International

For many years, we have supported the education of children in India and Africa through charities such as the International Children’s Trust (www.internationalchildren.org) and Cecily’s Fund (www.cecilysfund.org). We plan to review these projects and, hopefully, continue our commitment. Below is a selection of photos of the classroom groups our funding has supported.

In 2024/25, we financed 50 Freedom Kit Bags (www.freedomkitbags.org), containing eco-friendly, sustainable sanitary wear for girls in Nepal. We also helped fund a Christmas Day ‘meat’ meal for pupils at a school in Uganda.

For the past three years, we have contributed to the costs of teaching at the Sreepur Children’s Village Project. The village, located in Bangladesh, serves as a refuge and safe haven for single mothers and their children. Our contribution has largely covered the cost of a teacher’s salary, thereby strengthening the education of around 1,500 women and children in the area. We plan to review its continued effectiveness and, hopefully, secure further funding (www.sreepurvillage.org).

Past statistics show that 55% of mothers arriving at the village are completely illiterate, 42% have limited education, and only 3% have completed primary education. When mothers return home, 100% have significantly improved their literacy skills.

Through our Trust Fund, we have provided resources for the past eight years to help people in developing countries start businesses and work their way out of poverty. This is achieved through donations to Lendwithcare (www.lendwithcare.org), which offers loans and support. To date, our funds have facilitated over £23,000 in loans, benefiting more than 2,700 people and creating over 400 jobs — most of which are filled by women. Funds from repaid loans are lent out again to support new enterprises.

In 2024/25, we also made small donations for vocational purposes to Self Help Africa (https://selfhelpafrica.org) and to Skillslink Uganda.

Among the other charities we regularly support is the Tea Leaf Trust (www.tealeaftrust.com), founded by a former Catford Rotarian. This charity offers educational programmes for young Indian Tamils living on Sri Lanka’s tea estates. Its aim is to help lift them and their families out of extreme poverty through employment, further education, and training. In 2024/25, we donated funds to cover the training of 10 students, enabling them to pass on their knowledge to their communities, thereby delivering a sustainable benefit.

In addition to the regular support outlined above, we were especially grateful for the help from Sidcup Inner Wheel members, friends, local residents, and voluntary organisations in filling 65 Rotary Shoeboxes with toys and other gifts for children, teenagers, and households. All items were gratefully received by families in Ukraine and other deserving areas of Europe.

Few people know that our umbrella organisation, Rotary International, was a founding partner of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative back in 1988. Rotary’s worldwide fundraising efforts, through the End Polio Campaign (www.endpolio.org), supported by matched 2:1 grants from the Gates Foundation, have helped reduce global polio cases by 99.9%. The few remaining cases are confined to Afghanistan and Pakistan. To date, Rotary International has donated over £2.3 billion to this cause, and our Club and its members continue to contribute annually.

Rotary International is also involved in raising funds to help end malaria, through the work of Rotarians Against Malaria Global (www.ram-global.org).

In addition to the funding mentioned above, we remain ever mindful of the needs arising from international disasters, including areas affected by famine, floods, and conflict — all of which require immediate help, not only in the form of financial support but also essential equipment.

In recent years, we have contributed towards medical supplies, a second-hand ambulance, and the transport of goods to Ukraine. Additionally, we have supported major aid agencies providing emergency relief worldwide, such as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) (www.msf.org), the British Red Cross (www.redcross.org.uk), and the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) (www.dec.org.uk).

For many years, we have also provided valuable funding to ShelterBox, a charity founded by Rotarians in the UK. ShelterBox has grown into an internationally recognised, independent disaster relief organisation (www.shelterbox.org). We made further donations in 2024/25 and expect to offer additional support in 2025/26, enabling the charity to continue providing emergency shelter (tents), clothing, and water purification in response to a range of crises, including earthquakes, conflict, and flooding.

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International Connections

As a worldwide organisation with over 45,000 clubs and 1.2 million members, Rotary offers ample opportunities to meet like-minded people across the globe. Our Club maintains particularly close relationships with two European clubs — one in Delft, Netherlands, and the other in Kungsbacka, Sweden.

Several of our Dutch friends joined us for social weekends during 2024/25, and a small group of our members and partners will be hosted by our Swedish friends in May 2026. These friendships are close and longstanding, and we greatly value these good relations.

In September 2025, a group from our Club will join some of our German and Dutch contacts for a walking weekend in Münster, Germany.