District 2440
District 2440
District 2440 – When Care Becomes Opportunity
From the first Rotary clubs in İzmir and Bursa to a district where service means education, inclusion, resilience and the opportunity to move forward
The history of District 2440 can be told through places.
İzmir. Bursa. Çanakkale. Balıkesir. Manisa. Denizli. Aydın. Muğla.
But it can also be told in another way – through the people who were given an opportunity.
A woman who gains a skill and finds work.
A visually impaired person who can follow a recipe independently for the first time.
A child who returns to a classroom after disaster.
A mother who can return to work because her child has a safe place to stay.
A community that, after destruction, receives not only help for today but the means to begin again.
This thread runs through much of the history of Rotary District 2440.
But it begins long before District 2440 itself existed.
1961: Rotary Reaches İzmir
When the Rotary Club of İzmir held its first meeting on 9 January 1961, Rotary was still a relatively young movement in Türkiye.
Ankara and Istanbul already had clubs. İzmir became the third city in the country where Rotary took root. According to the official records of District 2440, the club received its charter in April 1963.
Source: Rotary District 2440 – Rotary Club of İzmir
Members of the Rotary Club of Istanbul, including Nejat Eczacıbaşı and John Caouki, were among those involved in its establishment. Early members in İzmir included Sadi Aral, Cemil Atalay, Muvahhit Atamer and Süreyya Birsel.
Source: Rotary history in Türkiye
This matters as more than a date.
İzmir is a major port city, open for centuries to different peoples and cultures. For Rotary, such an environment naturally created opportunities for international relationships, professional exchange and partnerships beyond national borders.
Bursa Follows
Only two years later, Rotary continued to expand in western Türkiye.
On 12 June 1963, the Rotary Club of Bursa was established, becoming the fourth Rotary club in Türkiye. According to the club’s official page, its charter dates from 18 October 1965.
Source: Rotary District 2440 – Rotary Club of Bursa
Two of Türkiye’s oldest Rotary communities – İzmir and Bursa – therefore lie within the geography that would decades later become District 2440.
Development continued.
Denizli Rotary Club traces its beginnings to 1978.
Clubs followed in Manisa and Çanakkale during the 1980s, and later Rotary expanded towards Marmaris, Bodrum and many other communities across the Aegean region and southern Marmara. The official history of Çanakkale Rotary Club, for example, dates its beginnings to 1983, while Marmaris Rotary Club was established in 1989.
Gradually, individual cities became a network.
From One Turkish District to District 2440
The organisational history followed the growth of Rotary across Türkiye.
In 1980, the country received its own District 243. At the time, Türkiye had 31 Rotary clubs.
By 1987, there were already 78.
In 1988, Türkiye was divided into two Rotary districts:
- District 242 – West
- District 243 – East
In 1993, they were renumbered as District 2420 and District 2430. But growth continued, and only one year later another major change followed.
In 1994, Türkiye was divided into three Rotary districts. Istanbul and the Marmara region remained in District 2420, Central and Eastern Anatolia in District 2430, while the Aegean region became the new District 2440. By then, Türkiye had around 150 Rotary clubs.
Source: Rotary history in Türkiye
This was the administrative beginning of District 2440.
Its Rotary history, however, was already more than three decades old.
From Çanakkale to Muğla
Over time, District 2440 developed a distinctive geography.
Today, its network spans eight provinces from Çanakkale to Muğla, including the major Rotary communities of İzmir and Bursa. This is how District 2440 itself describes its geographical reach.
It is a diverse region.
There are industrial centres, university cities, agricultural areas, tourism communities and a long coastline. There are major urban centres and smaller towns. The economic and social needs of these communities can be very different.
Perhaps that is why the projects developed by clubs over the years rarely remain within a single theme.
What many of them share is something else: giving people a practical tool that allows them to become more independent.
How Do You Cook When You Cannot See the Recipe?
One of the most human examples comes from a project that, at first, appears very simple – a cookbook.
