About US

Dhaka City, in the late thirties was a burgeon township of 120-150,000 people mostly living in and around what is now known as the ‘Old Town’ along the river Buriganga. A major city, in the Muslim populated East Bengal, Dhaka was growing in importance due mainly to the trading business based on the riverine communication. The gentry comprised of businessmen, educationists, professionals and the officials, both local and foreign, who mixed well socially.

In this background the Rotary International movement, founded in the US city of Chicago in 1905 by Paul P Haris, a lawyer, and three of his friends as co-founder, found Dhaka an ideal home for first Rotary Club in part the world. At a meeting on the 22nd December 1937 at the Imperial Bank of India building near Victoria Park (now Bahadur Shah) park the Rotary Club of Dhaka was founded. The meeting was attended by 17 members from diversified professions.