The idea of the Rotary Foundation sponsoring 'Ambassadors of Goodwill' began in 1947 and since then over 31,000 scholars have travelled and studied in over 100 countries. This is one of the largest international scholarship programmes in the world and is the flagship of the Foundation educational programmes. Rotarians act as Counsellors to scholars for their post graduate year. In that time they become very close to the scholar, often resulting in lifetime friendships. Scholars have come from America, Japan, Germany and Brazil.