Speaker - Jacob Cox, Ambassadorial Scholar, Virginia USA

Ambassadorial Scholar, Jacob Cox, from Virginia, USA, gave us a clear and interesting picture of the wide range of activities he has managed to fit in to his young life. Jacob's sponsor club is Lexington, famous in the development history of the United States, and now a centre of horse breeding. Close contact with the Rotary Organisation helped Jacob during a work project in Cameroon, following which he and a Cameroon Rotarian have set up a scheme to help parents register their children - in the remote northern part of Cameroon only about 30% of births are registered and without registration a child is not allowed to enter school education. Jacob's scheme has already ensured the registration of 285 children who otherwise would have had very reduced opportunities in life. South Cambridge members thought this might be a worthy overseas charity to support in the future. While in Cambridge Jacob is a student at Trinity College and he is making use of the Cambridge University Downing Site facilities to study the possibilities of developing a vaccine against Sleeping Sickness - the cause of many cases of serious illness and deaths in equatorial areas. Jacob is proud and grateful to be an Ambassadorial Scholar and reminded us that since the Scheme began in 1947, Rotary Foundation has funded 40,000 Scholars from and to many different countries worldwide. An enjoyable and challenging meeting!