International

Lendwithcare.org has been one of our international projects for several years. We support small entrepeneurs to improve their business. 

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From 2022, 2023 and 2024, the club has supported Children's Visual Health project in Mexico City. Along with Rotary club of  Edinburgh, Leith, Braids, Corstorphine, District 1320, Club Rotario Xalostoc, Club Rotario Viveros-Coyoacán, FURMEX and Club Rotario Contreras in Mexico City; we have eye-sight tested almost 1,200 boys and girls from very low-income public Primary schools, and delivered more than 500 spectacles. 

Our vision is to improve their vision

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We supported Suchana-community.org empowering children through learning in their own native language. 

The project benefited 182 children in Oct 2020, 249 children in March 2021 and 262 in January 2022.

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We also supported Steka (Step Kids Awareness), which is a grass roots Malawian charity created by Godknows Maseko to provide a family home for (currently 65) very vulnerable children rescued from the streets, or from traumatic situations - more details here: https://supportsteka.wordpress.com/

His latest plan is to raise money to help build vocation skills centres, so that as the children grow, they can learn to support themselves, and this is where Portobello Rotary comes in.Club members are supporting Steka and the combination of club fundraising and support from the Portobello community has raised enough for one building. That includes a Rotary District grant and we and working on further grants - in conjunction with other Rotary clubs - to help Godknows' vision.

All grants must be sustainable, and one way in which Steka can do this is by providing meaningful dialogues with young peoplel visiting Malawi. One of the Steka young people, Gift, has been in Scotland for the last six months, learning about sociology, and will return in September to undertake a public sociology degree, provided by Queen Margaret University.

Another international initiative is to purchase Shelterboxes - these boxes are sent to wherever people are suffering from natural disasters like floods, fires or earthquakes and provide all the material people need to make a home, albeit a temporary one - like a tent, cooking materials, solar panels, even pencils and drawing materials for children. . The Shelterbox contact details are here: http://www.shelterbox.org

Finally, the club, like all other Rotary clubs, fundraises for End Polio Now, an initiative to eradicate the horribly crippling disease of polio from the whole world. This is a long term project, but is very close (hopefully) to completion.