
The coordination effort (appointments, emails, agreements, visits, invitations, thanks, documentation, creating flyers) is not insignificant, but it is manageable. It quickly adds up to a few hours. The action itself then takes a maximum of six hours in total, in different shifts.
Clean-Ups
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Whether it’s a trash walk, cleaning stumbling blocks, cleaning bodies of water, or other activities, Rotaract’s clean-ups contribute to environmental protection and the cleanliness of the city and are usually quite easy to organize.
Contact local authorities if you need tongs and buckets.
Saftzwerge
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While they spoil in local orchards, supermarkets sell apples from Chile. In order to promote the use of our regional resources and environmental awareness, the “Saftzwerge” project was launched by the RAC Esslingen together with the RCs Esslingen & Esslingen-Neckarland. Here, children learn where our regional apple juice comes from and how it is made.
Santa Claus in the hospital
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n order to bring joy to the children who have to spend St. Nicholas’ Day in the Göttingen Children’s Hospital, the Rotaract Club Göttingen has been organizing this event for 9 years. Another highlight for the children: During the handover, the Santa Clauses drive past the children’s windows in the fire department’s turntable ladder.
YES!
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YES! is a joint project between Rotary and Rotaract in Kenya. It supports young people in Rarieda, a poor region, and includes setting up the Rotaract Club Rarieda and planting 150,000 trees. The project also includes youth health ambassadors who provide information on important topics such as HIV and malaria, as well as training 250 young people in the ‘Street Business School’. Other additional projects (YES+) are part of the commitment.