International and Foundation Project Group

Latest News:

December 2025
Harrogate Rotary Club has recently donated £500-00, sent earlier this year to Physionet (along with five other local Rotary Clubs) to assist in the delivery of a container shipment to Ukraine. In these pictures you can see Physionet volunteers loading a container with wheelchairs,crutches,chairs and other vital supplies at their warehouse at Gelsthorpe Farm Whitley, for delivery to Ukraine.

We are also going to send Shelterbox the sum of £850.00. They are currently sending boxes and tarpaulins to various disaster areas throughout the world.

International and Foundation Project Group

Initiating and supporting projects in the wider world.

During 2024 / 2025, as well as monitoring all appeals for help and support, including Rotary District Initiatives, the Committee have supported the following:

SHELTERBOX

A donation of £850 was made to Shelterbox specifically to support the 'GAZA PROJECT'.

Each box contains a 10-person tent, sleeping bags, cooking stove, water filter, pots and pans, a hammer, blankets, and basic hygiene items to allow a family to survive who have lost everything.

ShelterBox is a Rotary Charity founded over 25 years ago by the Rotary Club of Helston in Cornwall. They have supported over 3 million people during that time in over 100 countries, and have boxes in readiness stored in warehouses in Panama, Belgium, Ghana, Pakistan, U.A.E., Kenya, and the Philippines. During 2024 / 2025, they are also supporting displaced and affected people caused by conflicts in Gaza, Syria, Chad, and Burkina Faso, as well as those affected by flooding in Bangladesh, drought in Somalia, and an earthquake in Myanmar.

POLIO

A donation of £250 was made to the Eradicating Polio Fund. As of May 2025, there were 12 cases of Polio reported across Pakistan and Afghanistan. Since 1985, Rotary Worldwide has supported this Charity, again formed by Rotarians and generously supported by the Bill Gates Foundation, who add twice the amount raised throughout the world annually. Cases of Polio have decreased by 99.9% since the formation of this charity, when it was then prevalent in over 120 countries worldwide.

UKRAINE

A further donation of £460, as well as items listed below, was made to Tim Marsden of the Rotary Club of Huddersfield to assist in the cost of forwarding a container of aid to Ukraine. Tim has already made over 20 trips with aid since the conflict began, accompanying an articulated Lorry full of aid comprising inflatable beds, clothing, blankets, children's clothing, hygiene products, trench candles, tinned food for soldiers on the front line, crutches, walking frames, and medical supplies to hospitals.

During 2016/17 as well as monitoring all the appeals for help and the District initiatives the Committee has supported the following:

The Open Doors Special Education Centre in Jos, Nigeria (www.opendoorsnigeria.org).

Open Doors is a registered non governmental and not for profit organisation dedicated to the provision of quality special education, vocational training, speech and language therapy and physiotherapy for children and young people with learning handicaps at The Open Doors Special Education Centre.

The District Micro Loans project. (Google Rotary District 1040 Micro Loans)

The provision of a small loan for those who are too poor to have access to conventional financial services.

Life Boxes (www.disasteraiduk.org)

Organised by Disaster Aid UK and Ireland with a mission to respond to natural disasters with the supply of humanitarian aid to the affected communities and/or individuals. Each box typically contains 72 items as specified by the Red Cross; tools clothes, blankets, babycare/hygiene items, toys, classroom materials and water filters. The box provides a few basic items that would allow a family to survive who have lost everything, however the contents of the boxes can be tailored to specific needs as identified by the first responder teams.

Roatan.

We have been monitoring the Rotary Club of Roatan’s Schools Sanitation project following RI’s approval of a Global Grant last year to which our Club contributed $10,000. After a long delayed start due to local permissions having to be reapplied for the work is now underway. The project, “to provide bathrooms with septic tanks and water harvesting systems, hygiene training and training in the operation and maintenance of the systems in 7 schools on Roatan Island, Honduras” is under the direct control of the Rotary Club of Roatan.

Concert

In association with Stagecoach Theatre Arts Harrogate a concert was organised at Ashville College. Whilst not specifically an International and Foundation event some of the proceeds from the concert which realised £2,640.00 will be allocated to International and Foundation projects.

Foundation.

End Polio Now Campaign

We continue to support the campaign to eradicate polio. This week the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts meets in Geneva to review the global eradication status and advise on additional measures that should be undertaken to fully implement the Polio Endgame Strategic Plan and secure a lasting polio free world. There are just a handful of reported cases as of 25^th April in Afghanistan, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Nigeria and Pakistan.

See www.polioeradication.org and www.endpolio.org.

Purple for Polio Jam.

Wilkin and Sons Ltd donated 52,000 jars of Tiptree Purple for Polio jam – in our case greengage. Club members were invited to donate at least £2 for a jar of jam and then to fill the empty jar with money.