ROTARY FOUNDATION Report 2014-2015

Committee: PDG Ron Pearce, PP Don Hamilton, PP Don Munro.

Goals:

Encourage club contributions to Foundation Fund, Support Polio Plus and Rotary Peace & Educational Programmes

Polio Plus ($2000):

World Polio Day: 24 October 2014, Livestream event, including a global update on the current status of polio eradication to be shown at the Rosanna meeting Oct. 29th. Donation presented through Ruth Stapleton who explained the donation through Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation would grow to $6000. Ruth then also thanked her friend Dr. Loretta Gya whose work and donation in this area was recognised on the night by a Paul Harris Fellow Recognition presented by Ron Pearce.

DG’s Partner’s Project:

Member EREY donations totaled $1500 for the year.

Rotary Peace Fellowships and Studies ($2500):

From the insight and inspiration gained from meeting with Naing Ko Ko, a Rotary Peace Fellowship recipient and passed on by Ros, the Board agreed that the Club donate $2500 to the Rotary Foundation to be directed to the Rotary Peace Fellowships. Approval was also given to sponsor Naing Ko Ko to come to our club from Canberra and address a special meeting about his life and his Rotary fellowship. Two main purposes of inviting him to visit us: to encourage individual Rotary Clubs and individual Rotarians to donate to the Foundation fund so that Peace Studies Scholarships can continue and to advertise to tertiary institutions and students the opportunities to apply for scholarships and fellowships in Peace Studies.

Ros Smith, Former Chairperson

 

Rotary Foundation 2013-2014

The Foundation committee made up of PP Bill O’Halloran , Ruth Little and PDG Ron Pearce operated under difficulty with Ron being absent due to illness for 6 months of the year.

However – Due to the untiring efforts of Ruth assisted by Bill the Foundation Committee was able to arrange for a donation of $5,700.00. to the Rotary Foundation, this amount was designated for Polio Plus to assist Rotary Foundation reach its annual contributions as part of the agreement with the Global Polio Eradication Initiative [GPEI] .

Rotary international along with the World health organization, UNICEF, US Centres for Disease control and Prevention, and the Gates Foundation are partners in the GPEI . In addition to contributing over US$9 billion to the GPEI Rotary has helped secure over US$9 billion from donor governments since the initiative began in 1988.

In November, Rotary Foundation Month, we had PDG Peter Gilbert speak to the club on Foundation developments particularly in the changes to GSE and foundation Grants.

At the club’s 40th Anniversary meeting presentations of PHF’s were made to PP Don Hamilton [ sapphire} and to Rob Patton Co – Ordinator at Banyule Community and Health, for Aboriginal Affairs.

The committee thanks the Board and members for their continued support to the Rotary’s most active and successful Foundation.

PDG RON PEARCE, Chairperson

 

 

Seven projects were successfully completed.

 

Asylum Refugees Bridging Support $2,000

Working with Claire Foreman, Red Cross Caseworker for the Bridging Support Program, $2,000 purchased 14 x 80 piece kitchen starter sets ($1,005); Manchester items: 10 single quilts, 25 double quilts and 80 pillows ($795); individual cutlery sets for 40 persons ($200); 16 toiletry bags were donated by members and partners; 100 toothbrushes and toothpastes were donated by PP Don Munro

Rotarians Against Malaria (RAM) $2,500

625 Long Life Insecticide Treated Nets (LLIN) were purchased for Timor-Leste. Ruth Stapleton travelled to Timor-Leste in May with a RAWCS team of seven other Rotarians from NSW to witness the distribution process and participate in the distribution of nets in the rural community of Maubara.

ShelterBox $1,000

One ShelterBox was purchased in response to the Syrian Refugee crisis. Aquabox 30 $750: One Aquabox 30 was purchased in response to Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines.

PDG David Anderson’s Partner’s Project, “Possum’s Project’ in Papua New Guinea

A cheque for $2,000 was presented to PDG David Anderson on 23 October 2014 following a Guest Speaker presentation by two Directors of The Highlands Foundation with whom PDG David’s project is now affiliated.

The School of St Jude Tanzania: $1,000

This money enabled the teachers at The School of St Jude to purchase a large quantity of highly desirable educational aids which they could not afford. Ruth Stapleton attended a meeting of the Rotary Club of Croydon when the Founding Director, Gemma Sisia, was the Guest Speaker. She spoke of the value these items had given the teachers and the students.

Nyuh Kuning Elementary School, Bali, Indonesia: $2,000

This money enabled the purchasing of every curriculum book for each of the 106 elementary school students. $200 was allocated to the midyear Grade 6 scholarships. Rotarian Peter Little personally presented these on 14 December 2014. $300 will be presented to the end-of-year Grade 6 scholarships winners, including the Dux of School, on 14 June 2014. I will personally make the presentations on behalf of the Club.

A Message from Ruth Stapleton

I humbly and most gratefully thank my enthusiastic and committed Committee members for guiding me through my first role as a Group A Chairperson. It has indeed been a pleasure and a privilege to serve as the Chairperson of the International Service Committee 2013-2014.
RUTH STAPLETON-LITTLE MPHF, Chairperson