Rotaract El-Koura was chartered in 1993, and for a whole decade was one of the best clubs in Lebanon but unfortunately never awarded. Many years passed and a lot of people passed through the club, but the years to remember are the last three years where VDRR Ziad Dibo was President. We achieved together a District International Camp, in which twenty Rotaractors from all the district attended. But the year after, Rotaract El-Koura caved into the many hard circumstances and was closed down for a whole year. Not to get in to details, in July 2002, Past President Jihad Dirani took control of the club with only 4 members. By the end of that year, our number had reached 28 extremely active members. Not only were we the best in Lebanon but between the top clubs in the district. Our projects had exceeded the verge of 100 and the quality of the projects tells how professional our club became.

Our projects in 2002-2003 were diverse, as we focused first on Club Service and Rotaract Awareness to extend the membership level. Then came our international projects as we wanted to do something never done before, and we started first with Discover District 2450 and our aim was to visit all the countries of the district and that we did. Our biggest achievement was the month of May: We started our main fundraiser, which is the Raffle Draw, we twinned with District 1520 and hosted their DRR Dorothee Viseux. Through that project many activities were held: we attended many sessions and club activities but most importantly we held a Joint Gala dinner with Rotary El-Koura and made almost $8000, to be added to the $9000 we made out of the tombola. To mark history, Rotaract Koura also received in May the Rotaract 2003-week award, to become the first club in District 2450 to be awarded this certificate. All those projects were implemented in the month of May, not to forget our participation in the Rotary district conference in Alexandria and our visit to Rotaract Sulmaniya in Bahrain.

In 2003, Past President Marwan Dibo started the year with 18 members and had a quick recruitment campaign that brought us back to 28 active members. All 28 of us worked this year on a different strategy, which was based on avenue committee work in each avenue of service. In community service, we applied our funds to equip and refurbish a building belonging to MIDAD, an association that helps kids from poor backgrounds work on their intellectual abilities. We equipped them with computers, a library filled with books with the participation of Rotaract Manama Sulmaniya from Bahrain. Other community service projects were also held on Christmas and Ramadan not to forget the ongoing club services activities that overpassed 50 projects during the whole year.

Many professional development projects were also held, but our main project that year was an International Understanding project called Join the Continents: Distance does no Matter. JTC was an international conference held in Lebanon at Ehden Country club under the high patronage of the Ministry of Tourism and with the participation of 90 rotaractors from 11 countries from all over the continents. More details can be found in the Join the Continents page.

2003-2004 was a very successful year as well for Rotaract El-Koura as we rose over US $80,000 for our community service projects which also included a matching Grant with Rotary El-Koura to equip the St. Jude Children Cancer center in Beirut with 7 operation and accommodation rooms. Rotaract El-Koura was also awarded many excellence prices:


1. Most Outstanding Project for the year 2003-2004 in district 2450 for Join the Continents.

2. Ahmad Shawki’s Most Outstanding Project for district 2450.

3. Fundraising Award at the District conference in Egypt.

4. International Understanding recognition award.

5. 2004 Rotaract week award.

6. Presidential citation.

7. Recognition for excellent work from Rotary El-Koura.

8. Rotary district Governor’s Challenge Shield.

In 2004-2005 year, Rotaract El-Koura, with Past President Yehya Kassem, focused on implementing many community service projects to try to improve the life standards in Lebanon.