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 4988 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 was founded in 1905 by an Illinois lawyer who wanted to set up a professional club with a small friendly spirit. The name Rotary comes from the rotating nature of meetings being held at members' offices.

The club's popularity grew and, once 1,921 clubs had been set up around the world, the name Rotary International was adopted a year later.

These days, there are 1.2 million members in 32,000 clubs worldwide.The remit of clubs grew beyond serving only 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 Association of the Inner Wheel

Credit: WaterAid / Marco Betti

The Association of the Inner Wheel was originally formed to provide an association for the wives and female relatives of Rotarians at a time when Rotary membership was exclusively male. However, since the relaxation of membership rule, the Inner Wheel now accepts women who are not connected to Rotary (though this remains rare).

The Association's structure follows the same format as Rotary – being made up of clubs, districts, The Association of Great Britain and Ireland, and the International Inner Wheel.

All donations from Inner Wheel Clubs are currently linked to WaterAid projects Tanzania and in 2007/08 over £48,000 was donated towards this work. Inner Wheel Clubs are kept updated with an annual newsletter - please email community@wateraid.org to receive a copy of this. For more information on the Inner Wheel clubs please visit our Inner Wheel page or the Inner Wheel website (opens in a new window).

Faith groups

Faith groups and 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.

Find out more about faith groups

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 an assembly of primary school children with images and interaction.

Our training and resources will give you the tools to be visual and creative with the talk. This is important, 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 districts, of which there are 13, 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 in Great Britain and Ireland for around 14 years and currently has the support of around 850 Clubs. Donations are linked to projects in Malawi and Nepal and in 2007/08 over £78,000 was donated towards these country programmes.

WaterAid produces a series of newsletters to keep Lions updates of forthcoming WaterAid activities and the projects they kindly support. For more information see our Lions page or email us at community@wateraid.org.