www.RoseCharities.org The Name....

The RoseCharities emblem is a stylized rose with five petals. Rosa rugosa, one of the oldest species
of rose had five petals and pentagonal symmetry

The Rose has ties to the fivepointed guiding star of Venus as well as the
Compass Rose. Since ancient times it has thus represented both the qualities of femininity
caring, nuturing, creative motherhood and that of guidance of direction. It was the early
Christian symbol of the Virgin Mary.

The rose's close link to the concept of 'true direction' and navigation is indicated in the 'compass rose'
as well as the 'rose lines' , the longitudinal lines on maps.

For the reasons above , the Rose was a symbol
that spoke of the Grail — womanhood, and
guidance—the feminine chalice and guiding star that led to secret
truth."

Despite these symbolic images, which link very closely into the ideals of RoseCharities, they were not the reason for the direct origin of the name of RoseCharities. This came from in fact from two springs with one or two additional factors...

The first was that it followed on from the floral theme of the organization from which it 'budded' (initially as a subunit.. IRIS (International Resources for the Improvment of Sight), the ophthalmic organization founded by Mme Michele Claudel, Dr William Grut, and Mr John Stewart in 1995 to provide free eye surgery for sight restoration for the poor of Cambodia and secondly because it could be fitted into Will Gruts (rather contrived) acronysm 'Rehabilitation Oriented Surgical Enablement .. ROSE. Despite the wording convolutions though they did represent the main goal of Rose in the only area in which they were operating at the time, namely the provision of (and training for) low cost, simple, sustainable, safe surgical procedures which were oriented solely at the improvement of quality of life by rehabilitation.