Interview | Rotary International to Focus on Youth and Growth, Says Incoming President

Enhancing the word of Rotary, soon to be president of Rotary International Mário César Martins de Camargo said, “Rotary is about changing lives for better, we don’t talk about war we talk about making peace, we fund peace scholars. We don’t talk about poverty, we talk about creating opportunities for personal, economic development. We don’t talk about ignorance, we talk about building schools,” while adding that the agenda is to always look at the side of opportunities and not the status quo.

Talking about Rotary’s social media presence on the sidelines of a members conclave in Hyderabad, Camargo said our presence in social media is very timid currently and that’s one challenge we are facing. “We have to be more aggressive, we have to break some mindsets. We pride ourselves with our past and I respect that deeply, but now focus must shift to the future, on how to attract younger members, what can we offer to our younger members”.

Rotary has the best school of leadership in any other organisation, he said while adding “because we invest money to develop our leaders, we invest resources to bring about skills and talent and that is what we have to offer the younger people.”

While exhorting younger people to join Rotary for better leadership opportunities, he said, “I speak with experience because I joined Rotary when I was 23 during an exchange programme, and that changed the perspective of my life and eventually I scaled up the Rotary staircase and each of the steps I got guidance, learning, instructions, and education to be a better leader. So what I have to offer younger people is, if you want to become a leader in your profession, you want to become someone visible, than Rotary is the best option as it is about connection. Once you enter the institution, you enter a specific Rotary club, but you are a part of a global organisation that encompasses 185 countries”. So a small local community level club but you’re connected globally with business professions.

Hailing the members of the Indian community, Camargo said India is a good example of what could have happened to the Rotary on a global scale. The number of members in India has doubled in the last 20 years. “The economic development of India is phenomenal, and its creating a middle class, which is the critical mass for Rotary. We are basically an organisation that thrives of on a strong middle class and India in that aspect is doing well. Our hope for India is that by continuing to tag along the economic growth of the county, Rotary can increase the number of rotarians and that’s where we have the best chances to growth on the global scale today”.

However, he said the overall number of rotarians in the world has stabilised or has remained stagnated. “Around 1.2 million members, so to increase our work with community towards peace, sanitation and literacy. We have to increase the number of rotarians who have more brains, more heart”.

Calling out to the media to be replicators of the Rotary’s message, Camargo who take over the position for the year 2025-2026 said, our main objective is to publicise the work of rotary. because we need to attract members from outside Rotary. Otherwise it would be like preaching to the choir and the choir already knows the mass. We have to preach outside our boundaries, our territories and that’s done through the increase of our public image.

“I think it is better explained when we publish what we do, projects that we undertake, the benefits that we carry forward for the young people by change of the lives. We are in the business of changing people’s lives for better, if I could summarise it in one sentence than I think we must publicise that, we have a positive agenda, the more people we have the more good we can do,” he said.