International

Plans for the year:

Mike Clewes (Chair), Barrie Birch, Roy Tate, Mohammed Aslam

Saltergate Children’s Home Ethiopia / Microloans

This charity based in Chesterfield helps orphaned children in Addis Ababa Ethiopia. Rather than taking children off the streets and putting them into orphanages Kevin Morley provides funds for the children to live in a normal home with a family member, perhaps a grandmother or an aunt and also gets them into school. Since it’s inception 2015 we have supported Kevin’s work and seen the number of children cared for grow from 2 to more than 150. 

Our recent aim has been on supply funds for Micro Loans so that the family members looking after the children can become self-sufficient in providing for the children. To date we have donated £3,410 to this scheme which with repayments has allowed £4,630 to finance 10 projects. Thus, a total of 10 families in Addis Ababa have become self-sufficient. I would suggest that we look to making a donation of a further £1,000 to this micro loan scheme this year.

Kevin from Saltergate is now asking for spectacles to take to Ethiopia so John Watson is kindly collecting them in and we will give them to Kevin the next time that he visits us. He is also looking for used hearing aids if anybody has a source for them.

The Funzi and Bodo Trust

The Funzi and Bodo Trust was started over a decade ago to help alleviate the poverty and suffering in these 2 villages in Kenya. Working with villagers they provide extensive medical and educational services, sanitation and clean water as well as projects to end poverty. The charity works both on the island of Funzi and on the mainland in the village of Bodo. 

We first supported the charity in December 2024, and it is proposed to continue this support this year with a donation to their micro loans scheme to help the residents become self-supporting.

Other Initiatives

We will also review other Rotary schemes that are operating in D1040 such as old bicycles and wheelchairs. As well as review other Rotary charities such as Shelterbox, Polio and Aquabox.