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). Below is a sample of photos of the classroom groups that our funding has supported.

2024 will mark our third annual financial contribution to the Sreepur Children’s Village Project, which supports children and their families in Bangladesh (www.sreepurvillage.org). 

Through our Trust Fund, we also provide resources to help people in developing countries start their own businesses and work their way out of poverty. This is achieved through donations to Lendwithcare (www.lendwithcare.org), which offers loans and support to individuals and small businesses. 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 all repaid loans are lent out again for new businesses.

Amongst the other charities we support is the Tea Leaf Trust (www.tealeaftrust.com), which offers educational programmes for young people on Sri Lankan tea estates, helping to lift them and their families out of poverty. We recently donated £700 to fund the training of 10 students, enabling them to pass on their knowledge to their communities, thus delivering a sustainable benefit.

We have also supported Mary’s Meals (www.marysmeals.org.uk) in setting up school feeding programmes in some of the world’s poorest communities, where hunger and poverty prevent children from accessing education.

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) with matched 2:1 grants from the Gates Foundation, have reduced polio cases by 99.9%. The few remaining cases are found in 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 to the campaign.

Rotary International is also involved in raising funds to end Malaria, via the work of Rotarians against Malaria Global (www.ram-global.org).  This is the first programme of scale with the aim to end Malaria worldwide. 

In addition to the above funding, we remain ever mindful of the need to support emergency aid for international disasters, including areas affected by famine, floods, and conflict—all of which require immediate help, not only in the form of money but also essential equipment.

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

For many years, we have also supported ShelterBox, a charity initially founded by Rotarians in the UK, which has grown to become an internationally recognised, independent disaster relief organisation (www.shelterbox.org). In response to urgent calls for aid, we have made further donations this year and have launched additional fundraising efforts to provide emergency shelter, clothing, and water purification in response to a range of crises, including earthquakes and floods.

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International Connections

As a worldwide organisation with over 46,000 clubs and 1.4 million members, we have ample opportunities to meet like-minded people anywhere. However, our Club maintains particularly close relations with two European clubs—one in Delft, Netherlands, and the other in Kungsbacka, Sweden. Each year, we either visit one of these clubs or they visit us, either socially or to participate in a walking group. Our friendships are close and longstanding, and we greatly value these good relations.