The Rotary clubs of District 1130 have banded together together to complete their fundraising target for the Classroom Box Project – a Rotary initiative started by Rotary Beckett that provides classroom materials to schools in Africa that need them the most.
The funds raised by District 1130 will be collected by the Rotary Club of Basse in The Gambia where they will be used to supply 200 children across eight schools with essential school materials.
This is the fourth year that the district has completed the project that focuses on education – one of Rotary’s Areas of Focus that can provide the best ladder out of poverty. However, it isn’t just across the world that children need help with their education but locally as well as the Rotary Club of Shrewsbury Darwin saw.
I am delighted with the quantity of books collected by our members, and we have just donated books to the Martin Wilson Primary School and Greenacres Primary School.”
The Shrewsbury club recently joined Rotary Books4Home – a Rotary charity that donates unwanted books to local schools with the aim of helping children develop a love of reading.
Under the enthusiastic leadership of Club members Jenny Brackwell and Jane Crouch, the club set about collecting books for eventual distribution to local schools.
At the Martin Wilson School, the Rotary club handed over 230 books for the children to take home and 150 books for their library and at Greenacres it was 210 books for the children and 200 books for their library.
Club President David Barker added: “I expect many of us can remember a favourite book we had as a child, which we might read over and over again, and how important literacy was to set us up not only though school but through our careers.
“I am delighted with the quantity of books collected by our members, and we have just donated books to the Martin Wilson Primary School and Greenacres Primary School.”
The handing over of donated books at Greenacres Primary School, Shrewsbury.
Down towards Cornwall, District 1175 are running a wellbeing project that is currently working to improve the wellbeing of 500 business people and professionals.
A few years ago, the club discovered that the NHS Partnership Trust and Pentreath, a charity supporting people with poor mental health, were working on a European Social Fund (ESF) bid of £1 million to set up a Recovery College where these people would be treated as students, not patients.
At the time, it was estimated that 1 in 4 employed people suffered from wellbeing problems and the club decided that helping businesses and their employees understand what created their sense of wellbeing would be a useful contribution.
The Recovery Centre concurred and have since allowed Rotary to run wellbeing courses for businessmen. The role of Rotary has been to find the audience, the training room, refreshments etc and pay the facilitators who deliver the wellbeing courses.
The response has been overwhelmingly positive, with over 90% of those taking the courses finding them beneficial or very beneficial and the last 28 courses have been given to the staff of the Universities of Falmouth and Exeter.
An example of the damage done by Typhoon Rai.
Finally, when the Super Typhoon Rai devastated the Visayas and Mindanao Islands in the central Philippines last December, the Rotary Club of North Worcestershire were quick to aid the specialised disaster response charities Shelterbox and Aquabox.
Working with trusted local partners, Aquabox provides a clean water supply for schools, medical clinics, and other community centres as well as water supply for family groups of about five individuals.
North Worcestershire Rotary’s donation supported shipment of a mix of family and community water filters which will provide clean water for over 7000 people.
ShelterBox teams work with disaster-hit families around the world, offering emergency shelter and other essential items such as cooking equipment to support them in rebuilding their lives.
North Worcestershire Rotary’s donation supported shipment to The Philippines of a sturdy tent and essential survival equipment to allow a family to start rebuilding its life after the typhoon.
Graham Mackenzie, Deputy Chair of North Worcestershire Rotary’s Charity Committee said: “As Rotarians we want to focus our support on the poorest and most deprived communities in the world and working with trusted charity partners such as Aquabox and ShelterBox in disaster areas meets this objective.
“Supporting these projects also maintains a relationship with the Philippines that was established some years ago by North Worcestershire Rotary when several members spent two weeks in the country working with the Simple Sight charity to test children’s eyes and provide glasses.”
