Building on a Firm Foundation

President Stephen King and Mary, IPP Patrick Rothon and Carol, Roger Kettle and Sarah, Brian Wellman and Julia, Peter Greene and Wendy, and Michael Dunne, who were among over 80 Rotarians present at the annual Rotary District 1240 Foundation Lunch, held this year at the Magic Mushroom in Barleylands.

Also present were Global Grant Students Takumi Hirano (Japan), Tsai Hsin-Chuan (Taiwan) and keynote speaker Judith Diment MBE who is Chair of the Polio Eradication Task Force of Rotary International.  Seamus Grant (responsible for Major Gifts within the Rotary Foundation) who was the Speaker last year and a previous speaker at our club, was also present.

Supporting Foundation

Proceedings were opened by District Rotary Foundation Chair Steve Wallbank followed by a welcome from District Governor Mark Williamson.  

The environment and the service were much better than the last few years, and with food that was very much better than previous years. 

Success Again

As usual, the Foundation lunch is the opportunity to celebrate those clubs which have done the most to support The Rotary Foundation, and its End Polio Now campaign, and a series of presentations were made by PDG Anne Moriaty on behalf of the Rotary Foundation and our District 1240.

Winner of the banner for the club with the highest per capita donations to Foundation was Southend City Rotary Club, with our daughter Rotary Club of Billericay Mayflower coming third overall.

Our club walked away with the award for highest donations to End Polio Now in the Rotary Year 2024-25 (the End Polio Now - Countdown to History Certificate) which Immediate Past President Patrick Rothon accepted on our behalf because they were won in his Presidential year:

Global Scholars

First to address us was Takumi Hirano, a Japanese student who gave a very amusing speech, talking about his background and interests. He is very much enjoying his time here and wants to stay on in the UK if he can get the funding, but if not, then he plans to go back to  Japan for two years and then try again.

Tsai Hsin-Chuan from Taiwan was next.  She explained we could call her Sarah – everybody in Taiwan was given an English name as well as their traditional Chinese name, and this was hers.  She was also very interesting and amusing as she described her background and interests.

At one point she mentioned her two nieces had sent a stuffed toy each with her, which she showed to us. She also has only one year funding but needs more to complete her work.  Occupational Therapy is her main interest and she had the whole audience doing three exercises – now that’s an achievement!! 

Despite English being very much their second language they acquitted themselves superbly.

VIP Speaker!

Our Keynote Speaker was Judith Diment MBE, who talked about her work and that of Rotary’s Polio Eradication initiatives.  What is Polio? It is a highly infectious disease which spreads typically through contaminated water.  There’s no cure but with vaccinations, it is completely preventable.  

Rotary started its anti-Polio work in 1985 when there were 1,000 cases per day across the world in 125 countries.  In 1988 GPEI, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, was launched with partners such as WHO, UNICEF, and the CDC, and very notably, the Gates Foundation.  Polio is now endemic in only two countries, Pakistan and Afghanistan, where there were only 44 cases last year - a 50% reduction from the previous year.

In 2026 there have been NO case so far this year!  Five of the six WHO regions are polio free, and of the three wild viruses, two have been eliminated and only one, type 1, remains.

There are very rare cases where the weakened virus in the standard oral vaccination can revert and cause Polio, but this has no effect on vaccinated children. A Rotarian professor has developed a new vaccine which does not have this effect and over 2 billion doses have already been given.  Judith ended by thanking us for our support of Foundation and its Anti-Polio initiatives.

Finale

The event was in support of The Rotary Foundation’s End Polio Now and has raised approximately £800 for the Rotary Foundation.