Stories

More than twenty nationalities, professionals across every industry, weekly meetings since 1930. Here's what the Rotary Club of Bangkok actually looks like.

When sixty-nine people gathered at Phya Thai Palace in September 1930 to found the Rotary Club of Bangkok, they came from fifteen countries. Thai royalty alongside American trade commissioners. Japanese trading executives alongside British consuls. Dutch diplomats, Indian merchants, Swiss engineers — all in the same room, signing the same founding document.

Ninety-five years later, not much has changed in that regard.

The Rotary Club of Bangkok is proud to sponsor three dynamic Rotaract clubs whose members are already making a meaningful difference in their communities. The Rotaract Club of Mahidol University, the Rotaract Club of Chulalongkorn University, and the Rotaract Club of Siem Reap each work in distinct settings, yet all share a strong commitment to service, leadership, and practical action. Together, they demonstrate that Rotaract is not simply a training ground for future leaders, but a movement of young people delivering real results today.

On 14 March 2026, the Rotary Club of Bangkok welcomed 143 guests, including ambassadors, diplomats, corporate leaders, members, and friends of Rotary, to the Grand Ballroom of the Grand Hyatt Erawan Bangkok for its Fundraising Latin Gala. The evening celebrated international fellowship, Latin culture, and the club’s humanitarian mission, while successfully raising THB 763,383 in support of the club’s 2025–2026 flagship service initiatives.

On 17th March, we joined the Rotary Club of Sarapee to inaugurate the refurbishment of a clean drinking water system at Wat Ban Lao School in Mae Taeng District, Chiang Mai. The project restores access to safe drinking water for 140 students, most of whom are from minority hilltribe communities, replacing worn components in a system originally installed seven years earlier.

The refurbishment was generously sponsored by C&C Travel of Copenhagen, continuing their long-standing support for the school and its students.

On 16th March 2026, we inaugurated a Clean Drinking Water System at Sai Thong Rat Uthit School in the Samoeng-Tai district of Chiang Mai Province, in partnership with the Rotary Club of Tokyo Shintoshin and the Rotary Club of Sarapee. The project ensures safe, reliable drinking water for 138 students and staff, replacing an outdated system that had relied on contaminated well water.

The inauguration was attended by Past President Chiemi Svensson, Past President John Quarmby, and President Hiroyoshi Aoki of the Rotary Club of Tokyo Shintoshin, reflecting the strong international collaboration behind the project.

On 5 March 2026, the Rotary Club of Bangkok and the Peace Culture Foundation ran a grooming prevention workshop at Rotary Bangkok School. The students' knowledge scores went up by 31% on average. One area improved by 62%.

Grooming — the process by which predators build trust with children before sexually abusing them — is not a subject that typically makes it into a school day at a rural school in Prachuap Kiri Khan Province.

On 5 March 2026, the Rotary Club of Bangkok helped change that for 218 students at Rotary Bangkok School.

A delegation from the Rotary Club of Bangkok travelled to Sangklaburi from 1–3 March 2026 to begin the implementation phase of Global Grant GG257187, a project designed to strengthen education and psychosocial support for vulnerable migrant and stateless children served by the Children of the Forest Foundation.

The Rotary Club of Bangkok has been investing in young people since 1969. Three Rotaract clubs, nursing scholarships, and a careers programme — all built on a simple idea: if you want a better future, you have to help people build it.

The biggest long-term investment any Rotary club can make isn't in buildings or water filters. It's in people — young people who learn to serve, to lead, and to see the world as something they can improve.

We've been doing that for more than fifty years.

From inside a Mercedes-Benz factory to supporting future nurses and empowering women through vocational training, the Rotary Club of Bangkok’s Vocational Service initiatives continue to connect professional insight with meaningful community impact.

The Rotary Club of Bangkok managed six active Global Grant projects in 2024–25. Clean water, cerebral palsy care, peace education, HIV/AIDS home care, stateless children getting into school. Here's what each one actually does.

The Rotary Foundation's Global Grant programme works like this: a club proposes a project that meets Rotary's criteria, and the Foundation matches the club's contribution. Partner clubs from other countries add their funding, and the Foundation matches those too. A well-designed project can end up with funding many times what the host club put in.

We are one of the most active Global Grant clubs in District 3350. In 2024–25, we managed or participated in six active projects. Here's what they are.

Sixteen nursing students from the 2021–22 scholarship cohort have graduated and are working in Bangkok hospitals. This is what a scholarship programme looks like and the scale of what it is part of.

In 2021–22, the Rotary Club of Bangkok funded scholarships for eighteen second-year nursing students at two universities: ten at Kuakarun Faculty of Nursing at Navamindradhiraj University, and eight at Mahidol University.

Nursing is a four-year degree. The scholarships were renewable annually, based on academic performance, covering the students' second, third, and fourth years. Each student received enough to cover a meaningful portion of course costs enough to relieve the financial pressure that causes nursing students from lower-income families to drop out before qualifying.

In 1966, we donated 50,000 Baht to build a school in a small village three hours south of Bangkok. The Princess Mother came to open it and gave it our name. Nearly 800 children study there today — and we're still involved.

In 1966, the Rotary Club of Bangkok donated 50,000 Baht to build a school in Nong Plub, a small community in Prachuap Kiri Khan Province, about three hours south of Bangkok.

Construction took three years. When the school opened in 1969, H.R.H. the Princess Mother — "Somdej Yaa," as she was affectionately known — came to visit and gave the school a name: Rotary Bangkok School (โรงเรียนโรตารี่กรุงเทพ). The first classroom building, a single-storey wooden structure, was named the "Somdej Yaa Building" in her honour. It still stands.