But it was created for people with visual impairments.
Rotarians and their families from District 2440 worked with the Turkish Library for the Visually Impaired – TÜRGÖK – to transform recipes into a format that blind and visually impaired people could genuinely use.
Chef Ömür Akkor from Bursa prepared the recipes with his eyes closed in order to understand which instructions were insufficient without visual information. The recipes were then adapted to include guidance based on time, aroma and other senses.
The cookbook was produced in Braille, while recipes, nutritional information and practical instructions were also recorded in audio format.
But the project did not stop with the book.
In İzmir and Bursa, four practical cooking courses for people with visual impairments were organised, and participants also received adapted kitchen tools. The books were provided free of charge to library members.
Source: Rotary Voices – Cookbook for the Visually Impaired
It is a characteristic example of how District 2440 can approach service.
Not: “We will do something for you.”
But: what needs to change so that you can do it yourself?
Women in Leadership
The same idea of opportunity gradually became visible within Rotary itself.
In 2010–11, Yeşim Tanık Yöney of the Çeşme Rotary Club became the first woman District Governor of District 2440. Historical Rotary sources identify her as the second woman in Türkiye to reach the role of District Governor after Hatice Şarizi of District 2420.
Source: Turkish Rotary history – Women in Rotary
But women’s leadership in District 2440 gradually extended far beyond Rotary’s internal structures.
One of the strongest contemporary examples is Ayda Özeren of the Rotary Club of İzmir-Gündoğdu, District Governor in 2023–24.
In 2025, Rotary International honoured her with the Sylvia Whitlock Leadership Award for her long-standing work supporting the economic and leadership empowerment of women.
According to Rotary International, her work has reached approximately 11,000 women and girls through financial literacy, mentoring, education and scholarships. She visited more than 100 businesses and small manufacturing companies to work directly with women there. Proceeds from one of her books have also supported scholarships for girls.
Source: Rotary International – Sylvia Whitlock Leadership Award
A story that began with opening leadership to more people gradually became work to ensure that more women outside Rotary could also gain greater influence over their own futures.
From Training to Economic Independence
This direction can also be seen in a number of district projects.
The GİKA – Women Entrepreneurs Project, developed jointly by Türkiye’s Districts 2420, 2430 and 2440, was designed to help women turn professional knowledge and skills into real economic activity.
The programme includes training, mentoring and opportunities to sell products, including through e-commerce. The underlying idea is simple: support for women should not end with a course. It should lead to greater economic participation and the possibility of generating their own income.
Source: Rotary Zone 21B – GİKA
A similar approach lies behind the Golden Needle Project, through which District 2440 participated in establishing a sewing training centre in Adıyaman. Women receive vocational training designed to create opportunities for employment in the textile industry.
Source: Rotary Zone 21B – Golden Needle Project
This carries even greater meaning because Adıyaman was one of the cities severely affected by the 2023 earthquakes.
Help is no longer only about rebuilding what was destroyed.
It is also about rebuilding a person’s ability to earn a living.
6 February 2023: When Preparation Saves Time
On 6 February 2023, the devastating earthquakes in southern Türkiye and northern Syria confronted Rotary with one of the largest humanitarian responses in its history in the country.
District 2440 was not at the epicentre.
But within the first hours, its then Governor Serdar Durusüt contacted the Governors of Districts 2420 and 2430. The three Turkish districts began coordinating their response.
Source: Rotary International – Rising from the Ruins
District 2440 had something especially valuable: a pre-existing stock of disaster-relief tents.
This allowed a tent settlement to be established in İskenderun very early in the response. Rotary International describes how Rotary members managed the camp for more than a month before it was transferred to the national disaster agency. Other settlements soon followed.
Rotary clubs also worked with ShelterBox and supported the distribution of more than 2,500 tents.
Source: Rotary International – Rising from the Ruins
Here, an important characteristic of District 2440 became particularly visible:
sometimes impact does not begin at the moment disaster strikes.
