Eli Hauber Turns Eight Years of Rotary into Global Service

Eight years ago, a young man from Colorado Springs went to RYLA.

He could hardly have known then that the experience would help chart a course that would take him from a high school Interact club to Rotaract leadership, from Colorado to North Carolina, and now toward a hospital in Lviv, Ukraine.

For Eli Hauber, Rotary did not become simply an organization he joined. It became part of the way he sees the world.

“I was introduced to Rotary eight years ago at RYLA in District 5470,” Eli said. “That experience has led to the most fulfilling eight years of my life, as I’ve discovered what it means to put service above self through five years of RYLA, three years of Interact and four years of Rotaract.”

Now Eli is putting those years of service into an ambitious international project with a very tangible goal: raising $20,000 to help make childbirth, emergency care and surgery safer for women at St. Anna Hospital in Lviv, Ukraine.

A District 5470 story that kept growing

Eli grew up in District 5470, graduating from Cheyenne Mountain High School in Colorado Springs in 2023 before heading to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he studies Business and Global Studies.

Along the way, Rotary kept finding its way into his schedule.

Or perhaps Eli kept finding ways to make room for Rotary.

His experience includes founding and serving as president of an Interact club, serving as vice president of the UNC Rotaract Club and returning to District 5470 as a RYLA leader, including serving as a co-director in 2025. Today, he serves as the District Rotaract Representative for Rotary District 7710 in North Carolina, supporting Rotaract clubs throughout the district and helping strengthen connections between Rotaract and Rotary.

Rotaract meetup/city tour in Malina, Philippines. 

It is an impressive Rotary résumé for someone whose journey began as a teenager at RYLA.

And now that journey is becoming global.

“Rotary has taken me all over the world,” Eli said, “and I’m so excited for the opportunity to continue that journey in Ukraine with this project.”

The UNBROKEN Ukraine Project

Eli is leading the UNBROKEN Ukraine Project: Safer Childbirth and Surgery for Women at St. Anna Hospital, an international Rotary and Rotaract humanitarian partnership involving Rotaract District 7710 in North Carolina, the Rotary Club of Lviv International, Rotaract Club of Lviv International, UNBROKEN and the First Lviv Territorial Medical Union.

The goal sounds straightforward: raise $20,000 and purchase three pieces of medical equipment.

The impact behind those three pieces of equipment is anything but small.

St. Anna Hospital needs:

• A hysteroscope, $11,600, which would allow physicians to perform minimally invasive diagnostic and surgical procedures rather than relying on more invasive treatments.

• A mechanical ventilator, $5,800, to provide respiratory support during severe obstetric or postoperative emergencies.

• A patient cardiac monitor, $2,600, allowing clinicians to continuously monitor critically ill and postoperative patients and respond more quickly when a patient's condition deteriorates.

St. Anna is the women's health and reproductive medicine facility within the First Lviv Territorial Medical Union and part of the UNBROKEN ecosystem. The hospital serves not only women from the Lviv community, but also women displaced by the war and women accompanying veterans undergoing long-term treatment and rehabilitation.

In 2025 alone, the hospital attended 1,344 births and performed 2,167 surgical procedures. Yet its rapidly expanding clinical capacity has outpaced its equipment base.

That gap can have real consequences.

A ventilator and cardiac monitor would help St. Anna manage life-threatening obstetric and postoperative emergencies on site. A hysteroscope would give physicians a minimally invasive option for treating conditions that can otherwise require more extensive procedures, potentially reducing complications and recovery time while helping protect a woman's future fertility.

In other words, this is not equipment destined to gather dust in a storeroom.

The doctors are there. The operating rooms are there. The patients are there.

What is missing are the tools.

Going to Lviv

In December, Eli plans to travel to Lviv to meet the Ukrainian Rotarians and Rotaractors working alongside him, visit UNBROKEN and St. Anna Hospital and see firsthand the people and facilities the project will support.

The trip will also give him an opportunity to share the partnership through photographs and firsthand accounts with Rotary and Rotaract clubs back in the United States. Fundraising will continue through the spring and summer of 2027 until the $20,000 goal is reached.

But Eli and his partners are thinking beyond one trip and three pieces of equipment.

The broader vision is to build a lasting relationship among Rotary and Rotaract members in the United States and Ukraine, creating opportunities for future humanitarian projects, cultural exchange and dialogue. If the first project succeeds, the partners hope eventually to pursue larger opportunities, including a Rotary Global Grant.

That may be one of the most Rotary things about the project.

The equipment matters enormously. But so do the relationships being built around it.

High school classroom visit in Port Barton, Philippines.

Coming full circle

There is another partnership woven into this project, even though it doesn't appear on an organizational chart.

It is the relationship between Eli and the Rotary district that helped introduce him to service eight years ago.

“I owe so much to D5470,” he said, “so your willingness to support this project means the world to me and the rest of my team.”

For District 5470 Rotarians, Eli's story offers a glimpse at something we do not always get to see.

We send students to RYLA. We sponsor Interact clubs. We encourage young people to become Rotaractors. We volunteer, mentor, drive, organize, fund and sometimes wonder how much difference any single program really makes.

Then, every once in a while, we get to watch the ripple travel.

A teenager attends RYLA in Colorado.

He discovers Service Above Self.

He starts an Interact club.

He becomes a Rotaractor.

He comes back to lead RYLA.

He becomes a district Rotaract leader.

And eight years later, he is building a bridge between Rotarians and Rotaractors in the United States and Ukraine, working to put lifesaving medical equipment into a hospital serving women in a country at war.

That is more than a Rotary success story.

That is lasting impact.

How District 5470 clubs can help

Eli is inviting Rotary and Rotaract clubs, individual Rotarians and others who would like to participate to support the $20,000 UNBROKEN Ukraine Project.

Checks may be made payable to UNC-CH Rotaract Club, with “NC Rotaract for Ukraine” in the memo line. Bank transfer and Venmo, Zelle and PayPal options are also available by contacting Eli directly.

Eli Hauber
District 7710 Rotaract Representative 2026-27
Email: elihauber23@gmail.com
Phone: (719) 922-0134

Clubs interested in learning more, supporting a piece of equipment or helping Eli spread the word are encouraged to contact him directly.

Hiking Mont Blanc in Chamonix, France.