International

Jessica SIMS 0ur Rotary Scholar – she is at Worcester College, Oxford and reading for a Masters in Political Theory at Blavatnik  School of Government.

 My name is Ilias Mavroleon and I am  Chairman of the Rotary Club of  Didcot's International committee..

The committee deals mainly with three aspects of the care principles of ROTARY which embraces World Health, Hunger and Humanity. These are the foremost  principles based on Rotary Foundation establshed in 1929 following the death of Paul Harris (the Rotary Founder), his legacy was to extend the Foundation Worldwide. In 1965 prgrammes were lanched to promote Group Study Exchange, awards for technical training and grants for World Humanity schemes. 

In 1985 Rotary started the huge undertaking to eradicate POLIO throughout the World. This is one of the many great successes of Rotary International. The current situation is that only a small number of locations exist where the crippling disease is still present, less than a dzen worldwide. They are mainly in the War torn countries in Asia. It is hoped that polio will be eradicated everywhere within the next two years. This is a major achievement of Rotary International in partnership wth the Gates Foundation.

In recent years the club has assisted in helping victims of many world disasters, mainly caused by nature such as earthquakes, hurricanes and tsunamis. We usally channel our support through organisations such as Shelterbox, and Aquabox,.

For example we have funded the purchase of several hundred Shelterboxes over the years.These range from small containers filled with essestials for survival to  very large Sheterboxes which can support large families with good shelter and essentiak equipment, such as blankets, clothing and cooking utensils.

We have supported victims of earthquakes in Japan, Chile, and Italy as well as Hurricanes in the Phillipines, Haiti and the recentt Hurricane Matthew in the Caribbean. We have a close associationn with Eastern Uganda where we have sponsored children's educationn in the small town of KAMULI .It is a very poor community where education is only available to the very few children who can pay.We have been assisting with the local hospital improving training for nurses and some rebfurbishment of the building.

We have also supported, along with other clubs, Sanitation schemes in Kenya.

We can faciltiate, at short notice,.action in response to World Didasters and contimue to support the Rotary Foundation annually as well as Polio Plus.

As a member of the wider Rotary Foundation community we have links all over the World and host and sponsor students who have been fortunate enough to receive grants from Rotary International to aid them in their studies abroad. Being close to one of the United Kingdom's most famous universities in Oxford has meant we can help locally.

Being part of Rotary International is very rewarding as we seek to help those less fortunate than ourselves.

Ilias Mavroleon

Chairman