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.
Rotaract: Three Clubs, Three Very Different Projects
Rotaract clubs are youth service clubs for people aged 18 to 30, sponsored by a parent Rotary club. We sponsor three.
Rotaract Club of Mahidol University (RACMU) was established in 1969 — originally as the Rotaract Club of Ramathibodi Hospital — making it one of the oldest Rotaract clubs in Thailand. Members are medical students, nurses, and medical engineering students drawn from several Mahidol University campuses. In February 2025, they paddled stand-up paddleboards on the Chao Phraya River as part of a river clean-up project, removing waste, sorting it, and running workshops on waterway ecology. Medical students who paddle through floating rubbish understand, from direct experience, what "environmental health" actually means.
Rotaract Club of Chulalongkorn University (RACCU), established in 1985, runs three main annual camp programmes that take its members out of Bangkok to actively engage in community service projects in the fields of education, social development and environmental protection, supporting communities in need.. In the last quarter of 2025 alone, the Rotary Club of Bangkok contributed to two youth-led projects implemented by RACCU: the “Deklek 5” project, held in October in Nakhon Nayok Province, where the Rotary Club of Bangkok contributed to school renovation works and educational activities for children; and the “Deksarng 5” project (in December in Uttaradit Province), where the Club partnered with RACCU to support the purchase of recreational material for children, school development and promote environmental education.
Rotaract Club of Siem Reap (RACSR) was chartered in August 2022 — our most international project. Fifty-four charter members, co-sponsored with the Rotary Club of Phnom Penh Metro, with members drawn from the Cambodian Rural Students Trust. In February 2026 they donated 102 bicycles to students at Kien Sangke Secondary School who had been missing school for lack of transport, repaired bikes for 139 more students at Kna Tnong Secondary School, ran WASH workshops on clean water and hygiene for 421 students, and built a house for a family in Nokor Krov Village — funded through money raised at the Angkor Wat Half Marathon. They also run the Village School Library project: small library kiosks stocked with books in Khmer and English, managed by student "Library Ambassadors." Each kiosk costs USD 450. We've funded one, and the Rotaractors build them themselves.
Nursing Scholarships
Four students at Kua Karun Nursing College received scholarships from us in 2024–25: Mr. Pisutpong Vikitpaisarn, Miss Yuwaree Wetwatcharakamjorn, Miss Suriyong Monsin, and Miss Sasithon Thongthab. Each receives 25,000 Baht per year for their second, third, and fourth years of study, renewed annually if they maintain their academic performance.
Selection is thorough. Candidates submit a written application covering their background, why they chose nursing, and what the scholarship would mean for them. Shortlisted candidates are interviewed by a panel from the Vocational and Youth Service Committees, with the Assistant Governor present. The panel looks for academic ability and genuine motivation — both matter in nursing, and one without the other isn't enough.
The results speak for themselves. Of the eighteen students we supported in 2021–22, sixteen graduated in 2023–24 and are now working in hospitals across Bangkok, including Siriraj Hospital.
Careers Workshops
In 2024–25, the Vocational and Youth Service Committees put together a Careers Workshop open to students from five schools and universities: Chulalongkorn, Mahidol, Samsen Wittayalai School, Rajavinit Mathayom School, and Don Mueang Chaturachinda School.
Club members agreed to talk honestly about their careers — President Danu on manufacturing management, PP David Boucher on healthcare innovation, Rtn Greg Beatty on international law, Rtn Chayada Klinpongsa on nursing and healthcare business. Not presentations, just real accounts of how they got where they are.
The workshop was postponed when timing clashed with summer recess. It will run at the start of the 2025–26 school year.
The model is worth persisting with. A club whose members include lawyers, doctors, engineers, and senior executives can give students access to career knowledge that's usually only available to people who already know the right people. That matters.
The Long View
Youth programmes are easy to treat as peripheral to a Rotary club's "real" work. We don't see it that way. The Rotaractors we sponsor will go on to run their own projects, mentor others, and — many of them — eventually join Rotary itself. The nursing students who receive scholarships will spend careers caring for people who'd otherwise go without. The student who attended a careers workshop and found a direction she hadn't imagined may one day be speaking at one herself.
We've been making these investments for over fifty years. The returns are real, even if they don't show up in a spreadsheet.
We sponsor Rotaract clubs at Mahidol University, Chulalongkorn University, and in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Rotaract is open to people aged 18–30. Contact us to find out more.