Rotary makes high-quality health care available to vulnerable mothers and children so they can live longer and grow stronger.

We expand access to quality care, so mothers and children everywhere can have the same opportunities for a healthy future. An estimated 5.9 million children under the age of five die each year because of malnutrition, inadequate health care, and poor sanitation — all of which can be prevented.

HOW ROTARY MAKES HELP HAPPEN
Rotary provides education, immunisations, birth kits, and mobile health clinics. Women are taught how to prevent mother-to-infant HIV transmission, how to breast-feed, and how to protect themselves and their children from disease.

OUR IMPACT ON THE LIVES OF MOTHERS AND CHILDREN
The Rotary Foundation reaches mothers and children in need by giving communities the help and training they need to take control of their own maternal and infant health care.

Rotary makes amazing things happen, like:

• Mobile prenatal clinicsHaiti has the highest maternal and infant mortality rate of any country in the western hemisphere. Rotary provided a fully equipped medical Jeep to volunteers and midwives to reach mothers and children in remote areas.
• Cancer screeningRotarians provided a mobile cancer screening unit and awareness trainings around Chennai, India, where there is a high mortality rate of women with breast and cervical cancer due to late diagnosis.
• Preventing injuries and deathsRotary members launched a $3 million, five-year pilot to save lives of mothers and childrenduring home deliveries in Nigeria. Since 2005, they’ve also repaired 1,500 obstetric fistulas — 500 more than their initial goal — restoring dignity and hope to vulnerable mothers.

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Clean water and sanitation is a human right. When people, especially children, have access to clean water, sanitation, and hygiene, they lead healthier and more successful lives.

We don’t just build wells and walk away. Rotary members integrate water, sanitation, and hygiene into education projects. When children learn about disease transmission and practice good hygiene, they miss less school. And they can take those lessons home to their families, expanding our impact.

HOW ROTARY MAKES HELP HAPPEN
Rotary has issued a global challenge to its members, asking them to work collectively to improve education quality and access — particularly for girls — by working with communities to improve teacher training, curriculum, and water, sanitation, and hygiene facilities.

​THE POWER OF CLEAN WATER
The Rotary Foundation is changing the world by providing grants for projects and activities around the globe and in your own backyard:

• Strengthen the ability of communities to develop, fund, and maintain sustainable water and sanitation systems.
• Provide equitable community access to safe water, improved sanitation, and hygiene.
• Support programs that enhance communities’ awareness of the benefits of safe water, sanitation, and hygiene.
• Support career-minded professionals’ studies related to water and sanitation.
• Create tools and resources that facilitate, measure, and enhance high-quality water and sanitation projects worldwide.

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Each year, Rotary selects up to 100 professionals from around the world to receive fellowships to study at one of our peace centers.

Through academic training, practice, and global networking opportunities, the Rotary Peace Centers program develops leaders who become catalysts for peace and conflict prevention and resolution. These fellowships cover tuition and fees, room and board, round-trip transportation, and all internship and field-study expenses.

In just over a decade, the Rotary Peace Centers have trained more than 1,000 fellows for careers in peacebuilding. Many of them are serving as leaders at international organizations or have started their own foundations.

Check out the Rotary Peace Map to see where our alumni are creating positive change.

Our fellowshipsEach year, the Rotary Foundation awards up to 50 fellowships for master’s degrees and 50 for certificate studies at premier universities around the world.

• Master’s degree programs: Last 15 to 24 months and require a practical internship of two to three months during the academic break.
• Professional development certificate program: For experienced professionals and lasts three months with two to three weeks of field study.

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Our health is everything. Yet 400 million people in the world can’t afford or don’t have access to basic health care. We believe good health care is everyone’s right.

​Disease results in misery, pain, and poverty for millions of people worldwide. That’s why treating and preventing disease is so important to us. We lead efforts both large and small. We set up temporary clinics, blood donation centers, and training facilities in underserved communities struggling with outbreaks and health care access. We design and build infrastructure that allows doctors, patients, and governments to work together.

Our members combat diseases like malaria, HIV/AIDS, Alzheimer’s, multiple sclerosis, diabetes, and polio. Prevention is important, which is why we also focus on health education and bringing people routine hearing, vision, and dental care.

HOW ROTARY MAKES HELP HAPPEN
Disease does not prevent itself. We educate and equip communities to stop the spread of life-threatening diseases. Rotary members have hundreds of health projects underway around the world at any given time. 

OUR IMPACT ON DISEASE
The Rotary Foundation is changing the world by providing grants for projects and activities around the globe and in your own backyard.  Rotary makes amazing things happen, like:

• Providing clean water: Rotary has worked with partners to provide more than 80 percent of Ghana’s people with clean water to fight Guinea worm disease.
• Reducing HIV infection: In Liberia, Rotary members are helping women get tested for HIV early in their pregnancies. They used prenatal care to reduce new HIV infections in children by 95 percent over two years.
• Ending polio: Rotary members have played a key role in bringing the world to the brink of polio eradication. Their efforts have not only ended polio in 122 countries but also created a system for tackling myriad other health priorities, such as Ebola.

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Here is a look at the plans for International and Foundation for this Rotary year and progress so far.

Goal One: Nepal project: We have been working with Faringdon Rotary in Oxfordshire and Kopundol Rotary in Kathmandu, Nepal. We are awaiting a proposal from Kopundol RC for the Saurpani Community School reconstruction project in Gorkka District, close to the epicentre of the 2015 Earthquake.  Faringdon Rotary has already sent £4,500 to Kopundol Rotary and we have sent £1000 (Total = £5,500).  The investment of these funds in Nepal is subject to the new KRC proposal and approval by the donating Rotary clubs.  
 
I will be visiting Nepal in October with 2 members of Faringdon Rotary Club.  The purpose of the visit it to review 4 projects – 3 of which are joint Faringdon/Kopoundol projects and the latter is to review the Saurpani Community school project.  There will be time for some cultural activities too.  I will report back on progress and opportunities on my return.
 
Goal Two: Ad hoc activities: To co-ordinate the club’s international and sustainability activities as they arise throughout the year.

Progress to date: Partners for Change - We donated £50 as a thank you for the talk last year.  This has, along with others, helped sponsor a mother called Kemero in Gende Tesfa.  The money will be used as a loan to help her start a small business selling fruit and veg in the market.  The club should get 2 updates a year about Kemero. 
 
Coffee visit – following the success of our Food and Travel quiz in June – where we raised half of the money for Fairtrade’s Women in Coffee project – we have visited a coffee factory – the owner is keen on sustainability issues and has visited many Fairtrade projects.  Check out the next newsletter for a full report!
 
Goal Three: Collaboration with other Rotary clubs: To collaborate with other Rotary clubs on international projects/activities. 

Progress to date: We will continue to: investigate Twinning; explore opportunities for greater involvement with the other Rotary clubs in Maidenhead; update the club on visits to Rotary clubs abroad; work with Faringdon and Kopundol Rotary clubs.
 
Goal Four: Foundation/Purple4Polio: To continue to raise awareness and consider ways to increase our contributions.

Progress to date: It is World Polio day on Tuesday, 24th October and we will be promoting this on our social media.
Polio is hitting the Hollywood big screen. The inspiring true love story of Robin and Diana Cavendish, a young couple who are busy falling in love and living the dream until Robin is diagnosed with polio at 28, is hitting the big screen as Breathe , which is on general release in the UK from 27 October.  I will arrange a cinema trip/fundraising opportunities if people are interested, once I return from Nepal.
 
Claire Booth, International and Foundation Chair 2017-18