ASHTEAD ROTARY CLUB’S WORLDWIDE ACTIVITY
Our mission is –
1. We lead the Club’s participation in Rotary’s worldwide mission of service to mankind.
2. We establish and maintain social and working relationships with other Rotary Clubs around the world so that we can partner in furthering the Rotary mission.
3. On behalf of our Club and the Ashtead community, we lead the Club effort to support the relief of humanitarian needs beyond the UK.
We do this by providing ways our Ashtead community can take action (such as donating clothing and used tools), and by providing funds to smaller charities that have limited fund-raising capacity but provide high impact services to those in need. We seek to add value to the funds with which we are entrusted by working with other effective organizations including other Rotary clubs and charities.
REFUGEES AND WAR
Ashtead Rotary has responded to the Afghan evacuation and Ukraine situation by raising over £23,000 and focusing donations on aid to victims.
· Our Club has supported Afghan and Ukrainian refugee families residing in the area, in partnership with the Epsom and Ewell Refugee Network,
· We organized a successful concert to benefit Ukraine in April 2023.
NATURAL DISASTERS
In dealing with disasters, we have determined not to donate to international “headline” relief agencies where our donations add little value, but to support small high impact charities dealing with longer term issues arising from disasters.
In the last two and a half years we have made grants of around £12,000 to support relief and reconstruction efforts
· During the India Covid outbreak in 2021/2 we allied ourselves with local Rotary clubs near Kolkata to provide relief to rural communities.
· Contributed to a Rotary fund to reconstruct schools in Pakistan after the flood
· Contributed to a Rotary UK-wide fund supporting Rotary Clubs in Morocco’s reconstruction after the recent earthquake
· Contributed to Shelter Box, a Rotary affiliated charity providing shelter to remote areas after the recent earthquake in Libya.
· Supported SARAID, a small charity sending a specialist team to Beirut after the Storage area in Beirut port exploded
FOUNDATION
We recommend contributions to The Rotary Foundation, one of the biggest non-government donor organizations in the world. Collectively, through The Rotary Foundation, the 46,000 Rotary Clubs pool resources to fund major initiatives such as the eradication of polio; since 1985 Rotary has contributed more than $2.6 billion to polio eradication efforts. Over $75 million has more recently been donated to reconstruction efforts in Ukraine.
OTHER CHARITIES
We seek out and support small high impact charities with limited fundraising capacity of their own. We particularly focus support for charities where local residents volunteer time, effort and expertise.
Recent examples -
1. We approved donations for smaller high impact charities involved in sponsoring secondary school students in Africa and South America.
2. We continue to support Tools for Self Reliance, a small UK charity with a workshop in Carshalton, by collecting used tools from local Ashtead residents. We deliver the tools to the workshop where they are refurbished and sent as “starter packs” to newly trained artisans in Africa.
3. Our club has long supported Infant Club Foot Appeal, a charity set up by an Ashtead doctor to treat Club Foot and other limb deformities in Zanzibar. In 2022 we contributed £1,500 to training technician, which allows the charity to treat children and adults with limb deformities such as clubfoot in a smaller island adjacent to Zanzibar.
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