Twelve months under President Danu Chotikapanich. Floods, an earthquake, a gala that raised over a million baht, six Global Grant projects, and a school visit three hours south of Bangkok. Here's what actually happened.

Every Rotary year runs from 1 July to 30 June. The 2024–25 year, under President Danu Chotikapanich and Rotary International's theme "The Magic of Rotary," was a busy one. New members joined, new projects started, international visits happened across six countries, and a number of long-running grants moved toward completion.

Here's the year, month by month.

If you've ever wondered what you'd walk into at a Rotary Club of Bangkok meeting, here's an honest account.

Every Thursday, at lunchtime, members of the Rotary Club of Bangkok meet for the weekly meeting. It has happened every Thursday — with very few exceptions — since October 1930, when the newly chartered Club moved its meetings to Phya Thai Palace Hotel. Ninety-five years later, the hotel has changed (the Grand Hyatt Erawan hosts many meetings now), but the rhythm hasn't.

Here's what you'd actually find if you came along.

Clean water in mountain schools, Braille machines for blind children, a rebuilt canteen for 303 students who'd been eating in classrooms for twenty-five years. A look at the Rotary Club of Bangkok's community work in recent years.

Rotary's community service isn't about grand gestures. It's about finding a real problem, getting the right partners together, doing the work, and moving on to the next one.

Here's a picture of what that has looked like for the Rotary Club of Bangkok over the past few years.

The Rotary Club of Bangkok is the oldest Rotary club in Thailand. This is how it started — and how it got to where it is today.

On 17 September 1930, sixty-nine men gathered at Phya Thai Palace in Bangkok. They were diplomats, doctors, engineers, merchants, lawyers, and members of the Thai royal family. They came from fifteen different countries — Siam, the United States, Britain, the Netherlands, Japan, India, and more. What they had in common was a belief that people of standing in a community should use their influence and skills for the good of others.

That meeting founded the Rotary Club of Bangkok — the first Rotary club in Thailand.

From a Dalí-themed Italian restaurant to a former royal palace, from Oktoberfest to a Chao Phraya sunset, a look at the Club's 2024–25 fellowship year.

How do you keep a club of more than eighty people from twenty-plus nationalities genuinely connected across twelve months of busy working lives?

In 2024–25, the Fellowship Committee's answer was a varied, well-thought-out programme — something different nearly every month, mixing good food, interesting locations, and the particular pleasure of spending time with people you wouldn't otherwise meet.

H.E. Bhichai Rattakul stands as one of the most influential figures in the history of Rotary in Thailand and globally. A Past Rotary International President, Major Donor, and lifelong servant of the Rotary ideal, his six decades of dedication helped shape the growth and spirit of Rotary across generations.

From his beginnings as a charter member of the Rotary Club of Dhonburi in 1958 to becoming the first Thai President of Rotary International in 2002–03, his life was defined by leadership, humility, and an unwavering commitment to service above self.

In April 2025, thirteen Club members and their families spent Songkran at the school we built in 1966. Three hours south of Bangkok, traditional dances, water-pouring, and a building that needs saving.

The school that carries our name is in Nong Plub, Prachuap Kiri Khan Province — three hours south of Bangkok. We built it in 1966, donated the 50,000 Baht that paid for the first classroom. The Princess Mother came when it was done in 1969, named it "Rotary Bangkok School," and gave her own name to the original building — the Somdej Yaa Building — which still stands today.

On 25 April 2025, President Danu Chotikapanich led thirteen members and their families down for the annual visit. It fell in Songkran season.

When a 7.7-magnitude earthquake hit Myanmar on 28 March 2025, the Rotary Club of Bangkok collected 329,535 Baht and transferred it to disaster relief in less than a week.

The earthquake struck at 12:50pm on Friday, 28 March 2025.

By the following Thursday — one week later, at the Club's regular weekly meeting — members had contributed 329,535.60 Baht to the District 3350 Earthquake Disaster Relief Fund. The Fund had already started disbursing money on the ground.

On 22 March 2025, the Rotary Club of Bangkok held its annual gala at the Grand Hyatt Erawan. Thailand's first pop-opera group performed. The night raised over a million baht for the Club's community projects.

There's a particular kind of Bangkok evening — dressed up, Grand Hyatt, a full room, something unexpected on the stage — that people talk about for months afterwards. "Spread the Magic" on 22 March 2025 was that kind of evening.

On 28 February 2025, thirty-five children with cerebral palsy in Nakhon Si Thammarat Province received wheelchairs. Behind each one is a family whose daily life just got a little more manageable.

On 28 February 2025, a group of Rotarians gathered at a care centre in Nakhon Si Thammarat Province, 780 kilometres south of Bangkok.

Thirty-five wheelchairs were distributed to children with cerebral palsy and their families.

A 110,700 Baht joint project with a Japanese Rotary club has installed a clean water system at a school in Chiangmai. 96 children and 14 teachers now have safe water. Here's how it happened.

Before the project, the water at Wat Nong Luang School in Chiangmai Province came from a well.

Independent testing found total dissolved solids at 459 mg/L — well above safe levels — along with Coliform bacteria and E. coli.

On 22 February 2025, members of the Rotaract Club of Mahidol University spent a day on the Chao Phraya River on stand-up paddleboards, collecting rubbish. It's an unusual project for medical students. That's partly the point.

The Chao Phraya is Bangkok's spine — 372 kilometres of waterway that has shaped the city since its founding. It also receives a significant volume of waste: plastic bottles, food packaging, polystyrene, everything that ends up in a river running through a city of ten million people.

Getting rubbish out of a river from a paddleboard is a logistical challenge. You have to balance on the board. You have to dodge river traffic. You have to reach far enough to get the floating debris without going in. You have to collect what you find, bring it back to shore, and sort it — recyclable from non-recyclable — before anything useful can be said about what you found.