Pictured above is President Ross and Ian Knight presenting a cheque for $4,000 to Dennis Shore who is the Chair of the District 9800 Foundation Committee. Every year the club, and many other clubs in the District, donate to the Foundation.
Dennis believes the Foundation is magic. He explained that Rotary Foundation grants perform magical projects and programs to make people's lives better.
The Foundation's mission is to enable Rotarians to advance world understanding, peace and goodwill through the improvement of health, the support of education and the alleviation of poverty.
Rotary Foundation focuses on six key areas of support:
Disease Prevention and Treatment - PolioPlus has been the Foundation's cornerstone project for the last 30 years. In 1988, there were 350,000 cases of polio. Thanks to the Foundation, the number of cases so far this year has been reduced to 5. Therefore, children are still at risk until we eliminate the disease entirely. However, disease prevention is not just all about polio. A more recent project that involves 14 Australian Districts and 13 clubs in our own District is to eliminate malaria in Timor Leste.
Peace and Conflict Prevention and Resolution - up to 100 fellows a year train at 6 Rotary Peace Centres around the world to become the next generation of peacemakers. There are 3 Australians who are involved in this program in 2018.
Basic Education and Literacy - this program enables Rotarians to provide technology, teacher training, vocational training teams and text books to underprivileged communities. Some of the projects that our clubs are involved in include a 3-year teacher training program in Nepal and equal education for blind students in Istanbul.
Water and Sanitation - Werribee Rotary has been the recipient of Foundation funding to help build a new bore water system in Uganda. There are many other examples of this around the world.
Economic and Community Grants
Maternal and Child Health
Dennis explained that, while the Foundation is a wonderful source of funding for many worthy projects, we need to "feed the giving tree" to ensure that it continues to provide on-going support. The Rotary Foundation is the only charity organisation that has had a 100% rating for the last 10 years. It is rated as the best charity organisation in the world. This can only continue if clubs and individuals are prepared to regularly fund it.