Above: Southborough Rotary is touting one of their charitable projects — their work to improve children’s access to science education around the world. (images cropped from logo and contributed photos)
The Rotary Club of Southborough asked me to share information on their ongoing initiative to provide “foldscopes” to schools in “underserved” countries.
You can learn more about the project below. Community members interested in supporting the effort can make donations to Rotary. But what the club is really hoping to attract is more volunteers interested in getting involved with their efforts on this and other initiatives.
One of the ways you can learn more is by stopping by their table at the Food Truck Festival taking place tomorrow and the following three Wednesdays. (Read about that here.)
Here is Rotary’s message, with more photos and a video they shared:
For residents of Southborough seeking a meaningful way to contribute, the Rotary Club of Southborough offers a practical path to making a measurable difference. One recent example of that impact is the Club’s Foldscope initiative, which expands access to science education for children in underserved regions around the world.
Over the past three years, the Club has distributed Foldscopes to students in Ecuador, Colombia, Guatemala, and India—helping to spark curiosity and foster interest in biology and scientific discovery.
The Foldscope itself originated in a Stanford University laboratory, where a PhD student identified a recurring challenge during fieldwork: traditional microscopes were often bulky, broken, or simply unavailable. This insight led to the development of a simple yet transformative solution.
The result is the Foldscope —a durable, foldable microscope made primarily of paper. Despite its simplicity, it enables users to view microscopic organisms and structures, opening a window into an otherwise invisible world. By dramatically reducing cost and increasing portability, the Foldscope makes scientific exploration accessible to virtually anyone.
For many of us, access to basic classroom tools is taken for granted. For the students receiving these Foldscopes, such opportunities are only just becoming available—often for the first time.
To see the impact firsthand, we invite you to watch an accompanying video of a young girl in India assembling a Foldscope provided to her school. While her words may not be universally understood, her enthusiasm and sense of discovery are unmistakable—a powerful reminder of how even simple tools can inspire learning and curiosity.
To learn more about the Rotary Club of Southborough and how to get involved, please visit: southboroughrotary.com