It begins years earlier, when someone decides that being prepared matters.
After the Tent Comes the Classroom
Emergency assistance addresses the needs of the first days.
But then comes a more difficult question: how does ordinary life return?
District 2440 directed a significant part of its subsequent work towards education in the affected areas.
Information published by Zone 21 describes projects worth approximately US$265,000, including air-conditioned classroom units, sanitation facilities, accommodation containers for teachers, IT equipment, furniture and materials for vocational education. Funding came from Rotary Disaster Response resources, districts, clubs and partner organisations.
Source: Rotary Zone 21B – School Projects by District 2440
For a community, a project like this means much more than equipment.
A school tells children and parents:
life here will continue.
Opportunity for the Youngest, Too
Another strand of District 2440’s projects connects children with the ability of their parents – particularly mothers – to participate fully in professional and community life.
In partnership with Konak Municipality, District 2440 created the Rotary Children’s House, providing a safe and educational environment for the children of working mothers.
The purpose is twofold: the child receives care and opportunities for development, while the mother gains the possibility of remaining in or returning to employment.
Source: Rotary Zone 21B – Rotary Children’s House
Again, the distinctive logic of service becomes visible:
sometimes, to help an adult become more independent, you first need to create a safe place for their child.
Hisarönü: Sometimes Impact Begins with One Summer
This philosophy continues today.
In the summer of 2026, the Rotary Club of Marmaris organised a children’s summer camp in Hisarönü in partnership with Tazelenme University – Marmaris Campus and the local community, also organised as a Rotary Community Corps.
Children took part in activities including reading, creative writing, photography, science, health, handicrafts, sport and teamwork.
The project did not measure success only by the number of sessions delivered.
The more important question is what may remain afterwards – a new interest, greater confidence, friendship, a sense of belonging, or perhaps the first idea that the child, too, can one day change something around them.
Source: Rotary Zone 21B – From a Summer Camp to a Brighter Future
It is a small project compared with a major Global Grant.
But lasting impact does not always begin with a large investment.
Sometimes it begins with an adult showing a child that their curiosity matters.
Inclusion Receives International Recognition
The work of people from District 2440 has also received recognition beyond Türkiye.
In 2023, İclal Kardiçali of the Rotary E-Club of District 2440 was among six Rotarians worldwide recognised by Rotary International as People of Action: Champions of Inclusion.
The programme highlights people working to create communities where belonging, respect and participation are not simply principles, but lived experiences.
Source: Rotary International – Champions of Inclusion
This international recognition fits particularly well within the story of District 2440.
Because many of its most distinctive projects ask the same question:
what is preventing this person from participating – and how can we remove that barrier?
International Partnership as a Natural Part of Service
The geographical position of District 2440 also naturally connects it with the wider world.
Over the years, its clubs have worked with partners from Greece, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Germany, Austria, the United States and many other countries.
One example is a Global Grant project led by the Didim Rotary Club to equip a physiotherapy centre at Didim State Hospital. The Rotary Club of Kos in Greece served as the principal international partner, while clubs and districts from Ukraine, Germany, the United States, Bulgaria and Austria also took part.
The centre was planned to serve more than 2,000 patients annually.
Source: District 2440 publication
In this way, the Aegean Sea does not remain a boundary.
It becomes a space for partnership.
Service Recognised Across Rotary’s Avenues of Service
International recognition within District 2440 is not limited to major projects or district-wide initiatives. It also reflects the individual commitment of Rotarians whose work embodies Rotary’s different Avenues of Service.
For the 2023–24 Rotary year, Rotary International presented Mustafa Kemal Nas with an Avenues of Service Award, expressing its deep appreciation for his outstanding efforts across each of Rotary’s Avenues of Service.
The recognition reflects something central to Rotary’s understanding of leadership: service is not confined to a single project or field. It can extend across professional life, the community, Rotary itself, young people and international relationships – connecting different forms of contribution through a shared commitment to service.
