A Fun Place To Be Serious
Copenhagen International Rotary Club is a club for international expats in Copenhagen. And for Danes with international inclinations.
We combine the pleasure of spending time together with a desire to do good in society – locally and worldwide.
Our ’corporate’ language is English.
The People
All kinds. All professionals. From all over.
People join CIRC for different reasons, but there is one common element that brings us all together: international flavour! We bridge cultures and borders through our activities in charity, international student exchange and vocational work. Our members are Danes and expats, representing more than 15 nationalities and counting.
The Activities
MEETINGS
Monday nights are Rotary nights.
We get together at 17:30 every Monday at our home venue in central Copenhagen. Guest speakers enlighten us on a wide variety of topics: cultural, social, political, business, self-fulfillment … Then there is food, drink and good old Danish ’hygge’.
CLUB OF SIX
Getting closer over a meal
The Club of Six is our way of getting to know each other better. Each month, we gather in groups of six members – at someone’s home or in a restaurant. Over a meal, good friends become great friends. It’s as simple as that.
TRAVELS
Once a year we go on a trip.
Traveling with friends can be fun and educational. Many members like taking us to their native countries, to guide us through sights, scenery – and let us meet people they know. In recent years, we’ve visited Berlin, Macedonia and Guatemala.
OUTINGS
Checking out wonderful Copenhagen.
Occasionally, we visit interesting places around town. Recent examples include:
• A specialty coffee roastery in Nordhavn
• The Embassy of Latvia in Hellerup
• The Hillerød Palace
• A Chinese cookery in Kødbyen
These are excellent places to learn new, unexpected things and add to our understanding of the world around us.
The Programs
Our way of rendering services to the world around us.
Being a member of Rotary Copenhagen is not only about social interaction and infotainment for ourselves – far from it. In our minds and hearts, we all share a wish to contribute in society, in any way we can. Currently, our efforts are organized around four programs: mentorships, scholarships, student exchange and social projects.
MENTORSHIPS
Professionals guiding each other.
The members of Rotary Copenhagen are experienced professionals in dozens of different fields. Some of them are keen to share their knowledge and professional wisdom with others, as mentors. To allow them to do so, we have established close relations with several other international organizations of professionals around Copenhagen. (One example is PWN, Professional Women’s Network.) Together with these organizations, we regularly put interested members of theirs in contact with potential mentors from Rotary Copenhagen. These encounters are typically very positive, benefiting both mentees and mentors.
STUDENT EXCHANGE
Giving young people the year of their lives.
Rotary is an international network of [xxx] clubs around world. This allows us to organize student exchange involving hundreds of young people every year. The students, typicall aged 16-19, get to travel to another country (even continent) for a year. They are sponsored by their ’home’ Rotary club, as well as the club in the receiving country. In Copenhagen, we send and receive one student per year – to and from countries like China, Argentina and New Zealand. Students live with local families and attend high school (gymnasium). They are invited to participate in a three-week tour of Europe, organized by Rotary clubs all over Denmark. For our exchange students, the year abroad is truly life-changing. They are integrated in a new culture, learn a new language. And make new friends for life.
SOCIAL PROJECTS
Committed to clean water, sanitation and public health.
Rotary Copenhagen is involved in a much-needed project in Mixco, Guatemala. There, we contribute to improved sanitation and increased water supply in an elementary school with 350+ students and 15 teachers. The current situation in this school is terrible. Too few toilets, all in bad shape. A kitchen that is falling apart. Water supplied only early mornings and evenings. Most windows broken. The local municipality has insufficient means for maintaining the school, let alone restore it. So this is where Rotary Copenhagen is stepping in. Together with Hjælpefonden and Districtfonden, we have raised the funds necessary for a major overhaul of the school’s sanitation and water supply. Once the project is completed (scheduled for [month, year]), the children and staff of the Primero de Julio school in Mixco will enjoy twice as many toilets, all new, a new kitchen, new pumps and storage tanks for fresh water, and new window panes in all classrooms.
