International activities of the Rotary Club of Royston

Rotary International the world’s first service club organisation is more than 100 years old. It now has nearly 33,000 clubs in more than 200 countries. Its members form a global network of business and professional leaders who volunteer their time to serve their communities and the world.

Rotary Clubs like ours in Royston are the cornerstone of Rotary International. Through the funds we raise in the Royston area we have been able to provide vital assistance to distressed or disadvantaged people in many parts of the world.

Thanks to the generosity of the community in Royston we have given help in some of the following ways:

	Chernobyl Children - Each year we support the Friends of Chernobyl Children, who bring children to this country for one month each year to give them some respite from the difficulties they continue to suffer in Chernobyl.
	Shelter Boxes - This year we have used some of our charity funds to pay for two shelter boxes in response to the appeal following the September typhoon in the Philippines. These boxes incorporate a tent capable of sheltering ten people and all the essentials they will need to cope in the immediate aftermath of the disaster. The boxes cost £490 each.

Last year we paid for two Shelter Boxes to be sent to Burma following the terrible disaster which struck that country in 2008.

	Water - Last year, we provided funds for a well in a village in Zambia, through a scheme being coordinated by the Rotary Club of Diss.
	Sierra Leone - In 2004 two members of the Club joined a team of other Rotarians from the UK to visit Sierra Leone to work for the charity Mercy Ships in renovation/construction work at the Leonard Cheshire Polio Home in Freetown. In 2006 nine members of the Club returned to Sierra Leone to form an entire team to work for Mercy Ships and help in the construction of a new building at a fistula clinic, again in Freetown. This year we have responded from a plea from a contact in Sierra Leone for funds to buy food for the children of the village of Mapainda where famine is raging.
	Kenya - In 2005 a team visited Kenya to work for another charity, Nyumbani, which runs an orphanage for aids children in Nairobi and works for victims who live in the slums that surround the city.
	Twinning - Nearer to home, we have a 'linked' Rotary Club in France with whom we exchange regular visits. The latest of these was in May 2009 when a group of Rotarians from Royston were guests of the club in France. We expect the French Rotarians to make a return visit in May 2010.
	As Chairman of the International Committee of the Rotary Club of Royston I feel privileged to be part of this international organisation and to be able to contribute to the humanitarian work of Rotary International.

Photos Kenya 2005