Another Avenues of Service recognition was presented to Erhan Gökdağ for outstanding efforts in Community Service. The award, issued by Rotary International, acknowledges his contribution to one of the areas at the heart of Rotary’s work: responding directly to the needs of communities and helping transform service into tangible local impact.
Together, these recognitions add another dimension to the story of District 2440.
Projects may create impact at the institutional level, but behind those projects are individuals who choose to give their knowledge, time, professional experience and leadership to their communities.
Their recognition also reinforces a principle that appears repeatedly throughout District 2440’s history: lasting impact is ultimately created through people willing to turn service into action.
District 2440 Today
Today, District 2440 remains one of Türkiye’s three Rotary districts and is part of Rotary Zone 21B.
Across its geography, the District 2440 family currently includes 70 Rotary clubs, 36 Rotaract clubs and 36 Interact clubs – a network of 142 clubs connecting generations of people committed to service, leadership and community impact.
Its network extends from Çanakkale and Bursa to İzmir, Aydın, Denizli, Bodrum and Marmaris, bringing together communities with different local realities but a shared commitment to creating positive change.
Source: Rotary District 2440 – Clubs
The presence of Rotary, Rotaract and Interact within the same district also means that this story is no longer carried by one generation alone.
Experienced Rotary members bring professional knowledge, institutional memory and established networks. Rotaractors contribute new perspectives, energy and leadership. Interactors bring an even younger generation into the culture of service, cooperation and social responsibility.
Together, they create a continuum of service in which experience can meet innovation and ideas can grow across generations.
Projects change over time.
The needs of communities change too.
But one idea runs from the early clubs in İzmir and Bursa to today’s initiatives for women, children, education, inclusion, environmental responsibility, peace and post-disaster recovery:
the best help does not make a person dependent on help. It increases their own ability to act.
A Braille cookbook does not prepare food for a visually impaired person – it helps them prepare it independently.
Vocational training does not promise an income – it provides a skill with which a woman may create one.
A school after an earthquake does not erase the loss that children have experienced – it restores rhythm, learning and perspective.
A Children’s House does not decide how a mother should live – it gives her more freedom to choose.
And a summer camp does not determine a child’s future – it opens a window through which that future may appear larger.
Today, District 2440 carries that same philosophy into a new Rotary year with an explicit ambition: to turn service into sustainable, measurable and lasting change.
Because care has its greatest value when it becomes opportunity.
And opportunity has its greatest value when it creates lasting impact.
2026–27: Creating Lasting Impact
As District 2440 enters the 2026–27 Rotary year under the leadership of District Governor Aylin Olut Ötken, the principle that runs through much of its history is being brought into even sharper focus: service should create results that continue after a project itself has ended.
The district’s guiding approach for the year is “Create Lasting Impact.”
It reflects a shift from asking only what Rotary can do today to asking what will remain tomorrow.
For District 2440, meaningful change begins by identifying the right need, grows through solutions designed for that need, and becomes truly valuable when the impact can be sustained over time.
The ambition for 2026–27 is therefore not only to serve more communities, but to become a more visible, effective and collaborative district within Rotary – one in which clubs work with a shared vision, coordinate more closely and learn from one another’s experience.
Among the priority areas for the year are environmental protection; education and employment opportunities for women and girls; efforts to prevent substance addiction and the use of illicit drugs; and the development of a culture of peace and inclusive communication.
The intention is for projects in these areas not only to respond to local needs, but also to develop models of impact that can be shared and recognised internationally.
That ambition depends on collaboration.
Lasting impact is rarely created by one person, one club or one project. It emerges when people combine knowledge, partnerships, determination and resources around a common purpose.
Rotaract and Interact are central to that vision as well. Their energy, creativity and willingness to approach familiar challenges differently strengthen the district’s capacity to innovate and extend its reach across generations.
In this sense, “Create Lasting Impact” is not a separate chapter in the history of District 2440.
It is a continuation of the same idea visible in many of its strongest projects:
service matters most when what remains is stronger than what existed before.