Background on community groups

Requests for WaterAid speakers can come from a huge variety of different groups, from local history societies and Rotary clubs to student groups and cub scouts. We have put together some background information on our key supporter groups here so that you can be as prepared as possible.

If you have any questions that aren't answered here, please feel free to give us a call on 020 7793 4575 or email speakers@wateraid.org.

Rotary International

Credit: WaterAid / Marco Betti

Rotary International is now the world's largest service organisation for business and professional people.

Rotary International was founded in 1905 by an Illinois lawyer who wanted to set up a professional club with a small friendly spirit. The club's popularity grew and, once 1921 clubs had been set up around the world, the name Rotary International was adopted a year later.

The name Rotary comes from the rotating nature of meetings being held at members' offices.

These days, there are 1.2 million members in 32,000 clubs worldwide.The remit of clubs grew beyond the serving just the business and social interests of its members and began to serve the local community using their pool of skills and resources. This is best expressed in the Rotary motto 'Service Above Self'.

Rotary International was predominantly an all male organisation until 1989 when it admitted women for the first time. Women now make up 90,000 Rotarians worldwide. The Rotary year runs from July 1 to June 30.

Find out more about speaking to Rotarians

The Ladies of the Inner Wheel

Credit: WaterAid / Marco Betti

The Ladies of the Inner Wheel are the wives and female relations of Rotarians and have a similar structure to Rotary with districts and clubs and an over-arching national organisation called the Association of Inner Wheel Clubs in Great Britain and Ireland.

Inner Wheel club meetings are generally a lot more informal than those of Rotary and meetings often take place in a member's home. Sizes of clubs do not often go above 25.

Income from Inner Wheel clubs in 2004/2005 was a wonderful £36,500! For more information on the Inner Wheel clubs please visit our inner wheel we page.

Churches

Churches often request speakers for their services or church-based groups. Harvest and Lent are the busiest times for Church talk requests. The format of talk varies from 30 minutes in a formal church service to 10 minutes collecting a cheque and saying thank you to a Sunday school.

More information about Church appeals

Schools

Credit: WaterAid / Marco Betti

School talks are talks where you can probably be the most creative! The talk that you give will tend to vary between age groups but generally our requests are for a 30 minute talk to assembly of primary school children with images and interaction.

Be visual and creative with the talk if you can, as the attention span of most primary school children is very short!

Lions Clubs

Set up in 1917 in Illinois, there are 1.4 million Lions in 200 countries worldwide. Committed to serving the local, national and international community their motto is, 'We Serve'.

Lions International Multiple District 105 covers Great Britain and Ireland. As with Rotary the Multiple District is split into 13 Districts and then clubs.

Lions Club meetings tend to be quite informal and are often a group of 20 people having some drinks and chat in the upstairs room of a local pub or small function room in a hotel.

WaterAid has enjoyed a relationship with Lions clubs in MD105 for about 14 years and clubs in Great Britain and Ireland donate about £60,000 a year at present which goes to supporting WaterAid's work in Malawi. We renew our relationship with the Multiple District International Relations Officer every year and in 2004 Lion Ram Jaggi joined other supporters on the supporter's trip to Malawi.

Lions Clubs often don't ask for speakers for their meetings, but we are hoping that this will change and that they too will benefit from one of our wonderful WaterAid talks! A Lions presentation on the work in Malawi has been put together and WaterAid produces a short news sheet for Lions four times a year in January, May, July and October. For more information see our Lions web page or email us at community@wateraid.org.